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Old 2nd Nov 2021, 11:03 pm   #21
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

The handheld, upper centre of your third picture, was the second full-UK-spec spec radio I bought and I still have that as well. Thanks for sharing those pictures, certainly brings back memories.

I did go out for a drive, up into north Northumberland where I know there is a summit of sorts on a little road crossing over fairly high ground. As I left this area there was already a good little net going on channel 40, being managed by a local character who is quite well known from his CB / radio fan website.

When I reached my perch about 35 miles north of Newcastle, I realised that the ad-hoc arrangement for everyone to find each other on channel 40 was working far too well, as I was getting about S8-S9 of layered signals, some from back down on Tyneside and Gateshead, some from over the border in Scotland, and there were even a couple of lads who were taking it really seriously and had got themselves up onto Great Dun Fell, above Penrith. They were a good signal in north Northumberland and I gather they managed to work the guys down in Tyneside, but they were probably suffering from an even more extreme version of my problem with signals coming at them from 80 miles in every direction on channel 40.

That said, when I was travelling north and back south again I followed a lot of exchanges along the way, and it was all very mature and good natured, just the way it was in the calm before the storm back in 1981. Most of the operators were using era-appropriate radios.
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Old 2nd Nov 2021, 11:15 pm   #22
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

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Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
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mobile onto a high spot
...In Lincolnshire? Where?

We happened to travel down to Lincoln itself a few weeks ago to pick something up. I don't remember seeing much in the way of high ground on the way there and on the way back. It's why you have so many old bomber airfields down there.

I'm considering dusting off my 5-Star and going for a little drive around as well - I'll see what sort of mood I am in later.
Lincoln Cathedral is build on the only hill for miles, I should know because I walked up from the city centre a few weeks ago, it's the only shopping precinct I know with a lever crossing in the middle of it!
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Old 2nd Nov 2021, 11:40 pm   #23
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

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Originally Posted by stevehertz View Post
Would I be correct in saying that CB radios were becoming popular and in use a few years earlier than 1981? .
Yes, that's an open secret but off topic for this thread, the mods are rather sensitive about such things being spoken of even in the purely historic sense, so I would prefer us to stick to post-legalisation equipment and operation if that's OK.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 12:52 am   #24
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

My first rig was a rebadged Cybernet Beta 3000 known as a Ford Roadmaster 505. I think it was a model intended for use in Ford farming vehicles. I first used it with a mag mount modulator antenna on a biscuit tin to start. Then brought second-hand a proper homebase antenna that I think was called a Thunderpole 3? Not sure though but it was a 3 or 4 section dipole with 3 ground planes below it if that rings a bell with anyone. This was back in the 1990's and it was quiet active then, but I've tried to get back into CB in recent years and it is very quiet here. I'm not actually far from Richard the gent that does the UK CB radio servicing channel on Youtube, and if you've watched his videos you'll know how quiet CB is for him.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 1:41 am   #25
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

So I went out to a 'high spot' and did actually use the old Beta 1000 and I can honestly say that the evening was a complete success. What I will say is that channel 40 was just like a hundred voices from far and wide all talking together and the moment I piped up on there, various locals wanted to chat to me, so I have to say that we ended up moving to various different channels (it was actually nearly impossible to find any completely clear ones and we moved a few times) and some distant calls broke in on the side. I found myself talking to the operators of several of the radios I've repaired in recent months.

From where I was parked just off the B1398 heading north out of Lincoln, about two thirds of the way along where it's just over 200' ASL, with a clear take off to the west south west direction, I seemed to be able to hear everyone and everything. The problem with the homebases in the city that were on with me, was that because of noise levels, they couldn't hear the more distant stations, but those stations could hear them, particularly as the best ones were also out static mobile and away from all the electrical interference noise. There are other high points around Lincolnshire, at up to around 500' ASL and a chap called Rod regularly drives out of Grimsby and parks up on one of them - he was on tonight and I spoke to him. There's another high spot at just over 400' ASL where another chap regularly parks - he lives up there, but never operates from his house, parking half a mile down the road to use the radio.

So I drove from a village south of Lincoln and through the city, up the hill and out heading north towards RAF Scampton. I didn't connect to the car fag lighter like I usually do, as this would have meant keeping the ignition turned on or the engine running, so I had everything running from a charged up car battery in the footwell. I know you get that extra boost from an alternator charging the main car battery, rather than a sagging 12 volt only supply, but it all seemed to work well enough and we didn't end up with a flat battery to start the car at the end of the evening.

