Who here was on CB?

PauloMN

Following on from another thread, who here was ever on CB?

I started on CB in around '84 with a set of UKFM walkie-talkies, got a 40 channel UKFM set, added some other sets and ended up with a few multimode radios (a NATO 2000 and Major M580). Antennas were everything from home made dipoles to Antron 99s on the roof.

Used to be a lot of activity and some great DX. 27.555 and 26.285 USB were buzzing with activity and I worked loads of countries on 11m.

Ah those were the days... (I'll just get me pipe and slippers... )

RoundyMooney

I used to have a little 40 channel Sharp something or other with a red LED readout and an analogue VU (?) meter, Paulo.

An interesting little set, it served in a couple of our fishing boats, (in one instance gerry-rigged to a motorbike battery and covered by a discarded oilskin top!) and I fitted it to my first car or two. This would be early, mid-nineties. There were a few genuine operators around even at that stage, throwback to the heyday and DX'ers I reckon, but the main users were the predecessors of today's boy racers and I gave up on it after a while.

Now, GPS and proper VHF marine sets, even mobiles with handsfree set ups are the norm, and you'll never find a CB in a fishing boat.

I still have a 40 channel transceiver somewhere, brand unknown.

Edit: found the bugger but the pic is tiny:

DJ_Spider

I saved £100 when CB became legal in the UK. My dad took me down to london to tottenham court road and we went looking for a 'rig' I managed to get one of these and had it connected to a motorcycle battery. I unfortunately connected a battery charger to the battery to keep it topped up, but of course it was powering the CB as well! One day smoke came out of the rig!

I then gave it up for a while but started again with one of these I had a flat on the second floor and managed to put a dx-27 'twig' up in the loft above by climbing into the roofspace from the stairwell. (I lived in a block of 12 flates and we all shared the stairs) I drilled a hole in the ceiling, (oops!) and mounted it on a biscuit tin with four lines of copper wire from an old transformer for a ground plane.

I used to be able to talk to truckers in Bosnia, and other far flung places during the day if it was sunny. (something to do with skipping on the ionisphere or something?) I also used to go round the town with a mate of mine in his car during the eraly hours with a scanner tuned to the police freq, (alledgidlly). We were being followed by a car one morning and heard them say 'PNC on registration alpha bravo charlie 1 2 3 delta' (not the real reg!!) So we speeded up and reversed down a one way street and turned off the headlights. They then said 'crime car returning to base' So we carried on very cautiously after that and always carried a jewellers screwdriver to reset it!

Sorry for waffling, it's the alzheimer's, where am I again? do I know you? ROFLMFAO

god's toy

Yep an CB'r here! we first got an radio in 81, (1979 was when we first seen a radio) UKFM back then, went on to 23channel and then to 40 CH rigs.
Many radios have been used from that time, (Too many to list!) 'Cobra 19' been the one that I still love, Superstar 360 being the first radio with SSB.

Would love to have those days back once more...

Wishbone Ash

I had one up to a few years ago - can't remember the make but it was one of those 40 channel US President named ones.

DJ_Spider

I gave up when SSB, USB etc came out. I did have a good echo mic and a external speaker in the front room. People said the exho mic made me sound like mr claypole laughing at the end of that childrens program rentaghost. Did you have that over here?

god's toy

Rentaghost! loved that!!

DJ_Spider

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha - in a echoey voice! PMSL

arybvtcw0eolkf

Ah CB's... Brings back memories of the golden days of CB radio in Ireland.

I think we got started around 1978. I remember the first radio so well, even thinking back to it now I get excited!!. It was a Realistic Navaho;




With a magnetic antenna mounted on a biscuit tin.

From there we went through a whole bunch of radio's;

A HAM JUMBO, a Cobra 148 GTX, Cobra 2000 plus many more.

Oh, I met my wife through a blind date off the CB way back in 1985

22 yrs & two children later and I'm still operating radio's, although not CB's.

CB19Kevo

Hi,
i only got into CB's about 2 years ago and as far as i can see theres still plenty activity even on the standard 40ch.
i have a midland 4watt, 40 channel with a standard magmount
a cobra 2000 base and a 23ft antenna.
there seems to be plenty action in certain areas with many young users - not only boy racers transmitting.
so i hope it will have a revival and some might say we dont need CB's cause we can contact anyone using internet or mobiles but wen u get one you see it a whole lot differant.maybe the old cb's should be brought out of the attic.??

humaxf1

I started in the early 90s with a moonraker minor (UKFM), a magmount and 3-5A PSU. Upgraded to a President homebase (UKFM) simlar to this http://www.shadowstorm.com/cb/rigs/President-Zachary-T.jpg and a 1/2 wave Hembro.

