CB radio - does it still exist/anyone got and use one?

[traffman]

Wow love this , i used to own a Harrier CB radio i received at christmas from my folks.

Back when i was around 14 , had it bolted underneath a shelf in my bedroom . Was great!

[Nigel Worc's]

Smifffy said:

I'm a radio ham

I started on CB many, many years ago - great fun.

And another, G1ZFS , although I didn't do the cb route, I gained a ham licence in the forces, and was given a callsign when I left.

I haven't used it for years though, ever since they dropped the G&G 765 1 and 2.

It sort of went downhill when they started giving licences away to those they couldn't be arsed/weren't capable of passing the exams.

About the only piece of kit I have left now, is an old microwave modules linear amp, and an original Yaesu FT290 Mk 1, the original 2M multimode, which I think I bought in about 1980.

It used to be a lot of fun, making radios, antenna etc, I even liked the morse, strange how it doesn't seem fun anymore, we've all become used to being able to talk to anyone, anywhere in the world I guess, via phone networks and the internet.

[dowahdiddyman]

Got a Midland 12/24v cb somewhere about the house, bought it for the truck but took it out after only a few months. Not many use the cb nowadays and if they do it`s usually tipper men saying `get outa my way i`m on a mission`.

[Nigel Worc's]

Oh, and for those that think people didn't get shut down, and it was all bluff and bluster ....... I was on one of the "DF ing" teams.

We did, and they did get shut down, and dealt with, but you had to be doing something really naughty, or more commonly, broadcasting on the HF ham bands which the 27 meg stuff did when you modified them for the mid and high blocks, as they called them, (28 Mhz).

CB was the main reason the Police frequencies were moved, they used to on or around 108 Mhz, which of course was a reciprocal freq of 27 Mhz, and once the unlicensed and unwashed started using linear amps, illegally of course, it caused problems, so we used to go and get them, it was good fun, and seemed strange us Raffy types working "with" the Police for once, and the comms boys.

I'm sure they had a lot of fun, but they caused a lot of problems too.

The Emergency services were moved to be alongside the ham bands, I'm trying to remember the bands, I think the Police traffic went to 6 meters, and the fire service to 4 meters, I can't remember the ambulance service freq now.

Police hand helds were moved to 70 cm I think.

One of them was moved to just above 2 meters, maybe the ambulance were on 6, and the Police traffic on 2.

I'm too old, memory's going lol.

[Gwagon111]

Many many years back, I went down the whole 'ham radio' route. I did lots of exams and what not, and even had a G0 call sign. I had to do a morse code course for that as well. Happy days .

[JREwing]

I worked on a farm many years ago and that was the best practical use I've ever used them for.

I was wondering recently if people still use them. Are they popular with doggers?

[POORCARDEALER]

r11co said:

POORCARDEALER said:

I had a Nato 2000 which was the dogs danglies..

It wasn't actually - it had a crap circuit board and suffered from terrible 'bleedover', but got all the attention because of its gimmicky and somewhat controversial features. The Stalker ST9FDX-UK was far superior, but because it had less channels and an unattractive front panel people didn't think it was as good.

WRT to CB today the old gear seems to have a cult following, and unmolested examples of rigs like the NATO fetch silly money on ebay, mainly because the majority of them have been (badly) 'tweaked'.

Still got mine, never had any problems with it thst I remember, what were its controversial features?

It certainly wasn't as well screwed together as some of the Cobra gear I had.

[dufusmuppet]

http://www.transmission1.co.uk/

http://www.kcb.co.uk/shop2/index1.html




ukfm 40ch and cept mid band 40ch legal in uk with no licence needed,many ssb radios available but sold under the ham radio guise that can be modded to work on 11m eg 27.555 usb etc.....

actually having a bit of a revival atm...

Edited by dufusmuppet on Saturday 27th April 21:00

Edited by dufusmuppet on Saturday 27th April 21:00

[g8crasher]

I AM A REVIVER

New here, found this thread after looking at getting into CB for personal comms on farm and between family and friends. trying to get local mates and the guy I go fishing with to get back into CB after many years, everyone says its dead on UK 40 round here so hoping to change that

I am far from knowledgeable on the subject, but basically looking for minimum 6 miles and ideally 10-20 miles range from a base with very good antenna (sited high up) and a decent car set with best antenna i can find, maybe K40 or similar as my mate in states suggested. I noticed someone got a "tweaking" PM, I would love one of those if there are any more available

My dilemma, which maybe someone here can help with is.....

