Anyone know much about walkie talkies?

[604man]

CB used to be fun quite a few years ago, but there was a much higher standard of radio etiquette back then.
It might have been due to the fact that a license was needed in order to transmit.
Nowadays, it's just mostly muck and filth polluting the airwaves, things have really changed.

Also be careful who you call a "good buddy". Even that doesn't mean what it used to.

I just happened to be at a friends house today, and we tuned around the CB band and it
was dead , no activity even on CH 19.. like a lot of things, it's over with.

If the cell phone system and internet crashes it might make a com back.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-S9/S9-1964-03.pdf

 

[dontbugme]

I understand that you enjoy tooling around, but drop these like a hot potatoe. The CB radio's range is minimal and of poor quality. For what you would end up spending on the crystals, you could buy a nice set of used Cobra 18 channel Family Channel walkie talkies. They have greater range and higher quality signal. About a year ago, I bought a set of six for $20. When they arrived they all had fresh Alkaline Duracells at 4 per. The batteries would have cost as much as the radios. The best Cobras that I ran into were the ones with the folding antennae.The old technology, in this particular case, is not worth the effort.

You're right, I just enjoy tooling around. They were neat to hold the last few days. Part of me just wanted to post more info here because it's a top result for this model in my search engine.

I have a set of Motorola ones floating around here that might be more your style. Took a multi-car road trip and suggested we take them, but was informed that "we have cell phones" :/ ...

I think if i was going to get into something like this i'd like some sort of ham setup. They test monthly here in Kansas City. CBs might not get the distance i want, but i think with the right setup I can get pretty far within the 10m band. I've had a few different 2m/70cm HH transceivers but never talked on them. Had fun getting the downlink from an old amateur satellite (AO51?) and saw the ISS for the first time trying to tune it in... Those SDR radios look kinda fun too, and are cheap if you go cheap...

 

[bbqjoe]

I have a Ranger (RCI) 2995.
It's a pretty cool radio in that it will operate on 11 meters (citizens band) as well as 10 meters. (IIRC you still need a license for anything other than CB frequencies)
10 meters is pretty cool that when the conditions are right, you can sometimes talk halfway across the planet.

The conversations are pretty boring though.

They mostly consist of:
Hi.
Where are you?
How's the weather?
Ok, bye.

I figure it might be cool to have on hand right as the world ends.

Conversations will be like:
Hi.
Where are you?
Schitts over huh?

Ok bye.

 

[avionic]

One of my first part-time jobs. Installing CB radio on semi tractors. Installing and tuning the twin whip antennas with an SWR meter. Then repairing CB, SSB and linear amplifiers. I was 16 at the time. My father was an army field radio instructor that knew his shit. As soon as I showed an interest in what he was doing in his spare time. He showed me how to trouble-shoot using basic test equipment. Dad also paid better than most part-time jobs at that time.

 

[dontbugme]

I have a Ranger (RCI) 2995.
It's a pretty cool radio in that it will operate on 11 meters (citizens band) as well as 10 meters. (IIRC you still need a license for anything other than CB frequencies)
10 meters is pretty cool that when the conditions are right, you can sometimes talk halfway across the planet.

Yeah you need one of three levels of licenses to operate a station. A few practice tests of study can get you your first level. I watched a hacker convention video a few years back that spoke about them. Saying if we stop using the frequencies they might take them away from us. And one level of license gets you the frequency range of wireless routers and up to 1000w of power! What kind of hacker is she, if she does not like the sounds of that?

The conversations are pretty boring though.

Ha, right! - In independence Missouri i listened to the "09" repeater. I would tune in for the 'nets'. Add "still feeling sick" to your conversations and that about sums them up. Are they sick from toxic soldering fumes or just of old HAM age?... They also had a bad weather net that was fun to listen to during storms...

 

[KingBubba]

I built one of those Knight kits when I was a kid. I don't know what I did wrong, but I never could get it to work.

 

[avionic]

unlike those usless CB radios which are usually arnt legible

Walkie Talkies operate in the same citizen radio band as CB's

 

[orsen]

linear amplifiers

you mean a boot?
when we were kids we made a 3 element beam on ceiling of a friends bedroom
out of copper wire from motor windings
hooked up a kilowatt amplifier to the c.b. a realistic base station
we burnt the ceiling of the room the wire got so hot
hahaha ... we put a mike in a 5 gallon oil can to get the echo of a d-103... of course we could never get that wonderful "ping" sound they made when keyed

my first radio was a 5 chan helicrafter [ had to buy the extra crystals] next was a johnson 123a

 

[avionic]

I got pretty burnt out on the whole CB/SSB bullshit. Most of my fathers clientele at the time were parasites on the local economy.

 

[gadget73]

we could never get that wonderful "ping" sound they made when keyed

I own a Browning, the radio of legendary "ping". Last time I bothered to turn it on, people kept telling me there was something making a funny noise when I keyed it. Nobody knew what it was, or could accept that it was supposed to make that noise. Nobody knows what my Tram is either, but it doesn't make funny noises so it doesn't attract much notice. I run both with either a JB-12 "modulator" or an old Palomar 60. I doubt either have been turned in in the last 2 years. Most of the guys I used to talk to have moved on or passed on so the band is pretty dead.

 

[trainbuftony]

Look into the surplus Bendix King Forrest service and fire radios. I buy them by the box and set them up as scanners and walkie talkies on the murs frequencies. They are keypad programmable in the field, and parts are still available. The quality of the metal cased ones is top notch.