I then realised that all the action was on AM, so I got a President Harry...great lil rig. Channel selector never left Ch 22 lol. Other rigs were to follow as you do. At the end of it, I made lots of acquaintances on the CB and am still in touch with them via skype etc.

I did all the DX thing also, QSL cards blah blah....Great days.

god's toy

humaxf1 wrote:

I started in the early 90s with a moonraker minor (UKFM), a magmount and 3-5A PSU. Upgraded to a President homebase (UKFM) simlar to this http://www.shadowstorm.com/cb/rigs/President-Zachary-T.jpg and a 1/2 wave Hembro.

I then realised that all the action was on AM, so I got a President Harry...great lil rig. Channel selector never left Ch 22 lol. Other rigs were to follow as you do. At the end of it, I made lots of acquaintances on the CB and am still in touch with them via skype etc.

I did all the DX thing also, QSL cards blah blah....Great days.

Blast from the past! Nice to see ya posting here

CB19Kevo

the one problem i see with CB is the amount of differant bands.it means people are seperated and are either on 40channels, 80 channels, usb, lsb, ssb.this makes it appear quite as the standard 40 ch is not half as busy as sidebands.i donnow ime happy out using the legal 40ch as long as theres plenty on it.

azzeretti

Just stumbled across this fourm, couldn't beileive it!!

I started off with a 40 ch CB in early nineties. I can remember tracking down an SWR meter and using it to make a home made dipole of some sort in the attic. I then got my hand on a President USB, SSB, FM - the works. Bloody hell, I had almost completely forgotten about all of this until I saw this thread!!!!

Is there still a Skip? I can remember not being able to do anything during the day because of that.

Anyway, sorry for hijacking, I just haven't had any anything to do with anything radio related since and I had almost forgotten I had.

"Breaking for a beaver!?"

CB19Kevo

hi,
ya its interesting to see how many people used CB's in the 80's/90's.
how busy was ssb/lsb before,its very active at the moment or so ime told.

humaxf1

27.555 used to be very busy as others will agree. Some fella called jack from dundalk or drogheda was a REGULAR and a few others...haven't listened in, in ages.

As regards the mix mash of bands, people are separated unless you have a 26-28MHz multimode rig. All you can hear on UKFM is mass on a Sunday!

Interestingly enough, late last year (i think) there was an article in the paper about aircraft radios getting interference at a particular spot at a particular time. It was raised with the COMREG and it was narrowed down to a church transmitting on UKFM. Now all of a sudden the church is deemed to be transmitting without a licence and will have to cough up.

Kinda ironic that churches have been transmitting for at least 10 if not more years and all of sudden they are interfering with airband and they will have to apply for and pay for a licence. I see it as a sneaky way of generating revenue for the government.

PauloMN

Ah the memories... I got a great laugh reading the replies to this between Sharp 40s, home made dipoles, "breaker for a beaver" etc.. LOL! Those really were the days!

@ humaxf1: channel 22 sounds very familiar to me, were you around Dun Laoghaire/Killiney area per chance? I used to hang out on channel 22 a good bit, mainly FM (to avoid interference with crappy stereos everyone had - remember music centres?) but sometimes on AM. I was out towards Cabinteely direction.

@ azzeretti: you're not hijacking at all, post away mate. "Breaker for a beaver"... I'm still laughing about that!!! Used to hear that ALL the time.

Jack in Drogheda - I remember that name alright. Those chaps would be on until all hours, 2 or 3am, maybe later.

I remember some young lad used to operate a "radio station" from Sandyford on one channel, can't remember which. Used to play music all day long!!

humaxf1

yer right there paulo. there was a good few of us on "22".

watty

CB a lot cheaper than mobile and more "fun".

I only got a CB or too recently even though I had a Amateur licence since 1972.

But if you want to experiment with beam aerials (illegal on CB) or modifiying rigs or building gear or transmitting using DRM (Digital Radio Mondial) or other stange modes, or TV (slow, fast or digital) then a Wireless Experimenter licence is the thing. Much easier now as (1) Actually having exams after a gap of few years, (2) Multiple choice instead of essay now.

