Who here was on CB?

PauloMN

telecinesk wrote:

Just a comment re churches. The irony is I use God as my dx beacon. Its somewhat amusing to hear some Dublin churches inc my ex local one drifting in here as Skip..

thread meanders off topic...

D, I hope you don't switch off after Communion and leg it like most of the congregation in the church would... Actually, they are ideal beacons for you, I expect they just the usual 4 watts, so if you can hear them, you've a good path to Ireland up around those frequencies.

How's the form? We must try a QSO again sometime, are you still restricted to low power on that FT-7 yolk?

Duiske

Remember my dad getting a "Midland" 40 ch back in the in the late 70's. Its still knocking about somewhere. I used a handle I had heard in the Convoy movie, but can't remember what it was.

mukki

i was on the air from late 80's to early 90's under the psudo name Freddie, everyone thought it was my real name

started off with a 40 channel in the car, used to park up on a hill nearby to talk to people in navan, about 3 years later i had a yaseu ft101zd with a antron 99 could chat to the midland radio group in cavan (21 usb high), and plenty of stations in dublin.

Gerry In nobber formed the Emerald Isle Radio Operators, which i joined (i got 29 Echo india romeo oscar 29), we hung out on channel 16 usb high, and it had about 5-10 people one it every night from 9 till 12


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.


CB used to come and go every decade or so, its because skip has a 7 year cycle, where it gets very strong for about 2 years, making AM useless, so all the small time people and new people give up on their rigs and never takes up the hobby again


all the stuff is in the attic, yahoo chat was better, no iggy button on cb, so when the first pc arrived, cb was just in the way. would love to take it up again someday

darkmaster2

mukki wrote:

i


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.

My friend who lived up the road from me in Mallow could talk to Jack quite well from his homebase, Savage distance,but he was runnning 600watts I think at the time. I think I made the journey once on a "lifty" night . We used to go up the mountains too and make lots of contacts to lads around the country including the EIRO group. There was a woman who was always on too, I cant think of her name. She was in Cavan I think.

THere was also a guy in Ennistymon everyone used to talk to, and nearby to me there was an old guy called Ted who was the old man of the CB around these parts. He used to be on 27.855 every night.

Im still waiting for my antenna from the states

OKenora

Probably May, from Virginia in Cavan, part of the Midlands Radio Group, 27.625 USB was their virtual home.

mukki

OKenora wrote:

Probably May, from Virginia in Cavan, part of the Midlands Radio Group, 27.625 USB was their virtual home.

ah may, i loved her sexy robotoic voice, she was always half a kc off

endplate

Was on the CB in the late '90s under the callsign Red five. Had a Lafayette AM 40 channel in the car. Then upgraded to a president Madison homebase first with a silver rod ariel and then an Antron 99 which got stolen so had to get another one. Had a loan of a Ham Jumbo for a short while. Was going to buy it but the guy selling it decided to keep it. He probably still has it in his attic. I still own a handheld EuroCB AM/FM 40 channel with high and low. The handheld could be easily converted to connect to a car magmount antenna. also there is a Cobra 140 GTX mobile unit in the attic too

fatboymsport

i was in the eiro as well was 29-eiro-05 i started on the cb in 94 and i still monitor 27.555 when ever i am at home.

i have also got my licence but still listen to 555 to see whats going on.

i remember the name freddy but cant remember talking to use

Havn't heard from gerry in years (it was lobinstown not nobber) he was a sound bloke remember all the times we used to set up on a hill down the road from his house trying to work the 32 counties think we even managed it once wouldnt like to try that now there is no one on it.

mukki wrote:

i was on the air from late 80's to early 90's under the psudo name Freddie, everyone thought it was my real name

started off with a 40 channel in the car, used to park up on a hill nearby to talk to people in navan, about 3 years later i had a yaseu ft101zd with a antron 99 could chat to the midland radio group in cavan (21 usb high), and plenty of stations in dublin.

