ok so i was trolling through my shed the other day after getting back from a SA/WA border run and i came across an old single side band CB radio,, not sure if it worked or not or even where I got it from i thought i'd give it a try and low and behold it crackled into life,, well now i just can't leave it in the shed so into the pilot car it went along with all the other radios,, well after putting out a call not thinking I'd get a reply i got a faint call back from someone in the USA... now the point of all this is,,SSB as it's known was a thing of my youth not thining that anyone would be still using it today but it seems that they are, so the crux of all this is that if you have one out tin the shed maybe dust it off and give it a try...
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SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA TAKE YOUR COLTHES OFF AND ROLL IN THE MUD
ok so i was trolling through my shed the other day after getting back from a SA/WA border run and i came across an old single side band CB radio,, not sure if it worked or not or even where I got it from i thought i'd give it a try and low and behold it crackled into life,, well now i just can't leave it in the shed so into the pilot car it went along with all the other radios,, well after putting out a call not thinking I'd get a reply i got a faint call back from someone in the USA... now the point of all this is,,SSB as it's known was a thing of my youth not thining that anyone would be still using it today but it seems that they are, so the crux of all this is that if you have one out tin the shed maybe dust it off and give it a try...
And what a lot of fun they were too BB. I had one on a slide mount so I could bring it inside and hooked up to a "Ringo". I also had a 'Spider'.
I actually set up and ran "Wetsernport C.R.E.S.T" (Citizens Radio Emergency Service Team) on channel 9. We set up in Tyabb on the Westernport Peninsula in Victoria.
I can't remember the name of my rig but I do remember I had it "Twigged' so I could go in between frequencies to chat. Remember R.I's. Had great fun on 'fox hunts' etc AND met my first wife through CB radio.
Great fun, thanks for the memory BB.
edit...added location, sorry.
-- Edited by Dougwe on Monday 29th of October 2012 09:02:17 PM
-- Edited by Dougwe on Monday 29th of October 2012 09:03:17 PM
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I doubt that any 26-27 mhz CB would be much use these days, be it silly side-band or ancient modulation, with most users now being on UHF.
(OK, before you reach for your mouses and challenge me to a duel, I know, SSB is used for HF communications and is much better than AM for that purpose.)
SSB is AM Jim just that only half of the BW is transmitted... actually I was thinking the other day that since all of the drongos have gone onto UHF repeater channels, using their 2W handhelds and abusing anyone that happens to come on channel, maybe it is the way to go now for uncluttered channels. The thing with 27M though is the skip. I used to regularly talk to people in SA from Newcastle using 27M SSB and it was always a bit of a luckydip as to where else you could pick up. The other advantage of using 27M SSB is that you can get better range than UHF which is pretty well restricted to line of sight. It does tend to be more affected by atmospheric conditions however.
Yes Bob, I'm across that one, just making a simple (if somewhat tongue in cheek) comment. Apart from spectrum management issues, the real efficiency of SSB comes from the removal (actually suppression) of the carrier. I think any detailed technical discussion on SSB/AM/FM etc is beyond the scope of a forum such as this.
For the purposes of most people on the road, UHF CB serves them well as a means of short range communication with other road users such as trucks and fellow RVers. Mobile phones. Satellite phones, HF radio, etc each have their specific roles depending on the communication needs of the traveller.
If you want to have your intelligence seriously insulted, listen to the UHF repeater channels, especially in our neck of the woods. When I select scan on my unit (which is not very often) I have my UHF set to skip all the duplex channels.
I s'pose I'm just a die-hard HF lover .. never found UHF to hold my interest that much .. from the early days I just enjoyed playing with long and assorted antennas ..
here's an old pic .. school of the air days .. yours truly is nearest to camera .
Ive had one in the car for the last 25yrs, have not used it for a long time but left it in there as maybe just one day it may work in an emergency where the UHF wont. I think the last time I used it was in 08 crossing the Nullabour, had a chat to two guys in Bendigo & was good as gold.
JC.
