CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Put this in lifestyle as it always was a lifestyle to many users.

Gone are the days of the crowded bands, the silent keyers, the music players, the foul language and the sidebanders coming over the top of your conversation you were trying to have with someone a few miles away. Many of us went the ham route, some went 446 but most went the internet route.

Well what is CB radio in this day and age.. Some will see it as antiquated but it still exists, there are 80 legal channels and the licence is now free. There's also still the grey side with more and more going into freebanding (ssb on 26/27Mhz) and some even migrating to EC (ssb on lower frequencies (most of the shortwave band)

Do you still use CB, do you still have a rig. Did you have CB.. any funny stories, and true interesting events. Are you planing to take advantage of this solar flare or even the sunspot high we're expecting this year and next?

Personally I first started in the mid 80's, went to Ham in '91 but have always kept my ears open on 11m.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I got rid of my CB kit back in 1986, I tended to use the am band and sidebanded from Germany to the uk and the states. Used a burner now and then to smooth things out :D.

Never realy got involved in the FM side of things but i was told it worked pretty well. Might look again at Ham but never had the time to take the test.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

More info regarding current CB. The EU (CEPT) is starting to allow SSB in various countries, it is not sure yet whether the UK will follow this route (just look at how long it took them with CEPT mid band) but if it does it will mean that the freebanding fraternity will have a legal playground.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Cept and 18 feet antennas took what felt like a lifetime to get passed so maybe it is time for SSB to get a look in.

I had a pretty good set-up back in the early 90s, Cobra 148 (super-lo to super-hi plus UK40), Antron 99 with groundplane kit, 400w/800w homebase burner and an Astatic Teardrop mic. Throw in some quality coax and I usually had some good results.

I decided to keep it all as I figured some time in the future local communication would be needed, such in the case of a national emergency or something. I can't ever see it coming back as a mainstream interest though.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Roughly about that time I was using Uniden 2830's (also known as the President Lincoln)
Freq readout (26-30Mhz) and 50W variable right out of the back, fed that into a 27ft 3/4 wave Sirio2012 (sigma 4 copy)

---------- Post added at 12:52 ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 ----------

With the sunspot activity peaking these next few years I think we may get a resurgence..

It though does make me laugh when I see CB and HAM users on the internet using these virtual radios to talk to people.. to me it's not the idea about talking but the whole aspect about fighting the conditions, other users and idiots to get a decent conversations across

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

The homebase Uniden! Awesome rig, that. And IIRC, the Antron and Sigma antennas were considered 2 of the best CB arials of the day :)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

the 2830 wasn't the homebase, but I know which one you mean which is the Uniden 300

Uniden 300
http://odinn.org/radio/albums/SSB-CB...Uniden_300.jpg


Uniden2830
http://www.orbito.com/images/CB/lincoln.jpg

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Ah yeah I remember now. Although the best looking rig I ever had was the Colt Excalibur which was the Cybernet equivalent. Not as nice technologically but worked pretty well and looked the business when all lit up :)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

A former neighbour of ours used to be in to Ham radio, he was once in the local rag after he picked up a SOS radio call from somewhere several thousand miles away and alerted the necessary emergency forces who rescued them.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

These days Russ there's a range from Ranger that seem to be the bees kness and are all the rage.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Happy memories :D I was 'small guy' back in the 80s. Didn't have much more than a standard radio and aerial though. Certainly wasn't as serious as others in this thread.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

It's though what made CB'ing fun and interesting.. These days it's log online and just type/webcam and you end up not saying a lot..

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I still have this in my loft :D

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

That's an old AM set :)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

That might could just-possibly be the one I had. It was so long ago I have forgotten for certain, but it looks familiar :)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

If it has the chip I'm thinking of, with an eprom board you could get UK40FM on it :0

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

UK40 yes, but not FM.. The UK40 boards were designed to go into the CEPT mid-band radios from the continent as they jumpered onto the PLL hence changing the band/channels and in no way could change the method of modulation from AM to FM ;) :p:

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Hmmm. Maybe not then. I'm pretty-sure I was 'legal'!

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Weird though how we tend to use older radios instead of the modern all singing/all dancing radios..