Gerry In nobber formed the Emerald Isle Radio Operators, which i joined (i got 29 Echo india romeo oscar 29), we hung out on channel 16 usb high, and it had about 5-10 people one it every night from 9 till 12


that man in drogheda was Jack, he lived beside the concrete factory, which caused noise on cb until 11pm, so he was on from 11 till 2am nearly every night on channel 11 usb high (i think), think he died in 94-96, his funeral was probably the biggest mobile cb day out ever in ireland.


CB used to come and go every decade or so, its because skip has a 7 year cycle, where it gets very strong for about 2 years, making AM useless, so all the small time people and new people give up on their rigs and never takes up the hobby again


all the stuff is in the attic, yahoo chat was better, no iggy button on cb, so when the first pc arrived, cb was just in the way. would love to take it up again someday

fatboymsport

also jack in drogheda had a very good station but the main reason he didnt come on till 12 was he caused loads of interference to tv's around his house

remember spending many a night listening to him talk all around the country and hearing everyone he could talk and get back to them to even thou he was using thousands of pounds worth of a yeasu ft1000d and i had a superstar 360 that i had every pot twisted to the max in. was getting nearly 30watts out of it not bad when it was only susposed to do 12

giddyup

Wow..CB -brings me back - "...eh QSK QSK...". Getting given out to for the old "Break for a radio check" once too often. "This is Jimmy in Inchicore...you're coming in like a bell"

skodacbradio

First put a cb president harry 2 in me first car 2yr ago down here in waterford when there was very little activity on any channels at all, now two yrs on here people on it anytime of the day though still mainly on Ch19, and i have so far installed one in me friends car and have to install 2 more in a while for me brother and another friend, also there is more cars by the week gettin them in, maybe young fellas like me see the advantage of them as there not illegal to use while drivin and also ONE payment and dats it, unlike mobiles where its monthly bill or topping up every couple of days.stay 10-10 we gone:D

brianbruff

so there are still people on the cb ey.. last time i listend to that band the frilly skirt brigade were broadcasting mass to all of europe with kilowatts of power! Crazy that they got away with it!

I was on Cb big time back in the mid ninties,, a group of us used to head up to the ballyhoura mountains in limerick and reach as far as other lunies up a mountain in dublin with 4w of power on a good night.. was great fun and everyone rushing for the eyeball on the new lad just incase he had a sister! haha.

got a ham licence a few years back.. just not the same.... ham is a different kettle of fish.. some nights i regretted putting out a call, when i get a lad on the other end that's just made a radio out of an old bicycle wheel and a kettle his granny used to own; and he's somehow mounted this amazing contraption to the roof of his car (which already looked like a metalic hedgehog b4 this) and he wants to drive around the county to test out how good it really is....... hmmmm .... maybe it's not so bad after all.....

watty

/me waves across fields to brian.

Listen that was a very good kettle my granny gave me. Though it sounds more like Tony's jeep. He had to give it back just the other week.

I was trying on saturday to set up a CB and the aerial just wouldn't match. One of those ones with big spring in bottom that Maplin sells for €16, turns out about 10" has been snipped or broken off. Fixed it with a wire up inside a top of broken off fishing pole (€6 Lidl), the remains of a previous experiment.

brianbruff

watty wrote: »

/me waves across fields to brian.

Listen that was a very good kettle my granny gave me. Though it sounds more like Tony's jeep. He had to give it back just the other week.

I was trying on saturday to set up a CB and the aerial just wouldn't match. One of those ones with big spring in bottom that Maplin sells for €16, turns out about 10" has been snipped or broken off. Fixed it with a wire up inside a top of broken off fishing pole (€6 Lidl), the remains of a previous experiment.

Howdy mike,

haha, the one true experimenter in limerick.. working the world on a fishing pole haha, i persume 10/11meters is starting to open up again with the cycle coming around... i was chatting to 6dp on the phone the other week and he was trying to pawn his SGC off on me.. ain't had much time for radio of late, been obsessing with remote control helicopters these last 2 year, the only real thing i did with my experimenter licence was renew it... i'll do something about it at somestage... and i might be on for one of those ANTs! HIHI

Brian.

