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Post by outlawmobile on May 29, 2008 10:16:47 GMT -5
Forgive me if this has been covered already.I didnt see the topic anywhere though and Im curious just how everyone got their start in radio.For me it started as a small child in the early to mid 70s.My Dad had a radio in the car and the house.Sometimes he would let me talk to his friends on the air,much like I do with my children now.Dad lost interest in the radio by the later 70s and the equipment dissappeared.Well around 1983 I found[to my surprise]Dad had all the radio equipment tucked away in the back of a closet.With a little begging on my part I was able to talk him into letting me set up a base station with the now antiquated ;D 23 channel gear.The setup consisted of a Midland[dont remember the model]23 channel mobile radio running off of a little 3 or 4 amp power supply,running to of all things an old Hustler mobile antenna.The one with the ceramic load in the middle,only maybe 30 inches long overall.This antenna was clipped to the metal gutter of the house.Boy when I look back on it now I gotta laugh,but at the time I thought I had quite the setup.Believe it or not I actually managed to get out fairly well with my meager setup.Several friends in the area had radios and growing up in Tylersport I was only a couple miles from the turnpike so if none of my friends were around I would talk to the truckers up and down the pike.I lost interest in the radio probably around 1988 and didnt return until around 1998/99 This time when the bug hit me I met some good guys,Lowkey and Nighthawk who were way more advanced than me.They introduced me to things like ssb,extra channels and amplifiers.Well to say the least this time I am hooked for good I think.I just keep finding different facets of the hobby to get involved in,like my latest fascination with the classic rigs.I love it because it kind of takes me back to a time when life was a lot more simple and easier.So anyway thats my cb radio story,lets hear yours.Wanderer
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Post by Tinker53 on May 29, 2008 11:14:54 GMT -5
Well, I'm sure there are a lot better stories than mine, but I had a CB radio in the 70's, though it was a passing thing and not really a hobby. I knew a bunch of guys where we all had customized vans and a CB radio HAD to be part of the decor.
So I only talked with truckers and my friends back than.
A little while ago, like maybe two years ago, I was cleaning out the attic, found my old radio and thought I'd try it out. It still worked pretty well, though the antenna was old and rusty. Got a new antenna and off I went.
This year, and around March, I joined "Grumpy's Gang" with not a clue of anything, really. Then I began listening in on the CRR most of the time, and as the days went on, and I continued reading about all the different aspects of radio, it began to have a luring kind of effect, and now I'm hooked. I truly had no idea radio would ever be my number one hobby.
So I'm still learning....and still enjoying it all! The great bunch of folks here helps greatly! ;D
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Post by djrebel on May 29, 2008 11:39:14 GMT -5
i was born into it, there were always a cb n a scanner at my house at all times...Dj
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 29, 2008 17:53:09 GMT -5
I started with a JC Penney walkie talkie that I got for Christmas around 1965, had channel 14 in it.
