CB Radio

Gabs · Aug 23, 2024

Just seeing how many people use a CB rig in there buses and if so what are your handle names. We did a cruise to Skeg Vegas and a couple of the guys were using some hand sets.
I had a CB in the late 80’s and it was a buzz speaking to all different people.

Gabs….

YellowBay69 · Aug 23, 2024

Ha !!!! was a MASSIVE CB fan in early 80s. It was our Facebook/Tiktok/whatsapp.
I have bought the exact same CB I had then (Harvard 402mpa) getting it out the box and changing channel etc brought back sooo many memories.
My handle was Squonk.
Love it … 10-4 good buddies.

ozziedog · Aug 24, 2024

I’ve been looking at the pre set kits so you can’t funk the VSWR up. As with these vans it’s a bit tricky anyway getting a good ratio unless you have a tin top. Just been trolling through what’s available nowadays on eBay etc and these miniature sets have a straight forty channels on U.K. FM and a straight forty set on Euro AM. The range will of course be limited but only by the antenna versus ground plane set up but they’re still four watts output. A complete ready to rock set up with a miniature eighty channel rig is about sixty five quid including the mike and a pre tuned mag mount antenna. So connect to live and earth , hang your rig somewhere, pop your mag mount on the roof and you is good to go. For sixty five quid it might be the best bit of fun. You can bang loads of extras on, but for what we want in convoys it should be spot on. The only extra I might consider is a remote speaker that you can hear a bit better when at sixtyish and all four cylinders are giving it what for. I’d be a bit reluctant to buy a second hand one as they’re so easy to break by keying the mike without a sorted antenna or a dummy load on it.
Back in the day with the AM stuff I was the Wizard Of Oz on the CB and Whiskey Oscar Oscar when I was DXing all over the place. I regularly used a sideband set up with a thousand watts amplifier with about four car batteries in an old transit. For extra output I had a twenty seven foot Avanti sigma antenna mounted on a scaffold tube poking through the roof. I would surf the ionosphere sometimes called the skip for hours when the conditions were right and you could get anywhere in the world but you didn’t have a lot of control of where you were contacting. When you contacted someone you would send confirmation cards called Q Cards over to them and they’d send one back to you.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,CQ,,CQ,,CQ,,CQDX,,CQDX,, This is Whiskey Oscar,,,

YellowBay69 · Aug 24, 2024

Great days … I too had a base station and 36’ aerial!!! Don’t know how my parents let me get away with it. With 1000watt amp I would knock out all the tvs in the area when I was on.
I once set up a directional antenna pointing at a young lady I had a crush on … just so we could talk all night without losing signal.
Halcyon days of eyeballs , events bbq’s and driving around in car convoys. Even organised a treasure hunt with the car group. We won … but we were in a 3.5 V8 Rover SD1 and vaguely recall tearing across the local park to get ahead !!
Wow lots of great memories coming back… thanks.

Gabs · Aug 24, 2024

I also had a Quick Look on Amazon & EBay and as Ozzie mentioned there good for a convoy with keeping a conversation going but would definitely benefit from a internal speaker as I can’t hear much at 55

luckily I got a Tin Top

ozziedog · Aug 24, 2024

Gabs said:
I also had a Quick Look on Amazon & EBay and as Ozzie mentioned there good for a convoy with keeping a conversation going but would definitely benefit from a internal speaker as I can’t hear much at 55 luckily I got a Tin Top

I’m pretty sure a remote speaker is just a plug in the back of it and hang it up on the knob by your seatbelt mount. The P.A.s were quite good fun too and we used to have a laugh with them.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,Wots your 20?

67panel · Aug 24, 2024

Come on good buddy, have a load of UK FM sets and accessories for sale next weekend at the local car show as I have an auto jumble stand, K70 ,mag mount ,ball speaker and all the gauges. Silent Runner, catch you on the flip flop.

fallingoffalot · Aug 24, 2024

I'm going to have to get me a CB! Dabbled with them the 80s mainly just to chat to mates without getting told off for wracking up the phone bill, one of my mates had a massive, police station style, antenna on his house, I can only assume his dad was into it as well.

