Now that the furor (not Fuhrer) over this whole ex-CB'er thing has
finally died down...

On 03 Aug 2003 03:02:18 GMT, ospam (Larry Roll K3LT)
wrote:

John:

Yep, it is true! I was once a CB'er, for a whole six months! I was the
Asst. Mgr. of the Radio Shack store in Depew, NY at the time, and I gave
myself a 30% discount on a Realistic TRC-23 CB transceiver -- the top-of-
the-line AM CB rig at the time in the era just before 40 channels.
I
installed it in my 1972 Dodge Colt with a 102" whip antenna,

1972 Would make it the original Navaho (TRC-23, no bloody A, B, or C,
as Scotty might say). Kind of bulky for a Dodge Colt, but at least
somebody took advantage of the dual power supply in one of those. Most
of 'em got used as base station rigs...and 99% of the users were off
the air if the power went out because they didn't have the sense to
provide a backup DC supply for a rig that was tailor made for it.

This was back in the days when some people who worked at Radio Shack
actually knew something about their products.

When I went in to the store in NT and bought a handheld,
crystal-controlled scanner (circa 1975) the guy there had a whole
boxful of crystals and a list he had compiled himself of local
frequencies in case folks wanted to order 'em (at $5 each). Whereas
today they have to pull the data sheet up off the internet to tell you
if the scanner you're looking at even covers a given frequency. Today
they're more like Cellphone Shack. sigh

Radio Shack...you've got questions, we've got dumb looks.

and actually
got a lot of use out of it when travelling between the area R/S stores on
stock transfer missions and going to/from the repair shop in Buffalo.

Buffalo or Tonawanda? I thought the (so-called) "factory repair" shop
was in the Colvin/Eggert Plaza back then.

When I quit the job at Radio Shack and joined the Air Force, that was
the end of my brilliant career as a CB'er!

A brilliant career move on both counts.

73 de Larry, K3LT
Ex: KHM-7772 (Handle: "Sky King")

I assume you're aware of the significance of SKYKING relative to its
appearance in AFKAI-1?

73 DE John, KC2HMZ