| Author |
Message |
    
Phil
| | Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 11:38 pm: | 
|
Hello all, I was curious.. been reading the 'mail' on here and musing over the hobby.. I started out at 15 yrs old in the 60's with an old single channel (ch 11) tube base (of course there was only 23 channels then).. my brother and I quickly got into it big time and is I wasn't hotrodding my 65' GTO I was playing with the radios. I even had a CB license (anyone remember those?) my numbers were KGN/3670... during those days I don't remember any times there were jerks on the band (other than when my neighbor would get drunk and play music over his Double-sideband Eagle!) One of the guys I talked to almost every night was a retired FCC field guy! He ran power and even 'slid' when it got crowded. It was fun, I built homemade amps using sweep-tubes from color TV's and even built a 2-tube mobile amp using a world war 2 dyno-motor for the +HV from and old airplane. When that song about the "Convoy" (CW McCall?) came out it was over (most of the fun) so we started 'sliding' below or above the 23's... I had Xtals ground to go 8 channels below 1 and I picked my "high" channel at 27.405 (just by chance this became channel 40 when they added CB channels! I then went into the basement and 'stood by' on 25.545, my brother and I peaked our radios for the low side and my Midland wouldn't transmit above channel 7!!! I couldn't afford a SSB (they were hundreds of bucks even back then!) so I did the best I could on am and later on converted to FM (still have a few of those radios around). I used to do the best I could with my money... case in point: I wanted a D-104 Microphone but couldn't afford it so I bought a D-104 crystal mic element (they were only $3.00 and the 2-transistor prre-amp add-on kit (for the un-powered D-104's) for about $5.00 and gutted my Realistic desk mike then put these into it, drilled a hole for the pot and presto.. a D-104 Mike!
I got out of it in the late 70's and every once in awhile I'll get back in though not as much... I bought an HR2510 (I would have killed for a radio like that back in those days!) I still have an A-99 antenna, but it really isn't like it used to be.. it seems like every 5 yrs I check it out and make some DX contacts then put it away, I can't believe the language I hear on the 'legal 40' anymore! Well, just thought I would share this with you guys, some people will probably bring back memmories and younger ones will say "what's he rambling about?!"
Well, all those good numbers to ya...
-Phil |
cblollypop
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 1:27 am: |
|
I started on a Midland 1 watt talkie in 1959 when the calls were like 3Q3033. that was the call of the first person I talk to. It has been along time and I have never gone I always have had a radio around. But I live around a large City and CB is not much more then a shouting match anymore. I remember when if you used a bad word on the radio the people on that Freq. would not talk to you. Now every other word around here is F@@@ this and that. Boy I have seen the change in the american way and some is good and some is bad. I still miss some of the better days when people could act normal on a radio. I just wonder sometimes what people in other countries think about all they hear. If you try to tell these people they just don't care. Well I will get off the soap box. But I think the rest of the world just thinks we are Curseing fighting crazy CBer's
Well that is what I think and I wish peolpe would just think what it must sound like to the rest of the CB world.