Tombstone
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Post by hillbilly1987 on May 29, 2008 19:04:49 GMT -5
well i got interested from my friends cb and what we could do with it and well here i am and now i got more friends LIKE YOU GUYS but ya i have been in it for about 6 years i think but i could be wrong becouse i cant really remember 73 redneck
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Post by doctor on May 29, 2008 19:49:38 GMT -5
I started in 1958 got a ham license, and still operate, got a cb license in 1961 and still operate. Got started by seeing a fellow talking on a radio from his car, and I asked him how can one do it, and I am still doing it<ha>, even did it as a career as a radio operator in the military coast guard and air force, for 22 years, and am still making contacts, its fun, and a great hobby
DOCTOR/795
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Post by 2IR473 on May 29, 2008 20:38:48 GMT -5
-I was a teenager in the mid-seventies. How could I avoid CB radio? Seemed like there was one in every car. -I saw Smokey & the Bandit in the movie theater when it first came out. -"Convoy" was a hit song on the AM dial. -"BJ & the Bear" was a poor excuse to get truckers and CB radios into the script of a TV show. - I thought getting stoned and tripping on people on the radio was a national past time. (hey, it was the '70s...everyone toked then). -There was no internet/unlimited access to porn in 1974, what else was a 16 y/o gonna do ? CB radio was how you picked up girls! Holy hell, how could I not have gotten into CB radio? The question is...why am I still into it???  |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
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Post by Sandbagger on May 29, 2008 21:33:26 GMT -5
Forgive me if this has been covered already.I didnt see the topic anywhere though and Im curious just how everyone got their start in radio.For me it started as a small child in the early to mid 70s.My Dad had a radio in the car and the house.Sometimes he would let me talk to his friends on the air,much like I do with my children now.Dad lost interest in the radio by the later 70s and the equipment dissappeared.Well around 1983 I found[to my surprise]Dad had all the radio equipment tucked away in the back of a closet.With a little begging on my part I was able to talk him into letting me set up a base station with the now antiquated ;D 23 channel gear.The setup consisted of a Midland[dont remember the model]23 channel mobile radio running off of a little 3 or 4 amp power supply,running to of all things an old Hustler mobile antenna.The one with the ceramic load in the middle,only maybe 30 inches long overall.This antenna was clipped to the metal gutter of the house.Boy when I look back on it now I gotta laugh,but at the time I thought I had quite the setup.Believe it or not I actually managed to get out fairly well with my meager setup.Several friends in the area had radios and growing up in Tylersport I was only a couple miles from the turnpike so if none of my friends were around I would talk to the truckers up and down the pike.I lost interest in the radio probably around 1988 and didnt return until around 1998/99 This time when the bug hit me I met some good guys,Lowkey and Nighthawk who were way more advanced than me.They introduced me to things like ssb,extra channels and amplifiers.Well to say the least this time I am hooked for good I think.I just keep finding different facets of the hobby to get involved in,like my latest fascination with the classic rigs.I love it because it kind of takes me back to a time when life was a lot more simple and easier.So anyway thats my cb radio story,lets hear yours.Wanderer Well, my full story can be found on my website or Here. In essence, the year was 1969 (Christmas) and I got a Sears 100 mW Base station radio with a tunable receiver and channel 14 transmit. When I started talking around the neighborhood and "DX" was 1/2 mile, I became hooked. 38 years have gone by and many things have changed, including a wealth of knowledge that I amassed from those years of experience, some patient guidance from some very knowledgeable people and some formal schooling as well. Classic Radio Roundup is just a radio operator's equivalent of a "mid-life" crisis, where we get nostalgic for those things that brought us pleasure in the past. Whenever I fire up one of my old classics, it brings back memories of the people and wacky activities that I did back in the 70's. |
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Post by Sniper..Unit 305 on May 30, 2008 1:04:26 GMT -5
Started in 1961. The neighbor owned a Lafayette franchise store and a friend and myself got into it at the suggestion of the neighbor with the store when he found out we were hanging out at the ship to shore station every night with the station operator. Just escalated from there into the beginning of 1980 and then off the air until this past winter.