I use a Yaesu FT80C (commercial version of the FT747 and is actually a HF radio) which I just got an FM board for, it does AM/CW/SSB/FM 100W on all bands. It is though considered an early 90's relic by a lot of people.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/03/98.jpg

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I'm sure I fitted the odd FM board to AM Uniden rigs back in the day :erm:

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Yes but it wasn't the UK40 board.. The FM boards were rare and didn't effect the recieved frequency.. It meant that the FM boards were common on the continent but not here..

It seemed to be a merry go round in that EU was converting AM sets, we were converting EU sets and the americans didn't realy care :)

Getting back to the topic of the increased sun spot activity last time it happened you could actually hear the truckers going up/down the east coast of the states on Mid-band AM

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

So you'd be able to convert it to UK40FM with the use of 2 separate boards then?

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I had the same unit :)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I wasn't really into CB'ing. if I did have a go it was just one nine, one nine a roger. I'd get my roger, and I'd say thanks break.

never did see it going anywhere, so didn't bother.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Not sure Russ as the UK40 board was for a particular PLL I think the one used in the Cybernet chassis where as the FM board is more generic but it would depend very much on the radio..

The FM boards are still sold (£15)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

i did use the cb band's untill they moved them in line with the rest of the world. but now days use th 70cm ham bands

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Not sure there's any difference is there ;)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I have a Cobra 148 GTL-DX, it was my grandfathers. I have no idea how to use it but we have a full set of gear here. Got a huge antenna on the roof. Do people still buy this kind of stuff?

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Attachment 23217

It's seen far better days. Bet it still works though.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I know that this is a CB thread but ham radio has popped up a couple of times so thought I'd add the following.

To get a ham licence you need to now find a local instructor (look at the RSGB website. They will teach you and sign-off the modules (about 10 hours worth) and then you take a simple multiple choice test at a test centre. That will get you a foundation licence which gives you a callsign and a limit part of the bands with limited power to play with.

More instruction and another test you can get a Intermediate Licence which gives you more places to play and higher power and finally the same goes for the Advanced licence which give you all the bands and quite a lot of power to play with (like 400w on HF)

The advanced licence also means you can go to other countries and get a reciprocal licence and transmit over there though the intermediate licence is allowed to do the same in a few countries.

It means you can play with radios like this one

http://www.wsplc.com/acatalog/ftdx9000-1.jpg

Better picture of the above radio is at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...FT-DX9000D.jpg (can't IMG tag is as it's oversized)

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

On ebay a Cobra 148 tends to sell (dependant on condition and which microphone is attached) from £40 to £90

---------- Post added at 17:05 ---------- Previous post was at 16:56 ----------

Just realised that the high will be either 2013 or 2014 so will be very suprised if a lot of people don't dust off the old sidebanders

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Hmmm this has compelled me to fire up the all hearing ears and spin the wheel down to the old "UK 40". There's still the same old cussing, cursing, music playing and trash talk going on ableit less than there used to be. No worse than what you hear on the London repeaters (and others) on 2M though ;)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Morse code is part of the practicals but for the foundation all you need to do is recognise some letters for example that are sent very slowly as many times as you want.. The foundation course is very simple and designed as a first step on the ham radio ladder for youngsters as well as adults

---------- Post added at 17:52 ---------- Previous post was at 17:49 ----------

I initially did request to become an instructor for all three courses but between the fact that the RSGB couldn't get my name, callsign and even the CRB correct I eventually gave in

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

It is used, but hasn't been required for a full Ham license for quite a while.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

As stated though it is still part of the practicals but in a very limited sense

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Anyway......

Had played with 49MHz walkie talkies for years then when I went to secondary school there was a lad who I became friends with who had a Harrier CBX, this prompted me to buy an old Midland 2001 of a guy that used to use it for his taxi. Forget precisely what happened to it, but when I stopped CBing around 1995 I had an Amstrad 901.

Went to college is 1996 to do a C&G in Electronics, passed my ham exam while I was there.

---------- Post added at 17:58 ---------- Previous post was at 17:56 ----------

In what sense Kymmy?

When I took the foundation morse test in the early 2000's it was a straight key, and a crib sheet, and all the time in the word to decipher/send the messages.


Also, I suppose it's worth stating that you can't go straight in for the advanced(former A and B) license anymore.. You have to do foundation, intermediate, advanced.

