Breaker, Breaker.....anyone have a CB?

[BrianWC]

Yeah, I feel like I should rename the SAAB the General Lee, but I just won a new CB on eBay for $5.50 and, after realizing I needed it, got a 3 ft magnetic mount antenna for $30....

I commute more than 100 miles a day and the local radio is horrible about traffic reports if something happens more than a mile outside the center of the city. I hate being ambushed by a big line of traffic in the afternoon when I can take plenty of alt routes back into town.

Granted, my SAAB's gonna look real stupid with a whip, but you just can't get decent reception off the small antennas.....

 

[TooManyWheels]

What "handle" (name) are you going to use?

I've heard some interesting ones. One of my favorites "back in the day" was Cowpaddy Daddy. It sounded natural when spoken by someone that sounded like Charlie Daniels.

 

[BrianWC]

Lol, I have no idea. I mainly want it to monitor traffic. Don't know how much talking I will do unless it's to alert someone to a fresh slow down. I don't plan on getting my radio "peaked and tuned," I'll just run stock.

 

[beanoil]

Chances are if you aren't "peaked and tuned", you'll just get walked on anyway. You do need to have the SWR (standing wave ratio) checked after installation. Your SWR needs to be as close to possible at 1:1. Anything approaching 2:1 really heats the output transistors, shortening life, and your range. A 3 foot magnetic antenna is fine for listening, and transmitting short ranges. A real whip is 9 feet long, or quarter wave. (The 27Mhz range wave is just about 36 feet long from peak to peak) Put the antenna on the right side of the trunk lid for the longest transmitting range to the left front (traffic coming at you) because the vehicle is your ground plane for the signal.
(I just had a total flashback to 1976, dealing radios, installing, peaking, and the whole CB craze while working at Radio Shack) Back then, we sold a radio, and most folks would use it illegally while they waited the 6 weeks for the FCC to get them a license.
Bobcat, KGA9704, I'm gone.....

 

[BrianWC]

Yeah, I have an SWR meter on order. It's funny, I have two antennas and an SWR meter that should all be arriving by the end of the week. It'll look like a swap meet at my house.

I had ordered a short firestik roof mount thinking if any short antenna would work, it'd be that one. But just after I ordered it and really started reading the documentation on it, I realized I may as well not even mount it. Too bad, as I was going to put it in my now-useless OnStar antenna spot on my roof. Yeah, I know I'd be walked all over, especially at 5 PM coming into town. I am hoping that all that traffic will work to my advantage, though, and help me avoid the ever increasing delays.... I've been stuck a time or two for 3 or more hours from a point that was only about 10 miles from my home....

 

[Gary Allan]

When I drove for a living, you had to develop an alter ego for communicating

I developed more adapted southern-western accents than you can shake a stick at. You have to keep your mind active when driving alone for over 350 miles a day. I would key the mic and hold it on the shifter knob and go through the gears ..sorta as theme music for the show....

How's it looking over your shoulder?
There was some activity around mile marker 148
What kind of activity?
(me) Radioactivity



"Oh home on the bullivard ..with my kittycat purring away (can be exchanged for "where the mammalian aquatic da-m building animals strangle domesticated foul" all day)
I'll get there on time ..before any Maxidyne ...
..and collect all my green stamps --hurray!

I was an owner operator ..but the biggest thing I drove was a C20 Chevy pickup. The only diesels that I drove were my VW Rabbit and my Peugeot 504 wagon ..at least as an owner operator.

 

[BrianWC]

Lol, who knew you had a great big convey, there Gary?

I still don't know how this is going to work. Wifey's going to, uh, pass a rectangular fired-clay object when/if I put a whip on my car.

No, I get bored driving, and I listen to so much XM I can't take it anymore. My car is fast beginning to resemble the inside of the Millennium Falcon with the radar detector, TomTom, XM, Scanguage, and now CB.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: BrianWC


My car is fast beginning to resemble the inside of the Millennium Falcon with the radar detector, TomTom, XM, Scanguage, and now CB.


Where does he get all those wonderful toys? - The Joker

 

[BrianWC]

What's bad it I just now figured out where I was going wrong with my hard wiring efforts when I put the CB in so most of my stuff is plugged into an array of cigarette lighter adapters.

 

[Schmoe]

That's a big ten four, good buddy. I got ya backdoor.

 

[BrianWC]

Originally Posted By: Schmoe
That's a big ten four, good buddy. I got ya backdoor.


No one said anything about backdoors.

 

[TooManyWheels]

There was certainly some interesting psychology going on in the CB scene. Urbanites who wouldn't be caught dead in a truck stop adopting the personas of rural truckers because of a popular television show.

We are so deep....

 

[BrianWC]

I like Loves. I get to gaze at the Escort 9500iX and the Beltronics STi-Driver....

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: BrianWC
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
That's a big ten four, good buddy. I got ya backdoor.


No one said anything about backdoors.

I hear some 'driver "looking for a buddy" (

) and I adopt a "alternative persuasion" persona.

What's your 20? I wanna meet ya!
Oh ..no..I can tell you're one of those mean drivers that would take me up into his sleeper cab and do all kinds of naughty things to me ... and then kick me out the door while rolling down the bullivard.

No ..no I won't ..I'll protect ya!!

I so wanted to do comedy

 

[eljefino]

Was riding with my Grandpa ~5 years ago in his grand marquis.

30-year old cobra CB (only goes up to ch 23) and a magnetic antenna carefully placed inside the trunk. He keys the mic:

"Breaker one-nine, breaker one-nine, how's the traffic on the Ohio turnpike?"

Static, silence.

Five seconds later, "Clear sailing good buddy" comes the response.

I sat in awed silence... of how that RF made it out of the trunk, how people actually still use the things in this world of cellphones, how a novagenarion (91-ish years old at the time) can pilot a V8 Ford and a mic at the same time, how he got a straight answer with no bull....

 

[eljefino]

Now I had a CB back in my old mazda 323, not so much for the radio portion; I had a weatherproof loudspeaker under the hood. One time I was at the drive-thru ATM and some lady in a k-car behind me started honking. So I got on the Public Address system and stated very factually that "honking will not get you faster service". She turned and faced the teller window and started screaming nonsensically.

 

[moribundman]

I had a CB radio in my first two cars. Here's the one in my Scirocco:

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan

I so wanted to do comedy

You have so found a venue

 

[XS650]

That 40 channels of FM was in Yurp, I assume. Was FM any real advantage?

 

[moribundman]

Originally Posted By: XS650
That 40 channels of FM was in Yurp, I assume. Was FM any real advantage?


I used almost exclusively FM in Europe. Theoretically I wasn't allowed to have a CB radio with AM broadcasting capability, since I didn't have a license. However, sales and possession were not restricted and I decided to take my chances. I never got caught by an official. AM was mostly used by truckers, FM by everybody else. Output was limited to 4W FM and 1W AM. Not sure what the regulations are now.