Just got back in CB Radio after 23 years

gbee

Tonight there are a few nets or contest to celebrate the 30th year of legal CB in the UK. One did have to have a license in the beginning.

Last night I heard an English guy Les, domiciled in Spain coming in on 32UKFM 27.911.25 FM and there is a big net tonight.

Also Hotel Romeo are having a bit of a squeeel on 27.515 USB

all from 7pm tonight.

darkmaster2

Incredible conditions on 11m today. The sun is in full swing.

Antenna

watty wrote: »

Terrestrial Digital TV can be wiped out EASIER by CB!

Though with digital, the affected people or not likely to have a clue what the problem is (with freezing/stuttering pictures) - unlike analogue - where the CB/amateur audio might be sort of heard and recognisable on the TV as well as distinctive pattering on screen.

PauloMN

I'd have thought that the chances of interference to Irish UHF TV from a CB were pretty remote, no? I lived in cable-land of course when I was active on CB and our problem was Channel 4 which was on Band I VHF Cablelink, around 54MHz or so, just right for the first harmonic of 27MHz.

Any time I used UHF telly near my CB I never had an issue. Of course I wasn't using ****ty distribution amps or masthead amps which I guess are the real culprits. I will be shortly installing one here.... any recommendations for good (screened) brands?

watty

Depends on power and wiring and SWR.

Ironically a TV aerial mounted on same pole just under a vertical will have the least interference.

Also a problem is people using power amps with no filters on them. A lot of those Italian amps (some sold for Amateur use) have NO filters!

OldRio

Great thread and thanks for the memorys.
I'm sure you could buy some second hand gear and make your own aeriel cheap enough.
I think the rise of the mobile phone and the internet helped in the demise of 11m activity.
Instant communication is taken for granted but for the pure pleasure you cannot beat putting out a CQ call. Then listening for that quiet response and finding it's some distant country you have never worked before.
Thanks again.

pixbyjohn

OldRio wrote: »

The 1980's. Gosh I feel old.
Started with a Jaws 40. AM mobile, DV27 ariel
Ended up with a converted Yeasu FT101 ZD. 2 element cubical quad for 11m and a home built invered Vee for 45m.

Worked over 100 countrys on 11m. You could listen on 10m and not here a thing and then put a CQ out on 11m and work the world.
I've hundreds of QSL cards from exotic locations.
Good times and thanks for bringing back those memorys.

*sighs, the good old days*

Yes they were great days, I remember changing the crystals in the FT101ZDs to bring them down to 26 to 28MHz. 6.6 MHz was great in the evenings for inter UK and Ireland working. Where are all those IB guys now. 3.4MHz was good also. The buzz is gone now and we moved on.

tapsnillum2011

Flying Eagle wrote: »

Hi . I have a President Johnny 11 40 channel CB radio, I live in Tipperary in southern Ireland. My problem is i can only seem to hear American Truck drivers the whole time. I have been trying for 2 weeks now , i have the CB in my car and have driven to the top of a mountain even. Is there any CBers left in Ireland or am i the only one. I have yet to make contact with anyone on the CB. What am i doing wrong ?[/QUOTEJ

Just back myself after long absence. Trying to get aerial up higher. You'll need a home base aerial up about 15/20 ft. Good cheapish one is a Hy-gain silver rod. You'll also need an 80ch radio with am/ssb. Some lads are on ssb at night when skip dies down. Lots of skip at moment. Another local lad also on here in Thomastown, Kilkenny. Would like to hear some chit-chat again after all the technological changes that have happened. Try Buy & Sell for second hand 80ch radios.

OldRio

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Yes they were great days, I remember changing the crystals in the FT101ZDs to bring them down to 26 to 28MHz. 6.6 MHz was great in the evenings for inter UK and Ireland working. Where are all those IB guys now. 3.4MHz was good also. The buzz is gone now and we moved on.

