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Old 5th Sep 2020, 11:15 pm   #21
Phil G4SPZ
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Default Re: CB Rig collectors

Interesting thread. I never operated CB but was at one point tempted to try the 934MHz band, although I never did anything about it. The 934MHz allocation was withdrawn in 1999, presumably to the annoyance of those who had invested in the not-inexpensive gear for the band.

Does anyone have any 934MHz radios or experience of using the band?
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 12:05 am   #22
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Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
Most are astonished to hear that I am running four watts, which always makes me wonder what they must be running (and why?).

In addition to those in the 'collection' I have two more 'modern' radios, a Midland 38 and a Midland 48.
I can answer the question regarding why they're running power - it's the horrendous noise levels on 27 MHz that mean that at 4 watts you'd struggle to transmit and be heard beyond the end of the street. The 'skip' and the band 'opening up' overrules all this and your 4 watt signal down to the south of the country would be like them receiving a transmission of several hundred watts perhaps. The only genuinely usable channels without too much noise are the few top ones that just catch the edge of the 28 MHz 'notch'. Of course, where you go up in the far North West I suspect the receive noise floor is around S zero

The stories regarding massive powers being run on CB radio are generally not true. I've found that it's very self regulating in that if there's someone that kept running excessive power, peer pressure regulates it in that they will keep getting 'stick' from other operators until they get fed up and turn it off. The reality is that although a few people have the capability, it's usually only used to get over the rabble on 19. Once they get on with their little social group, they tend not to want interference from anyone outside the area and go down to low power...noise levels permitting, that is. Some people have a constant S9 of noise all the time and anyone running 4 watts just won't be heard, even from just across town. Generally, from what I've gathered, most operators seem to run around 50-60 watts or thereabouts, no more than 100 watts tops under extreme conditions, to make the system usable - it's unusual to find anyone running much more than that and if they can turn it down below that to chat, then they often will. There's one or two out in the sticks with a few more watts than that, but they strike up for the odd hour or so and then they're gone and perhaps won't be heard again for a few days. They're a bit of a pest on 19, but they soon get fed up and clear off.

Regarding the 'new generation' radios - a lot of people are buying and using them...I think some of them think I'm a bit strange using my ancient radio gear and wonder why I'm not interested in getting anything new, but I'm not that enthusiastic and just give it a blast every now and again, so it's more than good enough for what I'd ever need.

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Old 6th Sep 2020, 12:21 am   #23
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Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ View Post
Does anyone have any 934MHz radios or experience of using the band?
There's some 'die-hards' that still use it so I'm told. I know someone who has an old 934 rig set up with a home made aerial and he was telling me a couple of months ago that after he set it up, he heard what sounded like a couple of fairly old chaps that he thought were not too far from him, and sounded like they lived not too far from each other, and from their conversation about gardening, had probably been using the band for some time just to chat to each other. He went in between them and said "hello" and it all went quiet and he said that he hadn't heard them since, so looks like he may have frightened them off, just when they thought that no one else was listening!
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 12:30 am   #24
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Somewhere in the garage I have Commtron CB40F and I think it still has the selective calling board I made for it based on an NE567 PLL.

The XYL had an identical set so I could chat with her when I was out working and could get her to put the kettle on if I was on my way home. I was "Clouseau" and she was "Dreyfus", the radio procedure was of our own making, and we did not interact with anyone else, accept her sister who had a similarly equipped set, she was "Cato".

The selcall frequency was 1750Hz, simply because it was convenient to use the tuning fork in my Trio2200G as a reference when adjusting it.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 1:01 am   #25
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Other than walkie talkies running from a PP3 that were no more than toys, the first encounter I had with CB radio was on a Regonda Stereo radiogram in about 1967. With just a wire round a picture-frame I could hear several channels full of American schoolkids,. They all seemed to know each other, and perhaps went to the same school, and were using swear words I had never heard emanate from a radio set before.
They seemed unaware that their signals were going so far, I wonder what power they were using?
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 9:02 am   #26
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I still have some kit. A couple of Amstrad units, with the LED meter, A midland Portapac, and a Midland basic model that was always a bit deaf. When I'm next in the loft I'll dig out model numbers, but here are some photos.


I also have a number of aerials. They are all late ones bought as a joblot when somewhere was closing. Mostly mobile masts but also one base station mast that appears to be missing an upper part.

Back in the day, I used mine in my car, a 2CV. They have a vinyl roof, and I don't mean vinyl trim over a steel panel. So mounting antenna on it was not possible.