Now, if I can only make up my mind which CB to fit in the car...

Also I think a vox handsfree mic stalk that plugs in to CB or other radio would be the way to go now for mobile operation.

I got a €4.50 electret mic stalk for PC and will do a little box with maybe ability to connect it via changeover switch to several radio sets.

Bluetooth would be nice, but I can't find a Bluetooth "host" with audio i/o to connect a bluetooth headset to radio. Using the Laptop (I added bluetooth on it to use Mobile headset on Skype) is possible and it could do anti-noise and filtering DSP too, but a bit of an overkill!

CB19Kevo

anyone know if the danita 40ch.cb's are any good.bought one while back as a spare nd wit so many wanting cb's at the moment,its not working for people who want to borrow it,only picking up stuff on fm,as apposed to my midland which is going perfect.

PauloMN

CB19Kevo wrote:

anyone know if the danita 40ch.cb's are any good.bought one while back as a spare nd wit so many wanting cb's at the moment,its not working for people who want to borrow it,only picking up stuff on fm,as apposed to my midland which is going perfect.

Not being funny here, but if it only picks up FM stuff, maybe it's an FM only set and all your others are AM? Did you get a manual with it?

CB19Kevo

nope its am/fm.
neways doesent matter that much once my cb is workin fine.
tanx

hawker27

used to have a set up about 10 years ago,had a president radio 240 channels am/usb/lsb,bv-135 linear pushing 200 watts on am/400 watts on ssb,all worked through a silver rod 21ft antenna.

anyone know if theres much going on on am/usb/lsb these days? i,m in kilkenny but its been 10 years since i was last on air,love to hear from anyone that has a current set up and whats the activity like these days?

is there many working hf radios on the unlicensed bands?.

The Muppet

Convoy got me started in 1978 with a president andrew J and mag mount purchased from a radio shop in malahide . Had numerous number of rigs and antenna over the years ending up with a Cobra 2000 wit all the modidfications and a Moonraker 4,( until it got windy ). I still have qsl cards from all over the world. Does anyone remember the CB rally to clonmacnoise?

Great Fun, oh I met my other half through CB as well.

telecinesk

PauloMn, 1 word >"Emmett"... lol I wonder if he took my advice about the wire dipole?

yeah guilty your honour. cobra148,nato2000 and a ehm thermionic amplifier of the bedroom warming variety. oops.. Still in attic and all functional since last outing in 1989... CH22 eh yes, that too. Antennas, hurricane charlie killed my hembro 1/2 wave, joke is 18 yrs later the stub is still on the antenna pole back there.

Now were more retro, yaesu ft7 in beautiful nick and a different set of bands.
Same old fun tho, old friends etc However now Im the DX due to my location being 1700km from the former front door.

Theres my cb rigs on youtube Paul, mail me for link, circa 1987 video. and on 22 also ..

OKenora

Late 70's to early 80's from memory for me. must have been posh cos my first rig was a President AR7 with a homemade whip on a groundplane in the loft which was quickly replaced with a President Mckinley (some switches not doing what the should have, wink wink) and a big h beam on a pole in the back garden. Had near every make of CB over the years, but now i have gone all respectable and have the ham licence.

billy the squid

must have been about 15 or so years ago had a second hand ham international jumbo, hooked up to a 5/8 wave antenna.

It had been modified to take in frequencies not normally taken up by it, ranging from about 26000 to 29000.

When the rest of the country's home bases were using channel 11 we in Limerick tended to do things differently and everyone was on channel 19.

you would hear the truckers say "**** it I'll talk to you when I get past limerick. because 19 everywhere else was for trucks.

CB ended quite suddenly down here, think they all fell out with one another or something and you never hear anything on CB down here now.

watty

Some CB still in Limerick. Not a lot. Perhaps Mobile Phones, Internet, Skype and PMR446s has taken the shine off it?

Churches mostly

telecinesk

Just a comment re churches. The irony is I use God as my dx beacon. Its somewhat amusing to hear some Dublin churches inc my ex local one drifting in here as Skip..

thread meanders off topic...

darkmaster2

I started in `95 after being an "SWL" for years. Istarted with a 40Ch president jimmy and went through loadsa rigs over the years. I got really into the DX side of things and confirmed something like 70 countries by QSL.