Do I go for:

1. UK40FM - pros are cheap cost of old radios off ebay, easy to use for wife and kids (less AM noise and no SSB tuning needs)

or

2. SSB - for more power (legally that is, not that I am too bothered , no bugger will be harmed by me running 10-25W on UK40 channels), cons are expensive radios.

I also want to add a handheld into the mix, but i know the likelihood of 5-10 miles is low with that, without external antennas etc, but still want one for local use when kids are shooting up the fields with air rifle or whatever. Midland Alan 42 seems the way to go.

Any input, tweaks, advice, suggestions very very welcome for this greenie

[Nigel Worc's]

g8crasher said:

I AM A REVIVER

New here, found this thread after looking at getting into CB for personal comms on farm and between family and friends. trying to get local mates and the guy I go fishing with to get back into CB after many years, everyone says its dead on UK 40 round here so hoping to change that

I am far from knowledgeable on the subject, but basically looking for minimum 6 miles and ideally 10-20 miles range from a base with very good antenna (sited high up) and a decent car set with best antenna i can find, maybe K40 or similar as my mate in states suggested. I noticed someone got a "tweaking" PM, I would love one of those if there are any more available

My dilemma, which maybe someone here can help with is.....

Do I go for:

1. UK40FM - pros are cheap cost of old radios off ebay, easy to use for wife and kids (less AM noise and no SSB tuning needs)

or

2. SSB - for more power (legally that is, not that I am too bothered , no bugger will be harmed by me running 10-25W on UK40 channels), cons are expensive radios.

I also want to add a handheld into the mix, but i know the likelihood of 5-10 miles is low with that, without external antennas etc, but still want one for local use when kids are shooting up the fields with air rifle or whatever. Midland Alan 42 seems the way to go.

Any input, tweaks, advice, suggestions very very welcome for this greenie

Get one of the "free on a crisp packet" ham licences, VHF and UHF ham bands have repeater stations which will be ideal for what you are looking to do.

[carl_w]

Nigel Worc's said:

Get one of the "free on a crisp packet" ham licences, VHF and UHF ham bands have repeater stations which will be ideal for what you are looking to do.

It seems you don't even have to learn Morse for a ham licence these days.

[Nigel Worc's]

carl_w said:

Nigel Worc's said:

Get one of the "free on a crisp packet" ham licences, VHF and UHF ham bands have repeater stations which will be ideal for what you are looking to do.

It seems you don't even have to learn Morse for a ham licence these days.

You haven't needed morse during my time as a ham, although you were limited to 6M and above as a "B"

Now you can (I think) access all bands with the most basic of tickets, check with the RSGB, they engineered all this.

[SEE YA]

I still have mine got a few Btone five star cb's, as well excellent kit.

Nothing much on the air waves,these days for people.

Edited by SEE YA on Saturday 17th January 10:25

[g8crasher]

Hi, thanks for the quick replies. Never heard of "easy" HAM licences and not even sure I want to go down the HAM route. I have very limited time, extremely busy, and would take a lot for me to learn all the stuff most HAMs know. I just want simple comms. yes I would LOVE to be able to do what my mate talked about, pushing 5Watts on handheld ie WTs on UHF or VHF, but don't think taking tests and having my details recorded, kit inspected etc would really be worth all the bother. I will look into it though, as last I heard HAM was for serious people only, and a lot of learning and tests required.

I am definitely going to get CB rigs set up, just for fun if nothing else, but it may well leave me lacking in the comms abilities I want. I spoke to a radio guy who knows his stuff, and his suggestion was high band VHF, talk thru repeater at home, handheld Motorola GP340s for mobile and vehicle sets. Vehicles and home 25W, handhelds 5W. The thing is I live in a VERY remote rural area so not sure the HAM repeater stuff will work here, or whether there are any. Anyone know what sort of range the high band VHF option would achieve? The repeater/talkthru base is a nice idea, but still this approach means dealing with OFCOM, paying them, having them inspect my kit at home (not my place so would prefer not to do that really) and of course listening in to our TX for a while, which wouldn't help my wife get used to using them!