6.6mhz was open on an evening to most of europe.
IB and KB Stations.
Never worked 3.4mhz.
I used to have a regular QSO with guys in South Africa and Zimbabwe on 11 meteres. Every sunday.
Agreed we have all moved on.

darkmaster2

OldRio wrote: »

Agreed we have all moved on.

Turn on 11m today and you'll find huge amounts of activity. The band is flying with qso's to all parts of the globe . We all haven't moved on

It was so busy today that a clear frequency wasn't to be found anywhere. That is the fun of 11m.

The hobby is very much alive lads.

Molloys Clondalkin

I was working 40 and 20m last night love staurdays they always yield great results,

Heres another memory
I put up my Antron and was about to work 555 usb
I was keying up my tuner and realised I was setting off quite a few car alarms!!!!!!

Brought back memories of being mobile and seeing the trail of flashing lights from the parked cars at the side of the road :eek:

watty

The FT817 "rubber duck" picking up US on 28MHz and Italian on 27MHz just from bedroom. A larger aerial picks up too much interference from next door. They have a faulty Samsung TV and so far have done nothing about it as they never listen to radio*. It wipes our even RTE1 on 252kHz at 6m distance and gradually is getting worse where now my "iTrip" isn't usable and any VHF FM stations weaker than Limerick 95 have too much background interference.

It seems solid on the entire spectrum from 100kHz up just with some peaks (R2LW, about 6 in MW) and gradually decreasing in level up to VHF.

Basically now if their TV is on only the strongest VHF-FM stations are usable and nothing below 30MHz even in Radio Shack, on battery, at far side outside house (Semi) is usable.

The good news I heard last night from someone in the trade is that their TV is likely to "stick" in standby soon and isn't too likely to burn the house down.

I demonstrated the effect of their TV to one of the couple yesterday after waiting months to get access. I was asked "maybe only that radio is affected?" I answered this is the LEAST affected radio (a perfect condition Sony ICF2001D).

I can put the same radio within arms' length of our own 42" LG TV (when their Samsung is off) and still get 810kHz R. Scotland during daytime. My own laptop is worst interference in our own house. If you hold hand held 2m radio too close it affects even transmit. But at 1.2m / 4' distance 100kHz to 440MHz is perfectly usable even with weak stations.

A bird or rodent pecked or chewed a feed cable on a flat roof once and when I keyed up at lower power to tune 80m all the fixed burglar alarms went off nearby when I peaked the tuning. Amazing the ATU was able to give 1.2:1 with a shorted feed cable. I twigged that something must be wrong with cable as I'd never set off the alarms before and the 80m was curiously quiet.

I have large 6m/10m whip for car and a bracket to mount a modified CB "silver stick" base antenna on the rear tow eye. Maybe I should put my SS3900 CB, FT817 and home brew PA and aerials in the car and go up the road a bit into a lay-by...

(*There is some possibility they don't even have a radio. Maybe I should give them one that's pre-programmed and they can discover that you can do stuff while listening to Radio, unlike TV. Of course not your own playlist unless you stick an itrip type gadget on a laptop or MP3 player.)

darkmaster2

There is nothing worse than a neighbour with a noisy tv or switched mode psu watty.. its a absolute nightmare.I'm so glad I live out in the countryside now. I have some neighbours but luckily enough they dont have anything that wipes out my HFband listening.

I bought a cheap spare switchmode psu for my laptop a couple of weeks ago and it makes some awful noise all over the bands.. terrible stuff..

watty

I *DO* live in the countryside

An Island estate at edge of village and I'm the last house on a corner. Before this the only noise was the occasional cattle fencer. Strangely the Noise Blanker on old FT101ZD removes it perfectly and the "fancier" radios can't! I had only band noise on LW, MW, 160m and 80m!

Put about 3 to 4 turns of input and output through ferrite rings and then the whole thing in a small biscuit tin or coffee tin.