Jerry
CBlollypop
cblollypop@yahoo.com |
bruce
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 7:28 am: |
|
Phil i started in 56 building crystal radios with my older brother i still build them and im a member of the crystal radio socy. Then by 58 i had a hallicrafters s38e and by 1960 my dad bought a cb set that i used it as a learning tool till i got my first ham ticket in early 63 at that time i was in tech school got my 2nd license and my FCC 1st class radio telephone by 67 i had finshed tech school and soon after was in the army at the USAAC commo 198 mait bt. ( fort knox). So i been playing with cb over 40 years been a ham 38+ been working in electronics for 34+ years and still broke.... dad was right be a doctor. |
Vernonott
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 7:33 am: |
|
Phil:Thanks for bringing back some really awesome memories.I can't remember there being any skip back then,was there? |
dinker1
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 8:45 am: |
|
Phil, Got into the radio in the early 70's, been in it every since, sometimes heavier than the other. Started out with a Johnson Messenger 23 on power pack from radio Shack,Dual trucker antenna mounted on the sides of the roof of my 12 ft. wide mobile home. That bugger would do some talking too. No CB is not like it used to be, we are dealing with lack 0of respect out there on the air wave now, will never be the way it used to be in the good old days..DEAN- |
Len
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 6:11 pm: |
|
I started in 1974 I payed $8.00 for my license I don't know aht my call sign was I guess it happens. The first radio I had was a 23 channel Regency tube type that took about 20 min to warm up. Several moble pace, pearce simpson, sbe,cobra,midalnd and last but not least the kraco back if you had a kraco DELUXE you had every thing.And for the base courier and the royce 642 with D-104 mic. It took a long time to save up for tose. The best base antenna was my new tronics hustler trumpet and my avonti astro beam three ellement that would rip every T.V out for 3 blocks untill I raisd it up 45 feet.And Phill do you remember when we would take out the channel selector fill in a couple open spots and have our 2 extra channels. I best get going I could type all night about back when. 73's to you all take care #111 Len So,Minnesota |
Ae489
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 8:05 pm: |
|
My best friend and I got started in about 1969. I was KDZ7146 and he was KER0787. We each had a used RCA base that had separate RX and TX channel selectors. Some locals ran a lot of power and liked to cover us up, so we would run "full duplex" by having him TX on 23 and RX on 15, and I would do the opposite! |
Phil
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 8:43 pm: |
|
Thanks to all you guys for sharing some of the "good old days" in the hobby... it has been fun reading all your replies.. Vernonott, speaking of skip I seem to remember we were near one of the 7 year sunspot cycles in the late 60's early 70's and it was incredible!
One time I was working on my car and I was in the garage with a mag-mount loaded base antenna stuck on the top, just copying the mail, and about 11:00 that night the skip started rolling in and I heard a couple of ladies talking about casual stuff and then they started complaining about the 'hornet's' nest that was stirring due to the skip, (I was in Southern Michigan at that time) they were so loud I thought they were local but you know how it was back then, you knew everyone in your area and they just didn't sound familar.. so I broke in and asked them where they were and they told me they were in Northern Calif!
I told them I was in Michgan and at first they thought I was a local just teasing them! After I started losing them, they believed me and we said our good wishes and numbers and I 'cleared'... I got a kick out of them after that because a few minutes before they were talking about the "stupid skip" and while I listened one of them said to the other "I have never done that before, you know that was really fun!!" and the other one laughed and said "it WAS fun, I never thought that was possible!"
A little later one of their locals came on and they told him about it, giddy as little kids!
Hey, Len I remember that little trick of picking up 2 extra channels (22a and 22b) they were supposed to be for business use.. I had a JC Penny's 23 channel (my first non-tube radio) and I had to remove a resistor on the xtal board and picked them up! Do you remember they started putting little 'notches' on the switches after a while to try to stop that? I was wondering how many people realize that those became channels 24 and 25 with the 'old channel 23' actually being higher in frequency than 24 & 25?
And you guys are right about the foul language now, I also remember that if someone swore they would have a hard time finding anyonto talk to Well, I better stop or I'll go on all night Thanks again to all you guys for jumping in here!
-Phil "Medicine Man" (my old handle)..
|
Ohiobiker
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 1:04 pm: |
|
Well now memories of days gone by....Do you feel the age thing here as I do? LOL...
I got my first radio as a child of the age of 11yrs old. A gentleman on my paper route used to invite me in his home, he was the last home om my route. He had this awesome looking radio that seemed to take up all of his desk and would let me listen to him talk on it while I rested for the 3 mile walk back home. He had the Cadilac of radios in that day, a Browning Golden Eagle and boy would/could he may it sing. Well to say the least it caught my interest. I would call my Dad and ask him to stop and pick me up on his way home from work, just so I could stay and listen longer. He talked all over the world like it was the telephone. Over time he seen how interested I had grown in the radio. One saturday as I was collecting my money he offered me a deal. He was replaceing his mobile in his truck with a sideband radio and wanted to know if I wanted to buy his old AM mobile?
He already knew the answer so we worked out a deal for free newspapper for 1 month, Back then the weekly cost for the Canton Repository was .65cents a week. What a deal I had gotten. He threw in a clip on gutter mount and I was never so eager to get home and get set up. LOL When I got home it didn't take long and I was on the air!