67panel · Aug 24, 2024

Well if they dont sell at the weekend there is some up for grabs cheap

gas1man · Aug 24, 2024

I have one ready to be installed, just need somebody(Oz

) to help set up the aerial.

J & P

67panel · Aug 24, 2024

You need a (cant remember the name) meter for that.

sparkywig · Aug 24, 2024

67panel said:
You need a (cant remember the name) meter for that.

SWR meter
They're about £20 these days.

ozziedog · Aug 24, 2024

gas1man said:
I have one ready to be installed, just need somebody(Oz) to help set up the aerial.

J & P

I can do that for you bud no problems if you can borrow a VSWR meter from anywhere. You still need to to check it out even if the antenna is untuneable or preset as some of the firesticks were back in the day. I dont have anything like that any more. I did notice that a lot of the sets in a kit had a preset antenna that was already tuned. So just don’t key the mike without the ariel plugged in. Maybe that’s not an issue nowadays with more modern sets, a fail safe shouldn’t be a serious issue if they wanted too during manufacturing.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,Anyone got a meter ?

sparkywig · Aug 24, 2024

I've got one, but it's probably in a load of stuff at my Mum's house.

Martin L · Aug 24, 2024

I have one fitted to mine from when I brought it. Never used it. It is a Radiomobile CB 202. Might plug it in Mon and see if I get anything.

Favguy · Aug 25, 2024

Are CB's hands free these days? I'd assume if you're still going to be using the hand held speaker thingy, it'll be 6 points and a £100 fine under the current law, same as using a mobile.

Gabs · Aug 25, 2024

From Mr Google…

In the United Kingdom, it is legal to use a two-way radio while driving, as long as the device is properly installed and does not cause a distraction to the driver.

Favguy · Aug 25, 2024

Gabs said:
From Mr Google…

In the United Kingdom, it is legal to use a two-way radio while driving, as long as the device is properly installed and does not cause a distraction to the driver.

Hmm... when one of those new fangled cameras photographs a CB handset in use, thinking it's a mobile, I'm pretty sure they'll just use the distraction whilst driving argument against the user. I just can't see plod being OK with it at all today. If they are, it makes a complete mockery of the phone ban. Answering a ringing phone is no different to speaking into a CB handset.

JLT · Aug 25, 2024

I've always used CBs in my buses. (My handle is JLT, btw.) I find it mostly useful here in the US for when there's a huge stoppage on the freeway somewhere and you want to know what other drivers... particularly truckers... are saying about causes, potential detour possibilities, and such.While most truckers use mobile phones these days, the phones aren't any good when you want to reach a maximum number for people in the immediate area. So there's still a place for CB radios.

When I was a hang gliding instructor back in the 1970s, it was very useful. I often had to escort a contingent of up to ten cars from our shop to a training hill up to sixty miles away, over mostly back roads. So I'd find a car that had a CB and put it at the tail end of our motorcade. That way, we could keep everybody together.

When I'm on the road with other CB-equipped buses, we use channel 2 (for "Type 2").

ozziedog · Aug 25, 2024

Favguy said:
Hmm... when one of those new fangled cameras photographs a CB handset in use, thinking it's a mobile, I'm pretty sure they'll just use the distraction whilst driving argument against the user. I just can't see plod being OK with it at all today. If they are, it makes a complete mockery of the phone ban. Answering a ringing phone is no different to speaking into a CB handset.

I’m a hundred percent sure that it’s totally legal to use a two way transceiver in a motor vehicle otherwise all the police would have to book each other when driving solo. It’s still a bit of a grey area about the licensing bit as that was supposed to be overhauled but not sure exactly what happened. Someone can Google it, I’m sure

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, Not sure if the FM can skip on the ionosphere

CB Radio

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