Midland Alan 48 Plus question

New to the CB world. I recently bought a Midland Alan 48 Plus secondhand. It was boxed and looked pretty much brand new. The seller said that he had bought it from Germany and was struggling to get it set up for the UK. At £40 I thought it was worth the punt after researching the model online. The seller had a CB set up in his home and clearly had some knowledge of using CBs.

I have linked the CB up with a Thunderpole aerial and hooked it up to a 12v battery. The radio turns on, changes channels and on the face of it all appears to be working. I have left it switched on, listening out for other users but not heard anybody else on the air. Not been brave enough yet to put a call out across the airwaves for a radio check to see if I get a response back.

I have also tried the "hold the scan and am/fm buttons whilst turning on" in order to access the menu to change countries - this does not appear to work or is an option. There is nothing on the screen that says what country the radio is set to.

Have I bought a radio with a problem or one that is only set for Germany?All my research on the model suggests that I should be able to change countries and pictures I have seen also suggest that the country code is displayed on the screen.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.. welcome.

Davemacv wrote:

I have also tried the "hold the scan and am/fm buttons whilst turning on" in order to access the menu to change countries - this does not appear to work or is an option. There is nothing on the screen that says what country the radio is set to.

Hi Dave, and welcome to the club... I have a Midland 48 excel, EU/UK rig I sometimes use mobile, im not sure if it is the same as the plus, but on mine you have to push the red button with "HK" on it , that's the button next to the on/off button to select the country then turn the rig on at the same time, mine then lets me select the country that I am in using the channel selector. Worth a try there cant be that much difference between the plus and the excel.

Regards

Mick

Thanks Mick. I don't have that option on mine. There is a red button titled emergency which when pressed sets the rig to Channel 9.

I also noticed that when I turn the rig on, it appears to default to Channel 9. Is this normal or should the rig turn on with the last channel in use?

Davemacv wrote:

Thanks Mick. I don't have that option on mine. There is a red button titled emergency which when pressed sets the rig to Channel 9.

I also noticed that when I turn the rig on, it appears to default to Channel 9. Is this normal or should the rig turn on with the last channel in use?

HI Mine defaults to channel 9 on start up, im not sure if you can turn it off or not. I suggest you search youtube maybe theres a tutorial on your rig... good luck

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1174191/Midland-Alan-48-Plus-Multi-B.html?page=6#manual

When you switch the radio on does it show the band that the radio is set to? UK, EU, DE etc?

There were a couple of different versions of this radio and if memory serves, I think the early versions were not multi banded. If it's an early model it will be locked to UK and EU band FM only. The AM/FM button will probably switch between UK and EU bands.

However if there are local stations on the air you should still be able to hear them.

There is nothing displayed on the screen to show which country the radio is set to. I have viewed a number of YouTube clips which show how to change the country and followed those instructions. This does not appear to work which makes me suspect that the radio does not have the facility to change countries. The paperwork with it is primarily in German and a number of these have a date from 1995. There is a label on the side of the box stating best product 1996 as selected by the readers of Germany's leading CB magazine. If I assume that this radio is from 1995 / 1996 that makes it 23 years old. However it is boxed and looks brand new, certainly not 23 years old. Is it possible that this is a Germany only radio? If that is the case is there anyway to modify it to UK?

I would think it's post 1996 if the label says best cb of 1996. But the only way to tell really is to put a frequency counter in line and see what frequency it is transmitting on . Or alternatively just get on it and put some calls out for a radio check, perhaps mobile just incase no one in your area is on.

Hi.. I just found out how to change the country...
Just push and hold the AM/FM and the Scan Buttons while turning on.. then you can change the country with the channel knob..

Good Luck