Anyone else here into CB Radios?

Title says it all, I'm into them. Got a home base all setup.

He was asking if there was anyone here into cb radio's, NOT if there was a cb radio forum on the net.

Don't think there are many people into CB radio's here. I know a lot of people here are into Ham radios; but there's already a thread for that.

ARG gave the best answer.

CB I think is dead now apart from truckers and the such.

ARGLaser said:

Don't think there are many people into CB radio's here. I know a lot of people here are into Ham radios; but there's already a thread for that.

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Yeah, It's a dying bread. I'm into ham as well, Every now and then I go up to CB and see what's going around. I'll have to try and find the Ham radio thread. Thanks.

I am an amateur radio operator (Ham, for the Americans) and started with CB's but haven't played with them for years.

AUS said:

I am an amateur radio operator (Ham, for the Americans) and started with CB's but haven't played with them for years.

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Oh Sweet! Do you intend on getting back into them?

I am also an amateur radio op as well - only got 2m online at the moment - saving for a FT-DX3000

CB radio's.. thats something from the distant past to me I've used them as a kid, but never paid much attention to them afterwards. I suppse the entire thing is rather dead now in the netherlands - there are very few areas in the entire country that do not get decent 3G coverage nowadays, and all the highways have 3G service installed.

I also used to be into pirate FM transmitters and experimenting with amateur frequencies, but that interest has really faded with the rise of the internet.

For me it was mostly a tool to communicate, and if i wanted to broadcast or make a voice conversation from any place right now, i'd be angling for an open wifi network rather than a tree to put an antenna onto

Note frequencies / bands / legislation veries from country to country...
I started in 27MHz in the 1980's then UHF CB then amateur radio in the early 90's. haven't played with them since.

i didnt renew my license when i moved to NSW but I still have Mobile / handheld 6m / 2m /70cm as well as base HF to 70cm. I also have an AM17 400w VHF amp and an AWA P5, 500 watt AM transmitter ill put on 160m one day.

Now I'm playing with 10KW AM and 20kW FM transmitters at work I don't feel like playing radio when I get home.

I do both, that is HAM and CB...

i havent been into either for a while, but, i cycle around hobbies. When i get bored with long range shooting again, i'll take a break and do radio again.

every area here in the states is different. We do have a sort or unofficial "net" going on 38-lower in my area. Its more active in the winter than in the summer, naturally. Theres actually a fair number of regulars, and the "Yaesu" boys always get on. A number of them have a "thing" for the FT-101 units, and keep them running.

my opinion is, and its just my opinion mind you...a lot of HAMS will "pooh pooh" CB, whine about it... but really, CB is most peoples BIRTH of any passion for amatur radio really. A lot of HAM talking? I hear a lot of conversations over and over again:

1) lets all make fun of CB-ers.
2) my hip, my heart, my gall bladder
3) listen to me brag about all my new equipment!

it can get a little "stale". I jump on the old CB at home, and all of a sudden I am "sigma delta, two five six" instead of my "Kilo bravo three, Oscar Yankee Zulu". DA is still fixing rigs and making antennas, the yaesu boys towards the city are still taalking about rebuilding teh boards and recapping them old yaesu's... and whats really funny? I can recognize a FEW of the voices, and i know who they are on the 2m rapeater, ha ha... they got bored too, and fired up the old 11m (CB) rig! (they just wouldnt admit it at gunpoint on the HAM bands, lol)

heck, i dont even run my linear anymore, no need to. When the guy 80 miles away can hear me on 4 watts, rig tuned properly, and good antenna tuned properly... why hit him with an s-9 when he hears me just fine with the s-3?

cb isnt DEAD, it just comes and goes. You might have to ask around in YOUR area where the local action is though.

Or, do what we used to do and put CB channel crystals in our Ham radios Linear Amps made CB's fun, back in 1990~ when I used them to talk to my friends...

kpjung.de/e_bc603.htm

I had one of these when I was a kid, it was super heavy and built probably heavy enough to be driven over by a tank, I think it was FROM at tank.
It ran on 12vdc and had this cool removeable 12v electric generator that put out I think around 240VDC, it could be easily removed and at times I used it for driving nightcrawlers out of the ground to go fishing with them.
The unit worked pretty well, yet it was so noisy comparing against my handheld walkie-talkie I had. Walkie talkies were fun then, all the kids had them and we would play like spy games with them

I never really got into the ham radio thing very much yet the book The ARRL Handbook dated 1974 was my bible and was packed full of information.. I never did return that book to the library and finally - against my wishes - lost it probably 25 years later.

As far as the ham stuff goes, I had a bunk bed in my room for some reason, I would use the upper springs as an antenna and built crystal radios using galena crystals or even rusty razor blades, the only thing that sucked about this was that I could only get ONE station on it because it was so close to me! But hey! they played classic rock so it was all good



BC-603

is an FM- receiver, used in WW II in tanks. It has a VFO or 10 fixed frequencies.
It is part of "Radio set SCR-508" or "Radio set SCR-528".

(BC-683 looks the same,but works on 27-38.9 MHz

Frequeny range:
20 ... 28 MHz



Technical data:

Tubes:
11
Loudspeaker:
built in
Powered by:
12 or 24 V, due to the plugged in dynamotor
Power consumption:
12V: 4A; 24V: 2A
Sensitivity:
1 µV
NF output:
2 W
Weight:
16 kg

i got a 5W handheld unit, listen to it every so often, useful when going forbying

My (4 month old) new toy. I bought this as a christmas present. It recieves from 0.6mhz to 999.999mhz with a few gaps here and there. Can listen in on two stations at once, and also transmits at 50 watts on both the vhf and uhf bands (ham frequencies). Its a remote head only unit, the main radio body sits to my left on top of a small cabinet I use for keeping important radio and PC stuff like USB sticks, RF adapters, a dummy load etc. I made the mount for the radio head out of a heatsink, 4 rubber feet and a bit of 3mm aluminum bent to shape, and drilled using my trusty drill press. The radio is the Yaesu FT-350A/R. Its even got a GPS reciever in the head! The display can go multiple colours on different events (e.g. when an aprs transmission is recieved), and in line with this thread, yes it'll listen to the australian UHF CB band

Below it, my 40 amp power supply (with meds sitting on top lol), and above the radio screen, my gigabit switch is a stage for a home built hf swr/watt meter. Coming in a few weeks, will be my new icom 7100 radio - just waiting for it to be released. Then I'll need a tuner (balances antenna's that arent quite tuned). This will allow me to get better reception on the hf bands without having to switch antenna's all the time, and if I want to try and talk to a particular station thats on a frequency which is not covered without the tuner by the antenna presently inline, I can change by pressing a button on the tuner to the correct wire or vertical.



Around here in sydney (well the Australian Eastern seaboard) theres an unofficial net on 35LSB. I dont have anything that can transmit there, but I can listen, and it can make for some entertaining listening. Once you get over laughing at people poking fun at one another, swearing and playing fart machines / music on air, you can soon get to recognise the voices of the regulars that inhabit channel 35 lower side. I got busted once with a radio that did 50 watts on the uhf CB (amongst other frequencies e.g. police bands) even though I didn't tx there - I just opened up the radio to do more on the recieve side of things, but this also opens up the transmitter. I was given 3 choices - destroy the radio, surrender it or fix it. It was basically a slap on the wrist for having a capable transmitter that could transmit where I wasnt licensed. Luckily the new hf radio coming can listen into hf cb and the yeasu pictured can listen in to uhf chook band as well, without being modified