What was your CB callsign and equipment way back when?

[VK3DRB]

My callsigns:

Kronos (When I ran a pirate CB radio station in 1977, and was named after the operating system on RMIT's mainframe computer.)
VAX673 (When I went legal in 1978.)

Equipment:

Roberts 23 channel AM.
27MHz half wave ringo antenna.

Longest contact... an incredible 20kms away (East Keilor to Caulfield).

Maybe only Americans and Aussies used 27MHz. These days it is all unlicensed here (27MHz and UHF), because the government realised in the late 70's the cost of administering the licensing was greater than the cash grab.

Any others from the CB days who would like to share who they were?

[miguelvp]

Mine was "Diablo Rojo" (Red Devil) back in Spain (Airforce brat) what seems like hundreds of years ago.

Don't even recall the radio I had, 11 meter band (27MHz) dipole antenna (in my room) but I will take it outside to the rooftops with a leaky 12 volt battery (ruined many jeans with the acid)

Learned morse code for the license which was required then, forgot it now other than a couple cocacola (da-di-da-di) -.-. for C and of course Q (da-da-di-da) --.- forgot the mnemonic.  Torero, (di-da-di) .-.

But my parents, as supportive as they were with my many hobbies (and I mean Many!), didn't sprung the money for the exam, so never went to 20 meters or anything else, but I had friends that did. As far as DX, from Spain to Australia with friends equipment, used to have the card, but lost it many years ago.

Some of my licensed Ham friends relayed BBS packet radio too, I learned about modems when I saw wargames, until then I thought all BBS was done via Ham Radio

-.-

[G7PSK]

Never had a CB "handle", I got a CB radio back in the early 80's and a licence which was just going to the post office and handing over some cash (forget how much) It was all 27 Mhz back then I never got onto the air with it as all I could hear was local tractor drivers talking about ploughing the 150 acres or what they were having or had for lunch so I got rid of it all the kit other than an old army whip antennae that I had cut to 11 meters and a 21 watt RF amplifier (what the shop that sold it to me called a burner) that was illegal I still have both of them but it did re awake my interest in ham radio enough to get me to go to the local technical college  to study for my licence which was something I had promised myself while still at school in the late 60's but never gotten around to doing.

[GreyWoolfe]

My CB license was KND3913 and the handle was High Times.  My first radio was a Midland mobile with a power supply in the house.  23 channels with a rotary dial.  The antenna was a Shakespeare Big Stick with a 3/4 wave conversion whip on it.  My next radio was a President Teddy R.  This was a 40 channel radio that I used for both base and mobile use.  Mobile antenna was a K-40 with a fold-away trunk mount.  Both radios were peaked to over 25 watts and they were done by someone with an o-scope who knew what he was doing.  Both radios were dead on with no splatter across adjacent frequencies.  The CB thing was back in the 70's and early 80's.  I got my ham license in 1999 and hold an Amateur Extra license with call sign NW0LF.

[linux-works]

I never got into CB but definitely was into ham radio.  got my extra class ticket when I was a young teen.  used to have the call n2hi - up until I left for college and let my license expire.  really regret that, as I had a hand-picked callsign that I really liked ;(   long long gone, now, though.  I can't see myself ever getting a ham ticket again.  does not seem relevant to me in the internet age anymore (I know about packet radio and such, but still, I can't find any motivation to spend time on HR.)

if I had a license, I would continue to renew it to keep it current but I would not study for a new one.

[codeboy2k]

I was into CB in the late 70's/early 80's lol my handle was "kingpin" and I used a radio shack 22 channel model in the car, then later upgraded to a 40channel SSB unit at home and in the car, both from Cobra.  I can no longer remember the exact models I used in the car, but the base station was a Cobra 142 with a D104 mic (similar to this one from the web, but this is not my unit) :



I had this huge full wave vertical dipole and a Moonraker yagi on the house... lol I was just a teen to my early 20's and I must take this time to thank my parents for allowing me to uglify the house like that

[Flump]

I started on CB in the late 80's early 90's and still on it now!
it is very dead now and there are russian taxi service's using high power
which are all over the UK CB band (27.601-27.991) and they are also
on the lower part of the 10M Amateur Band.

for those of you in the UK you might be interested to know they are legalising AM and SSB on the Mid band (26.965-27.405)
This year some time

I have had so many CB's over the years, literally must be in the hundreds, still have some now
Audioline 341 is main radio and i use superstar 360fm (same as cobra 148) for listening to SSB on 555

I am an intermediate Amateur License Holder but am studying for the Full License and hope to pass it this year.

[MatCat]

Back in the early 90s when I was a teenager I was big into CB, I never had that amazing of a setup but my buddy did.  I don't recall the exact CB model but I know it was a ham radio that was crippled down to CB and could be modified to support from 25MHz to 32MHz.  My buddy had a 40 ft tower, and 2500 watts on it, in his car he had a 500 watt amp.  We used to talk to people as far as 5000 miles away.  Let's just say the police made him take that tower down in less then a month .

