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...
Dougwe said
08:42 PM Oct 29, 2012
beachball57 wrote:
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
jimricho said
12:38 AM Oct 30, 2012
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.)
03_troopy said
02:22 AM Oct 30, 2012
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.
jimricho said
03:28 AM Oct 30, 2012
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.
Jim
biggles said
03:49 AM Oct 30, 2012
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 .
That looks like it might be school of the air in the 50's there Jon
justcruisin01 said
05:04 AM Oct 30, 2012
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.
Hylda&Jon said
06:27 AM Oct 30, 2012
The good old days of CB, I remember it well.
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
vk6tnc said
06:55 AM Oct 30, 2012
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....
blaze said
07:24 AM Oct 30, 2012
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
NandK said
08:32 AM Oct 30, 2012
Still got my uniden SSB in the shed,might give it a dust off and see what i can pick up...
vk6tnc said
08:33 AM Oct 30, 2012
I'm legal now and the first contact I had on HF was Davis base Antartica....
biggles said
01:31 PM Oct 30, 2012
Dougwe wrote:
That looks like it might be school of the air in the 50's there Jon
Quite right there Doug .. in my youth I spent 4 years at Hermannsburg just west of the the "Alice" .. those days it was still a mission station.
Jon
beachball57 said
03:48 PM Oct 30, 2012
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......
_wombat_ said
04:27 PM Oct 30, 2012
I wish I was as old as some of you guys then I would know what you are all talking about
biggles said
05:34 PM Oct 30, 2012
Gee Wommie .. what makes you think we know .. jaded & faded here sometimes .. heh !
_wombat_ said
06:28 PM Oct 30, 2012
biggles wrote:
Gee Wommie .. what makes you think we know .. jaded & faded here sometimes .. heh !
I suppose it gets hard to remember when you get to Dougwe's age, did you know he is retired now?
that makes him really old
biggles said
11:02 PM Oct 30, 2012
hmmm .. he didn't mention it to me .. maybe it slipped his mind .. hehe !
_wombat_ said
11:31 PM Oct 30, 2012
biggles wrote:
hmmm .. he didn't mention it to me .. maybe it slipped his mind .. hehe !
It can't slip his mind, he does no have one
03_troopy said
02:22 AM Oct 31, 2012
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.....
_wombat_ said
02:42 AM Oct 31, 2012
03_troopy wrote:
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?
Hylda&Jon said
06:44 AM Oct 31, 2012
vk6tnc wrote:
I think you might have been interested in the YL's QTH instead of QRL
Oo
ps, it has been a while. No wonder I never found any young lady's in those days
jimricho said
01:19 PM Oct 31, 2012
vk6tnc wrote:
I think you might have been interested in the YL's QTH instead of QRL
And to think we criticise the "youngsters" for their text message abbreviations!
(Yes I know, the Q code had its origins back in Morse code days when terse messages were a necessity.)
jimricho said
01:36 PM Oct 31, 2012
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.
jimricho said
01:40 PM Oct 31, 2012
If the YL's response to QRL were in the negative would that mean she is "available"?
beachball57 said
03:58 PM Nov 2, 2012
jimricho wrote:
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
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
(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.)
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.
Jim
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 .
Jon
That looks like it might be school of the air in the 50's there Jon
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.
The good old days of CB, I remember it well.
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
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....
cheers
blaze
Quite right there Doug .. in my youth I spent 4 years at Hermannsburg just west of the the "Alice" .. those days it was still a mission station.
Jon
I wish I was as old as some of you guys then I would know what you are all talking about
Gee Wommie .. what makes you think we know .. jaded & faded here sometimes .. heh !
I suppose it gets hard to remember when you get to Dougwe's age, did you know he is retired now?
that makes him really old
hmmm .. he didn't mention it to me .. maybe it slipped his mind .. hehe !
It can't slip his mind, he does no have one
I asked Dougwe what a whylusses was and he said it is a radio, is that correct?
Oo
ps, it has been a while. No wonder I never found any young lady's in those days
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.
If the YL's response to QRL were in the negative would that mean she is "available"?
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