This made me smile......

I run the Radio section of the District Scouts. Yesterday, an elderly villager turned up on my doorstep with an early 1980s Harrier CB in a mildewed box that he had found clearing out a shed and asked if it would be any use to the Scouts. Not wishing to seem ungrateful, but doubting that it would still be servicable, I accepted his gift.

Now, I haven't got a 27mhz antenna at home - I haven't used CB - except handhelds for Scouts - for more than 20 years but I reasoned that if I used my ATU, I could probably check it out by using my homebrew Carolina Windom Antenna which works perfectly well on 10m and 11m ain't that far away! I had no intention of 'using' it, I just thought it would be an idea to power it up and see if anything was going to the ATU.

I plugged the it in, and got the swr down to 1:1, no trouble - admittedly at the loss of about half the power - so it must have been running about 2w erp! It was at that point that I got a window-shattering call of "Who's dead keying?" (I hadn't even realised that channel 19, which had come up when I switched it on, was the 'breaking channel' nowadays - it was 14 in my day!) I couldn't resist getting back and found myself talking to a trucker about 20 miles along the coast who must have beeen using a linear about half the size of his engine (naughty!). He couldn't believe it when I told him where I was, what the rig was and, in answer to his question, that I did not have any 'boots' on! (Little did he know that half the legal power was being lost in matching the antenna!). I was rather chuffed, not only that the 'museum piece rig' worked but that my Windom must have been giving such good gain, even in such unfamiliar territory!

I've been smiling about it ever since!
Jonathan.

it would surprise you how many of those old 1980's museum pieces are still in service today,and will probably still be in service when a lot of the modern junk is dead and buried.radio's were built to last in those days.give it a few weeks and you'll probably be able to work all over the uk and beyond on it with a semi decent antenna when the sporadic e season kicks off.it will surprise you just how far 2w will travel in the right conditions.

Loads of 27/81 radios over 25 years are still up and running well. Have here a jork 863, rotel 240, york 869 and they are still working ultra well, same as uniden 300 chipped for 160 channels.

I've a York 863, with a mid block, and a Murphy homebase coming my way soon. I've two Stalker 9 SSB radios and a Major 360 too - love the old radios.

I am old though (to me an old valve radio sounds better than a DAB)

Hi Jaywalker, and welcome here to the forum. Same as me then

rotel 240, binatone 5 star, york 863
york 869 80channel
uniden 300 with uk, mids, low and hi band

Gotta love the old school radios

It was seeing your Youtube vids that got me back into the hobby after 20-odd years - cost me a fortune mate

Still, it's keeping me fit climbing ladders to do the SWR!

Interesting that one of the things that was a factor in the downturn in CB use is now helping it's revival - the Internet.

Cheers.

I am you saw the site and returned to the hobby, but am also about the costs, they do seem to spiral and know all about the up and down the ladder to get the swr ok.
Maybe hear you during the summer skip, will be around channel 38, already spoke to GMI28 Phil and also Victor from near Plymouth already.

73s Simon

Hope so indeed - is that UK38 or EU38?

I made a horizontal wire dipole a couple of days ago, and, if my geography is correct, it should be strong for Northern Europe.

The Tango Mike group, to which I belong, work EU25, UK25 and 555 during their DX days which usually happen on Bank Holidays.

York 863 and Murphy arrived today - York terrible, but Murphy scrubbed-up Ok.

Cheers.

Monitoring yes indeed. 38UK, 38EU and 38LO

York will be excellent, have one here and works a real treat, and the 869 homebase with mids inside.

Just about to look inside the 863 in case the lack of RX is something easy (it sounds like there's no mic plugged-in despite two known good ones tried).

Unfortunately it's been modified internally in a rather ham-fisted manner and painted with Hammerite outside!

I think it's going to be a doner rig used to breath life into another!

Cheers.