-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
It actually all started now that I think about it with that cheap so called 1/4 mile walkie talkie my parents bought me for Christmas one year . I remember hearing Dx I was hooked ! Bought my cheap first setup from the local RS and would sit in the shed in the back yard during cold snowy NE winters and talk . My parents thought I was nuts ! My Mom said your not putting that stupid antenna on our roof , hence the shed . Here I am over 48 years later doing the same . At least now I have heat in my shack !
My Mom said your not putting that stupid antenna on our roof , hence the shed . Here I am over 48 years later doing the same . At least now I have heat in my shack !
So your Mom still won't let you put your antenna on the house hey?
Capt , all good now , @ almost 65 my wife has No problems , all she says another antenna ? Just great ! Heck there up so high she won't go up to take them down ! But @ home it was that saying " This my house you go by my rules " Like that 750 Honda I bought and hid down the street until my Little sister ratted me out .Now there is always at least one HD in my garage .
But @ home it was that saying " This my house you go by my rules " Like that 750 Honda I bought and hid down the street until my Little sister ratted me out .Now there is always at least one HD in my garage .
I feel ashamed to even say what my first radio was based on all the nifty old radios that have been mentioned. Well here goes it was a Gonset G11 in my defense that was in 1963 I found it on one of the local town dump sites I would drag a wagon to the dump that was about a mile from the house but there was no road so I took it through the woods the whole way over and around fallen trees. The radio did not work and it was my first attempt at repairing but after a great deal of due diligence and many hours of self-study from books obtained from the library in town which I also walked to 4-mile round trip I fixed it what a day that was when that old radio came to life. That sealed the deal and I was hooked on repairing, troubleshooting and all things electronic. In less than 6 months and 300 trips to the local dump I had 13 radios in my bedroom which was turned into a repair shop so if Nomad reads this he can say I invented the bedroom tech syndrome, I was a force of nature Mom & Dad just gave up trying to stop.
List of some of the radios in my bedroom at the time what I can remember?
LAFAYETTE COMSTAT 23
HB 444 TUBE BASE
REGENCY RANGE GAIN 23
JOHNSON MESSENGER BLACK FACE
I FORGET
I FORGET
I FORGET
YOU GET THE IDEA!
The image below is where I was born and raised and the red line goes to the dump I used to go there at 6 AM in the morning before I walked to school and would go by the dump before I went home.
This was and still is my first radio it is packed in a sealed container and stored in a safe place, Talk about attachments? Although this is not the actual radio it perfectly reflects the cosmetic condition of mine.
List of some of the radios in my bedroom at the time what I can remember?
LAFAYETTE COMSTAT 23
HB 444 TUBE BASE
REGENCY RANGE GAIN 23
JOHNSON MESSENGER BLACK FACE
I FORGET
I FORGET
I FORGET
YOU GET THE IDEA!
The image below is where I was born and raised and the red line goes to the dump I used to go there at 6 AM in the morning before I walked to school and would go by the dump before I went home.
This was and still is my first radio it is packed in a sealed container and stored in a safe place, Talk about attachments? Although this is not the actual radio it perfectly reflects the cosmetic condition of mine.
Am I the only one that started in the '90s? I was 19 years old and found an old Realistic TRC-56 with the telephone style handset. I knew absolutely nothing about anything when it came to radios, but I started hearing people talking on the radio that couldn't hear me, due to a terrible antenna, so I talked to my step dad that used to be big into CB radios in the '70s, and he told me what I needed to do. He also gave me his old TRC-457, and a mobile with the same chassis that I can't remember the model number at the moment. The base station didn't work, and I had no money to pay someone to fix it, but my step dad had told me that the finals had been blown by his kids using it without the antenna connected, so I ordered new finals. That wasn't the problem. Long story short, I figured out the problem, which I can't remember what it was exactly, and started talking on the thing.
The town I lived in had no repair shop, but when people heard that I had repaired my own radio, and several others subsequently, they started asking me to look at their radios. I found it fairly easy to fix most problems. I acquired some rudimentary test equipment, such as a signal generator, a tone generator, a watt meter, and a voltmeter, but never could afford an oscilloscope back then.