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Post by spitfire441 on May 30, 2008 4:48:21 GMT -5
-I was a teenager in the mid-seventies. How could I avoid CB radio? Seemed like there was one in every car. -I saw Smokey & the Bandit in the movie theater when it first came out. -"Convoy" was a hit song on the AM dial. -"BJ & the Bear" was a poor excuse to get truckers and CB radios into the script of a TV show. - I thought getting stoned and tripping on people on the radio was a national past time. (hey, it was the '70s...everyone toked then). -There was no internet/unlimited access to porn in 1974, what else was a 16 y/o gonna do ? CB radio was how you picked up girls! Holy hell, how could I not have gotten into CB radio? The question is...why am I still into it??? OMG! that almost exactly echos my experince/influence as well as a smattering of Sanbaggers and everyone else. Very similar experience. CB was THE fad at the time. Started w/ walkie talkies in the nieghborhood around 1973. I was 8 at that time. I even started with a Golden Scissors, I thought I could talk louder and hear better if I made those little speaker holes bigger! Well I killed it. That was my first tech job, replaceing the speaker,lol. First base was dads in 1974. 23 channel Fannon base on RatShack 5/8 ground plane and a D104. We were a big and loud base in the neighborhood then. Dad had a mobile rig also and we used to ride around on our bicycles and scope out gas stations and report back to Dad on the base w/ our walkie talkies b4 he would go out in the car. He would even play police dispatch game w/ us and the neighborhood kids. I could carry this for a book but you get the idea. |
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Post by Tinker53 on May 30, 2008 6:51:48 GMT -5
Gee, you know? I forgot about the wax cups and string. And we figured if you use cups, the sound would bounce out easier, so we used funnels with antennas attached...like the rabbit ear type. We also used fishing line because we wanted to get so far away from each other, that we couldn't cheat. BUT....."we still heard each other" from one end of a football field to another.  Ahh yes....the mind of a child! I believe I'm reverting back to that.....but forgetting much more this time around....  |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on May 30, 2008 7:50:08 GMT -5
-I was a teenager in the mid-seventies. How could I avoid CB radio? Seemed like there was one in every car. -I saw Smokey & the Bandit in the movie theater when it first came out. -"Convoy" was a hit song on the AM dial. -"BJ & the Bear" was a poor excuse to get truckers and CB radios into the script of a TV show. - I thought getting stoned and tripping on people on the radio was a national past time. (hey, it was the '70s...everyone toked then). -There was no internet/unlimited access to porn in 1974, what else was a 16 y/o gonna do ? CB radio was how you picked up girls! Holy hell, how could I not have gotten into CB radio? The question is...why am I still into it??? Paul, Where did you live when you did your "teenaged" CB'ing? If it was in the Montco are, I would be surprised if we didn't cross paths at one time or another. I was a rather "prolific" CB'er back then..... |
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Post by 2IR473 on May 30, 2008 21:38:46 GMT -5
I lived in the Abington area when I was a teen, but went to school in Philadelphia. We could purchase quarts of beer at bars in Germantown for 2-3x the normal price. The consumption of alcohol certainly contributed to the "spirited" exchanges on the CB radio. In fact, I just recalled an interesting incident back around 1975, while mobile in a friend's AMC Gremlin  , where an argument on the radio led to a chase down RT. 309, culminating in a fight between 3 of us vs. 3 Springfield HS students, right on Cheltenham Ave, in front of the old Gimbel's dept. store. When someone pulled out a tire iron, it was time to go. Radio & alcohol could sure get you into trouble. But I spent most of my radio time operating from my 1970 Nova or my then-best friend's 1974 Chevy Malibu wagon, driving around the Abington, Huntingdon Valley, N.E. Philly area. Lots of N.E. Philly girls on the CB radio back in the day, and they were....easy ! ;D After I graduated in '76, I got away from CB until the mid 80's, when I got a pair of SSB radios, a Cobra 146 and a 142. I bought my first house in Hatboro, and talked with a SSB group on Ch. 39. Later on, I moved to Schwenksville and started talking to the guys on 37, Al, Ron, Tim, Skippack Rob, George (no longer active), Quakertown Rob, Rich (the guy that worked on everyone's radios), and of course, Stewart Hell, there used to be some good fights on the air when Stewart was on. Damn...and now it is 2008. Where the hell did the time go? |
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Post by spitfire441 on May 31, 2008 4:53:56 GMT -5
Paul I think you may have cruzed right on by my childhood home. Susquehanna st right in front of the high school. But I think you would have paid me no mind, I was 10 in 1975.
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**GRUMPY**
Administrator/The Boss
Classic Radio Operator Olde Timer 8220 [/color][/center]
"The King of Ping"
Posts: 4,342
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Post by **GRUMPY** on May 31, 2008 6:20:31 GMT -5
-I was a teenager in the mid-seventies. How could I avoid CB radio? Seemed like there was one in every car. -I saw Smokey & the Bandit in the movie theater when it first came out. -"Convoy" was a hit song on the AM dial. -"BJ & the Bear" was a poor excuse to get truckers and CB radios into the script of a TV show. - I thought getting stoned and tripping on people on the radio was a national past time. (hey, it was the '70s...everyone toked then). -There was no internet/unlimited access to porn in 1974, what else was a 16 y/o gonna do ? CB radio was how you picked up girls! Holy hell, how could I not have gotten into CB radio? The question is...why am I still into it???
