CB Radio - back in the day!

I first 'discovered' radio communications via CB radio back in the late 1970's courtesy of some schoolfriends who had the good old AM system imported from America and hearing about the chats, the meets/'eyeballs', the wind-ups and 'shooting skip' to talk to people in America sounded fantastic. My chance to get onto the bands was not until 1982 when I finally obtained a radio and antenna for the recently (1981) legalised UK FM system. Unfortunately the hobby had changed somewhat by then but there was still fun to be had (other than when my transmissions would break through Dad's hi-fi or his Betamax video recorder of course!!!!).

Fidelity CB 2000 FM

My first rig was a Fidelity 2000 which I had been craving for absolutely ages (I used to carry a crumpled leaflet (colour version of the advert below) with all the technical specs in my school bag as well as a copy of the 'Fidelity Guide to Legal CB '!!), (relatively recent acquisition has been a good condition Fidelity 2000 with 'popping' squelch modification and additional Euro FM mid band fitted and a Turner JM/2+U microphone, what a blast from the past! - see separate page). The cartoon below was from a CB mag of the time (that I still have - 'CB82') and always prompted a smile!

It was the Fidelity or a Cybernet Beta 2000 which had been in an electronics shop window for absolutely ages in Newton Abbot (another schoolfriend, Peter 'Small Bore' bought that one later on - see below). You could also then buy either of the Cybernet Beta 1000 or the Beta 3000 from Ford Cars, they briefly appeared in the Ford cars brochure (being badged as Ford Roadmaster 500 and 505 CB's) and the garage in Newton Abbot had a display with both rigs in a perspex cabinet on the service department reception desk. The service manager actually demonstrated his 505/3000 to me, it was mounted under the dashboard of a mk4 Cortina estate as I remember!

Cybernet Beta 2000

Ford Roadmaster 500 and 505

By the time I had my rig I was living in Ivybridge (Creeper town) and set up initially with a mobile base load antenna and ground plane in my parents loft. The rig was good but had the annoying Cybernet 'thing' of a squelch circuit closing with a 'whoosh' (even when the volume was down!) but worked well with a handheld ALTAI power microphone and even with the indoor basic antenna could get me a good range of well in excess of 12 miles (well into nearby Plymouth and down into the South Hams). I was really bitten by the bug though when about the first day I used it a sudden burst of sporadic E opened up and I found myself talking to a very nice lady dubbing herself the 'Highland Dancer' in Kircudbright in Scotland!! She sent me a postcard and very nice note as a QSL. That would have been late June/July 1982, the Es conditions were quite good and I ended up with a healthy list of contacts up and down the country (and the QSL cards to confirm them). I went as far as buying a FM/AM Commtron 8 from a friend for a tenner and that opened up more possiblities with mid band AM/FM contacts into Europe and some more QSL cards from further afield but there was of course the ever-present interference from the 'sidebanders' who were having a much better time immediately below the AM/FM transmissions. As an old clunker though it worked pretty well and the princely sum of a fiver got the Hi band frequencies shifted to align with the UK channels though only on about 26 channels as I recall using (by now) a DV27 (followed by a DX27!) on the loft based ground plane.

Anyway 'swoopy/popping' squelch circuits and an advert on the back of 'Breaker on the Side - the British Breakers mag' (BOTS for short) showing a Uniden 100 'portable ready pack' with antenna mount for a DV27 and battery housing prompted some action and the poor old Fidelity (now 'peaked to give 10 watts/2.5 watts output) was traded in for a new Uniden Uniace 100 (below) courtesy of the 'Sir Lancelot CB Centre' in St. Judes in Plymouth (a lot of people had the larger but basically the same Uniden 200). A tiny but punchy little rig, it suffered from poor/slightly muffled transmitted audio with the standard microphone but this was sorted out when I swapped the mic for a President AR144 microphone and latterly a Leson TW232 desk microphone (see below). I never bought the 'portable ready pack' which was a shame, it would be sorting out the Yaesu FT857d as a portable unit about 30 years later before I'd get around to that!!

I did get a portable radio though, a Harvard 40 channel FM handheld with nicads and leatherette case and shoulder strap and it was entertaining to take it up onto Western Beacon near home at Ivybridge and speak to people in Plymouth and Cornwall with only a couple of watts and a 'rubber duck' antenna. In my case the predecessor to the FT290r and FT817 I guess! Visiting Plymouth in 2019 there was a secondhand one for sale in RadioParts for £20, tempting but decided against it! I also looked at a Binatone Long Ranger but to be honest it looked a bit dated and whilst it offered the full 4 watts power output would have drained batteries in no time flat!

Harvard 410T (above)

(the lower two images courtesy of Carl at http://howtocbradio.com)

Having been bitten by the bug as it were I managed to obtain a clean low mileage 'sidebander' of dubious UK legality (of course) - smuggled in through Heathrow Airport I believe. I bought a 40 channel AM/USB/LSB President AR144 from 'Crazy Horse' for 50 quid (it had funky green, orange and red diodes for the mode selector) and within a day or two I was talking to people in locations as diverse as Italy, Germany, Spain, the Azores and America also having upgraded the antenna 'system' to a quarter wave horizontal aluminium dipole in the loft and the ground plane now used for a vertically polarised base loaded 'The Modulator" mobile antenna, so good I still have one kicking around for 10 metres!! And all with 12 watts SSB courtesy of some halfway decent sunspot activity in the early 80's. Wow! Well, others were getting their Cobra 148's/Superstar's and NATO 2000's by then but there simply wasn't the cash! It was also nice to chat to the locals on SSB and there was a regular net in Plymouth (Port City) on channel 37 mid USB where Sheila 'VP19' in St. Judes in Plymouth (using a President McKinley) and various others would just drop in during the day to say 'hi' and to rag chew (occasionally with Adolfo from Naples in Italy calling in just to say 'hello'!!!