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Exactly the same.. 5wpm, crib sheet, groups of 5 letters and as much time/resends as you wish (within reason)

---------- Post added at 18:02 ---------- Previous post was at 18:01 ----------

I've actually got the instructor pack here with the sending cards ;)

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

In the late 70s I had a Cobra 146 then a Cobra 148. I passed my amateur radio exam in 1982 at 16 years of age. I didn't pass my Morse until the early 90s. My first HF set was an old Heathkit HW100, I then moved on to a brand new radio that I paid cash for at Leicester Rally.... It was the Yaesu FT747GX (was it a GX II)
Within a couple of years I had an FT990 and an IC706, 1KW linear, TH5 Beam, 60ft versatower and a HamIV rotator.

I have recently gained some interest again, and I have been spending some time constructing. I'm currently building modules for a compact HF radio test set using cheap USB soundcard, PIC based frequency counter, a DDS controlled be an ATMega micro and an RF power meter using the ATmega with RSSI IC.

I think my main interest these days is building test equipment rather than radios, although I have been getting my morse up to speed again.

I enjoyed CB before it became legal in the early 80s:shocked:

re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Re: the Cobra 148 - you can get a clean-up kit which costs about £20 and makes it look brand new, which is exactly what I did :)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Added Ham radio to the title as you can;t really discuss CB without having ham radio as a progression :tu:

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

We still have a shop on Rocky Lane in Liverpool who still supplies and fixes old AM kit plus the legal FM kit, he also repairs most of the city's taxi radio's it is called CB Shack of all things.

He has so much gear for sale that I think Kymmy would think she was in heaven.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Not really, Already have 4 handhelds (ft50x2, VX1, VX5) 3 vhf mobiles (ascom 4mtr, FT7800 and FT8100) and a HF (FT80c) (yep I like Yaesu stuff) which is enough for me..

Also a few miles away is Rocket Radio which has a good selection of gear.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Here's my wee radio shack which I keep adding to and had to shift to another room...also to make it easier to bring Ecoflex through the walls. There is a Kent key out of shot btw so I am not letting the side down!

The VHF array is controlled via Ham Radio Deluxe and a Hygain DCU1 control unit.

Attachment 23227

None of it transmits on CB although I think there's a service menu on the Mark V which allows you to open it up.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Nice display of the logbook from HRD you've got there!........and the TS480(excellent radio, got one myself)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

My brother in law used to fix,repair and also modify them

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Well you can, it's just that Radio Hams always like to monopolise the conversation :D

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Ta, that's the TS480HX, the 200W version with dual power feeds although the alc is very tight and it only peaks at about 160W on the thruline.. I tend to use it on six in the house though but we take it portable in the summer with one of those YP3 yagi-in-a-bag jobbies.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I have the 480SAT, and a sandpiper MV-V6 multiband short vertical on the clothes line support pole at the bottom of the garden.

I'm also a member of the test team for HRD and moderator of the forums. The splash screen of Peter Halpin that comes up when you start HRD is my work!(although HRD's new owners have removed it)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Hurry up and get the Cobra plugged in then :D

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Top man... The version I am running is from way back in 2009. Haven't updated it because I managed to get rotator working and DM780 working with my homebrew psk/data soundcard cable without any problems.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

i use the ft-7800 which is normally tune to my local repeater on the isle of white, with the 23cm video repeater (listening not transmitting as only an m6 call sign)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Last setup i had way back when, was a Nato 2000, Sadelta Echo Master Plus, Thunderpole III with an original Firestick and a Zetagi b300p.

Having been on air since before it was legalised in 81, i sold everything but the aerial.

The aerial i lost when one of the scafold poles (i'd swiped off a building site one night) snapped during a massive snow storm, and my landlord ripped it to pieces as it was blocking the public footpath, and because i wasn't around to deal with it :(

Had been planning on getting a President Lincoln as a replacement to the Nato as well, but in the end i just never got around to it and haven't keyed a mike since.