You're to old to pick up women now
You watched all the porn flicks
You got stoned way to many times that your brain cells are fried
Now... you're just Mov'in On ;D |
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**GRUMPY**
Administrator/The Boss
Classic Radio Operator Olde Timer 8220 [/color][/center]
"The King of Ping"
Posts: 4,342
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Post by **GRUMPY** on May 31, 2008 6:31:27 GMT -5
I got started in Jan. of 1972. My step dad was a trucker and I would sit a listen to the CB in his truck. I was 10 years old when I started. My first base station was a Realistic TRC 30A, Archer 1/4 wave Ground Plane and a Turner Super Sidekick microphone. The first CB that was bought for the truck was a Lafayette Telsat 150 and a Antenna Specialist Big Momma antenna.
Way to many radios to post of what I had or have, but it is in the hundreds since then ;D
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Post by 2IR473 on May 31, 2008 7:03:39 GMT -5
Probably only went by there about...a million times. I used to frequent the Radio Shack that was on Old York Rd. down the road a bit from the hospital. It was next to the Sears store, and I seem to remember there was a Woolworth's dept store in that shopping center... oh no...memories rushing in...flashbacks to the past...feelings I had suppressed... |
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Post by 2IR473 on May 31, 2008 7:16:12 GMT -5
Hey Grumpy, you're right about the dead brain cells... was Movin' On another trucker show? It sounds familiar but I can't pull it out for all the heterodyne in my brain |
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Post by BionicChicken on May 31, 2008 8:01:13 GMT -5
I got my first radio in '75 although I had been talking for about 7 years "bootlegging". It was like Grumpy's, a Realistic TRC 30A. Had it hooked to a A/S Starduster on a 40' pushup pole. Next came the Turner +2 and then the Maverick 250. It kinda' snowballed from there and within the next 6 months had 70' of tower with a Moonraker 4, SBE Console II, JB 150 driving the Maverick driving a Heathkit SB 220. Many all nighters with massive quantities of Miller Ponies (back then) and other brain cell killing items.
CB Jamborees and coffee breaks were the greatest back then. You could meet everyone you talked to and stay away from some of the ones you kept p*ssed off on the radio. Tables and tables of radios of all description and the amplifiers.................so many you would drool till you had the "cottonmouth".
Those were the days.........I am honored to have been in the middle of them.
Too many CB'ers these days will never know how much fun radio can be.
BC
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**GRUMPY**
Administrator/The Boss
Classic Radio Operator Olde Timer 8220 [/color][/center]
"The King of Ping"
Posts: 4,342
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Post by **GRUMPY** on May 31, 2008 9:34:58 GMT -5
Hey Grumpy, you're right about the dead brain cells... was Movin' On another trucker show? It sounds familiar but I can't pull it out for all the heterodyne in my brain Yep, staring Claude Atkins |
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Post by spitfire441 on May 31, 2008 10:37:18 GMT -5
Probably only went by there about...a million times. I used to frequent the Radio Shack that was on Old York Rd. down the road a bit from the hospital. It was next to the Sears store, and I seem to remember there was a Woolworth's dept store in that shopping center... oh no...memories rushing in...flashbacks to the past...feelings I had suppressed... I used to dumpster dive the heck outta that Rat Shack on Old York rd. Man what booty for a kid in those days. I shoulda took that big ol tube tester when they tossed it. Crap. |
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on May 31, 2008 10:57:40 GMT -5
I lived in the Abington area when I was a teen, but went to school in Philadelphia. We could purchase quarts of beer at bars in Germantown for 2-3x the normal price. The consumption of alcohol certainly contributed to the "spirited" exchanges on the CB radio. In fact, I just recalled an interesting incident back around 1975, while mobile in a friend's AMC Gremlin , where an argument on the radio led to a chase down RT. 309, culminating in a fight between 3 of us vs. 3 Springfield HS students, right on Cheltenham Ave, in front of the old Gimbel's dept. store. When someone pulled out a tire iron, it was time to go. Radio & alcohol could sure get you into trouble. But I spent most of my radio time operating from my 1970 Nova or my then-best friend's 1974 Chevy Malibu wagon, driving around the Abington, Huntingdon Valley, N.E. Philly area. Lots of N.E. Philly girls on the CB radio back in the day, and they