Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

[SteelRocker]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I feel compelled to reply too. My CB callsign was KIF-0014, how I remember that I will never know. My first radio was a 23 channel Lafayette crystal controlled mobile radio. I had several CB's in the early to mid 1970s, and then purchased a Cobra 139XLR which was my favorite radio because it was really modified. I had some great SSB worldwide contacts during the peak sunspot cycle. Then when the 70s ended, the DX was pretty much gone too. I studied for my ham license and got my novice call in 1983. For the most part I've been active ever since. This year I can join the QCWA. Been an Extra since 1993 and love the code and digital modes. I just looked at my log, and I've worked you many times in contests W9WI (Doug), with the most recent being the 2008 WPX RTTY contest. It appears you haven't uploaded that log to LOTW yet though since thats the only one not confirmed. I think many hams today can thank the CB boom of the 1970s as their inspiration for getting their ham tickets. You can sure count me in on that statistic.

73 Scott

 

[Aljr]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

It got me into radio period Steel. A local radio station owner was a member of my Uncle's CB club.
I was at one of their cookouts when I was about 15,talking w/ my cousin. The owner came over and said "That's quite a voice you've got,ever think about being a DJ?"

A couple of years later I was working for the guy full time.

Up until that night I'd hated my voice. When you're a kid a deep loud voice lands you in trouble. I'd lived in the principals office from 1st grade on.

 

[poops]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Around 65 my dad was working with a company that used CB's for business communications. He liked it so much he got his license and put a base at the house. He had 2 Pearce-Simpson Companion II's (man were they big) for his mobile and base. In the early 70's I got the bug and started using the CB for search and rescue purposes. First off I had one of the hand me down Companion II's as a mobile, but later bought a Regency Range Gain II (another biggee)off of a friend. I kept it as a mobile for a few years, then bought one of the smaller (transistor) Regency CR series. Still have one of the Companion II's and another Range Gain that I found on Ebay. Hook both of them up and DX every once in a while, but nothing as serious as years back.

We had a group of CB'ers in the area that hung out on channel three called "Walden's Corner". Really great people who would always come out and give ya a hand if ya needed it, or just chat without all the "good-buddy" stuff that was going on over on channel 19.

 

[phatdaddy]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Like many others I started out in the mid sixties with a 100 mW walkie talkie connected to a 30 ft wire antenna in the back yard. From there I picked up an old Heath GW-12. Those things had pretty fair transmitters but the single conversion receivers were really poor. My first real CB rig was a 23 channel Eico 779A which would run a solid 5 Watts and had a hot receiver. Used to hang out on channel 11 here in the Columbus area around '68 to '70. Took an old beater Heath DX-60 transmitter, stripped it down and converted it to a home brew 100W linear amp running a pair of 6LQ6 TV sweep tubes. That eventually got me a visit from Uncle Chaz and I had to send them a letter stating that I would be a good boy from then on. That's about the time I picked up my commercial operators and ham licenses and decided that it was time to leave CB pretty much behind. All things considered, those CB days were some of the most fun I ever had in radio and I made some friends back then that I still have today.

 

[Aljr]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I nearly let myself be conned into buying a DX-60 at hamfest. I came to my senses when it struck me I was about to pay 70 bucks for something that was piece of crap 50 years ago.

 

[CW]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I nearly let myself be conned into buying a DX-60 at hamfest. I came to my senses when it struck me I was about to pay 70 bucks for something that was piece of crap 50 years ago.

HUH??? A DX60 was a damn fine piece of gear, not crap....I ran the cheaper Knight T60 as a Novice....wish I had a DX60 from time to time but the T60 was ok (at least it covered 6mtrs and got my interest on there once I got my General...ahh the fun on 6 AM back in the 70s).

 

[Aljr]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Ah yes,the "Shoebox"!

Yeah,maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on the DX-60 but I've had bad experiences with 'em.

The crapshoot on both Heath and Knight products was you never knew if you were getting a factory wired rig or someones first kit build if you bought one used? Used was all I could afford. I got stuck with some real lemons until I learned to be a teenage hamfest hardass.

I did see a DX-60 recently with the original working VFO for sale at 90 bucks. From the outside it was pristine. The guy selling it said the only mod he'd done to it was the fix to allow for full carrier operation on AM.

