CB Radio

billy the squid

Does anyone out there remember using or do they still use the CB Radio these days.

Just wondering as I used to have one of these when I was about 12 or 13

PBC_1966

I used CB fairly regularly from 1981 up until about 1992 or thereabouts, and being involved with telecommunications I also operated a repair/modification service for a few years as well (in Cornwall, then Lincolnshire, U.K.), and wrote some technical articles for C.B. magazine.

When the repair side dwindled away I went a few years without having any need to even use a CB. I actually dug out a set earlier this year and set-up a quick lash-up antenna. That was the first time I'd listened to the band in several years. Certainly in my part of England where I'm living now the band is very quiet.

billy the squid

Yeah its gone completely dead here you still here the italians on 27.555 when the skip comes in but there are no more locals.

I guess you have people watching television at more times of the day is what killed it off. CB and neighbours TV sets didnt get along really well. especially when you were using AM like they did in Ireland.

pork99

Was CB radio the internet of the 70s?

http://retrograde.net/cb_radio/

mildly amusing

billy the squid

more like the chatroom of the 70s. Now that there are cat progams like yahoo and paltalk around nowadays chatrooms have become more like CB but without the CB language.

I guess internet chat has language of is own

good link that though

PBC_1966

Do you know when the Irish Govt. first authorized CB in the Republic? That's not something I've ever looked into.

A.M. was used here in England as well, although of course it was "unofficial" to say the least, so anyone using it was likely to be very wary of TV interference and the possibility of an investigation.

Some of the first legal U.K. F.M. radios in 1981 were pretty poor as well, as they were rather quick and dirty conversions thrown together from existing A.M. sets. The transmitters were clean enough to meet U.K. regulations, but quite often the receivers were attrocious.

vector

Dor about EUR 100 (including sterlig conversion and postage) you could get a mobile CB transceiver for your car http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/acatalog/cb-maycom.html

Imagine how cool it would be! Well you would have to get someone else to get one as well or there would be no one to talk to to.

Does anyone have one in their car?

Ponster

No one else to talk to?

When I had a CB it was to talk to friends mostly but there was an endless amount of banter going on with the truck drivers. Just put it onto channel 19 and you'd always find someone.

Is it also dead in truck-land?

DivX

So anyone remember their handle they used on the CB? mine was Robinhood..

Do you know when the Irish Govt. first authorized CB in the Republic? That's not something I've ever looked into.

AFAIK it was never legalised in Ireland, i remember a few guys bought FM CB licences from the UK and thought it would cover them over here, that frequency range (27mhz or 11mtrs) is not even available for use by radio amateurs (HAMS) as of today.

Anyone do any DX'ing, used to look for contacts on the SSB, then exchanging QSL cards and postcards with these foreign CB users, usually Italy, Spain and the odd person from the US.

PBC_1966

I know that CB was certainly legalized in Ireland, as back maybe 14 years or more ago I remember seeing references to the CEPT-standard sets being legal for use in the Republic (that's the common European specification, 40 channels, FM).

I've just done a search on the Irish Statute book website and found a bill which mentions licenses coming into effect from January 25, 1982, Curiously, it mentions licensing for AM sets, but seems to suggest that these would be valid only until December 31, 1982. (It's kind of hard to follow all the legal-ese unless you want to spend all night working on cross-references , so I may have got the wrong end of the stick.)

Could it be that the Irish Govt. decided to allow existing AM sets to be used for a year's period of grace, after which only FM would be legal?

If anyone cares to try to decipher the official wording, here's the act to look for:

S.I. No. 8/1982: WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY (PERSONAL RADIO LICENCE) REGULATIONS, 1982

For the record, in the UK the govt. legalized CB in November 1981, but only FM, and only with the peculiar British channels which aligned with nowhere else in the world. The CEPT standard was authorized a few years later, leaving us with two FM bands running in parallel.

telecinesk

I had a few and theres 3 in the attic at home buried, as far as I remember, cobra148 an Nato2000 (JUNK) and a Midland 77-861 a half portable set. I just got bored with it, once I did the dxing to Australia I gave up. Go out in style.

I always wanted to try the 934mhz uhf service but it was mad expensive and it wasnt legal in Ireland so I gave up at that point. Then the UK pulled that allocation too.
#

No, I dont want to go back on 27mhz, I got the other licence and in fact dont use that much either.....