Rollercoaster

Hi Good Buddies,

I just found this thread and it brought back some memories of the hours spent chatting away all night & into the early hours of the morning on the roaring 40's and then DXing in the daytime when the Skip was in.

I am sure that any of us dedicated breakers have moved with the times and use the Internet as much as we used the radio back in the 70's, 80's & 90's.

I started my CB career with a Sharp 40 & a DV27 in the attic that I bought from an ad in the "Northside News". Then a neighbour lent me a Cobra 148GTL with SSB 40 Channels not converted. I made my 1st DX contact to Zagreb, Yugoslavia followed by a copy to Florence, Italy. A few weeks later these 2 QSL cards arrived and I was hooked on DXing.

I bought the Cobra from my neighbour and a breaker called “Robinhood” converted it and gave me the Hi’s and Lo’s. I then bought a silverrod aerial from some lad in Dalkey and put it up about 100 foot on an old TV aerial pole on the roof of the house. There was no stopping me now! I could talk all over Dublin and DX into Australia, South America, USA, etc as if they were only down the road.

I saved up again and got the Super Lo’s chip put in by one of the NSB members. I could then talk to the lads in the VLF Group which later became the Echo Golf Group.

I was in the North Side Breakers and Asgard Radio club, we used a PO Box for all the QSL cards and met in the Racecourse Inn every week to collect them.

10-10 till we do it again!

god's toy

Wow Robinhood eh? that's a blast from the past.


Happy days indeed

PauloMN

Ah the memories come flooding back. My own speciality was killing... I mean converting PLL02A based radios (like Majors, NATOs etc.). I remember having this PLL02A conversion handbook which gave all the details to get great coverage out of the radios.

DXing was great craic back then, some of the skip was great, and then the short skip in the summer where you could work UK and Europe with 1 watt or even less. Spoke to a bloke in Holland one evening using just a handheld and around 1.5 watts.

Frisian

Started the CB experience as a young lad a couple of months before the official opening of the CB-band in 1975 in germany. I used a 9V walkie talkie and was joined by a friend who lived two blocks away and who owned the same make. We were spending night after night trying to improve on power and distance, with the help of transformers from my Carrera track and copper wires all over the attic. (11m, you know:))
A few months later I bought a Universum 3ch handheld with the @ the time legal 0.5W. With those we managed a good 10km before a year later the first big cb boom started and all 12!!! channels were too busy for DXing.
I got meself a DNT Kurier 5000 mobile (with single quartz crystals )
which I later converted into a Basestation (you were not allowed to use an external power supply, it all had to be in one case :rolleyes:) and became registered.
Later came the Grundig CBH1000, btw the best CB I ever had. Together with a Sirtel 5/8 groundplane I worked europe, middle east, north africa and all over america.

Inbetween there were always some "Exportboxes" where the possession was legal but operating these yokes was forbidden by law.
Pace 1333

Sommerkamp TS-788DX or "der Kaffeewärmer" (Coffeewarmer/heater)

President Grant

And until now the Galaxy Pluto, a Superstar Clone. This helps me to stay in touch with op's in germany during the summer months while this country seems like a CB graveyard , a few truckers on ch19, some visiting stations qrv atm because of rally ireland, but that's about it.

In the car I used to have a
DNT Strato1 40ch AM/FM, cost me 5€ on ebay.


My latest acquisition consists of a Alan 121 and a DV27S

A multistandard CBradio which I can use all over Europe (exept Austria ). A wee compact little yoke, very handy.

55 73 to all of you out there. And keep our hobby alive.

Crazy Ivan

I started using CB in the mid 90's in Donegal (as a young fella) and it was great. Used to sit up every evening with my humble Midland 40CH and silver rod working stations into Derry and all over the (hilly) county. Brilliant craic altogether.

