IS CB DEAD ????? or SSB ACTIVE

[cleanrite]

I have a superstar 2000 that has been boxed for about 10 years is it worth bringing out.
I used to be very active on 27.555 usb but just need to know wether its worth powering the old girl up again.

still got my homemade 1/4 wave aerial somewhere in the shed.
maybe one day it might go back up

[maltloaf]

its all FM these days, still mostly the old 27/81 40 channels but some mid band too.

[cleanrite]

Sad innit, to think all them SSB rigs are somewhere laid up, and all the kids are on tinternet
might just unwrap the box of tricks and fire it up see whats going on on 27.555 all nostalgia , the good ol days

Calling CQ DX my mum used to go mad, shouting upsatirs the tellys going beserk, saying wait till corrie has finished lol

[Shambles]

Calling CQ DX my mum used to go mad, shouting upsatirs the tellys going beserk, saying wait till corrie has finished lol

ahahahahaha nicely said mate

[scruff1963]

.

Lower part of the cycle, you may get some sporadic e in the summer around europe but not much dx for another couple of years.

There were some yanks about over xmas but would have been lucky to get them with a quarter wave vertical without a linear.

Went ham in 93/94 but radio has been modded so can still tx on 11 , New radios are excellent you can open them with software.

Have Fun

.

[Deadly]

CB is just a shadow of its former self really there's still is some activity but i tend to find it's mainly mobile sets more than people sat in their house on homebases like it used to be, there are still some but its not really like it used to be.

I havn't switched on any of my rigs for a while but a couple months back i was getting some germans coming through on my handheld on the european channels, kinda surprised me really.

Hmm, think i'll setup my radios tomorrow and see whats going on

Calling CQ DX my mum used to go mad, shouting upsatirs the tellys going beserk, saying wait till corrie has finished lol

LOL, used to get the same, seemed to fuck up their VCR aswell, they'd be trying to watch a film and then i keyed up the mic and the picture and sound would go haywire lol

[bigbob]

lol, you could get a perm and regrow your 'tache
thank god CBs dead

just got to get rid of mobiles now

[cleanrite]

bigbob cb was great m8 dodging the radio authority LOL and calling out to see what country you could get, had some good times on cb.

never had a tache or a perm who do you think I am starsky
I was only 14
still Im a big kid at heart when it comes to radio

[Deadly]

CB was great fun back in the day, i've always been into radio comms and cb was a great place for messing around and experimenting with different antennas and linear amps etc, met a few cool people through the cb aswell. The internet is what killed it off in the end though i'd say.

[Tony92]

CB was great fun back in the day, i've always been into radio comms and cb was a great place for messing around and experimenting with different antennas and linear amps etc, met a few cool people through the cb aswell. The internet is what killed it off in the end though i'd say.

Very true, but even though we can talk & view in almost real time on here now to anywhere in the world, it will never EVER beat the thrill of talking to someone miles away, or even in another country from such a simple setup as a 4/12w cb & a crappy DV27 mobile antenna, I remember my first ever DX contact with someone in Italy on USB, using a firestick antenna in my parents loft back in 1983, damn I nearly shouted myself raw, what a rush when they shouted my callsign back, then progressed to bigger rigs, base antennas, moved to 934MHz, took the RAE/morse got bored & ended up on here, still got loads of radio gear in loft here now, with Tri-Band Co-Linear on roof never been TX'ed into..........Tony

Orig CB Handle 1981 > Sparky
934Mhz callsign 1987 > CA148
Class B Call Amateur 1992 > G7OGQ
Class A Call Amateur 1996 > M0ATV

Worldwide Web Nick Tony92 & still going

Tip, type M0ATV into google, & you should see me transmitting Fast Scan TV pics through a ATV repeater station in Stoke back in 1996.

[Deadly]

True, it was always great getting a long distance contact, i never really got any true dx contacts to be honest, but when you got a contact with someone much further away than usual it was a great thrill.

934mhz, way before my time lol i was only born in 83 lol must of been great back then when it was at its peak.

I've thought about doing an amateur exam a few times but never got around to doing it, i wouldn't mind a shot on HF.

I'll go do a search for your callsign now

[leonard]

Hi m8s,
The exam now thats required to get into amateur radio, it is so easy to do, five years olds can do it with there eyes closed. and there is no morse anymore. go find your local radio club and sign up for the foundation licence today, all amateur bands apart from 10 metres. and 10 watts output on your radio. it only cost pennys as well. and the world to talk to will yet again be legally in your hands. leonard.

[Deadly]

Yeah, thats what attracted me, seems piss easy to get a foundation licence now.

What sort of results can you realistically expect only using 10 watts? are far off contacts rare with that power or easily achievable?

[scruff1963]

.

You can work the world with 10 watts.
2 years ago, I worked new zealand with an ft817 on 15 mtrs psk31 and the ft817 was on low power 0.5 watts high power is only 5 watts. Even with my ft897 which can put out 100 watts I never use more than 15 watts on psk31. Not really into voice as the foreigners moan I talk to fast.

Sorry but there is still a morse requirement but it's not 5wpm or 12 wpm but I have to send say the letter A .- if you get it correct I send the next letter, If you get it wrong then I repeat it until you do get it correct, this is only for the foundation licence. I am an instructor but due to work commitments have not done anyone recently. The morse and the exam are a doddle, on the question of 10 watts allowance who is checking ?.

Have Fun

.

[Deadly]

I've taught myself a bit of morse, well, sending it anyway, receiving it is alot harder.

I always thought that aswell about the power, im sure i've seen some rigs with 100w output on hi-power and 10w output on low, but who's checking if its switched to hi-power? lol

I'll look into it more when i've got some cash to spend on an HF rig and when im living somewhere better, right now im in the top floor (3 floors) of a flat so i've not nowhere to put an antenna really and it's a rented flat so i cant start drilling holes through the ceiling to run coax onto the roof etc lol

At the moment im just using a Realistic DX394 to listen to HF (amateurs/shortwave stations/data decoding etc) and it's enough to keep me interested for now, it would be alot more fun being able to transmit though! I've kept myself amused by collecting qsl cards from shortwave stations though, got a ton of them now lol surprusing what some of them send you for a reception report

[Geezah]

10w is plenty to get stateside if the climate is good.
I'll have to dig out my old QSL cards and scan them.
I had a Storker 9 modded with the Cobra 148dx chip. HHH - LLL am/fm/usb/lsb/cw/alpha/splits and a 10w variable controler.
He he... if you ever spoke to a 1 echo romeo from italia running the mic through a Melos echo chamber it may well have been me on a wind up.... twiddling with the variable power to imitate the skip.

ahhh memmories

[cleanrite]

well got my stuff out and the power supply not working wouldnt mind its a 30 amp power supply aswell.

[Deadly]

Bummer, not exactly cheap to replace either might pick up a smaller one on ebay for an okay price, if you're that determined to use it lol

[gav12345]

i remember when it was sooo full of people in the early 80s and i was on it as well so much bleed over that you had to have the squelch up high to cut some of it out

it was great back then i had a gpa antenna and a audioline rig


great old days them



cheers

[bmw222000]

ive got a midland 78 gathering dust in the cupboard i was thinking about bringing it out again Mmmmm