PBC_1966

I remember working on several Nato 2000 sets. The receivers suffered from a wide passband and a common modification was to install crystal filters to narrow down the I.F. bandwidth. One of the main selling points (in the UK) was that it was one of the few multimode sets which came with the British "27/81" channels as standard from the factory. The other main contender was the Stalker 9, which was a vastly better radio (Uniden boarded), but that didn't have such a wide range of channels as the Nato -- Just mid-band, high-band, plus the UK40.

The Cobra 148GTL-DX was another good set, 120 channels out of the box, and not too difficult to modify for extras. I did quite a lot of mods on the 148, often adding an EPROM board for UK channels. and sometimes built in speech processors and crystal I.F. filters (although compared to most of the Cybernet-boarded radio the Cobras were vastly superior in that respect to begin with).

telecinesk

Just to add, the Natos were known as the poormans scanner.. Horrible rigs, I remember seeing them on sale in Tandy Radio Shack in Dunlaoghaire in 82 for around 150quid. Great value eh?
Out of strangeness I actualy have with me at home a Multisonic MS202 22Ch 1/2 watt FM transceiver. How I ended up bringing this over is beyond me. I use it as a doorstop in summer.
I still have a look on ebay to see the old relics, plenty of vintage 23ch Am/ssb retro stuff there.Best ones are the wooden front look with flipover clocks and an 8 Track player built in. That is taste beyond all taste!

god's toy

I still use it! Well ok very few on it nowadaysL. On 27.135Mhz in FM up in Howth head is still used on weekends when I’m out and about and I know a few of the lads on 485 and 555 and a working Channel down in the 26’s too do be around from time to time... I still have some sets lying around, President George (240 CH+ all mode) and a Alinco DX-70 (0 to 60 MHz HF, good for DXing) There was a time you could not get a Channel to yourself at all as that many people used it but you lucky to hear anything expect CH19 truckers.





Hey Robinhood, I remember you! When I was a kid you talked to my bro in Dalkey.

(Robin)







Peace

jmcc

DivX wrote:

Anyone do any DX'ing, used to look for contacts on the SSB, then exchanging QSL cards and postcards with these foreign CB users, usually Italy, Spain and the odd person from the US.

Yeah. The best was getting into Japan on 5 Watts AM. I often wondered what happened to CB and the people who were on it then I discovered IRC and I knew.

Regards...jmcc

DivX

"god's toy" could have talked with your brother all those years ago, but im sure there would have been more than one RH, AM was only good for maybe 30-40 miles locally, seeing i was based in cork it would only have been possible through the skip

Still have an old Sharp 40 "2460" and a Hiland(spelling?) 8 (120 channel with SSB) lying around somewhere. The Hiland was good for DXing even without a burner, did a google on it but found nothing

I still use a Yaesu FT-301 from time to time but have lost interest, the internet seems to have killed CB and tamed Amateur radio to a large degree.

While we're on the topic of radio, can anyone remember or maybe used "Packet Radio". It was sort of an early internet using 2m (145mhz) radios, how technology has moved on...

PBC_1966 could have used you knowledge on the repairs and mods back then!

god's toy

Cork? Well don’t ask, don’t know eh? Still it’s good to see you have some sets still going like that Yaesu FT-301, that's a nice rig indeed.


and as i'm here, we (few old radio pals) will be up in Howth head this sat for a chinwag on the air.

DivX

Very good! while your mentioning chinwags, a few of us are having an eyeball at the annual Cork Radio Club Rally in the Blarney Park Hotel next sunday the 19th.

Might drop along to see if there's any interesting junk for sale, or maybe more appropriate to get rid of some!

god's toy

May just go to that too, thanks for the reminder!.. Going to pop along to the new one in Waterford this October 19 (I think), should be fun. looking for a mint Cobra 19 gtl (just for fun)

vector

DivX wrote:

Very good! while your mentioning chinwags, a few of us are having an eyeball at the annual Cork Radio Club Rally in the Blarney Park Hotel next sunday the 19th.

Might drop along to see if there's any interesting junk for sale, or maybe more appropriate to get rid of some!

I suppose there will be a few vendors there? Any chance I could pick up an Icom IC-R5 (new or second hand) for under e125)

DivX

Originally Posted by vector
I suppose there will be a few vendors there?