[linux-works]

I see an astatic d104 mic there!  I had that one, too.  its chrome coating was not very good, though; loaned it out to a friend and the sweat of his hand seemed to ruin the chrome plating!  amazing ;(

I ran a kenwood ts-511s (odd unit; most common was the ts-520 or 820) and also a heathkit sb104 that I built from a kit.  had the linear amp for the sb104, too, and the monitor scope.  3 element tribander on roof with a rotator.

when I was a kid, it was the most fun I could have!  but as I got to college age, I totally lost interest.  at my peak, I had gotton my code speed up past 40wpm and really did enjoy morse code.

[VK3DRB]

There was something special about the glow of the channel indicator and power meter in CB's.

I still own an FRG-7 too which I bought in 1977. The glow of the dial plates is magic.
Also owned various ham radio transceivers like the FT-747GX and others. All had the glow.

These days, with mobile phones (cell phones) there is no glow. Absolutely nothing.

I don't know what is was about the glow that is so appealing. Maybe it was just a warm feeling the machine is alive.

[vk6zgo]

I was a Ham before I ever had a CB.
I got one because a few of my mates had them.

Never made  a big deal about it--official callsign was WAC 927.
They changed the rules a bit,so you could have multiple sets,so I bought a couple of little AM Sanyos.

My wife got keen on Bingo,& would call me after the game finished,so I could "put the kettle on".

I would "Ham" until just before expected Bingo finish time,finish off my contact on 2m FM,then turn on the CB.
My wife would pipe up :"Daddy Duck,this is the Mummy Duck",& tell me she was on the way.

27 MHz CB is pretty much deserted now,in Western Australia.

[miguelvp]

What is funny is that back then we used abbreviations in morse then it moved to irc and now it has evolved into texting, thank God we didn't use LOL

Didn't hit me until this thread

[VK3DRB]

...
My wife got keen on Bingo,& would call me after the game finished,so I could "put the kettle on".

27 MHz CB is pretty much deserted now,in Western Australia....

My wife an I ran our own "private" RF mobile phone service for years on UHF CB in North East Victoria... I used a "special feature" I won't mention here. I saved a fortune in rip-off mobile phone calls.  No-one gave a stuff because no-one knew. Didn't hurt anyone except the government monopoly called Telecom Australia. . I black banned them for 15 years over a dispute over a theft of $26 by Telecom (Telstra) that they would not repay. Those goons lost a lot more than their $26 over the years. So I had no guilt over bypassing the evil monopoly for local mobile phone usage.

CB is dead here in Victoria too. Some CB'ers got their ham license. For some CB spawned a life long career in electronics.

[deth502]

back when we were in high school there was a certain group of ppl in the area who were into that.

my friends and i liberated some equipment from a junk yard, couldnt tell you what it was. and set it up in my truck, hid the antenna under the bed, and we just intrude on conversations and screw with ppl. therefore, we had no call sign, and nothing"identifying". i guess we were trolls before the internet made it cool 

i do know expensive equipment was the big bragging point then. we'd always hear them talking "ive got a blah blah, with a blah blah blah". all greek to me. when they would get pissed off, they would just try to put down my equipment, saying it was cheap and off brand. apparently that was the big put down in the cb community 

[retrolefty]

Never was on CB so no handle here. Did have some time on ham radio and still have an active extra class licence, WA6TKD. About 2 years ago I renewed/upgraded my licence and thought I might try getting active again. Found a local $100 bargain on a used Kenwood TS-520S hybrid transceiver that was in great shape, even had the optional CW crystal filter. I threw up a 40 meter half wave "slopper" antenna. But after a few months I recalled why I had drifted away from ham radio many years ago. Unless your into contest events or active local club member the vast number on contacts are very boring and repetitious, at least to me.

[linux-works]

hey retro, welcome to the forum (I recognize you from the arduino forums).

yeah, I got bored with ham radio and the contests were the main thing that kept me interested when I was a teen.  field day was also fun (setting up equip in the middle of nowhere and staying up all night trying to get a high # of QSO's.  cw was also fun for me but phone was boring as hell, usually.

[VK3DRB]

Never was on CB so no handle here. Did have some time on ham radio and still have an active extra class licence, WA6TKD. About 2 years ago I renewed/upgraded my licence and thought I might try getting active again. Found a local $100 bargain on a used Kenwood TS-520S hybrid transceiver that was in great shape, even had the optional CW crystal filter. I threw up a 40 meter half wave "slopper" antenna. But after a few months I recalled why I had drifted away from ham radio many years ago. Unless your into contest events or active local club member the vast number on contacts are very boring and repetitious, at least to me.

I never really got bored.  For me there was a "magic" in HF communications. 6 metres is a challenge for DX. Or try amateur satellite comms for a challenge. Or fox hunting if you don't get car sick.

Even CB had a sense of magic about it. I think there has been a desensitising of the magic of technology over the past two decades. These days it is all so ho-hum to most people, especially the young. Home brew is dead - just visit your electronics retailer and see how many kits they sell. But those and lucky enough to have discovered the magic of electronics through a Tandy 150-in-1 electronics set, found magic in getting a crystal radio or solar powered radio to work - without expensive batteries.

Many life long interests in electronics for Australian and Americans began not through CB, but through getting a Tandy 150-in-1 electronics kit for birthday or Christmas. For some, it was life changing.

I was once a keen DX'er and a member of the Australian Radio DX Club. I found magic in receiving broadcasts from distant countries on my FRG-7. These days, the hobby is dead, killed off by the Internet where magic just does not seem to exist. We just take it for granted.