Had a look on ebay earlier, and i see they're going for about £160 now.. I'm feeling quite tempted to bid on one, see if i can't get it a little cheaper.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Have a listen down the old phone section on 40m any given evening and chances are you'll hear a couple of Russian blokes using Echomasters and judging by the signals, old broadcast transmitters running in excess of 5KW ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I really enjoyed CB'ing in the late 70's and early 80's. I had about 3 different rigs over that time and the one that I remember and liked the most was a little AM Jaws Mk2. One of the others was a Midland.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Great thread, Kymmy. :tu:

Can't even begin to list the different rigs I had. I used to change monthly. Went through what must have been every make & model of the UK 40 units, everyone was always swapping. Rubbish Amstrads with the rubbish bleeps, the even worse Binatones, Fidelity's & Mustangs, Yorks and Rotels, Midlands, Harriers and Harvards (weren't they Dixons & Currys brand?) - the list goes on. Most were pretty much the same with the Cybernet chassis that were dreadful for image rejection. You needed to go with the Realistic/Uniden/Audioline rigs with the Uniden chassis to get a decent image rejection when muppets went huge.
I think the first rig in the late 70's was a Sharp small window and then a Colt 1200DX (which was a great rig with a unique bleep!), a Marko Excalibur MK11 copper/bronze coloured home base and a modified channel President Madison with the analogue alarm clock, SWR meter and the separate speaker in a huge long box! :D Messing about on SSB and wiping out TV's with in-line burners.. All good fun. The best part back then was how simple the boards were for modding and tweaking. Even someone with no experience could pop the top off and tweak a pot to get a bit more juice or piggy back a board if you were a bit more handy.

My Superstar 2000 super low to super high with Alpha's was easily my favourite. I coveted it for years and was over the moon when I finally got a pristine one. I wish I still had it I loved it that much. That and the Leson/Turner desk mic. But because of the bleed over on it's Cyber chassis I eventually settled with a Cobra 148GTLDX with the Uniden chassis - I loved messing about with the KC shift and the channel 9 button to get to gaps within the freq's and a little bit higher into the legal FM channels than high band would take you. It was all about trying to DX for me at the end and when I moved and couldn't have my Sigma IV up I lost touch with it all.

All I have now are two pristine (1 boxed) 410T's and a realistic scanner with more freq gaps than it's worth putting batteries in for these days unless you want to listen to the odd cleaner or security guard on nights.


All the fun of scanning was gone for me anyway when the police went TETRA. I use the walkies now and again when we go away and the kids go off to the beach because there's no phone signal where we stay. They get a kick out of it but refuse to say 'over'. ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Lived in Rusholme, Manchester many years ago and it was great fun listening to the GMP chasing the cars round Hulme/Moss-Side/Longsight in the pre-Tetra days.

Talking of radio just made myself a nice little (well about 14ft) dual band antenna (just used some 1/2 and 1/4 coaxial(RG-213)/copper_tubing sections and put it all inside part of a fibreglass fishing pole. Nice low SWR just need now a pole/bracket to put it on.

@Blackened... We bought a load (about a dozen with chargers) of PMR446 radios as a job lot of ebay a couple of years ago.. Used them for bike to bike and bike to car work as not everyone here is licensed for ham and cb radios/antennas tend to be too big. Great also for beach usage.

Also been fixing one of the my yaesu radios microphone. Kept scanning instead of PTT'ing.. Turned out it was the microswitch contacts has oxidized across..Tiny little fiddle thing to disassemble but a contact polish later and it's back to 100% working.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

This is about as exciting as my radio career goes, ICOM VHF/UHF radio (our license is for a pair of VHF frequencies - which is very unusual these days, but we have had the license for 20 or more years), broadcasts to our repeater on top of a steep hill, and out to the cars as far out as Weymouth in one direction and Ringwood in the other on a good day, not bad for 25W :)

Attachment 23293

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I have a pair! I don't know why I forgot to mention them. Great little things they are too.
The CB walkie's antennas are h u g e. :D

The twig you've built is interesting. Can you share any more info?
I need to build/buy something I can install indoors really, but I've a fairly large loft space.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

The "twig" is dual band for ham radio... Based on a W7lpn design but insead of using wastepipe and aluminium tube I just made the three mid sections out of thick (RG0213 coax) (all half wave for 2m * .66 (v factor of the coax)), the top section is enammelled copper wire (quarter wave *.95 (v factor of wire in air)) and the bottom section is 15mm copper tube (again quarter wave *.95). Then a few ferrite rings placed about half wave down from the feed point. Tuning is done by moving up/down the ferrites but found it to be a bit low on freq so chopped a couple of inches off the two 1/4 wave sections which then brought the SWR down to less than 1.5:1 on both bands.. 70cm is a bit narrow but only wanted it to cover the repeaters and simplex channels, on 2m it covers the whole band and even covers 446.