I actually ordered a wilson5000 antenna for the car last week. Should be interesting to see what the dx and local scenes are like these days.
I have an emperor shogun for the car and and kenwood ts140 sitting here at home antennaless

When I get the new antenna I`m gonna give a few trips up to the old mountains for the craic. Should be interesting

This is one of my fave QSLs, I called out on the 19 AM and got talking to a guy in serbia.

barrett1965

I was on CB in the eighties.

Breaker 11 for a copy.

PauloMN

telecinesk wrote:

Just a comment re churches. The irony is I use God as my dx beacon. Its somewhat amusing to hear some Dublin churches inc my ex local one drifting in here as Skip..

thread meanders off topic...

D, I hope you don't switch off after Communion and leg it like most of the congregation in the church would... Actually, they are ideal beacons for you, I expect they just the usual 4 watts, so if you can hear them, you've a good path to Ireland up around those frequencies.

How's the form? We must try a QSO again sometime, are you still restricted to low power on that FT-7 yolk?

Duiske

Remember my dad getting a "Midland" 40 ch back in the in the late 70's. Its still knocking about somewhere. I used a handle I had heard in the Convoy movie, but can't remember what it was.

mukki

i was on the air from late 80's to early 90's under the psudo name Freddie, everyone thought it was my real name

started off with a 40 channel in the car, used to park up on a hill nearby to talk to people in navan, about 3 years later i had a yaseu ft101zd with a antron 99 could chat to the midland radio group in cavan (21 usb high), and plenty of stations in dublin.

Gerry In nobber formed the Emerald Isle Radio Operators, which i joined (i got 29 Echo india romeo oscar 29), we hung out on channel 16 usb high, and it had about 5-10 people one it every night from 9 till 12


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.


CB used to come and go every decade or so, its because skip has a 7 year cycle, where it gets very strong for about 2 years, making AM useless, so all the small time people and new people give up on their rigs and never takes up the hobby again


all the stuff is in the attic, yahoo chat was better, no iggy button on cb, so when the first pc arrived, cb was just in the way. would love to take it up again someday

darkmaster2

mukki wrote:

i


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.

My friend who lived up the road from me in Mallow could talk to Jack quite well from his homebase, Savage distance,but he was runnning 600watts I think at the time. I think I made the journey once on a "lifty" night . We used to go up the mountains too and make lots of contacts to lads around the country including the EIRO group. There was a woman who was always on too, I cant think of her name. She was in Cavan I think.

THere was also a guy in Ennistymon everyone used to talk to, and nearby to me there was an old guy called Ted who was the old man of the CB around these parts. He used to be on 27.855 every night.

Im still waiting for my antenna from the states

OKenora

Probably May, from Virginia in Cavan, part of the Midlands Radio Group, 27.625 USB was their virtual home.

mukki

OKenora wrote:

Probably May, from Virginia in Cavan, part of the Midlands Radio Group, 27.625 USB was their virtual home.

ah may, i loved her sexy robotoic voice, she was always half a kc off

endplate

Was on the CB in the late '90s under the callsign Red five. Had a Lafayette AM 40 channel in the car. Then upgraded to a president Madison homebase first with a silver rod ariel and then an Antron 99 which got stolen so had to get another one. Had a loan of a Ham Jumbo for a short while. Was going to buy it but the guy selling it decided to keep it. He probably still has it in his attic. I still own a handheld EuroCB AM/FM 40 channel with high and low. The handheld could be easily converted to connect to a car magmount antenna. also there is a Cobra 140 GTX mobile unit in the attic too

fatboymsport

i was in the eiro as well was 29-eiro-05 i started on the cb in 94 and i still monitor 27.555 when ever i am at home.

i have also got my licence but still listen to 555 to see whats going on.

i remember the name freddy but cant remember talking to use

Havn't heard from gerry in years (it was lobinstown not nobber) he was a sound bloke remember all the times we used to set up on a hill down the road from his house trying to work the 32 counties think we even managed it once wouldnt like to try that now there is no one on it.

mukki wrote:

i was on the air from late 80's to early 90's under the psudo name Freddie, everyone thought it was my real name

started off with a 40 channel in the car, used to park up on a hill nearby to talk to people in navan, about 3 years later i had a yaseu ft101zd with a antron 99 could chat to the midland radio group in cavan (21 usb high), and plenty of stations in dublin.

Gerry In nobber formed the Emerald Isle Radio Operators, which i joined (i got 29 Echo india romeo oscar 29), we hung out on channel 16 usb high, and it had about 5-10 people one it every night from 9 till 12


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.


