My Spew Radio Website....

[Sandbagger]

About a month ago, the ISP that I had been using for the last 18 or so years, including providing the space for personal websites, decided to do away with disk storage and personal websites. So my Spew Radio website went the way of the dinosaur early last month. Not wanting to pay for a webhosting site, I figured that was the end of the road for my 20+ year collection of CB and ham radio stuff (and boating stuff too!). But thanks to my good friend Night Ranger, the website is back up and being hosted on NR's server. So for those who may be missing the site, here's the new URL: spewradio.shadowstorm.com

[cbrown]

Glad you could find hosting! A big shout out to Night Ranger!!

[bobcat4109]

I, for one, really enjoyed looking through that.

Those were magical times... likely to never "be" again.   "Tech" has just advanced so much.  Cell phones make mobile comms easier with "family and friends".  The internet reaches the whole world with relative "ease".

I remember the times.....    every 3rd car you saw had and antenna.   If you keyed up... the likelihood of someone responding was pretty good.

Even now.....  2 m/70 cm  is a whole different world.   People will talk a bit while mobile.  People have nets ... there is a little bit of "rag chew" going on.  But after 9 or 10 at night.... it just shuts down.  Nothing going on.

I just recently stumbled on a local GMRS repeater output channel and have been listening in and it is "reminiscent" of the old days.   It seems that when I turn it on...  I find people talking MUCH more often than on ham VHF/UHF.

I just miss these days.

Bob

[Sandbagger]

Jan 10, 2024 17:56:03 GMT -5 bobcat4109 said:

I, for one, really enjoyed looking through that.

Those were magical times... likely to never "be" again.   "Tech" has just advanced so much.  Cell phones make mobile comms easier with "family and friends".  The internet reaches the whole world with relative "ease".

I remember the times.....    every 3rd car you saw had and antenna.   If you keyed up... the likelihood of someone responding was pretty good.

Even now.....  2 m/70 cm  is a whole different world.   People will talk a bit while mobile.  People have nets ... there is a little bit of "rag chew" going on.  But after 9 or 10 at night.... it just shuts down.  Nothing going on.

I just recently stumbled on a local GMRS repeater output channel and have been listening in and it is "reminiscent" of the old days.   It seems that when I turn it on...  I find people talking MUCH more often than on ham VHF/UHF.

I just miss these days.

Bob

I hear you.... Yep those days are long gone. Modern technologies have rendered 2 way radio superflous, and appealing only to old farts who grew up with it. I'm waiting for broadcast radio to die. With the music offerings found with streaming services, most "kids" (and anyone under 40 is a "kid" to me), listen to music on their phones. With decreasing listenership, and therefore advertising revenue, it's only a matter of time before stations start folding up. It'll be a shame to see.

Interesting that you are hearing interesting stuff on GMRS. That does seem to be gaining activity from what I've been hearing. It's never really been very popular in my neck of the woods. There are repeaters, but they aren't active all that much, and the ones that are have very short, bland, businees-like conversations on them, reminiscent of how CB was before the hobby users took over. On the other hand, the "blister pack users" on FRS/GMRS are all over the place. Mostly kids goofing around, occasional traffic construction workers, and local businesses. I don't see GMRS as a viable alternative to ham radio for guys looking to expand their hobby experiences. It's just too restrictive. Sure you don't have to take a test to get licensed, but in this day and age, practically anyone can pass the tech ham license test with a little studying. And even tech privileges grant you far more frequencies and modes than GMRS does. But to each his own I guess. It's all radio to me.

[bobcat4109]

I do tend to enjoy the "CB Radio Memory" type sites that pop up now and then.    Alas, you are right.   Those days.... those moods..... they are just gone forever.

