Just wondering, as I used to have one in an old car, whether anyone still uses Citizen's Band radio (in a car, rather than base station)

ATB

Simon

CB seems to have pretty much died out, being replaced by PMR446, which seems to be gaining in popularity, more for communicating in convoys than a general communications mechanism.

PMR446 are those cheap handheld walkie-talkies you can get in Argos et al for about £25 for a pair.

Cheers
Richard

I'm pretty sure the original CB radios are illegal to use now, they were superceded by a new band/frequency/whatever and no-one bought the new ones[1]

[1]All barely-remembered hearsay and rumour

Not sure about the uk, but here in the US CB's are making a comeback recently. My parents always had a CB in every car they owned, and when I got my first car I bought one too. 10 years later I'm still entertained by it. It used to be only truckers, but over the past 2 years I find more people using them.

I bought some of those argos things and on the whole I was quite impressed by them, the range is a bit poor but other than that they're not too bad for your money. I like the idea of CB though.

I was into it in the late seventies when it was the illegal 27MHz AM units. I had a 100w linear amp (std output was 4w IIRC) and a multi channel unit (Upper and Lower sidebands). Use to cruise the Somerset lanes at night in my mates Frogeye Sprite with this setup. As soon as the legal FM came along (very limited range) it died out. On AM it was possible to talk all over the world when weather conditions permitted and you had a decent aerial+amp. When I look back we were a sad bunch!

I used to do a spot of C.B.ing when i was a kid. Everyone had them in the Midlands and we were entertined for hours. No-one uses them on the South Coast though. I've still got it somewhere.

just recently I found out from a current cb user the old AM rigs (like we all had in the 70s are now very,very illegal and use of them carries a very big fine, the latest are FM and are just as powerfull same price as 70s £65 will get you started apparently cb is still allive and kicking with truckers and farmers.....cheers 10-10

apparently if you turn them up really high it can interfere with the electronics inside fuel pumps and either makes the price go up really high at which point you say to the guy in the station the meters not working i only put in £10 worth

or it puts it really low and you get £70 of petrol for say £5

atleast thats what his dad used to do

Best thing about the cb is that the truckers ahead of you are usually kind enough to let you know which mile marker the police are running a speed trap from, makes it very easy to speed with out worries of getting a ticket. The police here arent nice enough to permanently mount a speed camera that never moves, they just plop their cars down where ever they feel like it.

My mates dad (not the frogeye-owning guy mentioned earlier) did r/c pylon racing with his expensive Weber engined models. On a maiden flight with his latest creation a CB interfered and locked his controls - plane just flew into the blue yonder never to be seen again. AM was all to do with allocations of frequencies. I remember that it used to bleed over amplifiers in adjacent cars, so whilst listening to your 8-track you could suddenly be an unwitting eavesdropper in a CB conversation. As for power, yes AM and FM both transmitted at 4w, but AM made better use of it and would reach much further.

Here in the Great South Land, I wouldn't travel without one.
Once you get used to the "colourful" language some of the truckies use, it's all good. Haven't been surprised by a radar, mobile patrol or cop bike on the highway in the past 5 years.

Great in emergencies as well.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kissy
On a maiden flight with his latest creation a CB interfered and locked his controls - plane just flew into the blue yonder never to be seen again. AM was all to do with allocations of frequencies. As for power, yes AM and FM both transmitted at 4w, but AM made better use of it and would reach much further.

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hehe well thats that then

So has anyone fitted one to their kitcar?

If yes, how did you go on getting a good groundplane for the antenna?

quote:

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Originally posted by wilkingj
Thats a bit strange, as the 4 spot frequencies used by R/C models are specifically removed from the old AM CB's at manufacture. If you look at the frequecy chart the are stepped over and missed out. unless the radio had been seriously modified those channels could not be transmitted on.

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Next door used to have an illegal one and it used to switch over our television and come in over the stereo when we were playing tapes so I asked them politely to stop using it.

Ahhh yes happy days Rubber duck and 1-9 for a copy etc.
I used to run them up and down Scotland in the early 80's and have been chased by the post office guys a couple of times.
A good time was had by us all if I remember. Anyways it's bedtime and working in the morning so 10 10 till I see you again

Side...

Pat...

eerrrrmmmmm,,,,,,Side In???? cccccchhhhrrrkkkkksssshshhh

P.S: Robocog - bit the bullet and fitted it in the end - an earth to chassis gave a 1.1swr, eventually...
...as long as the aerial was mounted above the rollcage, mounting it below caused the needle to hit the stops!