Co-ax was from Knights on ebay for £20 delivered for 15m (though only 3m max is for the antenna construction the rest is feed and also for my HF feed) and the 7m fishing pole (only half used and of course it's not carbon but purely GRP) was £13 delivered on ebay and the copper tube we had from removing an old radiator.

Construction ideas were taken from these two sites
Design of antenna
How to cut/connect the coax together

So all together I've got a roughly a 6db(2m)/9db(70cm) antenna for about £15 which if bought from an antenna supplier would cost me £70+

Not sure it would be practical for CB usage as this is basically a one 1/4 over three 1/2 and then another 1/4 waves which in CB usage would be 22meters long ;)

You're better off using a single band cobweb antenna (normaly a half size g5rv (can be bought from a lot of cb/radio shops/ebay for about £20+) and feed that in a square design round the loft space (about half way up) so that the free ends nearly meet. You way need to add a foot or two or both ends to bring it upto 11m from the 10m it'll be tuned to or just use a cheap ATU/Matcher.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

If you have enough vertical free space in your loft (around 10ft) the trusty quarter wave groundplane won't let you down. This will give you a nice low-ish angle of radiation for dx and keep your polarisation in the vertical plane so you can talk to local good buddies.

In it's simplest form this consists of a quarter wave radiating element and four ground plane or counterpoise elements (each a quarter wave long*) at the feedpoint which are physically connected to the coaxial outer.

Any reasonable gauge of enamelled solid core should be fine for the construction materials, even cheapo, multi-strand speaker wire works well. Suspend the radiating element from your top beam preferrably via a ceramic insulator which you probably won't have so just use a couple of cable ties ;)

The feed-point you can make from a strip of perspex and attach the dangly bits using nuts, bolts and crimp-on ring terminals. Try to feed it via a choke or "ugly balun" (6-8 turns of RG8 coax around a scrap bit of waste pipe should do) which will help prevent any nasty common-mode current coming back down your feeder and minimise potential for interference.

For resonance at the mid point between both sets of UK CB frequencies you'll be cutting for 2.6m - just over 8 and a half feet. Tuning you may achieve from simply varying the length of the radiating element.
Now this is the quick and dirty way to do it - the "correct" way to do it is find the correct resonant length of the radiating element by using a dip oscillator to find the current nodes then use a matching circuit (matching transformer) to adjust the swr.

*in reality it doesn't matter how large the ground planes but bigger they and more they are the better to the point where you reach a condition of diminishing returns but the net effect of adding loads of them is that you'll competely screw up the feedpoint impedance so we use 4 as a compromise.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Aye theoretically around 35-36 ohms over a perfect groundplane which would present an swr of around 2:1 in an unbalanced 50 ohm system. Bringing that down to a more acceptable level of swr using the radiator cutting method would indeed throw you off resonance.

The LA8OKA corner-fed delta loop is an interesting antenna. Using a specific ratio of side dimensions you can bring the feed-point impedance down to the 50 ohm mark which effectively gives you the best of both worlds in terms of cutting out matching system losses (by not having to use one) while retaining resonance. I have one up for 20m suspended between two fishing poles using aluminium welding wire for the radiator itself - it's an excellent DX antenna for it's profile.

http://www.arcticpeak.com/antennapag...delta_loop.htm

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I never was into CB or Ham but had a scanner for years, took the aerial down this weekend as when the Emergency Services went over to Tetra it all got boring!

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Kymmy/Peter - thanks for the very detailed info.
I'll look more closely into this and see if I can't get away with a pole on the back wall. Should make things less complicated.
Having fun at the mo choosing a new rig ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Was in Rocket Radio in Letchworth today (great little shop with some good stuff in..grabbing a few PL259's and some 2" mast clamps to put up the new antenna) I did like the look of the Lafeyette Venus which has all the controls on the microphone..

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/03/7.jpg

As for an antenna if you can get an outside one then if they're still made an antron 99 or similar and you can't go wrong..