were....easy ! ;D After I graduated in '76, I got away from CB until the mid 80's, when I got a pair of SSB radios, a Cobra 146 and a 142. I bought my first house in Hatboro, and talked with a SSB group on Ch. 39. Later on, I moved to Schwenksville and started talking to the guys on 37, Al, Ron, Tim, Skippack Rob, George (no longer active), Quakertown Rob, Rich (the guy that worked on everyone's radios), and of course, Stewart Hell, there used to be some good fights on the air when Stewart was on. d**n...and now it is 2008. Where the hell did the time go? Ok, so you weren't in my local "circle of influence". But I remember a few people from out that way. The first was the infamous "Pat Jacoby" who operated in the early to mid 70's. Pat had a very effeminate sounding voice and was a magnet for trouble (in much the same way as Stewart). He also ran a good bit of power, so he was heard rather well even in my neck of the woods. I don't know if you remember any of the "KMA" or "ARCO" guys from channel 4 who all ran "big" power. If you weren't a member of the "club" or didn't have a big signal, they didn't let you talk there. My first base radio came from one of those guys by the handle of "Zip Code". Most of those guys are now hams and I run into them occasionally on 146.58 As far as girls went, there were never many of them on the radio in my area. And of those who were on, most of them were.... er...ah.... "less than attractive". Most of our "fights" tended to take place over the air. I don't ever recall any truly physical confrontations. Most of those happened before I was of driving age anyway. I used to talk to a couple of guys out in Hatboro in the mid 90's on the way to and from work. One guy had a PDL over on Horsham Road right about here. These guys were on AM though. I remember the days when Stewart used to hang on channel 10. He used to mix it up with all sorts of mental midgets. Stewart's tendancy toward pontification used to attract these guys like a moth to flame. Watch out Paul, those old buried memories will come back to the surface and you'll remember things you haven't thought about in many years. Next thing you know, you'll be looking for an old 70 Nova and the same radio you use to run...... ;D ;D |
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on May 31, 2008 11:27:52 GMT -5
Probably only went by there about...a million times. I used to frequent the Radio Shack that was on Old York Rd. down the road a bit from the hospital. It was next to the Sears store, and I seem to remember there was a Woolworth's dept store in that shopping center... oh no...memories rushing in...flashbacks to the past...feelings I had suppressed... I used to dumpster dive the heck outta that Rat Shack on Old York rd. Man what booty for a kid in those days. I shoulda took that big ol tube tester when they tossed it. Crap. I have many old Radio Shack memories. Like having a handful of the "Battery of the month" club cards and never having to buy batteries. Then there were the "lifetime" tubes that they used to sell. I bought a set of 6JG6's for my Contex amplifier, and beat the snot out of them. Then when they'd get soft, I'd hook the filaments up to a variable voltage power supply and crank it up until the filament opened (The tube lit up like a lightbulb). Then I'd take them back to the store and get a replacement set for free. Back in early 1974, the Radio Shack in King of Prussia had a fire. After the fire, one of the other locals (who could drive) and I went behind the store looking for fire damaged stuff in the dumpster. While we didn't find anything as cool as a radio (boy would that have been great!), we did find a sleeve full of 102" fiberglass whips. Since I didn't yet have a car or even a base radio, the other guy took them all ( I think there were 5 or 6 in all). Yea the memories are flowing now. Maybe I'll have enough for a new story for the website..... |
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Post by Marc on Mar 12, 2009 17:57:52 GMT -5
Well It was Oct. 1974 one week before Halloween. I remember it because we had just moved from California to Maine (North east Maine) my father and I went into a Radio Shack store it was one of the franchise type and there on the shelf were a line of Browning Radios!!! Well I could not afford one of the Base radios
but the Brownie and a 1/4 Wave ant and a power supply cleaned me out from my summer job. Well A friend of my fathers knew how to setup a station(he was a communications officer in the Air force ) so he came over and set it up for me. To say the least I was hooked I found out in that part of Maine there were quite a few stations. And on Halloween night I found out why, by 11:30 am the next day there was 3 Feet of snow on the ground, It never melted just got deeper and deeper.