CB used to come and go every decade or so, its because skip has a 7 year cycle, where it gets very strong for about 2 years, making AM useless, so all the small time people and new people give up on their rigs and never takes up the hobby again


all the stuff is in the attic, yahoo chat was better, no iggy button on cb, so when the first pc arrived, cb was just in the way. would love to take it up again someday

fatboymsport

also jack in drogheda had a very good station but the main reason he didnt come on till 12 was he caused loads of interference to tv's around his house

remember spending many a night listening to him talk all around the country and hearing everyone he could talk and get back to them to even thou he was using thousands of pounds worth of a yeasu ft1000d and i had a superstar 360 that i had every pot twisted to the max in. was getting nearly 30watts out of it not bad when it was only susposed to do 12

giddyup

Wow..CB -brings me back - "...eh QSK QSK...". Getting given out to for the old "Break for a radio check" once too often. "This is Jimmy in Inchicore...you're coming in like a bell"

skodacbradio

First put a cb president harry 2 in me first car 2yr ago down here in waterford when there was very little activity on any channels at all, now two yrs on here people on it anytime of the day though still mainly on Ch19, and i have so far installed one in me friends car and have to install 2 more in a while for me brother and another friend, also there is more cars by the week gettin them in, maybe young fellas like me see the advantage of them as there not illegal to use while drivin and also ONE payment and dats it, unlike mobiles where its monthly bill or topping up every couple of days.stay 10-10 we gone:D

brianbruff

so there are still people on the cb ey.. last time i listend to that band the frilly skirt brigade were broadcasting mass to all of europe with kilowatts of power! Crazy that they got away with it!

I was on Cb big time back in the mid ninties,, a group of us used to head up to the ballyhoura mountains in limerick and reach as far as other lunies up a mountain in dublin with 4w of power on a good night.. was great fun and everyone rushing for the eyeball on the new lad just incase he had a sister! haha.

got a ham licence a few years back.. just not the same.... ham is a different kettle of fish.. some nights i regretted putting out a call, when i get a lad on the other end that's just made a radio out of an old bicycle wheel and a kettle his granny used to own; and he's somehow mounted this amazing contraption to the roof of his car (which already looked like a metalic hedgehog b4 this) and he wants to drive around the county to test out how good it really is....... hmmmm .... maybe it's not so bad after all.....

watty

/me waves across fields to brian.

Listen that was a very good kettle my granny gave me. Though it sounds more like Tony's jeep. He had to give it back just the other week.

I was trying on saturday to set up a CB and the aerial just wouldn't match. One of those ones with big spring in bottom that Maplin sells for €16, turns out about 10" has been snipped or broken off. Fixed it with a wire up inside a top of broken off fishing pole (€6 Lidl), the remains of a previous experiment.

brianbruff

watty wrote: »

/me waves across fields to brian.

Listen that was a very good kettle my granny gave me. Though it sounds more like Tony's jeep. He had to give it back just the other week.

I was trying on saturday to set up a CB and the aerial just wouldn't match. One of those ones with big spring in bottom that Maplin sells for €16, turns out about 10" has been snipped or broken off. Fixed it with a wire up inside a top of broken off fishing pole (€6 Lidl), the remains of a previous experiment.

Howdy mike,

haha, the one true experimenter in limerick.. working the world on a fishing pole haha, i persume 10/11meters is starting to open up again with the cycle coming around... i was chatting to 6dp on the phone the other week and he was trying to pawn his SGC off on me.. ain't had much time for radio of late, been obsessing with remote control helicopters these last 2 year, the only real thing i did with my experimenter licence was renew it... i'll do something about it at somestage... and i might be on for one of those ANTs! HIHI

Brian.

Rollercoaster

Hi Good Buddies,

I just found this thread and it brought back some memories of the hours spent chatting away all night & into the early hours of the morning on the roaring 40's and then DXing in the daytime when the Skip was in.

I am sure that any of us dedicated breakers have moved with the times and use the Internet as much as we used the radio back in the 70's, 80's & 90's.

I started my CB career with a Sharp 40 & a DV27 in the attic that I bought from an ad in the "Northside News". Then a neighbour lent me a Cobra 148GTL with SSB 40 Channels not converted. I made my 1st DX contact to Zagreb, Yugoslavia followed by a copy to Florence, Italy. A few weeks later these 2 QSL cards arrived and I was hooked on DXing.

