Same to you Mr. Jazzsinger. I like jazz music too...do you sing?
Its a long story Eddie but Jazz was my nickname long before the cb, usually preceeded with mad, cause I was a bit mental when young, had to be in my area of Glasgow, the name actually came from Jas, on my front door, which was short for my Dad James, The first night I ever saw a cb was my mates Dad's Cobra 148 gtl dx and he was talking to USA , I was a major gobshite even at 13 so he introduced me as Jazzsinger in 1978 and the name stuck, after he left the shack me and his son Mighty Atom Davie went a bit raj on his CTE Titan linear and started abusing the whole city, lol, when you have 500w to play with in the days when most people had 4w and a dv27 on a biscuit tin, we had a hy gain silver rod and 3 ele beam and as his Dad was arguably the best radio tech Glasgow ever, had we could go 5 bands, so there was no escaping us. Lol.
I decided there and then cb was my thing, I learned loads from John Backchat, Davie's Dad, he was a vcr enginner to trade and knew radio inside out even then, wasn't long before i found zetagi burners, then upgraded from my recently purchased president ar7 and dv27 with biscuit tin ground plane to a Cobra 148 gtl dx with added s.low band and an avanti av174, i also had a starduster in loft that i could stick out hatch when dry and take top radiator off when wet plus an indoor dipole.
One day the sigma 4 got stolen as it was down for gamma match repair, when i got it back off cops i got an offer i couldn't refuse and so the hunt for a new twig started, got a mighty magnum 3 on chimney and all was well, i was only about 15 by then, within weeks i added a 3 ele, rotator and extra 6 ft mast, my Mum came back from shops to find a 3 ele and magnum 3 on chimney, what a fucking doing i got but as i knew my Dad hadn't the courage to go up take it down it was worth it, lol.
I actually hate Jazz music, lol, i'm more a pink floyd,talking heads, u2, runrig, simple minds, fleetwood mac and eagles type off person and my singing is dreadful, lets just say you wouldn't use me as a tone generator, i'm tone deaf, but I can sing my heart out on booze when I wanted to start trouble over football, a passionate affair in my city, think of it like any reason to start a riot. I sold my soul to the devil years ago, me and alcohol are a lethal combination, which is why I puff weed to chill me.
I had severe anger issues when young and joined Rangers notorious inter city firm or icf, in early mid 80's to 1990, got me into allsorts of shit and a never lose mentallity, I'm only 5'6" but would fight people twice my size ferociously, I still do at 47,lol.
I wish I had a pound for everytime I've been asked if I liked Jazz, lol, far more likely to listen to eminem or 50 cent than jazz, its pure shit, i hate classical music too, to me the 80's is classical music, lol.
36 years I've had that handle for, almost 40 I've had the nickname Jazz another friends brother tagged me with, everyone I knew had nicknames, mainly as it made it harder for cops to trace us when we put all sorts of graffitti all over da hood,
my city is very territorial, it has more gangs than London and more violence than New York, which is unbelievable in such a small city, it also has some of the worst poverty in Europe, its also the murder capital of Europe, you gotta be pretty tough to survive it, half the people I went to school with are gone now, drugs,alcohol or violence. i had a guy Archie Filshill from Philly come over and go to school with us for 2 years, he couldn't believe how bad it is here, but he loved it as if you were in our gang, in our area you were safe. Not so if we didn't know you.
For a long period in the 90's ecstasy killed the gangs and the football violence, but now its back fuelled by coke and mkat as well as valium and smack. Both are getting worse, but unlike my day when being in the ICF, or our opponents in city the Celtic Soccer Crew CSC could get you either a free pass or severely done in in any area of city depending on what gang you were from, all the gangs amalgamated/affiliated into ICF, CSC or Partick Thistle's NGE North Glasgow Express, a bit like your bloods and crimps, its now back to what it ws pre football casual firms from the 80's and is now territorial and no free passes anywhere, just like when I was in my early teens, but fuelled by strong booze and drugs.
Jazz was the furthest thing from my mind, I was a streetwise hooligan, survival was all we thought about. I now live about 10 miles outside Glasgow, and although quieter than my old hood has many similarities. CB radio was the key to obtaining many things in Glasgow, We used it for allsorts, anything is available here if you know where to look.
For me was a means of making a few quid during 80's cb boom, was always some moron frying outputs, audio ic's, idiot diodes, needing microphones, coax plugs wired etc As well as putting antennas up, I've even put stardusters and silver rods on 23 storey buildings, my area had 5 23 storey and 14 19 storey buildings with 6 houses per floor, all in less than a mile from my house all with young families and hundreds of kids my age and about 2 years above and below as well as many 6 house tenement buildings, we had 4 secondary schools within a mile of my house and about 300 cb'ers, area was chaos and surrounded by even worse areas. Add in the sectarian divide my city is notorious for, its a hell of a place to grow up. And the weather is permashite which don't help.
At one time finding a clear channel here with a 120 ch radio was difficult, but late 80's it started to decline, by the time Ireturned to radio in 99 was about 50 stations in city, now your lucky if there is half that including surrounding areas, young ones all use facebook etc to arrange parties and trouble, its only the die hards and a handfull of newbies left.
I think its safe to say Jazz music was never going to be part of my destiny, the other question I usually get asked is do you like Neil Diamond, lol, he's even worse than Jazz, lol. i got landed with the handle through my nickname and have never changed it, god I'm dreadful at singing, just not smart enough to realise it when i do it, if i dont know the words i just make shit up, lol.
I would imagine you had a very different upbringing Eddie. It's amazing how so many different types of people blend through radio that would never normally come together, the one thing I've always been is a culture vulture, my school overlooked the shipyards Glasgow is famous for or was famous for before westminster destroyed them, we built the confederate gunrunner SS Robert E Lee, the fastest ship in the confederate navy, watching all sorts of liners and in later years military vessels being built often made me wonder where they would end up, and what those places were like, dx'ing gave me a bit of insight into that, I was never really into local cb unless i was hunting something or someone, i just wanted to cover as much of the planet as possible, not having the money to travel, cb brought the mountain to mohamed so to speak.
I bet you wished you never asked me now, llf.
Jazz 73