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CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:17   #1
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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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:32   #2
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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Originally Posted by Kymmy View Post
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.


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 .

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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:33   #3
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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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:46   #4
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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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:52   #5
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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
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:54   #6
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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
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Old 08-03-2012, 13:58   #7
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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



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Old 08-03-2012, 14:00   #8
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kymmy View Post
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
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Old 08-03-2012, 14:02   #9
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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Originally Posted by Kymmy View Post
the 2830 wasn't the homebase, but I know which one you mean which is the Uniden 300
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
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Old 08-03-2012, 14:04   #10
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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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 14:06   #11
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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Originally Posted by Russ View Post
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
These days Russ there's a range from Ranger that seem to be the bees kness and are all the rage.
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Old 08-03-2012, 14:07   #12
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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Originally Posted by Kymmy View Post
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.
Happy memories 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.
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Old 08-03-2012, 14:08   #13
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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Happy memories
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..
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Old 08-03-2012, 16:12   #14
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

I still have this in my loft
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Old 08-03-2012, 16:15   #15
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re: CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

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I still have this in my loft
That's an old AM set
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