I bought the Cobra from my neighbour and a breaker called “Robinhood” converted it and gave me the Hi’s and Lo’s. I then bought a silverrod aerial from some lad in Dalkey and put it up about 100 foot on an old TV aerial pole on the roof of the house. There was no stopping me now! I could talk all over Dublin and DX into Australia, South America, USA, etc as if they were only down the road.

I saved up again and got the Super Lo’s chip put in by one of the NSB members. I could then talk to the lads in the VLF Group which later became the Echo Golf Group.

I was in the North Side Breakers and Asgard Radio club, we used a PO Box for all the QSL cards and met in the Racecourse Inn every week to collect them.

10-10 till we do it again!

god's toy

Wow Robinhood eh? that's a blast from the past.


Happy days indeed

PauloMN

Ah the memories come flooding back. My own speciality was killing... I mean converting PLL02A based radios (like Majors, NATOs etc.). I remember having this PLL02A conversion handbook which gave all the details to get great coverage out of the radios.

DXing was great craic back then, some of the skip was great, and then the short skip in the summer where you could work UK and Europe with 1 watt or even less. Spoke to a bloke in Holland one evening using just a handheld and around 1.5 watts.

Frisian

Started the CB experience as a young lad a couple of months before the official opening of the CB-band in 1975 in germany. I used a 9V walkie talkie and was joined by a friend who lived two blocks away and who owned the same make. We were spending night after night trying to improve on power and distance, with the help of transformers from my Carrera track and copper wires all over the attic. (11m, you know:))
A few months later I bought a Universum 3ch handheld with the @ the time legal 0.5W. With those we managed a good 10km before a year later the first big cb boom started and all 12!!! channels were too busy for DXing.
I got meself a DNT Kurier 5000 mobile (with single quartz crystals )
which I later converted into a Basestation (you were not allowed to use an external power supply, it all had to be in one case :rolleyes:) and became registered.
Later came the Grundig CBH1000, btw the best CB I ever had. Together with a Sirtel 5/8 groundplane I worked europe, middle east, north africa and all over america.

Inbetween there were always some "Exportboxes" where the possession was legal but operating these yokes was forbidden by law.
Pace 1333

Sommerkamp TS-788DX or "der Kaffeewärmer" (Coffeewarmer/heater)

President Grant

And until now the Galaxy Pluto, a Superstar Clone. This helps me to stay in touch with op's in germany during the summer months while this country seems like a CB graveyard , a few truckers on ch19, some visiting stations qrv atm because of rally ireland, but that's about it.

In the car I used to have a
DNT Strato1 40ch AM/FM, cost me 5€ on ebay.


My latest acquisition consists of a Alan 121 and a DV27S

A multistandard CBradio which I can use all over Europe (exept Austria ). A wee compact little yoke, very handy.

55 73 to all of you out there. And keep our hobby alive.

Crazy Ivan

I started using CB in the mid 90's in Donegal (as a young fella) and it was great. Used to sit up every evening with my humble Midland 40CH and silver rod working stations into Derry and all over the (hilly) county. Brilliant craic altogether.

I still have the rig but I'm living in Galway and I keep meaning to light it up with a little magmount I have, but I did a few years ago and there was nobody on it at all. Does anyone have their ears on in Galway? The rig I have is UK FM (used to buy in from Derry). I heard before that the reason I didn't hear anyone in Galway was because anyone who is on around here uses AM in the CEPT range. Is that true? I'd buy a small rig if there were decent "breakers" still on the air.

skodacbradio

Tapped cb radio into gooogle there today, and looked at irish pages and came across this on dail eireann statue books from '86, when u 'needed' a liscense.
Dáil Éireann - Volume 365 - 09 April, 1986, made me have a bit of a chuckle.

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - CB Licences.

Mr. Reynolds Mr. Reynolds

6. Mr. Reynolds asked the Minister for Communications the number of CB licences which he has issued; and if he has any proposals to change regulations for the issue of such licences.

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

Mr. J. Mitchell: There are 11 current personal radio or CB licences. I have no proposals to change the existing statutory regulations which I regard as satisfactory.

Mr. Leyden Mr. Leyden

Mr. Leyden: Did the Minister say 11?

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

Mr. J. Mitchell: Yes.

Mr. Leyden Mr. Leyden

Mr. Leyden: The question from Deputy Reynolds is about the number of CB licences issued throughout the country.

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

351

[351] Mr. J. Mitchell: The answer is 11. It is surprisingly low.