I think the best contact for me was a chap called Jason, who I've heard people talk to, but have never been able to hear him myself. He's up in North Yorkshire, not far from the County Durham boarder at Tan Hill. I think he's about ten miles from the Tan Hill Inn, the UKs highest pub. I stopped there with my parents as a child and I remember that I was allowed to go behind the bar and pull a pint - many years ago now! I actually managed to have a good two way conversation with Jason, which I think was exceptional considering the distance, although he obviously is very high up, probably over 1700' ASL.

So CB radio definitely ain't dead!
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 2:03 am   #26
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

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Originally Posted by Spec-chum View Post
I'm not actually far from Richard the gent that does the UK CB radio servicing channel on Youtube, and if you've watched his videos you'll know how quiet CB is for him.
I think he's actually a member of this forum, but hasn't posted for a very long time - he has/had an interest in HMV 70s radiograms.

I don't seem to hear anyone from Grantham these days and I've never heard that Richard chap on CB, although I hear him on the Grantham UHF repeater which he's the 'master' of. What I have found quite funny is that on some of his videos he often moans about what he calls the Nottingham burner brigade, but I recognise some of those voices and he's got that wrong, as they're some of the Lincoln crowd!

I used to be able to reach Grantham and I remember the 'November Mike' club that was based in Grantham back in the old days and I contacted them over CB radio for a call sign some time around 80/81 or 82 even. I don't think they were a proper club as such, just a PO box address for QSL cards. The two handles I remember were the Admiral and the Listener, who used to dish out the club call signs, there was a third person who's name escapes me just now.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 2:27 am   #27
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

I still have my Jesan KT-2002 (boxed with all original pieces) & Cybernet desk microphone from the early 80's! along with a mint condition Harvard H410T handheld!
The Jesan is powered on 24/7 indoors with a mag mount firestick type antenna outside - it's so very quiet these days out there but I like to have it set up as it is, brings back so many memories of when so many of my friends & new friends were always using UK FM CB in the early 80's! The Harvard I just had to buy a few years ago as I always wanted one back in 1982 but could never afford one on my wages then!
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 2:40 am   #28
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Anyway, I did some late evening shopping in Tescos on the way back through Lincoln, so killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Everyone said how good the old Cybernet Beta 1000 sounded. Before I went out I bench tested it with various different microphones, with a couple of the Lincoln crew giving reports, and the original Cybernet mic came out the best.

They no longer use channel 19 in Lincoln. I told them years ago that to avoid all the 'noise' they should use the top few channels that just come under the 'wing' of the 28 MHz notch filter, so they now all use channel 37 as a calling and general chit chat channel, moving up or down one or two from it to have longer conversations if necessary. They've been using this channel for several years now and it works really well, so it really will be the Nottingham lot that Richard hears now on 19, and not Lincoln.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 7:58 am   #29
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Brings back memories of replacing the PT for an MRF477 to get an extra couple of Watts out of a repair, listening to the skip from North America when the conditions were right.
Winding output matching balluns for large Firestick aerials.
AM or SSB was best. All died when we went oficially to FM.
40 years and 40 channels.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 11:12 am   #30
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

I've still got my original Amstrad CB900 somewhere, I can't believe I bought it 40 years ago. I built a 12/13.8V linear PSU for it and it still gets regular use in my workroom.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 11:59 am   #31
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Quote:
...a mint condition Harvard H410T handheld!
One of the friends I met through CB had one of those and used it heavily until it fell apart. I remember it having remarkably good TX audio. My personal favourite handhelds were the Realistics, although I only ever had the TRC-1001 and TRC-1005, they made at least two more UK 40-channel models and a CEPT / EU only model as well.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 4:12 pm   #32
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Thinking about this, I wonder what antennas you all used with your early CBs; initially the CB27/81 spec required a base-loaded antenna no more than 1.5 Metres long [the idea - allegedly - being that the base-loading coil would act as a choke and reduce the whip-part's efficiency at radiating higher harmonics that might fall into the civil airband].

For mobile operation I had a base-loaded Antenna Specialists whip, a Valor "Half Breed" [half-inch-diameter coil about 4 inches long at the base, covered with black heatshrink] and a DX27 [which was a longer, thicker version of the ubiquitous DV27]. The DV27 and DX27 were not CB27/81 compliant as they were top-loaded. Same applied to the helically-loaded Firestik, which I coveted.

