Your first CB? what year started? any other radio interest?

[KingCobra_CDX882]

Well..This Question has been asked a few times on here..

Anyways..
I got into CB back in 1970 or 71.. Back when CB had begun to get Very Popular.
Was funny for i was 10 at the time and when friends asked what i was getting for Xmas, i said simply i was getting a CB ( and told all my friends that )..

However i neglected to tell my parents ( on purpose )..
Word got to my parents ( kids parents are often friends..especially when ling in a 17 story building ..

So i wound up getting a Realistic Navaho TRC-22a ( what was a base-mobile ) and was quite large compared to what most use these days...Along with the CB also got a Turner Plus 2 base Power mike and since we lived on the 3rd floor all we could put up antenna wise was a mirror mount mobile antenna with a center coil ( i forget the model..it was some realistic mobile antenna ) .

I recall my having gotten the CB started a bit f a craze in our apartment building with a few of my friends..

Two floors directly above me a friend talked his parents into supposedly getting ( what they thought was a cb ) but it turned out to be basically more of a walkie talkie but non portable and size of a average base radio today...
It brought quite a few arguments ( friendly ones ) because...his radio though worked on 23 channels was only able to transmit 1/10 th a watt..

His being 2 floors above me though helped greatly with his getting out... Not because of the hight so much as the antenna his parents hooked up.. Where mine was a mobile fixed to the outer frame of my bedroom window.. His was like a big stick ( except instead of bottom fed was center fed and as such reached to maybe 3 or 4 ft from top of my antenna and reached nearly to the 7th floor..

Often when he spoke on the radio he even came across my radio when it was off ( given how close out antennas were .. looking back was actually quite funny )..

Then a year later another friend on the 17th floor got one ( i think was a cobra 23 channel mobile ) but he put a big stick up..a fixed to the terrace .. enabling the big stick to stick up over top of building roof... Now he got out lake gang busters and he got skip simply by turning the CB on..

However...Only i was allowed by the building to keep my antenna up... for mine was hardly seen ( unless one looked extremely close for it ) where both my 2 other friends, well their antennas stuck out like sore thumbs..as such they each had to remove their antennas ( that indeed sucked )..

I look back on those days..before CB hit the craze it became in late 70's through mid 80's..and wow...how i was so different...how people and society was so different..

I had gotten so into CB..was funny...
Originally i called myself Tonto ( well i had a Navaho as a CB ( lol )..
But it turned out 2 others within 10 miles also had that nick...
So i then became and used King Cobra.... I recall a CB meet my father and i went to.. While there we registered my nick officially with the FCC ( yeah like i am sure it was legit..lol )..

My father then not too long after got one for his car..a Laffiette if i recall ( he was Sinbad the Sailer )
my mom had no idea what to make up as a nick..she finally chose Meat Ball moma ( she made the nick..from ordering Italian one night..lol )..

When i got my first car in 81..i Bought a Cobra 146 GTL ( not the 148 ) and got a Astatic D104 M6 power mke ( tear drop mike with power and tone controls on each side )..

I wound up getting a Clear Channel AR 3500 ( 100 watt 10/11 meter radio .. that all these years later is now semi become the 2750 DX ) and then experimented with a number of antennas...but wound up with what then seemed the best antenna (it was either a D2500 or D 4500 ) basically a fore runner of what is the 10k antenna ( made by a company i cant recall )..

Man did i get out with that AR-3500 / D104 M6 and 10K type antenna..
I used to go to many hidden mountain top areas and talk skip all over the place..
O even caught on to a cheat of going directly below the early MCI towers which seemed to piggy back my hf signals clear across the country ..

I also joined react..
I adapted my postal mailbox number for my SSB nick ( 882 ... USA Mobile 882 ) and spoke easily all over usa,canada, central and south america, europe and sometimes the orient and africa ( never needed an amp ( although the AR-3500 put out 100 watts on ssb ( typically i used 38-40 and good old 27.555 )

Back in the early 80's i thought about getting my ticket... But there were a number of true a holes up by me..that turned me off greatly..they tried being so superior...complaining that only they were allowed on 27.555 and not i .. That i needed a ticket to do so ( even though they also said..their wives were allowed to talk on 27.555 since the husbands were licensed )..

Boy if i could go back in time...i would have gotten even with them...that is in the past though..

