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  • CB Radio

    Craig, and in old CB radio lingo, in the ten code, they just go 10-7.
    Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

  • #2
    Re: New blood

    Originally posted by Karen View Post
    Craig, and in old CB radio lingo, in the ten code, they just go 10-7.
    Well I'm 10-8 and 10-10 on the side...oh boy CB my handle was the ESSEX and my call letters were KLO-9584...back when you needed a license for CB.
    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: New blood

      Craig, Oh man! remember the mid-to-late 70s when the CB craze peaked and car dealerships had brand new models on the showroom floors with CB radios manufactured right into them?! I bet the under-thirty crowd will freak out at that one.

      I was the Texas Hell Cat, and friends often called for the THC and yes, it was more than a coincidence that those letters also stood for a substance in an herb.

      We had radios in all of the family autos and a base station that talked all over the nation when the skip/DXL? was it on side band, was in. My dad and I got a PO box along with a dude I was best friends with just so that we could all give it out when shooting skip, and receive the cards people loved to send out, and I'd write every one of them back. We got mail from the Caribbean, and all over this 48 states.

      I belonged to two CB clubs, one on channel 12 and the other Channel 8, both locally in San Antone.

      Speaking of successful DJs, I also had a friend that was from L.A. and he ended up at a radio station in San Antone and his nickname was the "Vanilla Gorilla." (Jim Wood) He made enough in his day to live very well.

      Ahh...memories....
      Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: CB Radio

        OK... I pruned the first 3 posts out of "New Blood" and used them to create this new thread called "CB Radio". This has been done to prevent topic drift which I think may happen as there may be some people who'd want to talk about CB Radio.

        The topic which is not totally related to broadcast media, will stay in the Hawaii Radio Memories section for now with the possibility that it may move elsewhere later (possibly Circuit Circus) where general tech things both new and old are discussed.
        I'm still here. Are you?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: CB Radio

          Ahh, that could explain the first three posts of this thread. In any event I had a class D CB license in the late 1970's even though I only had a 100 milliwatt 3 channel hand held unit powered by a 9 volt battery.

          I brought a few more hand held units in the mid 1990s, I think they were at least 2 watts in power and they used 8 AA batteries to power them. I rarely used the units.

          I haven't been paying much attention to CB technology latey, been using FRS/GMRS radios. They are lighter, smaller and use up less batteries than the CB radios.

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          • #6
            Re: CB Radio

            Most boats here (including mine) have CB radios, as they offer better coverage than traditional boat VHF radios whose signal is blocked by mountains and ridges.
            .
            .

            That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: CB Radio

              I think one of the best base stations for the money (cheap) was the Radio Shack Navajo. Man that thing could put out some signal. Couple that with a Moon Raker beam antenna, a black box and a power mic and you dominated the area.

              I started out with a Swedish 3-watt 3-channel handheld from Handic. It was bright orange and used a rubber duckie antenna. I bought it at Lafayette Radio Electronics on the corner of Young and McCully. The last radio was a Midland 40-channel mobile radio powered with a 12vdc power supply hooked up to a 5/8 wave Omnidirectional antenna.

              Speedtek had a Golden Eagle Mk IV CB base station (probably the best of the best) and would overpower us in East Honolulu,
              Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: CB Radio

                I do remember that our base station antenna was a Hygain Penetrator, and something else...dang it had a measurement for the wave it put out? Wow, these terms are getting really vague to me, now. It was a 5/6 wave? something like that.....FCC law at the time said our antenna was supposed to be no more than 40.ft. high, our antenna was telescopic and we kept it at an illegal 60ft. till a Texas thunderstorm put it at a ninety-degree angle and when I got out of the shower my antenna was across the roof and top of it in a large tree in the front, lol.

                My base station radio...hmmm.....had upper and lower sideband...man! what brand radio? Wonder if it was a bearcat, or was that just the scanner? The microphone was the big, silver one that looked like a large lollipop, that I recall and dang sensitive.

                They were a blast, as were the breaker parties and since we didn't have cell phones they were very convenient, too. My one friend that did, I think he paid almost a dollar a minute to talk on it or something absurd like that
                Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: CB Radio

                  Your antenna was probably the 5/8 wave since the next size up would have been a full-wave antenna. As for height, the maximum height for an antenna was 60-feet from tip of the antenna to the ground. Your's was legal.