I remember some of the locals who had their 'big rigs' for instance 'Prince Charming' in Ivybridge had a NATO 2000 (below) sold as a 'legal' 40 channel rig and stamped as such until you took the back off and switched two components to open up another 4 bands of channels on FM/AM/USB/LSB/CW and activated the 10kc shift. Similarly 'Cockney Rebel' at nearby Lutton had a Superstar 360FM (also below) which was basically a Cobra 148GTL mk3 with the same bands and functionality as the NATO but all activated by plugging in a 3.5mm jack plug to a socket on the back of the rig! He had a monster 'Sigma IV' vertical antenna outside his house and I spent one very soggy Sunday afternoon there as his guest to use the rig and was in the chair for a net throughout south west England for a few hours! Others nearby included 'Iron Pumper' (Cobra 148 GTL Mk.3 with super lows and super hi's - he later graduated to a 27MHz modified Yaesu FT707 as below with a 6 foot roof mounted Avanti Moonraker and mag on his red Ford Escort mk2), 'Eagle Warrior', 'Short Circuit' and 'Atomic Rooster' also with Cobra's I think, 'Rubber Runner' with a HAM International Concorde (?), Patrick '70 Sandbagger 532' (he NEVER came on FM!) had a Lafayette, 'Shiftman' had a Tristar 777, 'Pinball Wizard' had a Tristar 747, 'Wildman' in Plymouth had all sorts but did have a fantastic new Petrusse Pacific 160 and 'Grasshopper' at South Brent bought a President Grant I'd been seriously interested in. Funny what you remember when you put your mind to it!!! 'Breaker on the Side' magazine always carried adverts for the NATO 2000 as well as the far more affordable and nice looking ('retro' before the word had even been invented?!) Stalker ST-9F DX each being imported via the Isle of Man due to a loophole in the law! This was the era when serious CB DX'ers would operate from the car hiding out in field gateways and lay-by's to ensure a quick getaway if 'Busby' came a calling (see the NATO 2000 photo!). A Sigma IV mysteriously appeared on a house down our road and the guy turned out to be a 'radio amateur' (maybe not!!) but did have a Colt multimode!

Modified Yaesu FT-707 - became a popular choice for serious DX'ing CB'ers with enough cash in the 80's

This was the stage when I dabbled with getting licensed as a radio amateur but other things took over and there was the thought that as a 'B' license, the 'more interesting' long distance HF bands would not be accessible anyway. Had I known then how much fun can be had with an FT290r VHF multimode with 2.5 watts and a homemade beam things may have been different but thats history! By this time (1983) I had started carrying around the FT290r brochure but I didn't get the rig until about 2007 (though I still have it!). It comes to those who wait I guess!

Anyway the legalised FM CB radio system was getting no better, too many idiots, small kids, music playing, dead keying and foul language and one day I announced in the middle of an evening net that I would be going QRT from CB radio and would not be coming back. I did exactly as I said, selling all the gear except for the President AR144 which I still had in its original box until just a few years ago. I did keep some accessories including a really good microphone (Leson TW232 - see below) 10/11m pre-amp, loads of co-ax and other odds and bits against the day I would get my license as I knew then I WOULD do it one day. Unfortunately all the gear has since disappeared one way or another and as I write this all I have left from then is a dud 3amp power supply and a roll of co-ax (with the moulded on PL259 from my very first base loaded antenna..., bizarre!!). I still used to listen to the AR144 (precisely twice I think) in the years between giving it up in about 1984 and finally getting licensed in 2005. One of those times was in a sunspot peak with some very strong signals but tons of noise all coming through from the cradle of CB, the good old U.S. of A!

I still listen in occasionally just for fun. Reg GJ3XZE gifted me an old Hy-Gain V - 2795DX 120 channel multimode (nice rig - see below) and I have a 10m only SSB rig in the car which tunes down to 26MHz! Listening on 27.555MHz (channel 52 High) is a good tell as to what the conditions are likely to offer in the significantly quieter and less used 10 metre band just up the dial. A slight aside, I was dead keen to have a Hy-Gain V when a sallow teenager, I was offered one for £120 at the Cattedown CB centre in Plymouth in 1983 and I tried one out in the Paignton CB shop at around that time and spoke to a Russian 'maritime mobile' station. Perhaps thats all part of the mystique and why it is still popular!

At a car boot sale (or Troc Puce) in Brittany I happened across an original early 80's silver fronted President Jackson 200 channel AM/FM/SSB rig for the princely sum of €25 including a mag mount mobile antenna (rig pictured below the Fidelity 2000 - just behind Fireman Grubb!!). It receives superbly but the transmit had a problem just transmitting a carrier/buzz in any mode but has now been fixed (see update on separate page). Its nice to have it and it makes a good 11m receiver and a good successor to the long since disappeared and lamented AR144.

But lets be dead honest about it, Amateur radio is now more accessible than ever with Foundation Licensing etc. and can give just so much more scope. You can use it as a kind of pseudo CB if you must but with the assistance of repeaters, or you can DX to pretty much anywhere in the world on a huge variety of bands. Add to that the variety of equipment, aerials, modes and types of operation and in my humble opinion you just cannot go wrong, maybe I'm biased though!

..., and an Audioline 341 (a Uniden 200 by another name!), had one in the attic at Rozel for a while but non-working, shame as a nice radio!

73 from 'Sundance Kid', 'Sierra Kilo 7', latterly 'Eagle 1', '26 Alpha Bravo 680', '26 Magna Carta 452' and '14 Charlie Tango 009' or '14 Tango Mike 009'.