I walked away from the hobby in 88... until about 98 when a few friends said...hey...CB is getting very Popular again...

So i initially i got a RCI-2970 and a Big Stick to return to CB..
After a few months though...I decided to get a Icom 706 MKIIG to use as a CB ..

yes i know it was way over kill for CB...But clearly it is far superior to a regular CB..

Funny thing though...it had all these other channels...well...I started listening to them.... Talked 2 of my friends into also buying the 706 MKIIG...

Then one of my friends tried several times to get his ticket...but failed to pass the exam...At that point i was like...why...It isn't hard...So i made an appointment with him to take the exam again ( and did for myself as well )... Sat him down for 45 mins in a cyber cafe a couple blocks from the exam...went over with him over QRZ... took the test..we both got the our ticket ... I tried offering to help my other friend who also failed the exam several times...he was a bit more stubborn..however he did it completely on his own ..

Now i have more radios then i know what to do with ( as do my other 2 friends )..
But i rarely talk on them these days ..
I have 3 beams..a tri band vertical and the famous I-10K..
Again have spoken nearly the world over ( except for Antarctica..that i never have gotten..Oh well...lol )

I remember once....while talking in my base... Hearing 2 mobiles arguing like heck with one another.... I reconised them both as people i had spoken to 15+ yrs earlier... So i called out....Got them to stop arguing...i was like...Look..Heep that dirty side down and clean side up... it is not worth it to be arguing... and so they stopped arguing..yet mins before they were ready to kill one another it seemed... ( Go figure )..

I recall..that even when most people no longer required they CB licence ( mine was KHD-4303 ) i had to retain mine for i think 2 or 3 additional years because i was part of react..

 

[Wrench]

I rmember people drilled holes in the roof to put an antenna on. Or they used a 102" whip with a tennis ball. Usually on the rear bumper to the side, like Andy Taylor and Barney Phife.

 

[RatsoW8]

In 1972 an old General Radio Telephone 6 channel tube cb radio and a mobile antenna mounted on a rain gutter. You had to switch in crystals for both tx and rx. Then in 1973 my parents bought me a brand new Lafayette Comstat 25B for Christmas! Best Christmas of my life.

 

[Gamma21]

I started 1983 with a couple of Uniden Grants, one for the base on a Sigma IV, and one for the pickup using co-phased 5' Firesticks.

It was nice being able to talk with the wife from just about anyplace during the day, and also to get traffic reports from the CBrs we met on air.

We still have both those Grants.

 

[trucker]

1967 or 68, parents got an old White Faced Johnson with 4 channels in it. Had a home made ground plane made out of 102" whips on the roof. My dad got one of those CB's that looked like a telephone for my mom's car, and a bumper mounted 102" whip. My mom hated the radio and that got traded off.
Didn't mess with it too much after a while, because I got interested in Short Wave radio DX'ing. Hallicrafters SX-96 that I got for $25 (plus I had to repair it) and cleaning out the storage room of the TV shop I worked part time in. After high school and getting married, I got into Amateur Radio. and it's been downhill ever since !! hahaha
trucker

 

[ddbddg1]

i still have a couple of old hallicrafter sets...those old sets are still really cool looking.
i have one that works and one that needs restoring

 

[ddbddg1]

hey king cobra,
i was a member of react too in the 70`s
my call letters were kqv0155
that was when cb`ers were taken seriously
then you didnt have to have a license anymore and it all sorta went downhill!

 

[ctvanover]

My first was back in 1978. It was a Teaberry 40 ch. tube type base station. I remember it well cause the antenna I was using was an old mag mount and it was standing up on by bed leaning against the wall. Everyone that I talk to that made fun of me when I told where the antenna was at. As far as that I couldn't believe how far down the road I was talking either!

 

[Eastside]

I talked on my brothers black n white face johnsons back in the early 70s....I did not get my own base station until 77....it was a 23 channel cobra 29 with a turner +2 mic and a super magnum antenna.

 

[ddbddg1]

those were good mics...those turner plus 2`s
i just bought a d104 and a supersidekick
hopefully one of them will be ok for sideband

 

[binrat]

Early 70's for me. It was a Citizen 23 channel mobile that I had set up as a portable with a 3' fiberglass antenna and 2 6 volt square flashlight batteries. Worked good on the bateries for about 6-7 hours (sort of).

