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Old 31st Oct 2022, 8:29 pm   #21
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

I used to do that when mobile operation was something I did every day, but now it's just a holiday / occasional other time activity for me I find it harder to justify excavating acres of plastic to try to find a way through the bulkhead. I should do really, though.

The manufacturer's wiring to the lighter socket is only rated for 10A which is fine for CB but not enough for high power Amateur Radio operation.
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 8:34 pm   #22
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

I think I might dust off my own York 863 for this occasion - normally I use my Binatone 5-Star, bought on 2nd November 1981, for these outings but I happen to know the York (one previous careful owner) was also bought on that day so I think I will give it a spin out.
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 8:40 pm   #23
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

I have many happy memories of CB radio, both in terms of technical experimentation (Amstrad CB901 initially, then a Shogun - the latter worked very well in conjunction with the 'Cherokee' mag-mount) as well as the many acquaintances - and long-term friends - made during my formative years in West Yorkshire during 1982.

In 1984, I met my future wife via a blind date arranged by mutual friends ('Cue-ball' and his girlfriend 'Golden Wonder') - subsequently, the best man was my (departed and sadly-missed) friend Tim ('RoosterBooster'), who I'd met in 1982 via an 'eyeball' on Manchester Road, Sla'wit, near Huddersfield.

A life-changing experience ...

"10-10 'til we do it again" ... and all that
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 8:44 pm   #24
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

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The manufacturer's wiring to the lighter socket is only rated for 10A which is fine for CB
Yes, that's right. I've never had any problems with running stuff from the lighter socket.

The Fidelity draws hardly 1 amp on TX and just over 0.2 amp on RX.

Yes, it will be a fight to bring a cable through from the battery, hence not getting round to doing it as yet - and perhaps never will.
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 8:57 pm   #25
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

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In 1984, I met my future wife
So did my younger brother who got into CB after I did. Still married and with two grown up sons who both went to university, the younger being a teacher and the older with a good job with company car etc., who just treated his old parents to a two day wedding anniversary away in a hotel, all paid for by him.

It's known to have changed a lot of lives, so you can't knock it - well, not too much anyway. I certainly had my moments with the ladies back in the day...no regrets!
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 9:05 pm   #26
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

I've often been told I have a good voice for radio but unfortunately I have neither the looks nor the wit to match, so it never really got me anywhere.
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 10:06 pm   #27
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

For the benefit of interested non-CB folk with receivers, we should maybe state that UK channel 27 is 27.86125MHz (NBFM). If previous years are anything to go by little local groups starting up on that frequency will find themselves having to get out of each others' way by moving to other frequencies.

A full list of the UK CB/27/81 channels and their frequencies is here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_MHz_CB27/81_Bandplan
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Old 31st Oct 2022, 11:56 pm   #28
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

My trusted old friend from 1982 still working perfectly! Always powered on but rare to hear anyone these days......
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 10:44 am   #29
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

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A life-changing experience ...
Quite so. Many friends, acquaintances and relationships, transient and permanent were formed through CB Radio and some survive to this day. CB was also the catalyst to progress further with radio, for those of us who were inclined to do so.

CB enhanced the social life of many: across all age groups and backgrounds. We went on outings, club meetings, talked as much off-air as on it. CB was 'the thing' - the social media of its day. CB was of its time and any practical uses it may have been put to were dwarfed by the phoenomenal social scene it led to. Drive into a strange town? Someone would talk to you. You got to know people. Folks would rock up at the house: 'can you fix this'? 'Could you put a Firestick on my car'? 'Are you going ice-skating to Lockerbie in the convoy on Sunday'?

Then, one day, I was sitting in the drive, nattering on the box, and suddenly thought to myself: 'what's all this about, then?' It was time to move on. But I look back now with no regrets whatsoever. I occasionally wonder if, back then, what we'd all have done if CB hadn't been about. There were no mobile telephones; no internet... You called your pals on the telephone in the hall, shivering on the stairs, or met down the pub. No doubt life would've gone on and friends would still have been made; relationships formed, as they always had been. But to my mind, CB radio was the very embryo of the social media we take for granted forty-odd years later.
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 11:52 am   #30
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

Briefly OT Russell, I remember there being a little radio / electronics shop up one of the back streets in Penrith - I've just been for a drive past (on Streetview) but couldn't find it where I thought it was (In Castle Street?). As a frequent visitor to the Lakes when I was younger, I occasionally had to backtrack to that shop in Penrith to pick up needed connectors - even bought a very basic CB there once when I managed to come away from home without one.

(That was in the days when being anywhere without one was unthinkable!).
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 1:51 pm   #31
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

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Briefly OT Russell, I remember there being a little radio / electronics shop up one of the back streets in Penrith - I've just been for a drive past (on Streetview) but couldn't find it where I thought it was (In Castle Street?)
That would be Penrith Communications on Castlegate - above what was the Museum pub and below the station hotel: next to what was Jackson's Newsagents. Been there; done that! It was owned by a chap known as 'Barney' - never did know his real name (it'll be in my log-book somewhere). He's a radio amateur and still active as far as I know, but retired and closed the business.