Looking at the car, the largest metal panel is the bonnet, so the DV27 was bolted to the centre of that! I don't have a photo with the 'twig' on but you can see the base in the (very poor) photo.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 9:05 am   #27
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Not a collector myself or user to be honest as cb is pretty much dead here, but I do have a couple old sets. A Hy-gain 3 set that looks to be from the 1970's. Has 80 channels hi and lo bands, does both AM and FM modes. Other is a more common UK set, the Sir Alan special, Amstrad 901 which I've had to make a power lead for as they have become unobtainable.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 9:45 am   #28
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There's some 'die-hards' that still use it so I'm told... a couple of fairly old chaps that... had probably been using the band for some time just to chat to each other. He went in between them and said "hello" and it all went quiet and he said that he hadn't heard them since, so looks like he may have frightened them off, just when they thought that no one else was listening!
Fancy that! People using an unauthorised radio frequency? How shocking. The fact that these old chaps have got away with it for 21 years illustrates how little importance the Authorities now place on ensuring compliance with the Wireless Telegraphy Act.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 9:49 am   #29
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I can answer the question regarding why they're running power - it's the horrendous noise levels on 27 MHz that mean that at 4 watts you'd struggle to transmit and be heard beyond the end of the street.
Yes, as an 'Original Class A' amateur I find the domestic levels of noise on HF now so disheartening that I just don't even try to operate HF at home, so that's why I treat my holidays up into the far north west as 'radio holidays' as well. Even driving out into the countryside does not guarantee a quiet band these days because there are so many 'always on' digital systems in a modern car that the vehicle itself may foil your hopes for a quiet band to operate on. Fortunately, I drive a 19-year old diesel vehicle which is, electronically speaking, very simple and quiet. That's one reason (of several) why I have no intention of replacing it.

However, as you've suggested, when the conditions are 'up' they are really up, and power levels are then almost irrelevant. I've had some people seem quite annoyed with me for claiming I am running normal power - in those cases I usually ask them to reduce their own power or swap in a basic set if they have one, at which point we can always continue the conversation because if they can hear me through their urban noise levels, I can certainly hear them out in the middle of nowhere in the highlands and islands.

The foul-mouthed American schoolkids rambo heard would probably have been running normal power. The original peak in the popularity of CB happened to coincide with a really good sunspot maximum and CB signals were audible from all around the world on good days. I can remember walking around with one of those 10mW 'toy' 27MHz walkie talkies and finding its only receive channel being swamped by people speaking Italian. At the time I wondered where on earth they could be but the answer was, of course, that they were in Italy.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 10:12 am   #30
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some of them think I'm a bit strange using my ancient radio gear and wonder why I'm not interested in getting anything new, but I'm not that enthusiastic and just give it a blast every now and again, so it's more than good enough for what I'd ever need.
From a technical / aesthetic point of view I'll always favour the 1980s Japanese made gear, produced when anything that was decent that was electronic was made in Japan, and anything else was made in Hong Kong. I'll always use one of those radios first, I take one of the modern ones as well in case of a failure which I can't fix 'in the field'. At one time I used to put one of the modern 80 channel radios on first to get an idea of what lift conditions were like on the day (because lift is always more apparent on the EU band first) but now I just tend to have a quick look on one of the many webSDRs to see what the propagation is like and then if it's any good, I get my radios out.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 10:29 am   #31
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a Midland basic model that was always a bit deaf. When I'm next in the loft I'll dig out model numbers, but here are some photos.
Your Midland is a 2001 'Precision Series'. In new condition they were quite nice looking radios with their unconventional duck-egg blue casings and 'vernier' knobs but the 2001, 3001 and 4001 all had the same very common Korean-made Maxon chassis as the Cobra 19X and many other AM and AM+FM radios of the period. The UK FM versions of those Midlands used a purpose designed Maxon FM chassis which was also quite poor, especially in respect of the way the S-Meter behaved.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 12:36 pm   #32
John M1JWR
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Hi sirius, you keeping well.
the colt black shadow is still around, but it will take a bit of digging out !
and so is the 10m one.
though i still have this, it hasn't been switched on for over 2 years either.
fix or at least try to fix minidisc decks these days.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 12:58 pm   #33
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your Tristar 777 looks in nice condition, probably worth trying to keep it that way.

I owned one from new but in my urban location the poor selectivity of the receiver made it almost impossible to use so I had to let it go.

Another one in my collection and owned by me from new is a Colt 355 (CB/27/81) - one of the smallest mobile radios of its time, it used a 'miniaturised' version of the standard UK FM Maxon chassis.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 2:10 pm   #34
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it is in nice condition, but wasent inside, somebody had tried to convert it to 10m and failed, when i first got it about 10 years ago it worked on one frequency, dont ask me how and the s meter light worked and that was it, i know i had to replace the voltage regulator a diode and a coil associated with it aswell, obviously before there was any life, the wiring was messed up in the front, the 5 position mode pot was shot and the vco and a tx/rx switching trannie.believe it or not the 1969 and 2166 were good, as was pll 02a.
I had scrap parts fortunetly apart from the mode switch, the green vco out of the scrapper was good, it also got the tx mixer chip as a process of elimination at one point aswell and the relay, looks notheing wrong with the originals.
had to source a mode switch off a friend, a 3 tier one like the original, all he had was a 6 position one, had to draw the wiring points out on each one to compaire, so now the position on far left has no connection and the other 5 are in order.
the radio is now bog standard even 41 to 80 on hi and the light comes on when switched to hi only, no splits, no proms nowt, never finished it though, its a bit low on output on ssb about 6w flat out, am and fm are factory spec, it always puzzled me as fm wasent modded to be regulated with am and ran same as ssb it was correct and ssb not, otherwise at least 2 years ago worked great
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 4:27 pm   #35
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Here's a typical 23-ch crystal-synthesised rig, "Browning LTD" There's nothing externally to give any clue where it was made and the established USA brands liked to keep it that way, packaging everything to make it appear all-American. Inside we find the xtals and filters and coils are NKD, Murata and Toko. The machine screws are of course metric, always a give-away. I see that this one has been modded for a 24th channel using a toggle switch on the front. I'm always impressed how few xtals it took to give both tx and rx LOs.