 

[Doug M]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I got my first CB on Christmas 1964 when I was 13. It was a Lafeyette HE20c. I think it had 8 channels. This was in Little Rock with call letters KKR 5455. I made more friendships through that radio than I did in school. Every dime I made went to upgrading. My first antenna was a simple ground plane about 3 ft off the roof and RG-58 coax. My first upgrade was a 20ft mast with an Antenna Specialist "Magnum" antenna (grey coil) and RG-8 coax. Next was a 40ft mast with a "Super Magnum" (orange coil). The next Christmas I got my first 23 channel radio. It was a Regency with a D-104 mic. I then moved to Birmingham with new calls of KMM 7500 (I loved those call letters). I put up a 50ft mast with the new "Scanner" antenna. It was an electronic directional. I eventually lost interest after high school when I got my first job in broadcast radio and the mass invasion was starting. I also worked for a short time in a CB store where I would "lust" over the "Cadillac" of radios at that time, the Browning Golden Eagle and the Demco Satellite. Both had seperate transmitter and receiver. Had a nice selection of "Linears" in the back. Remember the "Blue Box"? It had eight 6LQ6 tubes in it that would light up blue when modulating.

Doug

 

[bilco]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Bought my first CB when I was a freshman in college in 1962 at Olsons electronics in Buffalo NY, license KLP6464. That and the college broadcast radio station spelled the end of my plans to be a Music teacher. After a couple of years I dropped out of college, became a DJ, then Newsman then TV newsman and finally an engineer. Now it's 30+ years as a ham extra class ticket WB0KSW, Certified Professional Broadcast engineer (SBE), general class radio telephone grandfathered from my first phone and deputy dirrector of communications for the NV wing CAP. I still have a CB and mag mount to drop in my truck, but other than coordinating with some bikers on special events as a ham I haven't fired it up in years.
Bill Croghan CPBE WBØKSW
Chief Engineer,
KOMP/KXPT/KENO/KBAD/KWWN
Lotus Broadcasting, Las Vegas, NV

 

[Harry_Balsagna]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Before the days of "that's a BIG 10-4 good-buddy", CB radio was pretty much frequented by pre-ham "wannabees" who had some technical knowledge about the radio they're using and the antenna system they needed to get that signal "out there". Back in the day, there were only 23 channels (not including the R/C channels affectionately known as 3A, 7A, 11A, 15A and 19A and the "business band" channels of 22A and 22B). The favorite radio at the time (around 1970) was the Lafayette Comstat-25B. This was the Cadillac of CB radio. You could do MANY things with a Comstat 25B. Some legal, some not so legal. The Comstat 25B was rated at the maximum output legal power of 3.5 watts. But then again, it was over built to "withstand" an output power of 25+ watts and then some (with some little "changes").

To get 25 watts out of that you would have had to change the final tube. The schematic http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/lafayette/comstat_25b/graphics/lafayette_comstat_25b_sch.pdf shows the output tube would be a 6BQ5. That was good for 300 volts on the plate, with 65 milliamps of plate current, according to this: http://pdf1.alldatasheet.co.kr/datasheet-pdf/view/229579/GEC/6BQ5.html

So the design limits of that tube would be a max of 19.5 watts of input power. AM efficiency of, what, 60% maybe? That maxes that tube out around 12 watts output.

Even with a beefier tube, was the power supply was so overrated as to allow about 5 times the normal current without smoking?

(I'm figuring 300 volts x 25 milliamps x 60% = 4.5 watts output for the stock Comstat. R55 is the voltage dropping resistor, and it is rated 1000 ohms @ 2 watts. So the most it could have dropped is 44 volts before it burned up. Therefore, the max power supply voltage is 344 volts. That would require 122 milliamps to deliver 42 watts of input power to the final stage.)

So I'm thinking this is some of the CB lore that was never really true. There was a lot of that that used to go around when CB was big.

 

[Harry_Balsagna]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Wow, was that too complex.

The bottom line is I don't believe anyone ever got 25 watts output from a Lafayette Comstat 25-B.

The stock final tube couldn't handle that.

With a bigger tube, it is highly doubtful that the power supply would be sufficient.

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

First CB Experience: My "Western S.P.Y" walkie talkie set from Western Auto. It recieved everything rom 25 to 30mHz simultaneously and transmitted on channel 9 (pre-REACT). I tried putting an old car radio antenna on the roof which I'm sure didn't help. When I talked on my WT one day a booming voice spoke to me and invited me to see his CB set up. I think he had one of the Lafayette table models, along with a beam. He worked around town under his calls and skip with a handle, but no "lean-e-ers". CB seemed pretty polite, and a lot of the folks on there eventually became hams and populated 2 meters after the craze.