Long communications used always have a stand at the rally, I dropped along to the website and they had the Icom IC-R5 listed here

Waterford Communications Centre usually have a stand there also, their website has an R5 listed at €270, so who knows on the day. Not half the stuff there that would have been there a few years ago.

Originally Posted by god's toy
Going to pop along to the new one in Waterford this October 19

If you hear anything more about this you might let me know.

telecinesk

Funny how this thread brings out slightly non retro info.
Well at least its good to see a few of us out there admit to having such great equipment in our attics.
Godstoy, I know you.,.
Send me a PM.
Regds, Dathai

god's toy

DivX wrote:

If you hear anything more about this you might let me know.

Ok got some info on the rally.


"rally will take place in the McEniff Ard Rí Hotel, Waterford on Sunday the 17th of October 2004. Doors open at 11.00 a.m. and admission is 3 euro. Entry is free for children accompanied by an adult. Bar and food facilities will be available and there is ample car parking."

i will be going with a few buddys, should be fun or at least a day out.

scorptech

Hi, for anyone interested, there is a small increase in people buying CB kit again due to the fact that it works on "free energy" i.e. it does not rely on satellites to work and also it does not cost anything to make a call.

I agree that the internet killed off the CB, but due to the cost of mobile phones there are people who are using both devices to compliment each other.

I've used to be an 80's CBer and lived in the UK for a long time (CB is crap over there) so now that I'm back, I've decided to go back on the air.

Just got myself a cheap Ham Jumbo and Cobra 148GTL on EBay, so if your
in the Dublin area and are on AM 11 or high 27.555, give a call out for Solo One.

Also, give a call out for Seany in Cabra on AM 11, we will be glad to have a chinwag!!

god's toy

Hey that's cool, good to see some are getting back on the air! well I've moved down to the Wicklow 20 so i dont think i will get you i'm sorry to say.

See some guys going around with radios in the cars too, maybe it is coming back, sorta.

Have a Alinco DX 70 here myself, 0 to 60 MHZ HF, 100W output will full CB bands so I'll be hoping to blow the cobwebs out of it soon and have a good chinwag myself


Peace out.

meldrew

I know this might sound a stupid question but do the new cbs interfere with the television signal ? I remember having to wait until RTE was over for the night before I could start using it !

**Timbuk2**

Out of the blue was anybody watching Roadkill yesterday?? I was reminded of it by the CB radio!!

god's toy

With the right set up you should not come over any TV’s, the rigs you can get now are a lot better in many ways to the old 40 box’s of the past. I remember having a Cobra 19gtl, (4 watts output), it blasted up and down the street over everyone’s TV’s! Many radios later I can now push 100 watts without any problems.

Get the SWR matched and an A99 or something along those lines and you ‘should’ be fine. Better still put the rig in your car and go mobile!

meldrew

Its all coming back to me now , break for a copy ! Everyone earwigging on everyone else's conversations , meeting for an eyeball !
Actually in waterford the Big W club used have cb bingo on a Friday night !

DublinWriter

meldrew wrote:

Its all coming back to me now , break for a copy ! Everyone earwigging on everyone else's conversations , meeting for an eyeball !

Breaker on the side....mic check....

Unbelievable. Bury me now. I feel so oooooooooooooold.

I remember back in 1980/1981 *everyone* had a CB radio in Dublin.

I had a Hi-Gain 40 Channel Walkie-Talkie that took 12 AA batteries and had a 3-foot telescopic aerial! It was built like a brick.

I was watching an episode of "Paddy's People" last year where he was talking to truckers around the country. CB is still popular with them today.

Fado fado...

billy the squid

Back in the day i had a modified HAM international Jumbo which was rigged to go between 20.000 to 29.000 MHz. It was the AM signals which used to drive the neighbours TV sets crazy. It was given to me by an older brother and was hooked up to a 5/8 wave antenna.

In every other town and village in the country base operators used Ch 11 but they had to be different in Limerick where they used Ch 19. that used to piss off the truckers no end. you would hear them say "oh we're coming into Limerick now, I'll talk to you on the other side of it.

The CB here in Limerick is now more or less dead. there was too much bollix acting one or two of those organising the various clubs decided to drink the subscription fees.

Whatever about 27.555 I can honestly say that Ch. 19 is completely dead in Limerick now.