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Be your self; there's no body better qualified ! "I came into this world with nothing , I still have most of it"
Cruising the streets in my panel van, mic in hand, CQing all the YL's, trying to find out their QRL's or 10.20's or just staying at home at night DXing people overseas. Some of you may know what I'm talking about. I've forgotten most of the CB jargon now days.
It was great fun till they started to make us pay for CB licenses and then it got so popular that the background 'white' noise of hundreds of people got so loud you couldn't here someone transmitting from a block away.
In those days I was president of one CB club and chairman of another and had one CB in my car and another base station set up at home with a map of the world with lines drawn to all the countries we had talked to.
Sorrr for reminiscing people but I hadn't thought about those days for a long while.
Cheers
Jon
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Home is where we hang our hats - Home now in Yamba NSW
I think you might have been interested in the YL's QTH instead of QRL
I had my first proper CB mounted on the handlebars of a Malvern Star MX bike with a car battery mounted on a carrier low on the sissy bar. It was a SHARP 18 channel AM radio I bought from Myers in Cooparoo, QLD.
Being a good law abiding citizen, I had to send my Mum into town to register the callsign WCO 410.
AHH brings back the memories of TVI with the neighbours....
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Cheers, Chris...
"The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished" - Benjamin Franklin
We used to take a dierction airieal upto the local lighthouse where we had concreted a pipe in the ground to mount it in. Got books of qsl cards from a lot of amercan states. A call to south africa was my most memorable. Had lpts of skip from all mainland states from tassie. Always a pirate with over powered sets with sliders. Them were the days cheers blaze
yeh i know that uhf is the "go" these days for comms,, i just found the ssb out in the shed and wondered if it still worked,, i too had a panel van with the cb in to in my younger days,,, anyway i dusted it off made a few repairs and put it in my pilot/escort car,, not thinking that there would be much traffic for ssb anymore but i have to say that i am surprised at the extent of the call backs that i have recived since "firing it up" it's probably more of a nostalga thing these days but there are still a lot of people out there dx,ing,,,,, sometimes it just pays to have a go and see what happens......
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SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA TAKE YOUR COLTHES OFF AND ROLL IN THE MUD
it's all about whylusses wommy. Buggered if I know why they ever called it a whyluss anyway, the ones we had to build back in trade training days were full of wires... and big brown things that looked like toffees, and nice glowing, warm looking glass things... and other brown things that used to always leak smoke and smell bad.....
it's all about whylusses wommy. Buggered if I know why they ever called it a whyluss anyway, the ones we had to build back in trade training days were full of wires... and big brown things that looked like toffees, and nice glowing, warm looking glass things... and other brown things that used to always leak smoke and smell bad.....
I asked Dougwe what a whylusses was and he said it is a radio, is that correct?
I guess BB's original post was a comment on whether the old SSB CBs may have a place in our cars today as a means of communication. Apart from the hobby aspect my view is they don't.
The sky-wave propagation is a disadvantage as it actually reduces the usefulness for vehicle to vehicle contact. As a means of emergency communication it is far too chancy for that. (In the case of 27Mhz CB).
HF and/or Satellite is a much better option in remote areas and even mobile phones would be better in mobile coverage areas. CREST is also an option in those areas that they cover.
I guess BB's original post was a comment on whether the old SSB CBs may have a place in our cars today as a means of communication. Apart from the hobby aspect my view is they don't.
The sky-wave propagation is a disadvantage as it actually reduces the usefulness for vehicle to vehicle contact. As a means of emergency communication it is far too chancy for that. (In the case of 27Mhz CB).
HF and/or Satellite is a much better option in remote areas and even mobile phones would be better in mobile coverage areas. CREST is also an option in those areas that they cover.
actually i wasn't mean it to be a good means of communtication, like i said i found it out in the shed, wondered if it still worked and wondered if anyone would still be using them for any purpose,,surely i wasn't going to be the only one that had that thought,,, it was purely curosity,, i have mounted it my pilot vehicle where i use it from time to time when the conditions are right and i have had several dx replys,,as a means of safty or remont comms, i certain wouldn't rely on it to save my bacon,,, like i said it is just a bit of fun
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SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA TAKE YOUR COLTHES OFF AND ROLL IN THE MUD