The Les Wallen "Modulator" that appeared in the mid-80s was a bit of a trick to work round the length-restriction: it still had a 1.5-Metre whip but the base-loading-coil was elongated into a 'sausage' about 18 inches long so contributed significantly to the radiating ability while making a nod to the antenna restrictions.

Base-station wise I had an Italian Sirio "Signal-keeper" which was a CB27/81-compliant upper section connected at the feedpoint to a hub that carried three downward-tilted loaded radials. This was fitted to a scaffold-pole bolted to the wall of the shed that housed the central-heating-oil tank which also served as my 'shack'. Because the coax came down inside the scaffold-pole, when the wind blew you could hear it going ting..ting..ting against the inside of the pole.

Later on when I moved, I had a "WOT Pole" - which was a dipole centre-insulator supporting one 9-foot tubular element and a Half-Breed, so essentially an assymetric dipole. You were supposed to mount it with the 9-foot element pointing downwards connected to the braid, and the Half-Breed connected to the coax centre so the half-breed was the 'driven' part. But if you turned it upside down the half-breed became a loaded radial and the 9-foot bit was the radiating element.

Using this arrangement from a farmhouse within half a mile or so of the Blaenplwyf TV transmitter, I could happily work stations from St.Davids all the way up to Holyhead with the standard 4 Watts.

Ah, happy days.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 4:41 pm   #33
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

'Half Breed' here as well.

Nowadays I normally use one of those 'Springer/ Stinger types with the open base loading coil / shock spring but last night I put my original 1981 'Half Breed' on the car when I went for the run out. Still a nice aerial.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 6:53 pm   #34
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Out of curiosity I browsed my OS Landranger maps for high spots in Linconshire and seemingly the best one anywhere in the county is the little ridge on which sits the village of Normanby-le-Wold, north-northeast of Market Rasen, south of Caistor.

Just to the north of the village a road runs across the top with several masts around it. Normally the presence of so many masts would make it a rather 'hot' location for VHF / UHF amateur radio operation (potentially rich in sources of interference) but for 27MHz I would imagine it would be fine. I don't know if this would have been a bit too far for Techman to go on his CB safari, though.

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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 7:06 pm   #35
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

Be careful with the stinger/springer type antennas; the original ones were OK and used copper-plated-steel for the spring and whip to reduce losses (skin-effect and all that...)

I've seen quite a few 'budget' versions - often sold to the farming and off-road/4x4 markets - where the copper plating has been omitted and the resistance from the tip of the whip to the 3/8-24 base threaded part is abot ten Ohms, which will no doubt mean it is easy to get a nice low SWR but its performance as a radiator of RF will be compromised.

All this talk of CB makes me think I should check in my attic - I think I've got a "Trunk-lip-mount" K40 antenna up there somewhere, along with a 27/81 JWR rig picked up for peanuts ar a car-boot-sale. Could be fun to see who's around.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 7:15 pm   #36
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

You've mentioned the 'counterfeit Springer' issue before - mine is quite old (sold by Maplin when they first started doing CB / comms stuff) and looks brass-coloured where the paint is chipped off in a few places, so hopefully it is an 'original'.

However, the reason I usually favour that one is because it has quite a wide low SWR and can be used equally well on 27/81 and EU bands without the SWR getting up to more than about 1.8:1 at the upper and lower limits.
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 7:29 pm   #37
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

The easy way to be sure is measure the end-to-end resistance. If it's more than 2 or 3 Ohms, beware!
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 10:41 pm   #38
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

You might be surprised...10m and thus 11m CB has been excitingly open these past few days. Getting on air might yield some.good dx.

Course...it might not!
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 10:48 pm   #39
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

I caught some mention of that on-air last night, unfortunately I normally only hear about these things after the event.

Ironically, I was due to go and spend a couple of hours parked up in a high place playing radio on the Yorkshire moors on Sunday last, which would have been when the propagation was running high. Unfortunately real life got in the way and I had to be somewhere else instead.
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Old 4th Nov 2021, 11:21 am   #40
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Default Re: UK CB Radio 40th anniversary (2nd Nov 2021)

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Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
I caught some mention of that on-air last night, unfortunately I normally only hear about these things after the event.

Ironically, I was due to go and spend a couple of hours parked up in a high place playing radio on the Yorkshire moors on Sunday last, which would have been when the propagation was running high. Unfortunately real life got in the way and I had to be somewhere else instead.

Probably missed it now. I was on the bands this morning and also had a look at a few SDR receivers on line and they all seem to say the same thing...the lates CMEs to hit earth have wiped out HF. I can hear nowt.

D
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