                  Mine wasn't however as I misinterpreted the legal height restrictions and put my antenna ON TOP of a 60-foot mast which was mounted ON TOP of my single story home. My antenna topped off at about 85-feet up or 25-feet too high. Then the PL-259 coax connector's crimp failed and I had to shimmy up the mast and make a field repair. Oh and the PL-259 screwed onto the SO-239 socket. I was using RG-6 coax at the time which allowed for the lowest Standing Wave ratio.

                  For a short time there was a mail order company called JS&A and was a precursor to The Sharper Image. They sold a small walkie talkie called the Pocket Com. This thing put out 30-milliwatts of output power but from a mile away you could hit 9-pounds on the power meter of any receiving CB radio.

                  Your mic was called the Silver Eagle by Astatic.

                  Come to think of it I also had a big old base station made by President. It was 23-channels and all were crystal-controlled.
                  Last edited by craigwatanabe; April 21, 2008, 03:41 AM.
                  Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: CB Radio

                    Craig, the law says sixty feet now. It did not say that in 1978.

                    Mine was the only one among fifteen or more, within a few streets that was 60 then, in the 'burbs of San Antonio. It was such a knockoff that driving down the main road that bordered our neighborhood ours stood out ridiculously and friends even wondered how the FCC missed it for a couple of years. I know they drove around and worked the area because a newscaster for country radio station KBUC and I were playing with his radio in his newscar one night and got blasted by the FCC in the area, man his needle hit the other side as the guy said in a very business like manner "This is an FCC monitor." LOL we turned his radio off so dang fast.

                    That's it! the Silver Eagle. Friends had the gold one, woo hoo man it was a beauty. I can't remember why I had two licenses in less than five years. One was KNV 1165 and I said that thousands of times.
                    Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: CB Radio

                      Wow! This post really brings back memories.....my handle was COUNTRY GIRL and my best friend was SURFER GIRL. My brother was the BRAIN SURGEON and my Dad was CHUBBY TOO.....I don't recall the call letters but the numbers 2052......we had a huge antenna on the roof of our house in Sunset Beach......GRAY WHEELER, SMALL MAN was our neighbor......my sis was Little Uku.....thanks for the memories......

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: CB Radio

                        Originally posted by Karen View Post
                        Craig, the law says sixty feet now. It did not say that in 1978.
                        It did say it back then and even in 1976 when I erected it. One of my CB buddies told me my antenna was too high and showed me the FCC regulations regarding CB antenna heights. I just shrugged my shoulders as most CBer's didn't even use licenses back then when required and I thought Uncle Charlie (the FCC) had bigger fish to fry so I took the chance and eventually the antenna came down when the CB craze deminished.
                        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: CB Radio

                          Craig, well nuttin personal but I think you know that, but I don't buy it. I need to see a copy of their old laws, but let's say you are correct...which I strongly doubt but I get "CRS" at times, yeah, "can't remember uh..stuff."

                          What that tells me is that my antenna was 80ft. high....I don't buy that but what I do know is that it was 20ft. illegal and it was the only one that high in our entire neighborhood, and as mama used to say "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." LOL...she was of course talking about people with vain and obnoxious egos but I tell ya....my antenna was humbled with one big blast of a thunderboomer.
                          Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: CB Radio

                            OK, here we go. Break 28!

                            KAXK-1909 Piko Mango (me) mobile
                            KAUM-6424 Papa Fergie Base, Waimalu
                            KAUM-6424 Pops, Papa Fergie Base, Waimalu
                            KAUM-6424 Ma, Papa Fergie Base, Waimalu
                            KAUM-6424 Sweet Hawaiian, my sister
                            KAUM-6424 Boogie Babes, my other sister
                            KAVR-**** Hawaiian High-Flyer, my brother

                            28-Gang (and I don't pretend I can remember them all):
                            Big Bird
                            White Lightning
                            Immo
                            Little Ping
                            KAOV-**** Okole Vibrator, Marshall
                            Pregnant Roller Skate (PRS)
                            Peacemaker/Hanamalu
                            Luau Lips

                            Got plenty more. Shucks, I forget! All based around Waimalu, Pearl City, Aiea.

                            At one point, I built my own 4-element beam with motor control. It blew down in Hurricane Iwa.
                            Make trouble, have fun, do good stuffs.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: CB Radio

                              Originally posted by zztype View Post
                              28-Gang (and I don't pretend I can remember them all):
                              Big Bird
                              Wonder if it's the same one I knew - High School teacher. Electronics shop if I haven't gotten him confused with someone else. For the life of me I can't remember the media center teacher's handle.

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