[Riley Blue]

s3fella said:

I'm still waiting for that pussy 'Scooterman' to turn up for the fight at Brets Burgers in Oxford that he challenged me to in 1984 when I was 14.

Big Girl's Blouse.

'Big Girl's Blouse'.... I bet that handle had them wondering.....

[mph1977]

Nigel Worc's said:

Oh, and for those that think people didn't get shut down, and it was all bluff and bluster ....... I was on one of the "DF ing" teams.

We did, and they did get shut down, and dealt with, but you had to be doing something really naughty, or more commonly, broadcasting on the HF ham bands which the 27 meg stuff did when you modified them for the mid and high blocks, as they called them, (28 Mhz).

CB was the main reason the Police frequencies were moved, they used to on or around 108 Mhz, which of course was a reciprocal freq of 27 Mhz, and once the unlicensed and unwashed started using linear amps, illegally of course, it caused problems, so we used to go and get them, it was good fun, and seemed strange us Raffy types working "with" the Police for once, and the comms boys.

I'm sure they had a lot of fun, but they caused a lot of problems too.

The Emergency services were moved to be alongside the ham bands, I'm trying to remember the bands, I think the Police traffic went to 6 meters, and the fire service to 4 meters, I can't remember the ambulance service freq now.

Police hand helds were moved to 70 cm I think.

One of them was moved to just above 2 meters, maybe the ambulance were on 6, and the Police traffic on 2.

I'm too old, memory's going lol.

pre TETRA and post -changes - some of which came from international rule changes as well plus pressure ot move ES users off the upper part of the international 'band 2' VHF broadcast frequencies i.e. 102 -108 MHz

Fire service and mountain rescue were on 70ish MHz

Police 'main set' and Ambulance were among the normal PMR / Marine VHF and 2 Metre Amateur allocations between 140 -170 something MHz ( there are also some military frequencies in this area which are currently sub let to St John and Red Cross for high power single frequency working vehicle sets @25w ERP rather than the 5 w erp that you are allowed with a vehicle set on UK General PMR ( as the normal working channels for events for SJA and BRC are UK general PMR and some nationally organised repeater pairs with fixed or transportable repeaters - there are a few venues which have specific radios and specific sport frequencies allocated )

tri-service hand held allocation around 450 MHz - mainly used by the police with repeaters but trumpton and ambulance allocations for on scene use

[Nigel Worc's]

mph1977 said:

Nigel Worc's said:

Oh, and for those that think people didn't get shut down, and it was all bluff and bluster ....... I was on one of the "DF ing" teams.

We did, and they did get shut down, and dealt with, but you had to be doing something really naughty, or more commonly, broadcasting on the HF ham bands which the 27 meg stuff did when you modified them for the mid and high blocks, as they called them, (28 Mhz).

CB was the main reason the Police frequencies were moved, they used to on or around 108 Mhz, which of course was a reciprocal freq of 27 Mhz, and once the unlicensed and unwashed started using linear amps, illegally of course, it caused problems, so we used to go and get them, it was good fun, and seemed strange us Raffy types working "with" the Police for once, and the comms boys.

I'm sure they had a lot of fun, but they caused a lot of problems too.

The Emergency services were moved to be alongside the ham bands, I'm trying to remember the bands, I think the Police traffic went to 6 meters, and the fire service to 4 meters, I can't remember the ambulance service freq now.

Police hand helds were moved to 70 cm I think.

One of them was moved to just above 2 meters, maybe the ambulance were on 6, and the Police traffic on 2.

I'm too old, memory's going lol.

pre TETRA and post -changes - some of which came from international rule changes as well plus pressure ot move ES users off the upper part of the international 'band 2' VHF broadcast frequencies i.e. 102 -108 MHz

Fire service and mountain rescue were on 70ish MHz

Police 'main set' and Ambulance were among the normal PMR / Marine VHF and 2 Metre Amateur allocations between 140 -170 something MHz ( there are also some military frequencies in this area which are currently sub let to St John and Red Cross for high power single frequency working vehicle sets @25w ERP rather than the 5 w erp that you are allowed with a vehicle set on UK General PMR ( as the normal working channels for events for SJA and BRC are UK general PMR and some nationally organised repeater pairs with fixed or transportable repeaters - there are a few venues which have specific radios and specific sport frequencies allocated )

tri-service hand held allocation around 450 MHz - mainly used by the police with repeaters but trumpton and ambulance allocations for on scene use

Cheers matey, it is all a very long time ago now.