I'm sorry to see that I have transgressed the forum rules, so let me explain why I posted on this subject - I promise that I will give away no details of the item I saw nor of where I saw it. A 90s model which would be of next to no interest in the UK was on sale at an exorbitant price, with no mention of the fact that the front panel had been peeled back in some major trauma which had also broken off one of the controls. The only details given were that it "had signs of previous use". I gave a link out of mirth, assuming that no-one here (or anywhere) is going to be buying it unless the price is dropped to make it worthwhile as a parts mule. It's not 23-ch or a crystal-mixer type, I just mentioned these as a personal favourite.

The history of US CB rigs fascinates me: for the first decade they were usually single or dual channel tx with alternative crystal freq's an optional extra, and sometimes the RX LO was free-running to cover the full allocation. After about a decade we saw the introduction of fully channelled sets, still using tubes. When things started turning solid state in the late 60s the Japanese got in on the act, using far more elaborate circuits to make sure everything worked 'like is says on the tin'. Crystal-mixing only had a short timespan, just like dual-standard TVs here, and about the same time! I love to study the Sams Photofacts from the period and look for the evolution of techniques: you find that techniques were borrowed from USA companies and then evolved into a ubiquitous design model.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 5:34 pm   #36
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Does anyone have any 934MHz radios or experience of using the band?
I suppose 446 is the new 934

The little bit of high power CB style activity I used to hear on 446 in the Manchester area seems to have gone, and the 8 channels are largely used for their intended purpose.

I've only recently acquired a GC receiver that reaches the dizzy heights of 934MHz so I've no experience at all.
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Old 6th Sep 2020, 7:25 pm   #37
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Blimey I've got a few cb's and accessories.

President Maddison and a Dwight D homebases With speakers
Realistic homebase
Uniden homebase
Hygain 3 and 5 and a 40AM walkie talkie and an 80AM walkie talkie (strange how modern AA batteries are too long to fit)
Tristar 727 and 777
Superstar 360 fm x2
Nato 2000 x2
Jaws mk2
Vice President Roy
York 863
Amstrad 901
Saphire x4000
Realistic one hander
Uniden 100
Radiomobile 201
Sommerkamp ts 788dx boxed
couple of old 9v powered am walkies
a Havard 2 ch 9v powered walkie
3x Astatic mics
3x Turner mics
pair of Australian Uniden uhf cb walkies
and other stuff I can't remember linears and meters and mics and aerials.

I dabbled in cb in 1980, borrowed a Universum walkie when I was 14 the first radio I got of my own was a 40AM Vice President Roy(not the one I have now) then traded up from there.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 8:14 am   #38
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My meagre collection of CB's are;

Harvard 420 x 2 The first of these was bought in 1983 as my only means of contact to shore as I could not afford a marine VHF radio for my boat. I soon got hooked and made many friends so got a second one to use in the car. I later converted one of these into a homebase CB inside a cabinet with speaker and PSU.

Realistic TRC1007 40c 27/81 handheld obtained around the same time as the Harvards.

Since bought a few "toy" handhelds with the idea of converting them to vintage handie talkies. But still have not got around to this.

Rotel RVC 240. bought cheap

CRT Superstar 6900N V6 this is my current radio I use, and repair frequently, although not for a while since I sorted out my aerials and earths. It seems this radio has zero tolerance to any stray static.

Midland 77-810UK Ready Rescue, Recently came across this for £4 at a boot sale. It is similar to the upside down Maxcom 7E Alert Mobile. (the Midland has the speaker at the top and the mic in the middle in the conventional way)

Midland Allan 48 plus, I have also recently bought one of these and resold it again rapidly. This radio had an annoying delay when you keyed the mic so your first word was not transmitted.

Communicator NI-440DX, bought as a scruffy cased CB resprayed serviced and sold on.

Danita 1240 UK, a cute little radio, which I sold on.

Jeson 88-900 home base, again sold this one as it annoyingly always came on to channel 9

Here is a Superstar 360FM that I have been repairing for a friend.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 8:42 am   #39
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I have to be honest and say I don't like the luminous green replacement panel, it would have to be the authentic 'brushed aluminium' look for me.

Can you still get replacement front panel inlays for certain Uniden radios? I know that for a while it was possible to get a complete refurb kit of knobs and front panel. I don't know if that is still the case.
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Old 7th Sep 2020, 10:44 am   #40
crackle
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I have to be honest and say I don't like the luminous green replacement panel, it would have to be the authentic 'brushed aluminium' look for me.
I tend to agree, the original aluminium panel was in fairly good condition.
Not quite sure why he wanted the green panel.
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