I find the Lidl Bellarom Caffe Espresso tins cut up with scissors easily and the lacquer black and red print solders almost as easily as the "naked" insides. Great for custom screening cans. Cutting rectangles for all the sides and soldering seams is easier than making folded box too.

I helped eat two "tin" boxes of Shortbread out of Aldi lately to get "free" Chassis for a valve thing and a screened box. Mount heavy parts near a corner. Again easy to cut with "stanley" type knife/ scissors for valve bases or "drop through" transformer chassis. No special tools needed. Some cake tins are more suitable but x2 to x3 price and no shortbread.

gbee

Garry in North Carolina is eager to hear from all counties of Ireland. I had a nice QSO with him on 27.480 and 20W from an iMax.

Conditions were not great today and I had two failed QSOs with New Jersey and Slovenia

telecinesk

Oh man, that takes me back this thread. I also had the joy of living in cablelink land back in the 80s.RTE2 was my headache and every neighbour with those hideous Ferguson Music Centres. Can anyone explain how on AM you always ended up coming through on left channel of the amp.. I digress. 27mhz was fun then..

Speaking of lift, just for fun maxed out a rescued wks100(stag357/palomar500) pile of junk to do FM and 29mhz with splits for repeaters,mission is to get this to actually dx.Thats the rig with the ever so awsome screetch when you keyed on a bad antenna..Was this a president Adams copy from Korea.

Anyone else out there promming rigs for the nice lift on 29mhz? Oh yes i added a freq counter and only thing missing is a bleep and ctcss pcb.

Pimp my rig? 73s

DublinWriter

telecinesk wrote: »

RTE2 was my headache and every neighbour with those hideous Ferguson Music Centres.

Oh yessss....I rigged up a homemade di-pole on my Mum's washing line using poor quality coax cable with a President 40-channel and a dodgy 12V transformer....you can guess the rest.

PauloMN

telecinesk wrote: »

Oh man, that takes me back this thread. I also had the joy of living in cablelink land back in the 80s.RTE2 was my headache and every neighbour with those hideous Ferguson Music Centres. Can anyone explain how on AM you always ended up coming through on left channel of the amp.. I digress. 27mhz was fun then..

Speaking of lift, just for fun maxed out a rescued wks100(stag357/palomar500) pile of junk to do FM and 29mhz with splits for repeaters,mission is to get this to actually dx.Thats the rig with the ever so awsome screetch when you keyed on a bad antenna..Was this a president Adams copy from Korea.

Anyone else out there promming rigs for the nice lift on 29mhz? Oh yes i added a freq counter and only thing missing is a bleep and ctcss pcb.

Pimp my rig? 73s

Do you remember my own BBC Radio 4 troubles.... "you're interfering with my long wave radio"....? That was a music centre of some description.

Let me know if you get the WKS working. I *have* to talk to you on that, for old times sake. I think I have an Adams in the attic at home which you can use for parts if you want.

darkmaster2

2at017 jim in the USA was on the uk19 fm all this evening chatting away. I made a nice contact with him. It's great to see some of the UKfm stations getting transatlantic contacts. Oh 11m, there ain't nothing quite like it during the peak of the sunspot cycle.

telecinesk

PauloMN: thanks for the offer but Ive enough cb junk here. I think that rig was a trc449,and same pcb also.Nah I got the wks to work across 3 bands without a fight.FM is fun and the shifts work on 29.
Also about to convert a ukfm rig to do same to it had 29mhz fitted but no shifts for repeaters.
Least where I am i can run 100w legally and no tvi threat.

edber2011

Flying Eagle wrote: »

Hi . I have a President Johnny 11 40 channel CB radio, I live in Tipperary in southern Ireland. My problem is i can only seem to hear American Truck drivers the whole time. I have been trying for 2 weeks now , i have the CB in my car and have driven to the top of a mountain even. Is there any CBers left in Ireland or am i the only one. I have yet to make contact with anyone on the CB. What am i doing wrong ?

