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

[ZOLLAR]

loose cannon said:

Kentish said:

I hooked up with one or two girls using CB when I was younger.

Went for an "eyeball" and then a bit more

funnily enough i lost my virginity via c.b,

Isn't that just an older version of phone sex?

[Morningside]

Far too many stories to be told from CB days. Including being chased by 'the father' with a baseball bat Oh, and met my Wife via CB as well.

Back in the early 80s I suspect every forth car had a 'twig' including most of the Police as well.


I am currently just sorting out all my radios

Some CB stuff including a couple of sidebanders (27.555 USB anyone?) but also a LOT of mobile Amateur Radio and other radios ready to be converted.

I am fiddling with AX.25 packet, POCSAG (pager stuff) and AFSK at the moment.

Also enjoy going to 'Radio Rallies'. But the most annoying thing is that the Espace has stacks of dashboard space to put lots of radios BUT is all fibreglass and hardly makes a good groundplane



Just like to add: Thanks to the total bd in 1995 who stole the aerial, CB radio and 30W linears from my Sierra in a Norwich pub carpark.

Edited by Morningside on Wednesday 23 June 19:45

[Hedders]

I really think we should keep CB radio going so we can communicate when the government take control of the digital network.

Yeah, you laugh now....

[AddieB]

2 Million CB'ers in London in 1981!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZl8Wg6gcI

CB'ers clubs etc!

Widow Maker and Morning Glory! She's a bit of alright!

Edited by AddieB on Wednesday 23 June 20:02

[anonymous-user]

Some of the farmer boys at my uni have them in their car, mainly so they can chat to the tractor drivers.

Other than these guys I dont really know of anyone who uses a CB

[ROB 100]

Ive got one in my Cortina mk3, a bunch of us from the Cortina club use them at shows & stuff,
mines in all the time but not allways on, theres still quite a few people out there tho, Midland set, gutter mount, very retro,

[sunbeam_alpine]

We use them on the farms - very handy means of communication.

One downside is that everyone else hears your conversations. I ran out of fuel one time and had to call for someone to come and help me out. Apparently, due to freak atmospherics (and not due to the 200W burner I had under the dash that made the headlights dim), I could be heard for miles. The next few months, whenever anyone heard me on the net, I got asked if I was OK for diesel!

[Eggman]

NinjaPower said:

Programmed in the licence free PMR446 channels and away we went.

Don't get caught! PMR is limited to 500mW, and iirc the types of radio you're allowed are very closely specified. The penalties are potentially quite significant.

Not sure how many people actually get 'done', but would imagine that if a policeman stopped you thinking you were using a mobile it could turn into something worse.

[Number 5]

champ54321 said:

Some of the farmer boys at my uni have them in their car, mainly so they can chat to the tractor drivers.

Other than these guys I dont really know of anyone who uses a CB

oh right.

Breaker 1-9, breaker 1-9 This is Farmer Boy are you receiving? Over.

Receiving load and clear, do you fancy a bum?Over.

[Jem0911]

205jsy said:

Got one in the Range Rover. Still seems popular with the Land Rover owners.

A couple of my shooting pals have full on installs in their Defenders.
Used to have a hand held 48 channel monster.
Breadman was my handle.

[Westy Pre-Lit]

AddieB said:

2 Million CB'ers in London in 1981!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZl8Wg6gcI

CB'ers clubs etc!

Widow Maker and Morning Glory! She's a bit of alright!

Edited by AddieB on Wednesday 23 June 20:02

Shop person - Fozzy Bear the man, good to see you I've got what you need. 160 without the VAT or 190 with the VAT.

Fozzy Bear - I'll take it 160

Shop person - Fozzy Bear he don't care ya know.

[anonymous-user]

Eggman said:

NinjaPower said:

Programmed in the licence free PMR446 channels and away we went.

Don't get caught! PMR is limited to 500mW, and iirc the types of radio you're allowed are very closely specified. The penalties are potentially quite significant.

Not sure how many people actually get 'done', but would imagine that if a policeman stopped you thinking you were using a mobile it could turn into something worse.

I understand what you are getting at, but the radio frequencies are less policed now than ever before (the government handed it all over to Ofcom a few years ago!) , they have their hands absolutely full to bursting trying to catch the Commercial 87-107Mhz FM Pirates that fill the airwaves in London and Birmingham in between all the other legal stations. CB is completely un-policed now as its Licence Free, as is PMR446. Even if you complain about something, they wont respond unless its frequent and putting life in danger. other than that, they really, really don't want to know.

Basically as long as you stay out of the Commercial FM bands 87-107FM and the Amateur Radio bands, then you are unlikely to ever be bothered. The Amateur bands are so 'anorak' about people doing it by the book that they are likely to track you down themselves, and club together to report you enough times that something gets done. You would have to go out of your way to piss them off though!

If someone was that bothered about catching some lads in some cars chatting on a free public frequency then good luck to them... I doubt the police will ever be interested in some 'walkie talkies'... they really do have better stuff to be getting on with!

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Good memories

Mate got me into CB at school. Home-made centre-loaded firestick on a broomhandle, then taking the covers off & wanting to know more. Also got into SWL at the same time.

Then off to college for 3 years of study into electronics & RF, MRGC & DoT Radar followed. (One of the last groups to be taught & examined on Morse to a decent level - passed my Amateur G4 at that time too).

Then ended up working on radio navaids for NATS, cellular systems for Voda and various other interesting electromagnetic/optic stuff. Now just mundane IT stuff but it pays the bills - sometimes

But all that sparked off over 25 years ago by taking the back off a CB & thinking "Wow, that looks interesting!"

[J4CKO]

A family friend left his job to set up a CB shop in about 1980, hindsight suggests this was a bad move....


Anyway, CB is still going, a medium to be able to communicate with random individuals where nuisance users can cause havoc, hmm, you are sat looking at CB 2010.....


Is it me or is the whole Breaker 1-9, "You got your ears on good buddy" very very cheesy, ok, its kind of quaint and of its time in the films like Convoy and Smokey and the Bandit when from a Trans Am or a Peterbilt, but over here, in a Rotherram accent, from a jacked up Cortina, I thought it had a strong cheesy aroma even as a nine year old despite being desperate to overlook it and my dad get a set. Its just not British really is it, spontaneous live chat, when sober, thats why mobiles and the Internet are much more us.

[JB!]

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.

[obscene]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrwmnynP8go

I always think of this song when someone mentions CB radios

[Ari]

AddieB said:

2 Million CB'ers in London in 1981!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZl8Wg6gcI

CB'ers clubs etc!

Widow Maker and Morning Glory! She's a bit of alright!

Edited by AddieB on Wednesday 23 June 20:02

That's brilliant!

Loving the two tone Granada with the Moutney steering wheel, that's proper '70s funk!

[pugwash4x4]

very common in 4x4 circles- all of the 4x4s (that get used properly) that i know have CB radios- very useful when greenlaning or abroad.

[Ari]

Do people still chat on them to stranger though, like in the old days, or are they just used as basic in car comms between people who know each other?

[Zad]

If you get a radio scanner, you can listen not just to the legal CB frequencies, but the "continental" ones too, plus the amateur radio bands, which are quite often more interesting. Amateur bands also have local repeaters, which allows people from a wider area to communicate.