That winter I probably put a good 25,000.00 miles of the first 100,000 on that Browning. Not much you can do on them long COLD(down to around -70 with wind chill) winter days.
Marc
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 13, 2009 7:13:27 GMT -5
Well It was Oct. 1974 one week before Halloween. I remember it because we had just moved from California to Maine (North east Maine) my father and I went into a Radio Shack store it was one of the franchise type and there on the shelf were a line of Browning Radios!!! Well I could not afford one of the Base radios but the Brownie and a 1/4 Wave ant and a power supply cleaned me out from my summer job. Well A friend of my fathers knew how to setup a station(he was a communications officer in the Air force ) so he came over and set it up for me. To say the least I was hooked I found out in that part of Maine there were quite a few stations. And on Halloween night I found out why, by 11:30 am the next day there was 3 Feet of snow on the ground, It never melted just got deeper and deeper. That winter I probably put a good 25,000.00 miles of the first 100,000 on that Browning. Not much you can do on them long COLD(down to around -70 with wind chill) winter days. Marc The mid 70's was a great time to get into CB. 1974 was the year I first rose above the 1 watt walkie-talkies and into a full powered 23 channel radio. A lot of teenagers seemed to "discover" CB back then and we always had a group to talk with. It sure made those long winter days and nights go by that much quicker by having the radio there to keep in touch with friends. |
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Post by gator7 on Mar 20, 2009 11:24:41 GMT -5
I am showing my age here. I started before channel 11 was the Trucker Channel. My dad got me started in 64 or 65. We had a courier 23 base. I got hooked on CB & HAM radio ever since. In Connecticut we had a couple of CB clubs. Mine was Marc IV at the time. I think I may have been a member of another as I got older. Can't remember. (CRS) Down here in Central FL, The CB hobby is going strong. Lots of Browning owners. I may have helped get that started. 73's, and good CBing.  |
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simple
Mudduck
"..Don't forget son, there is someone up above..."
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Post by simple on Apr 19, 2009 0:38:55 GMT -5
I'm still real new here, but I like to talk.
Dad had a Teaberry somethin in the car I think, I was real young, 5 or younger and Papaw had a Teaberry Dispatch in the house. I was always wanting to talk on the radios. That was in the mid and late 80's, and my cousin was also a truck driver for Coleman Dairy and on a lot of Friday nights my Dad and I would ride with him on one of his trips to Little Rock and back, it was about 3 hours of heaven for me in the big truck and my cousin let me talk on the radio most of the trip usually. We also visited my Papaw's brother a lot more often back then and he had a real nice radio (which is now my radio since his passing, if I can get it going again) a Cobra 2000 GTL with the ALL the good stuff, including a Silver Eagle in mint.
All at once in the late late 80's Dad and Papaw got rid of their radios, so that cut back on my access, but when I turned 16 in 98, my grandma got me a TRC 435 and a friends dad gave me 102 in whip, and installed it for me. I was king, I finally had my own radio, in my own truck, and talked all the time, had friend in school that had a radio in his truck too, and he introduced me to a guy who could "really make 'em talk." Few years and radios went by, and that guy who made em talk started teaching me the trade, and my enthusiasm exploded.
one other detail I have to throw in is I've been married for 7 years now, since I was 19, and I met her at age 17, over the radio, guess that's why I kept my first radio, as cheesy as it is.
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, where an argument on the radio led to a chase down RT. 309, culminating in a fight between 3 of us vs. 3 Springfield HS students, right on Cheltenham Ave, in front of the old Gimbel's dept. store. When someone pulled out a tire iron, it was time to go.