I went on to do television and amplifier repair for many years, and got away from talking on or repairing radios. I then moved to software development. I have since gotten the bug to repair radios again, because I have lots of decent test equipment now, including an oscilloscope, and I got a fairly big lot of old broken radios. I have an antenna up, but I have found little desire to start talking to the people I hear on air. I just sit here inhaling my flux fumes.
It is interesting how I am less willing to bumble through repairing things, or repair things for other people like I once was. I had no clue what I was doing back then, and I had all the time in the world. Now that I have a clue about what I'm doing, I find myself hesitant to blindly go searching for problems in a technology I have almost no training in.
I might get back on the air again in the future, but it may not be on CB so much. I might lean towards getting my ham license instead.
The town I lived in had no repair shop, but when people heard that I had repaired my own radio, and several others subsequently, they started asking me to look at their radios. I found it fairly easy to fix most problems. I acquired some rudimentary test equipment, such as a signal generator, a tone generator, a watt meter, and a voltmeter, but never could afford an oscilloscope back then.
I went on to do television and amplifier repair for many years, and got away from talking on or repairing radios. I then moved to software development. I have since gotten the bug to repair radios again, because I have lots of decent test equipment now, including an oscilloscope, and I got a fairly big lot of old broken radios. I have an antenna up, but I have found little desire to start talking to the people I hear on air. I just sit here inhaling my flux fumes.
It is interesting how I am less willing to bumble through repairing things, or repair things for other people like I once was. I had no clue what I was doing back then, and I had all the time in the world. Now that I have a clue about what I'm doing, I find myself hesitant to blindly go searching for problems in a technology I have almost no training in.
I might get back on the air again in the future, but it may not be on CB so much. I might lean towards getting my ham license instead.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
In 1976 I remember my grandfather helping my dad install a base station antenna on the chimney for the TRC-30 base station radio. I was 4 years old and I remember my grandfather using two strands of aluminum bare wire for the antenna ground. It must have been 10 awg and he twisted them up together with a brace and bit. I will never forget him turning the crank to wind them up. Any way by the early 80s my dad had a Midland in his jeep and I would sit in the garage and talk to my sister who was on the base station not even 50 feet away. lol
My older cousin gave me some Archer walkie-talkies when I was about 7 years old and I discovered the adjustments inside that didn't seem to do anything. I couldn't tell any difference on my end when I would push the button to talk.... One day my sister and I had the bright idea to practice our swear words over the air and apparently my folks heard us on the TV! Needless to say that lesson hurt for a while. Onetime I was talking to my sister and some guy told me to quit playing with my dads radio. I asked him what channel I was on and he said " All of them !"
My older cousin gave me some Archer walkie-talkies when I was about 7 years old and I discovered the adjustments inside that didn't seem to do anything. I couldn't tell any difference on my end when I would push the button to talk.... One day my sister and I had the bright idea to practice our swear words over the air and apparently my folks heard us on the TV! Needless to say that lesson hurt for a while. Onetime I was talking to my sister and some guy told me to quit playing with my dads radio. I asked him what channel I was on and he said " All of them !"
Captain Kilowatt said:So your Mom still won't let you put your antenna on the house hey?
Mine actually might have been better off if it WAS attached to the chimney!!!! (It would be higher and might and not have blown off during a wind storm (It was in the trees some what (The top of it (Imax 2000))))
Ah well........I hope to maybe get a new one..... If I can find an IMAX 2OOO now!!
But I have to ask did you ever have to walk to the dump up hill both ways in a snow storm ? Like my Dad . Sorry I had to say it !
LOL, 357.
My mom always told of having to walk three miles to school in the snow. I, however, felt I had it worse. I had to ride to school in the snow on my Cushman. The wind chill was murder!
Great story and pic's Old Tech03 , But I have to ask did you ever have to walk to the dump up hill both ways in a snow storm ? Like my Dad . Sorry I had to say it !
Well I did do a he** of a lot of walking uphill and sometimes there was snow on them-there-hills but I never had to do it barefoot as my father used to say and the terrain where I grew up did make it possible if you so inclined to do it both ways but I rarely choose to do that.
Those and the CPI rigs were the best you could get in the day.