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Pop a flag on top, nobody will say owt :)

That's a canny trick for your fishing-pole verticals.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Nice that Kymmy.
I reckon I'll go retro at this stage though. Can't help myself. I love those old rigs.
On the hunt for a Superstar 2000 with the 5 banks of 40 or a 148GTLDX with some extra freqs. Money's a bit tight at the mo though so could go with something lower end for the time being.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

lol i remember my cb days..i had a cobra 148 and a superstar 360 plus a sigma 4 on the roof on top of a very large scaffolding pole and a nice meaty 500w solid state burner ;)

used to be fun and games ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

heh if it was a Zetagi B550 then I bet it wasn't very linear either ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

yea them and the dti lol ;) .....

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Check this out for a twig

http://www.radioarcala.com/nbspStati...8/Default.aspx

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

You're safe now, DTI don;t exist any more... instead you'll get Ofcom chasing you :D

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

So much for old skool (and tight budget :rolleyes: though £150 ain't too bad for a rig like this)
Just got one of these

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/03/5.jpg


6 banks of 60 covering 25.615 to 30.105Mhz & multi-programmable from the PC
(so you can make it go from 1-40 CEPT on one bank for example).
Interesting foray back into radio and probably a bit of a whim, but hey.
The YouTube vids suckered me in.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Interesting bit of kit that and also to see that the market for those export type radios is still very much alive and kicking. A lot of the old names like President, Superstar and Cobra are still kicking about it seems.

Just in time for sporadic E season eh, hours of fun to be had with the Russian taxi drivers ;) :angel:

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Heh. ;)

Superstar not always to be associated with the old now, Peter. Or at least not old rigs. Chinese built models are all over the place now, with freq counters and blue displays. Whilst hunting I was offered a Superstar 3900 and a Superstar Ranger both pretty much new boxed models. Word is, they lack the integrity and stability of their counterparts, and new surface mounted components make them difficult to repair - but they have the look mate. I was seriously tempted. The Ranger with the freq counter is a lovely thing.

http://www.gijoesradioelectronics.co...idproduct=1152

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2012/03/2.jpg

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I guess they're all based on a limited subset of chassis like back in the day. I had one of the first generation of Superstar 3900s - must have been around 89-90. Basically a cheapo copy of the PB010 which reflected on the performance of the radio which was not aligned properly in the factory: carrier leakthrough and all kinds of grounding issues due to poor soldering and general design problems. IIRC I swapped that for a President Lincoln which had shocking selectivity but after installing the uprated 1st and 2nd IF filters (crystal and active) it was a pretty solid radio.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Most of what you mention there is what I've been reading over the last few days (eyes are square..) about these rigs, especially around noise leaking/grounding. There's a video on YouTube of someone DXing on the 3900 EFT and the thing is visibly drifting on the counter. To be fair, it was the 6th digit so hardly a massive worry. Some are saying the actual counter itself creates interference! But, with a bit of patience and a hot iron they're well, not that bad. I did want one - in fact I made an offer on a boxed one on fleabay that got declined and then got offered one boxed for £80 notes and I'm still smarting over turning it down. I could have spent the difference on an antenna, PSU and SWR/matcher, but these 5555's are crowd pleasers with the freq range and being able to program from the PC is a proper bonus I reckon. I just think I'm suffering from a bit of guilt spend syndrome.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I still own my CB Radio (from 1980/81) - a modified Superstar 2000 - 40 channels x 5 bands (super low - super high).

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Actually, I've just been looking at some pics of the CRT boards and they're not surface mounted at all. Dunno where I got that from. I know the 5555 is surface mounted. I've looked at that many today..
Looking at the board with those cute little pot's makes me all dewey eyed again. As a 14 year old geek with a shaved down matchstick end to fit in the slot on the pot's, I even loved the smell of the damn boards in those early rigs.

---------- Post added at 22:57 ---------- Previous post was at 22:56 ----------

I have rig envy! Show us some pics if you get chance, Paul?
What was modified on it?

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Bit of nostalgia then?

Attachment 23297 Attachment 23298

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Ah, lookit. :)

Is that one of your mods there?

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Flippin eck no... I only use red insulation tape ;)

that's a UK40 board which was in the radio when it was given to me. I might get around to servicing it one day but the thing is a bin inside and out. Receives and transmits but not sure where until it goes on the counter :)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Haha!

I'm trying to work out what it is. 4 pots and two dials at the front and a side mounted mic. Is it a 360?

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Well yes... Actually a 148GTL-DX but same thing :)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Nice one.
Hope you find time to fix it up. :)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Finally got a chance to put up a couple of my home made antennas today..