you are doing nothing wrong,cb is mostly done on single side band,i.e ssb upper,tune to 27.555ssb and listen there and you will hear the skip if its there.i also live in tipp and was a trucker so i can tell you that mobile am is dead.my living arrangements dont allow me to put my antron99 into action with the jumbo anymore but i had great times during the last solar cycle when the skip was in.my callsign is 29-cb-320

onemanshow1974

Flying Eagle wrote: »

Hi . I have a President Johnny 11 40 channel CB radio, I live in Tipperary in southern Ireland. My problem is i can only seem to hear American Truck drivers the whole time. I have been trying for 2 weeks now , i have the CB in my car and have driven to the top of a mountain even. Is there any CBers left in Ireland or am i the only one. I have yet to make contact with anyone on the CB. What am i doing wrong ?

Im from Laois. Channel 19 am frequency band D.
Might here u sometime on it..

onemanshow1974

Anyone from the midlands with CB Radio we may get a Club going...

onemanshow1974

Flying Eagle wrote: »

Hi . I have a President Johnny 11 40 channel CB radio, I live in Tipperary in southern Ireland. My problem is i can only seem to hear American Truck drivers the whole time. I have been trying for 2 weeks now , i have the CB in my car and have driven to the top of a mountain even. Is there any CBers left in Ireland or am i the only one. I have yet to make contact with anyone on the CB. What am i doing wrong ?

The onemanshow here just got back into Cb radio in May of this year very quiet im on channel 19 d band but im on fm and my wife is on am but I couldnt hear her on am on my set and when i switched to fm i could here her loud and clear unless they mixed the buttons up at the factory.
Im from Laois might hear u some time the more the merrier...:)

god's toy

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Mobile phones and texting killed CB.

It's funny, 'CB' on Mobile is hopping! Been testing a few 'CB' apps on android and they work well... apart from the fact your talking into your phone of course and not a real CB!, in every other way people behave just like it's the 80's all over again.

Oh and yes the nut jobs are out in force on those apps too just like days of old.
You can chat cross platform EG Android -IOS BlackBerry and Windown phone/PC

One thing I do like about those apps is the handy PTT idea, Like you have your friends all online anyway and so you just select your 'channel' and chat to all at once or select just one for a private chat.
Nothing like the real days of old but it's very handy for just quickly picking up the phone and asking your mate a question without having to ring or text em!

onemanshow1974

We just met a few guys up here at the slieve bloom mountains in laois. Those guys are big into it and reckon sideband is the way forward.. I put an add up on Donedeal in laois look it up CB Radio Club. Just got a cobra 148 i think thats the model it would be nice to see more come on stream. Tim...:)

gbee

Had you it on earlier today? Great ground wave, UKFM BOOMING, and I mean BOOMING, 4W travelling the world.

darkmaster2

England, holland and germany were flying in today alright. I had so many qso's, unreal. Best contact was with a guy in Belfast though. He was coming in 5/9+10db to my station Mallow, Co. Cork. Very unusual to get Skip that short on 11m.

Also, lots and lots of SSTV activity on 27.700.
Here is a facebook group if anyone wants to join up, you are more than welcome.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/391856380866717/



Great fun!

onemanshow1974

My set is just 40 channel am/fm is Uk fm different frequency or the same as Ireland. Im upgrading to side band during the week because I never here anything on it at all here in laois so im up grading to sideband. U say ukfm is booming. I have different bands abcde I just leave it on d channel 19 but theres a guy in birr thats big into it so he will give me a few tips when i get the sideband set...

gbee

UKFM is different from Europe [Irish]. There is some overlap but not too much.

http://www.freebanding.co.uk/cb_frequencies.htm is a list of the EU and UK frequencies. The EU would be D Band on your radio.

Frequencies mostly in use yesterday: UKFM 19:25:30:31:34:38