I still have the rig but I'm living in Galway and I keep meaning to light it up with a little magmount I have, but I did a few years ago and there was nobody on it at all. Does anyone have their ears on in Galway? The rig I have is UK FM (used to buy in from Derry). I heard before that the reason I didn't hear anyone in Galway was because anyone who is on around here uses AM in the CEPT range. Is that true? I'd buy a small rig if there were decent "breakers" still on the air.

skodacbradio

Tapped cb radio into gooogle there today, and looked at irish pages and came across this on dail eireann statue books from '86, when u 'needed' a liscense.
Dáil Éireann - Volume 365 - 09 April, 1986, made me have a bit of a chuckle.

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - CB Licences.

Mr. Reynolds Mr. Reynolds

6. Mr. Reynolds asked the Minister for Communications the number of CB licences which he has issued; and if he has any proposals to change regulations for the issue of such licences.

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

Mr. J. Mitchell: There are 11 current personal radio or CB licences. I have no proposals to change the existing statutory regulations which I regard as satisfactory.

Mr. Leyden Mr. Leyden

Mr. Leyden: Did the Minister say 11?

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

Mr. J. Mitchell: Yes.

Mr. Leyden Mr. Leyden

Mr. Leyden: The question from Deputy Reynolds is about the number of CB licences issued throughout the country.

Mr. J. Mitchell Mr. J. Mitchell

351

[351] Mr. J. Mitchell: The answer is 11. It is surprisingly low.

scorptech

Hi, According to DX Cluster reports and general knowledge in the amateur radio camp, there is a 11 year skip cycle which will be returning early next year. This means that all that great skip that we had in the eighties will be back!

You'll be able to speak to American stations in your car without any problems and very little power!!

If you have a CB in the attic, dust it off and set it up for the incoming skip next year!!

The other point about CB radios is that you don't have to "top up" every 5 minutes. CB Radio is returning due to people getting fed up with mobile phone company charges and bad signal reception.

73's

Gareth37

I have a president lincoln and a 200W amplifier, SWR matcher and antron 99 aerial

Tony

scorptech wrote: »

Hi, According to DX Cluster reports and general knowledge in the amateur radio camp, there is a 11 year skip cycle which will be returning early next year.

I'm afraid not, we are right at the bottom of the cycle which will not peak again until 2011/2012 http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml

watty

At least its on the upward from maybe 2009?
Last year I did work Sweden this year Germany on 5W @ 10m band. So there is always the odd day or two.

Tough from that graph it looks like mid 2008 is the bottom.

Tony

Yeah there is always summer E's layer propagation which can get you into the states on rare occasions even on 50 mhz so 10/11 should be fun in the summer.

Greenman

I was on from 1979 to 1984 from Dun Laoire, it was really great, very happy memories. I was Studio 2 on the AM SSB John in Dun Laoire or 29 WW 250.

Yes happy days, thank you CB/11 meters.

Tony

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/14dec_excitement.htm?list184101

experimenter

I worked the states quite a bit on 50Mhz, 100w and 5 ele. Also South America!

Hopefully 2008 will be better and I will be around to catch the openings.

trackerman

Just found this thread.... wow what a flashback.

I was CB "active" from about 79 to about 88 when I got hitched to a beaver !

Started off with a Ch14 walkie talkie's and progressed to Sharp 40, then Adams, Midland .... ended up with Cobra 148-GTL-DX fully converted with a home made 4 element yagi and 200w linear, also had some fancy mic, can't remember what it was called but it was small and black and sounded great.
Still have it in the loft somewhere.

Later I got my full class A some years later and moved into HF bands on FT757
But even that's been put on the shelf since the kids arrived. I've not paid my yearly fee to Hawkins House in years. I hope I'm still eligable.

Does the department still charge a yearly fee now???

Hagar

brianbruff wrote: »

... ham is a different kettle of fish...

That quote made reading this whole thread worthwhile.:)