One skip guy I remember hearing went by "The Weakest Station in the Nation" (probably about 10kW) from somewhere in the northwest.

 

[KeithE4]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

First CB Experience: My "Western S.P.Y" walkie talkie set from Western Auto. It recieved everything rom 25 to 30mHz simultaneously and transmitted on channel 9 (pre-REACT).

I had a pair of Sears TransTalk "1 mile range" (yeah, right!) walkie-talkies - similar to the Western Auto units, but transmitted on Channel 14 and received the entire CB band and then some, all at once.

Since, at age 9 in 1964, I didn't know how a superrgenerative receiver worked so I didn't know why other WTs that were set for other channels could hear me, and vice-versa. Those receivers were as broad as a barn door and there was little if anything one could do to increase the selectivity in such a cheap receiver.

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I literally remember walking down the street with one of those WTs and hearing The Voice of America which at the time was somewhere in the 11 meter SWBC band,, and WWV's 25 kHz (no longer in use) transmitter. Weird!

 

[KeithE4]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I literally remember walking down the street with one of those WTs and hearing The Voice of America which at the time was somewhere in the 11 meter SWBC band,, and WWV's 25 kHz (no longer in use) transmitter. Weird!

A superregenerative receiver has almost no selectivity other than the tank circuit that the antenna connects to. There are more modern circuits of this type which are much better - good enough in fact to detect narrow-band FM signals. But in the '60s, this type of receiver was next-to-useless, and was good only for AM and wideband FM. It was designed for simplicity and fair sensitivity, and for many years was the only way to receive VHF/UHF signals at a reasonable cost.

 

[snorlax]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Great topic--just found it!
I started in 1966 as KOD 5460 with a vertical. As "Dr. Jazz," I monitored 3 and 17 extensively. CB eventually became my gateway to an extra-class ham ticket.
I started with a 5-channel "Whiteface Johnson" Viking...my buddy up the street had a Comstat and the local "CB King" had a Browning Eagle with all the bells and whistles. I thought I had achieved CB Nirvana when I bought and connected a Turner +2 to the Johnson and cranked the modulation up. Operators then were classy enough to inform me politely about any overmodulation, and nobody splattered over six channels or ran 300000 watts
I also recall that QSLing was odd...when I made a contact, the other person would give a PO box and I would sent 10 or 20 QSL cards to the PO Box--half would be mine, half would be from others whose cards I received. In turn, I would get envelopes stuffed with 10-20 cards from people all over the country.

I also started a parallel path of SWLing with a National NC-98 and a Hallicrafters S-38.

 

[radioman148]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I started in 1964 with a walkie talkie that got me into CB. Then a Johnson I in 65 and a sonar G in 66. Always wanted a sonar FS 23 which was the cadilllac of CB radios in those days. Had a D104, a demco compressor and ran about 10 watts from the sonar & Johnson.

 

[Jay Walker]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

Nice thread. My family got started on 11 meters in the Mid 60's. The call was KDK-3229.
We ran a Johnson Viking 1 VFO controlled with a Hammerlund receiver. The antenna was stacked 6 elements at 50 ft. There was a group of us who ran on channel 2 using Vikings and Valiants doing our best to sound "Hi-Fi". Radio Shack Hi-ball microphones and home built Compression. My first contact on 11 meter SSB was on a Heathkit HW-101. I must have built 10 or 15 of these rigs for friends. The Heathkit part number for the 11 meter xtal was 404-313 if I recall, and was used in the Heath SB series SWL receiver.

Ooooops. How long does the statue of limitations apply?

Store bought rigs over the years were Cobra Cam 88, tons of Johnson gear Pierce Simpson Siltronix and Lafayette. Still collect tube type 11 meter gear Browning, Tram, etc. Along with boat anchor ham gear, Heath, Drake, Swan, National, Hallicrafters, ect.
Needless to say I have a very understanding XYL.
Got the Ham ticket in 1969 and left the band for good during the "Good Buddy" invasion around 1976.
Been an extra class since 1987.
Thanks for the thread.

 

[radioman148]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

>>We ran a Johnson Viking 1 VFO controlled with a Hammerlund receiver. The antenna was stacked 6 elements at 50 ft.>>

How far did you get out ground wave wise with that antenna setup?

 

[4dude]

Re: Early CB Radio, BEFORE the "good buddy" explosion (pre-1976), memories.

I reckon pretty good distance!

Thank you for coming ashore Jay