I thought, during christmas, of perhaps operating again.

I've had a listen, and to be honest most of it sounds like CB now, you actually have hams talking about "rigs and twigs", so I doubt I'll bother.

There are also a lot of 2 & M calls these days, I think most of the proper G calls must have either passed away, or just given up.

[TrollFinder]

carl_w said:

Nigel Worc's said:

Get one of the "free on a crisp packet" ham licences, VHF and UHF ham bands have repeater stations which will be ideal for what you are looking to do.

It seems you don't even have to learn Morse for a ham licence these days.

The ham radio license is in 3 parts, the Foundation or 'crisp packet' licence as you call it, intermediate and advanced, to do the FL you need to do this through a club, many hold a weekend course with exam, this will cost you £27.50 for the exam plus any club fee's.

TBH I would go the cb route, stick to an FM radio, be that a 40 channel or 80 channel, antenna for the car go for a springy whip on a lip mount/magmount, homebase antenna, go for an end-fed 5/8th wave, a sirio 827 will serve you very well.

As a general rule you will find the range on cb better than VHF, due to the way HF (cb) signals propogate, they are less affected by buildings, trees etc.

I have the advanced ham license, but I started out with 20 odd years on cb radio, I look back on it with fond memories.

[Nigel Worc's]

TrollFinder said:

carl_w said:

Nigel Worc's said:

Get one of the "free on a crisp packet" ham licences, VHF and UHF ham bands have repeater stations which will be ideal for what you are looking to do.

It seems you don't even have to learn Morse for a ham licence these days.

The ham radio license is in 3 parts, the Foundation or 'crisp packet' licence as you call it, intermediate and advanced, to do the FL you need to do this through a club, many hold a weekend course with exam, this will cost you £27.50 for the exam plus any club fee's.

TBH I would go the cb route, stick to an FM radio, be that a 40 channel or 80 channel, antenna for the car go for a springy whip on a lip mount/magmount, homebase antenna, go for an end-fed 5/8th wave, a sirio 827 will serve you very well.

As a general rule you will find the range on cb better than VHF, due to the way HF (cb) signals propogate, they are less affected by buildings, trees etc.

I have the advanced ham license, but I started out with 20 odd years on cb radio, I look back on it with fond memories.

£27.50 ?

Robbing barstewards !

Many many years ago I used to teach for the RSGB, many of us did, it was a G&G exam at the end, 765 1 & 2, these were taken at a college.

I did teach one of the new licences for a while, I can't remember what it was called, but they got a "2" call at the end of it, I only did about three courses, I think they could only use 6M and 70cm, limited to a few watts.

As we used to teach for free (and love of the subject/hobby), and I assume it is still the same, how can the RSGB justify £27.50 ?

It used to take about nine months at an evening a week to get the average person through the C&G, a couple a good deal longer, as they just couldn't get it, but as long as they wanted to continue, I'd get them to standard in the end.

The new licence I taught took about six sessions, I can't remember where they used to take the exam for that, I just used to teach them until I thought they were ready, was it a local club perhaps ?

Some clubs began to do it in a weekend, I guess you can see why some of the "old school" amongst us referred to these as "crisp packet licences".

I can't for the life of me see why everything has to be dumbed down.

If you have an "advanced licence", what do the chaps with the proper C&G have, a super duper licence ?

[AlexIT]

Hedders said:

I had a CB in my bedroom when i was about 12. I set up an eyeball with a local female cb'er about my age. I hadn't realised she would be bringing her father with her, and they would both be in his CB/PA equipped vauxhall Viva.

JB! said:

we have some police-spec walkie talkies for our road tip to europe this year.

my dad used to have a CB setup in his old vauxhall viva in the 80's.

Uhmmmmm.... got to know each other?