I first got interested in radio communications around the age of 8, which was the year 1987. For Christmas I had received a pair of Fisher Price Sky Talker walkie talkies. As far as kid walkie talkies go these were the top of the line model.
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*** I was at my grandmother’s house in Auburn (may she rest in peace) and when I turned them on I found that another kid my age down the street had received a pair of walkie talkies and we talked for a good 2 hours. I had those walkie talkies for years and used them frequently with my sister and friends. One day around the age of 12 in the year 1991 I was cleaning out my closet and came across the pair of walkie talkies. I grabbed a 9-volt battery and installed it in one of the walkie talkies. I turned it on and vaguely heard someone in the distance. I placed the walkie talkie in my windowsill and continued to clean out my room. I had grabbed something heavy out of my closet, which I don’t remember what exactly it was, but I placed it in the windowsill and it laid against the walkie talkie, bending the antenna along the frame of the screen window. Suddenly I was picking up several radio signals, one which seemed to be coming from a location a good 2 miles away. I was floored and continued to do that for a good year. I enjoyed listening to what I could pick up. I spent some of my allowance on batteries every week.
*** The next year when I was 13 in 1992. I used to visit my cousin John “Jack” *Nivila (may he rest in peace) at his place of employment, which was the New England Science Center, now known as the Ecotarium. Jack was in charge of building security. Jack had a vintage radio communications scanner that had 4 channels and was crystal controlled. Naturally he had it programmed for the local police and fire departments. I would sit there for hours enamored with what I was listening to. Around the same time I got interested in astronomy, again at the New England Science Center. The curator of astronomy, Dr. Ed Frederick, invited me one evening to join a meeting of the local astronomy club, Aldrich Astronomical Society, which was temporarily meeting at the Science Center during the winter due to harsh conditions not allowing access to the observatory which was in the middle of the woods on the Paxton/Rutland line. Once the winter of 1992 was over we began meeting again at the clubhouse. One of the club members Craig Cortis, who is still a member of the club today as well as another member John Glass, had inexpensive Radio Shack CB Radio’s in their cars. Craig never talked on it and used to just listen or as it is known in the CB world as “sandbagging.” John Glass would occasionally talk on the radio using the handle “Stargazer.” Every Friday night the club would meet and either John or Craig would take the time to allow me to listen to the CB in their vehicles. Over the next 6 months I really became interested in getting a CB of my own. I begged my parents to purchase one for me. When December came around my parents told me that for Christmas they would pick me up an inexpensive CB, and that they would take me to go pick one out. Naturally I wanted one that I could take with me everywhere. I chose a GE 40 channel walkie talkie, which at the time was one of the nicest handheld radios that you could get.
*** On December 25, 1992 I opened up my new CB radio that I had picked out about a week before. It was like looking at a pot of gold. I would soon find out that my radio was nothing compared to what most people in the area had, but to me it was like I won the lottery. I took that radio with me everywhere, including school. I decided to use the handle “717” which is my birthday. Keep in mind the astronomy meetings I attended were held about 20 minutes from Worcester in the middle of nowhere, so only the strongest stations were able to reach the meeting site, as Worcester is built around a handful of large hills. I was under the impression that there weren’t many people using the radio in the area. Anyway, I lived on top of one of the largest hills. I plugged in my walkie talkie and extended the 52 inch antenna. I found most of the channels quiet, mostly due to it being Christmas, but I spent every minute that day listening to the radio. I never keyed up as I wanted to soak in everything I could to prepare me to fit in with the locals. I have to admit I was very disappointed that day as the band was very quiet, but at the time I hadn’t realized it was because of the holiday.
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*** On December 26, 1992 I woke up and the first thing I did was grab my bowl of cornflakes and ran into the TV room which was on the backside of the house which looked out towards the city. When I turned that walkie talkie on I was beyond floored. Every last one of the 40 channels had conversations present, you heard right, every last one. It wasn’t even skip booming in either. It was all locals. It seems I joined the CB world during the year where many others had as well.