Made the antenna and the brackets, the pole is a ebay scaffold brace with the ends chopped off and the clamps are Shelley's (£5 each in Rocket Radio)

Looks good..

PS.. the 4m dipole is also home made by Jen as the ascom SE550 is mainly for her marshalling duties

Wow that antenna is quite nice Kymmy,whats the farthest you have talked W/O SKIP??

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Nice and tidy that, Kymmy. :tu:

My 5555 is up and running now. Antenna, coax and programming cable arrived today so set it to UK40 + Super low to Super hi for now. And it's dead as a dodo. lol.
Did hear a couple of European DX's on 27.555 earlier which was great for the first day.

I went and had a play with one of those virtual radios you mentioned Kymmy (HamSphere)- interesting, but felt a bit weird. People paying a subscription for a really bad quality VOIP with artificial static! To each their own though.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

The 27.555 will probably be freebanders (either FB's or another group) check out http://www.freebanding.co.uk/ for more info but as usual transmitting on such frequencies may not be legal in certain countries..

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Oh, absolutely. I knew the freq I was looking for ;)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

There was an E opening on 6m on Saturday so you'll probably start seeing 10/11 open up a bit more for 1000KM contacts.

Looking at the solar data there are some North/South F2 paths open at the present moment but unlikely that you'll hear anything.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Really must get myself a decent 20+ amp PSU, using an old converted PC PSU atm but that's not quite powering the HF on 100w..

Can anyone suggest a cheap supplier? or a 2nd hand one?

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Can't go wrong with one of the Manson/Palstar 20-25 linear PSUs Kymmy. Should be able to pick up a used one for less than 50 quid. Providing you're not looking at the used kit list from a certain emporium in Cannock ;)

Occasionally you see the 50A Zetagi PSUs pop-up and they're well worth grabbing but careful not to break your back if you do.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I'd be happy with a switch mode (as long as it's got an noise offset)

Give me a nudge if you see any please... If not might have a wander round Dunstable Downs Radio Carboot sale in May

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Went hunting up/down the 2m/70cm repeater lists last night seeing what I could get on the new antenna.. The location here is surrounded by hills on 3 sides yet was surprised on 2m what I could get on 5w out of my 50w capable radios (Amersham, Aylesbury, Northhampton, Corby, Barkway, Bedford) with also a couple on 70cm (luton when it's working, cambridge and bedford) so that gives me mobile to home coverage for at very least from South London to Boston and Coventry to Swaffham.

Just need to get the 1/2 G5RV up again now for HF/CB :)

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

If you're working those you will probably hear the Leicester repeater on 2m (Charlie Fox) which has a quite exceptional coverage but unfortunately it's one of the prat magnets ;) Comes in quite strong here on the border with the Viking lands but we already have our own up here: the notorious MP and MN!

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Used to work MissPiggy and MN when up in Manc land back in the 90's

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I can hear CF. DY(Derby 70cm) has also had problems with music and prats in the recent past. One of the best repeaters around here used to be EE(Chesterfield, 70cm), it was never quiet when I was first licensed, now sadly this is not the case. Infact the most you hear from a lot of repeaters round hear are the 15 minute ident beacons.

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Just got a MAAS 25amp (the digital readout one) from HRD for £5 so that's me back on air once it gets delivered.. Just gotta work out this new fangled digital on/off switch (has on the bottom of it (WT KEY 2B) :rofl:

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

I have one of these: http://www.hamradio.co.uk/accessorie...250-pd-716.php

Basically the same as you've just bought only with analog meters. Had it for a good few years and never had a problem with it.

I'm looking for a new dual band handheld, it won't get the use it might have done afew years ago so don't want to spend too much. So was looking at the Wouxun KG-UV6D which can be had for under £100, or a Kenwood TH-F7E(£236). Stretching the budget to it's absolute limit i'm also considering the Alinco DJ-G7(£330).

Re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
 

Mine is in the attic atm, but Ive attached a picture that looks identical.

Im actually trying to remember the details of the modification. I believe it was to add either 1 or 2 more bands (super super low, or super super high). As I recall it was a switch that "shifted" the whole A-E range - so instead of C being the normal middle band, it shifted up (or down), meaning A or E gave you access to the new channels.