It may sound silly, but I got my first CB after my father in law "caught the bug" in 1975 and my wife saw how nuts I was about his radio gear.    At our age she/we could not afford to set ME up like her dad.... but I really loved what I had.   Living up in Dallas at the time up just east of Hwy 75 and N. Fitzhugh in an apartment.  I had NO real understanding of RF at the time (although I WAS in an electronics school!!!)... but Ihad this cheesy little variable power supply that would not QUITE support 1 AMP of output.  It would work for RCV....but not transmit.  But that was okay... as I did not have an indoor antenna... just a "long wire".   But THAT would let me go to bed at night... with an earphone plugged in the EXT Speaker jack... and listen to the truck traffic of 1976..... live from Hwy 75 just three blocks away.  I couldn't talk back.... but I really liked to listen in.

When I could, I would put the radio back in the car, strap up the Turner Signal Kicker, and just sit in the sit talking to whoever I could hit on the freeway.

In a way, it felt like "magic" to me.   I was just at the beginning of my electronics adventure....so I didn't really know HOW it worked... but it was just magic to me.  Nowadays.... nothing is magic to kids growing up.   They are handed all of these "marvels of technology" before they even reach elementary school.    These things allow them to access the world from such an early age.... that the "simplicity" of talking on a simple CB radio...  has no interest or appeal to them.   You are very lucky indeed if you can find a young one interested in communications radio.   Why do that.... when you can grab your laptop or phone... and exchange messages or even TALK TO people in other parts of the world.

Again... silly?   Maybe.    But I will probably always feel that way about it.  Even though I can get inside them and dig around and "know how they work"...  they will always hold magic for me.

Signed,
Old Fart!                

[cbrown]

The thing that really pushed CB in my area was the 1973 oil crisis. Before that, the only people you saw with a CB were the offroad and woods trail guys in Jeeps and Broncos and Blazers. But once the gas crisis hit, almost every car you saw had a CB in it. The main reason was for finding an open gas station, and with the CB people could find out where gas was available. It worked out really well for the folks around here.

During the crisis, people were just used to talking on the CB (gas lines were LONG back then) so they'd sit on the lines talking on their CB's. So after the crisis a lot of folks stuck with talking to people on the radio. And their kids would see them talking and then either use their parents radio or get their own radios.

Peak CB usage around here probably hit about 1975, and kept on probably for another 15 years or so, but it was slowing down a bit in the mid 1980's.

[bobcat4109]

About the same time range here.  When we moved into our first house in 1979 there were 3 antennas on houses JUST on my BLOCK.  I would say "not quite half" of the cars on my block had antennas.

And you are right... by the mid 80's the antenna count was WAY down....   and I doubt that MANY of the ones still on cars were being used.  Rather... they were just left "stuck on" the car.  One house at the end of the cul-de-sac had a huge tower with a PDL 2 up on it.

I just miss those good old time.......

[Sandbagger]

Jan 17, 2024 13:52:55 GMT -5 cbrown said:

The thing that really pushed CB in my area was the 1973 oil crisis. Before that, the only people you saw with a CB were the offroad and woods trail guys in Jeeps and Broncos and Blazers. But once the gas crisis hit, almost every car you saw had a CB in it. The main reason was for finding an open gas station, and with the CB people could find out where gas was available. It worked out really well for the folks around here.

During the crisis, people were just used to talking on the CB (gas lines were LONG back then) so they'd sit on the lines talking on their CB's. So after the crisis a lot of folks stuck with talking to people on the radio. And their kids would see them talking and then either use their parents radio or get their own radios.

Peak CB usage around here probably hit about 1975, and kept on probably for another 15 years or so, but it was slowing down a bit in the mid 1980's.

There seemed to be 2 paths initially that most people followed into CB radio in the early 70's. The first was those who were attracted to the trucker's culture and keeping informed on the highway. The other path was what my friends and I followed, which was an interest in wireless communication. We started with walkie-talkies, and slowly and surely worked up from there, learning RF theory as we went. A 3rd path came into being in the mid 70's, where teens and young adults got into it just to socialize. The 3rd path was responsible for the explosive growth of CB radio starting in 1975. This group was also the first to hang it up when the skip made local conditions miserable in the late 70's. Were it not for the relentless skip interference, the CB fad most likely would have continued into the mid 80's at least. But by the mid 80's we were pretty much back to the initial 2 groups again - Truckers/highway and radio geeks.