He sold some of the first computers in Penrith as well as the occasional telephone-related kit, and, as you say, was exceedingly useful for connectors and hard-to-get bits. No Amazon then! It was Barney or Maplin's. I asked about a Modem for my DOS-based PC and he said 'he could get me a 9600 baud one for £200'!

Over in Workington, and elsewhere, the entrepreneurs had the situation weighed up and lots of CB shops sprang up selling bits and bobs, as well as Legal CB radios which were now kept on display. As opposed to the 'we might have something round the back that will interest you, sir...' of a few years previous. As CB moved on and went mainstream (Dixon's; Currys...) many went under and jumped on the next trend. Barney didn't, and Penrith Communications was one of the best shops in the area to get anything comms-related.
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 3:36 pm   #32
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

Yes, Penrith Communications in Castlegate of course. It will be missed, by me at least.
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 8:14 pm   #33
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

I used to have a Midland 2000, which apparently also had a bad reputation. I used it quite a bit, and once set up was fine. I had a DV27 copy on the roof of my Bedford CF van( good ground plane) and the home set up was some kind of loaded aerial as far as I can remember.
At that time I lived in Olveston, South Glos, and would regularly talk to breakers in Lydney , Chepstow, Filton and Patchway. Speech was reasonably clear as I recall.

I was into historical re-enactment at the time, so my “ handle” was Warlord. 🙄
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Old 1st Nov 2022, 11:30 pm   #34
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

Sure that wasn't a 2001? R.A.F. light blue casings with 'vernier' style knobs?

There were original AM and then UKFM versions of the Midland 2001, 3001, 4001. As it happens both versions were made by Maxon in Korea, but IMO the chassis used in the AM versions was a bit better and it was used in quite a few low to mid range Midlands, Colts and at at least one small Cobra, the 19X.

The chassis used in the UKFM versions of those Midlands (and in the the Cobra 21, Commtron 40F, etc) had an indescribably bad meter circuit which only ever indicated either nearly nothing or maximum, but if you didn't look at the meter then they worked OK and Maxon radios always seemed to have nice TX audio.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 10:17 am   #35
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

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Sure that wasn't a 2001? R.A.F. light blue casings with 'vernier' style knobs?
I had one of those: my first legal CB. Dixon's were selling them off in 1984 at a tenner a pop, so I bought one. As the channels were then pretty quiet, I bought a converter strip from South Midlands Communications (I think?) and used it on ten metres, working duplex ten-and-two metres.

I think I still have the gizzards of it somewhere.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 11:59 am   #36
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I can't believe I missed this mythical time around 1984 when £100+ radios were being sold off by chain stores for £10-£20. I was still heavily into CB at that time but maybe I and everyone else already had all the radios they needed (which was of course exactly why they were being offloaded so cheaply).

Still, I wish I had known. My collection would now be flush with mint-in-box examples of classic 1980s UK CBs.

I'm not sure just now whether I will go out for a run tonight - certainly if the forecast had been fine and dry I would have, but I have to drive for at least an hour to get to any worthwhile road accessible high spots which are beyond the range of the noise from urban Newcastle. I'll have to see whether I feel like doing that in pouring rain, which is currently forecast for all of the spots I had in mind.

I tried putting a radio on at home last night and as Techman said, there is no channel with less than steady S9 of noise at my home location so doing a bit of operation there is a non starter, but if I don't go out I may do a bit of maintenance and testing work on one or two of my oldest radios instead.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 12:12 pm   #37
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Default Re: 2nd November - UK CB anniversary

Icom ICB1050 was £24 on 3/11/81 (the day after legalisation).
I bought one in Tottenham Court Road at Lasky's or similar.

The same day I changed the crystals to shift it to 29MHz and I still have it. It has an 8pole crystal filter and Dual Gate MOSFET mixer now and the diabolical carrier squelch is gone.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 12:12 pm   #38
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I can remember Dixons selling off their Harrier CB and CBX models for £10. I think this happened later than 1984 though. There was a mad rush to buy them up and I phoned all the local Dixons stores I could find in the yellow pages.

I bought a Harrier CBX model for £10 from their Hinckley branch back then. They would only allow each person to buy one radio, or I would have bought more of them. I sold it at a later date for £80.

I had a listen this morning around 9am and there were a few stations on channels 18 through 20. All of them were just doing brief signal reports.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 12:55 pm   #39
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'I can't believe I missed this mythical time around 1984 when £100+ radios were being sold off by chain stores for £10-£20...'
This was most certainly 1984 or, perhaps late '83; at the Dixon's branch in Motherwell, Scotland. Myself and another BBC TX friend happened to be passing, so we bought one each! I can pin it down to that particular time-frame as I was at Kirk o' Shotts at the time, and living in digs in the area.
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Old 2nd Nov 2022, 1:31 pm   #40
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It might have been as early as 1984 here too, as I can't remember the exact year that I bought my CBX from Dixons for £10. The CBX model originally cost about £100 at Dixons, and I bought it as an investment. I ended up selling it for less than the original £100 shop price. If I'd kept it until today and kept it boxed it would have sold for a good price today.

My first UKFM CB was a Fidelity 2001FM and I bought this new (from a CB shop) in 1982 for just £15. This was quite heavily discounted from the launch price of this CB model.
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