'Rediscovering' CB!

[DungButton]

Hello,

I've just joined your forum. I was an early-adopter of CB27/81 legal FM CB Radio when I was in my mid teens and met some great folk on it, it also fueled my interest in electronics and radio in general and helped me in a 40 year career as an electronics technician in various jobs over the last 40 years.

A couple of months ago I purchased an SDR kit and installed SDR# then had great fun discovering and listening to river and air traffic. I live in NW Kent not far from the Thames and on the flight path to London City airport amongst others so lots of stuff to listen to here.

I managed to pick up some 2M ham stuff too but the supplied dipole needed regular re-tuning if I wanted to swap frequencies I found. I've since replaced the simple dipole with a Discone (getting more serious!?) which has a suprisingly effective HF whip built-in. I tried to find local B'ers and earwig in but it seems very quiet around here.

All the above has led onto rummaging through a load of old stuff I left at my Mum's house 35+ years ago when I moved out... guess what I've found



Cheers.

[lambrettadave]

Great story, glad you have found your old stuff as well .
Hopefully there's someone on to talk to near you

[QRZ-934]

John Woolf Racing swr meter. Had a mic with that same logo on it years ago.

[DungButton]

Thanks for the welcome Dave, yes, its been very interesting reading up and seeing where CB is now. Kerrikey its come on a long way hasn't it, another 40 channels too! I've been totally removed from it for over 3 decades.

I've cleaned all the switches and looked around the rig, it's been in a cupboard for all those years and has survived well it seems.



What I'd totally forgotten about was a modification I'd done all those years ago when I was at College...


It powers up just fine, I've no real 11M antenna at the moment, I've tried the Discone I use with the SDR but its totally deaf on 11M (and 10M) but very good elsewhere.

I tried a couple of DIY lash-ups but I need to find out a bit more about antennas as I've got daft high SWR of over 3:1 trying to make a 1/4 wave dipole with wire and old plmbing waste pipe not unsurprisingly!



Back to the drawing board.

[DungButton]

John Woolf Racing swr meter. Had a mic with that same logo on it years ago.

Oh! So thats what JWR stands for, I didn't know that, ta Mr 934.

[QRZ-934]

John Woolf Racing swr meter. Had a mic with that same logo on it years ago.

Oh! So thats what JWR stands for, I didn't know that, ta Mr 934.

Youre welcome!

[Tin soldier]

Good luck with it and welcome dungbutton.
Get yourself a sideband rig and you should have plenty of contacts

[DungButton]

Thanks Tin Soldier (One of Mr Marriots finest IMO).

Maybe a new rig one day, I'm on a fairly strict budget at the moment and I'd like to get some use out of the old Fidelity before I plunge in deep, hence the DIY antenna attempts at the moment.

It seems very quiet around this way, possibly due to my current naff aerial set up, certainly the Discone is pants between 26-30 mHz.

[Tin soldier]

Thanks Tin Soldier (One of Mr Marriots finest IMO).

Maybe a new rig one day, I'm on a fairly strict budget at the moment and I'd like to get some use out of the old Fidelity before I plunge in deep, hence the DIY antenna attempts at the moment.

It seems very quiet around this way, possibly due to my current naff aerial set up, certainly the Discone is pants between 26-30 mHz.

A desert island disc for me

I had a budget when I came back recently but I soon went over it ,

All the best and keep trying. It's surprising what you can achieve if you keep going and not give up after a few attempts.

[bitbang]

Good to see another Cybernet chassis dusted off! Not sure if that's a powerline adaptor under your radiator in the photo or not. They interfere badly with 27MHz and unfortunately are everywhere these days.

[SkyShield]

Great seeing someone playing around with cb again. Ah the Fidelity 2000 , it was the second radio I ever bought and that cybernet board was fantastic . Hopefully you’ll get a few contacts on it especially in the summer . You never know you might upgrade it for an SSB rad and be working the world

[DungButton]

Good to see another Cybernet chassis dusted off! Not sure if that's a powerline adaptor under your radiator in the photo or not. They interfere badly with 27MHz and unfortunately are everywhere these days.

Ah, it's an RCD to protect me. My whole workbench and test gear are on it. Ive built and tweaked Hifi and Valve audio gear for a while.

[DungButton]

Great seeing someone playing around with cb again. Ah the Fidelity 2000 , it was the second radio I ever bought and that cybernet board was fantastic . Hopefully you’ll get a few contacts on it especially in the summer . You never know you might upgrade it for an SSB rad and be working the world

Thanks.

Yes, I'd like that too!

I need to get a reasonable antenna working firstly I think, still learning here.

[SkyShield]

Maybe an “off the shelf” antenna getting ordered perhaps??

[bitbang]

Ah, it's an RCD to protect me. My whole workbench and test gear are on it. Ive built and tweaked Hifi and Valve audio gear for a while.

Good stuff and good idea! Hope you get some contacts on the Fidelity!