 

[Turbo T]

It was 2004 or 2005. A friend of mine had a few CB's sitting around. I casually mentioned that I wouldn't mind having one someday as I never had one before. He hands me 2 of them and tells me "I don't know if they work or not but you can have them".

I got two from him that day....a Realistic TRC-415 and a Uniden PC66. The PC66 was a little too big for the small interior of my S-10 so I tried the TRC-415. I went to radio shack and bought an antenna, hooked it up, heard some people, tried to key up and talk but no one came back.

I tried this a few more times, no luck, so I gave up, sold the TRC-415 and the antenna. Put the PC66 in the garage in storage.

Fast forward to 2008. I was moving 1000 miles across the U.S. and decided to use the PC66 in my car. Did some researching and found out about the importance of low SWR's and also found out about how Wilson antennas were one of the best out there. One night a co worker and I had a discussion about his Cobra 29 in his Jeep. I told him I had a radio but no antenna. He comes in the next night with a Lil Wil. We hooked it to the PC66 and I was on the air for the first time.

Then came the move, and all along the interstate I found the CB was a great tool to bullshit with the truck drivers, as well as find out where all the traffic tie ups were, speed traps, etc. All of this got me hooked on using the CB.

Then as soon as I got moved in, I hoped to continue my chats on the CB.....except I found that there's not much activity on the CB short of truckers on 19, and some of them really don't care to talk to you.

Then I got me another truck and put my CB into it, then eventually I upgraded the antenna from a Lil Wil to a Wilson 5000, sold that and bought a 102 whip, then decided I wished I had my 5000 back so i looked and found a 1000 and learned it was all I needed so I got it.

Then I decided I wanted more power, as I lived in the country and wanted to get out, so I bought a Palomar linear (which only worked half the time so i sold it) then later since I live in tornado alley, I wanted a CB with WX, so I bought a Uniden PC68LTW. Then I wanted to play on SSB so I purchased a Cobra 148 GTL. Then I decided I wanted a SSB export with echo and roger beep so I bought an SS158EDX. Then I saw a Cobra 21 and a old Cobra 19 GTL for $15 I couldn't pass up on. Then I decided I wanted a SSB base station so I bought a Uniden Washington with a Shakespeare Big Stick.

Then when I got tired of getting walked on during DX on 11 M SSB (since again there's not much CB activity here) I decided to study for my ham license. Once I received my ham ticket, I sold off all of my 11 meter stuff....radios, amps, antennas, SWR meter....and bought my 1st ham rig, a Yaesu FT7900 with a Tram 1180 antenna for my truck....then I bought a Yaesu FT 2800, paired it up with an Astron RS-12A power supply and a Cushcraft ARX-2B 2 meter base antenna. Then for Christmas, the wife bought me my first 10 meter rig, a Magnum 257 HP. To make it work, I had to buy another Wilson 1000 and another Radio Shack 21-534 SWR meter.

So there it is.....my radio travels.....and here's a pic of my first radio, the Uniden PC66.

 

[Little_Big_Stick]

My very first rig was a Browning. A Browning Brownie. :laugh: 23 Channel mobile with a battery on my bedroom floor, and a mag mount on a pizza pan outside my bedroom window. Man, I had a lot of fun on that, and it led to a lot of bigger and better things.

CB MAGAZINE BROWNING "BROWNIE"

73,
RT307

That Browning Brownie looks suspiciously like an old Boman CB-720 23 channel radio I have. That Boman is supposed to be identical internally to the old Tram XL mini 23 channel.

hmmmm...

 

[gasbag]

1962ish. 100mW knight kit channel 7 walkie talkie. ( the blue one)
Soon after Knight Kit 22 w hand strung Dipole on the roof.
About a year Later a Johnson Messenger I think it was 5 channels

Put everything away until the mid 70s. Realistic Navaho Base AM SSB 1/2 wave ground plane and a 3 element Yagi.

Got out of the hobby by the early 80s.
Considering getting back into DXing.

 

[Tucker442]

Would be great for you to come back but don't think any of the idiots are gone, AM channels still have their fare share of cursing asses and drunks SSB is a little better but with the sunspots Mexicans overwhelm the channels up here in the north east from 8am until about 7pm eastern time