Citizens Band Radio (CB) - were you on it?

[Lee H]

Wow, i thought only wierd old men with beards and hill billys did this!

Lies... lies and more lies

I recall back when I was 5 years old so thats 22 years ago where my family and my gandparents were in 1 car and my uncle his wife and kids in another both fitted with mobile CB equipment.

This was easier to use than mobile, and helped a lot while driving through fog towards the lake district

CB was great for uses like this and we always used to ask on 19 for traffic reports to avoid all the delays ... see better than trafficmaster

[Flibb]

Quiet a few of the 4x4 mob still use cbs, and it was a viable alternative to the phone. Clubs had rotas for listening to the emergency channel and if you had a call would run to the nearest phone box (if you didnt have a phone), plod also monitored chn 9 and trucker channels. Radio modems are sued by ham radio bods, have looked at doing the ham license a couple of times.

[shelley bda]

Okay, as there are a few oldies who remember 'the good old days' of CB, here's a quiz for you. What do the following mean:

a) QSK
b) "Knock it up one..." or "Knock it down one..."
c) "On the side..."
d) Were 'AM' rigs legal or illegal in the UK?
e) "I'll be back soon, i'm going for a 10-100..."
f) How many channels were there on the latter-day CEPT frequencies?
g) Which CB channel was 'reserved' for emergency use?
h) "What's your 20?"
i) Do you need a license to use CB?

a - same as on the side?
b - Up one chnnel, down one channel
c - To join in a conversation
d - Am rigs were illegal
e - Don't know
f - up to 500 ?
g - channel 9
h - Where do you live
i - Not for a normal 40 channel set up

[Moby-Dick]

I seem to remebre you had to get a licence like a TV licence ( no exam required ) but it was abuot £14 a year.

having seen some of the packet radio kit that radio amateurs used when I went to a Norfolk Lighthouse (http://www.eham.net/articles/11690) I was pretty impressed and wouldn't mind getting back into it one day ( when time / funds allow )

[Lee H]

e) He's going to the little boys room

[snedger]

Hello
When I was about 13 I remember being very interested in CB and did a lot of research and asked loads of questions.
At Xmas one of the first presents I opened was a book on CB language and I got so excited 'cos I thought one of my other presents must be a CB radio!
I don't think I managed to hide my disappointment when I'd opened all my pressies and found no CB set.
Took ages to dispose of the dismembered bodies
Cheers
snedger

[jon bda]

Hehe, we had one in the house for a while years ago. A Silver Rod aerial on top of about 30 foot of scaffolding poles in the garden and enough wallop to knock out everyones telly . Was know as 'caveman' for some reason...

[Rave]

Never did it myself, but I did enjoy this rather good film.

[TeePee]

Meh, I had a modem on my BBC model B.

It was 1200bps as I recall.