Cobra 29 XLR Gold Limited Edition CB Radio Review

The Cobra 29 has been the staple of CB radio for the last 30 years. Many versions of the radio have hit the market but there are a few strange ones out there such as the Cobra 29 XLR Gold Special edition. While it isn’t mechanically out of the ordinary, the story behind the radio is fairly interesting. I’ve tried to get most of the details about these radios, but I don’t have all the facts, so I’ll tell the short story the best I can.

These particular radios were made on a limited basis as a special edition and were given as gifts to shops or sales people who had met/exceeded certain sales quotas. The special editions were given their own “plate” with serial numbers as shown above and have the signature of the President of Cobra – Carl Korn – engraved on the commemorative plate as well. For those of you who don’t know, Carl Korn was the founder of Cobra Electronics (formerly Dynascan) and he started the company in 1961 and served as President and CEO until 1985.

There has been some speculation on whether these radios are actually “gold plated”. I don’t know the full details on what percentage of gold was actually used in the plating, but I have read on one of the CB radio forums that it was confirmed with Cobra that these were truly gold plated radios.

The radio shown in these photos was given as an award to D&H Distributing of Harrisburg, PA.

As you can see in the photos, the radio, case, bracket, microphone label, and even the microphone connector as far as I can see, were all given the gold plating. Gold plating does wear off over time, as I’m sure anyone that’s ever owned a gold plated watch can verify, so long term these radios will eventually tarnish and lose their luster, but it’s definitely cool to see a bit of history.

These photos were provided by a member of a radio forum and we thank them for letting us use the pictures of their radio.