Well over the next month or so I had great fun chatting on that old radio. One day I came home from school and found my Mother in my room listening and talking on my radio, that was all it took. Within a few weeks Dad went out and puchased Mom a brand new Cobra 139XLR SSB Base Radio w/extras, it had just hit the shops and was top dollar at that time. I think it was the best gift he ever gave our Mother in her whole life.(except for us 5 kids)...LOL Mom and I spent many long hours on that old radio, many memories and friendships were formed their in that old kitchen well i am rambling on...One last thing...the man who sold me that 1st radio is long since gone...but those memoeies still remain...Thanks again to Bill & Barb Conley..aka "CAT" and "Big Barb". There station was know as "The CAT House" and stood by on ch.22 AM in Ohio....thanks for a lifetime of fun and memories...............OHIOBIKER "575" |
Phil
| | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 1:25 am: |
|
Ohiobiker... I wonder if I talked to you in the past? At that time I lived on the Ohio/Michigan line about 35 miles west of Toledo and used to swing my beams toward the South and see who I could find.... I didn't have any close neighbors at the time and I didn't know any better but I ALWAYS ran my 2-tube 85 watt-er so a lot of people heard me (used "unit 26" when talking DX).. I still remember a YL that was somewhere around Toledo that had the sweetest voice I ever heard on the radio.. she sounded like a doll!! I remember when she got on the radio EVERYONE wanted to talk to her!!! I think she went by the handle "Honey Bunny" but can't be sure.
That made me think of a funny story, I had moved a few miles from my 1st house and didn't have my beams up and I had a base loaded ground plane about 35' above the house.. I was trying to reach that gal and I turned on about 150 watts and ended up talking to another friend instead, I had the mike keyed for a long time yakin' and all of a sudden my amp went "BANG!" and one of the tubes burst! Then as if that wasn't enough to scare the life out of me I heard a loud crashing noise outside and on the roof! My wife came running in and said "WHAT WAS THAT?" Of course I acted like it was no big deal but as I checked the damage I found that my Antenna Specialists Base-Loaded ground plane REALLY was only rated at 25 watts!! What happened was the coil on the antenna fried, the plastic toasted and the whole center section came crashing down on the roof! Then this shorted my amp out causing the amp damage!! (this surprised me as tubes will usually take a lot of beef!) When I got back on the air my friend said while I was talking he heard a weird sound almost like fire-crackling then silence! Ahhh, those were the days..
And "575" I do remember channel 22 being a really busy channel..
Oh, do I feel the age? DO I EVER!!! I never thought I would be this old... I used to be soo young!!! LOL
73's
-Phil |
307
| | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 10:31 am: |
|
Started in 1969 (9 years old) with a 3 channel rig and an antenna from a military tank "taped" to my dad's chimney with 14 guage wire used as coax. I remember it very well. Started a CB Shop at 17 years old in Johnstown PA which was sold later to J&S Communications which died in the early 90's.
307 |
Colt
| | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 5:25 pm: |
|
Keep these old stories coming, I'm enjoying them immensely! Ohiobiker, I especially loved your story. And it's great that your Mom enjoyed talking on the radio along with you. One of the greatest things I remember about my old CBing days are the folks I was privileged to meet and become friends with. Two of my favorites were an elderly gentleman who had muscular dystrophy who went by the handle of "Jack Rabbit", and another old feller who went by "Twinkle Toes". These fine old gentlmen have since gone on the their reward, but I'll sure never forget them. I'd have never met them if it weren't for the ol' radidio. |
Vernonott
| | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 8:43 pm: |
|
It pays to have friends in high places.In 1975 I remember a gentleman who had been confined to a wheel chair his entire life.He had a big set of beams and a Browning radio with a big amp.The only enjoyment the old Shamrock got was ratchet jawing on the CB.Well the FCC confiscated all of his radio gear three times and they returned it every time.Seems he was good friends with a very powerful Senator.Old Shamrock passed on a good many years ago and his son told me all of his radio gear is in his attic wasting away. |
bruce
| | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2002 - 8:52 pm: |
|
Colt one guy ive been talking with on cb and ham radio since 1962 said in thoes days that the distrust of new things was a problem with the older generation. I see in how i do things as a tech a resistance to change and a longing for what we remember as 15 year old hams. I guess he was right colt now WE ARE the older generation. |
|
