Michael:
Thanks for your post. (A real "BLAST-FROM-THE-PAST!")
Back in the 70's, on CB, some of the best radio years of my whole life
where there... I miss them... (there was a "rubber duck" under every
rock--we still got "mud ducks" though
Amateur radio has changed too, the bands are not as interesting... the
personalities stagnant and without humor, without fun, without excitement,
without youngsters, without harmless pranks, without mystery. Bunch of
old guys attempting to play "James Bond", "secret agent" and attempting
more structure to communication than the NSA uses!
I hope-against-hope the good old days of radio will return, but, I would
like it to do so on new technology... some of us which remember the old
CB days (days when even, good, hams had cb rigs!--or, we made do with 10
meter equip. grin) are on ch. 38-39 LSB (27.385, 27.395) in the central
valley of calif, we are a stagnant number, be nice to have the company.
Lot of mobiles so they escape the harassment of hams still waging the
"old war." If you mention your call, be prepared to take some kidding...
If you ever get an opportunity--come join us! Real CB still lives in
isolated pockets!
John
On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:18:30 +0000, Trying to be a real ham! wrote:
On 12 Aug 2005 12:34:33 -0700, "Polymath"
wrote:
they are nothing
of the kind! Usually such people are a
variation of the CB Radio hobbyist...
Actually it was CB band competition between a friend and I combined
with my desire to understand radio that turned me in to a ham. When I
was back in school my friend and I started trying to see who could put
out the strongest signal. His father bought him an amplifier to get
over me. I was not going to ask my parents for an amplifier, and I
did not have any money to buy one since I was a full time student. I
had heard the phrase "Knowledge is power", so I decided if I could not
buy a bigger amp to get over my friend I would have to out smart him
with brain power.
I went to the school library and started reading radio handbooks
like Bill Orr's handbook. When a radio repair tech at the local ham
store realized I truly wanted to learn the science of radio he gave me
a copy of the 1983 ARRL handbook for free (it was 1984 at the time).
I read that book until it fell apart. Then I bought another ARRL
radio book, and then another radio book, and then another radio book.
I'm still doing that all these years later. The radios I talk on (a
Tempo 2020, Drake 4 B line twins, Yaesu FT-101ee, and a Midland 79-892
40 channel sideband CB) were all someone else's broken door stop. None
of them worked when I bought them. I repaired them all, and I made
most of my antennas. When I talk on those old radios part of me
smiles, because I know the only reason those radios are still working
is because I put them back on the air.
Anyway after deciding to ignore all the CB radio folklore I had
heard on the CB back in the 1970s and early 1980s, I learned the truth
about radio from reading the ARRL handbooks. I quickly became the
strongest CB station on the airways, and much of that was with self
taught radio know how.
A local ham noticed I was emerging from the CB pack as a potential
ham, and he started talking to me about ham radio. I aced the 5 wpm
Morse code test three weeks after listening to my first ARRL code
tape, and I don't even like Morse code. I aced all my exams, my 13
WPM code test, and now I am an Advanced class ham. When I passed my
Advanced written test a bunch old timers circled around the VE
examiners desk looking for a mistake on my test, but there was none to
be found. I made a perfect score, and out of all my test I only missed
one question.
One of the reasons I have not taken the Extra test is because the
old timers spit on the new no code Extra. I'm proud of my Advanced
class license, and I would not take kindly to an old timer spitting on
me if I had the new no code Extra.
In the past I used older equipment because I could not afford
anything else. Now I can afford the best, but I find myself poking
around in the old tube types and tube hybrids, because I don't know if
I can service the new surface mount technology stuff. If all I could
do was talk on the radio that would take all the fun out of it for me.
I think the best compliment I ever received on the ham bands was
when an old timer listened to all the things I was building and doing
and he said; "You are a true ham". That phrase from an old timer
meant more to me than any signal report or any DX contact. I am a
true ham, and I started on the CB band back in the 1970s just like
most other hams my age. I am not ashamed of my CB heritage. The
truth is I had a blast on the CB band back then.
Michael Rawls
KS4HY