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Approx 43 years late but catching up UPDATED

Rob Keeble said:
Well I am glad i brought back a few memories to you guys. Have not had the chance to wire it up this morning was too much of a mad dash to the whale watch place.

Bart trust me i could write a thesis on radio transmission and SWR and ground planes etc. LOL if only you knew the things i have been up to in the past. Have to dig out some old pics sometime.

Try tuning a 1KW Racal transceiver that has been mounted in an old landrover ambulance truck and fitted with pump up clark mast and dummy load. Wanna see sparks fly and fluorescent tubes light up. :)

I still have a huge list to catch up. Still got to get me some reenactment gear. I would like to build one of them Kentucky Rifle kits and fire it, someday. Frank Fusco you listening. :) Have to get the rules necessary for Canada first but working at it. :) My list goes on an on. :)
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You just brought back some memories with the fluorescent tubes. The Cherokee I had with the dual alternator and dual battery setup had no problems lighting up the 8ft. T-12 florescent tubes. You could even see the light modulate when I talked.

We also made directional antennas and hunt and track each other around town.
 
Very cool Alan the unit i was in during my military service was all about electronic warfare. We had some Rhode and Schwarz German equipment for direction finding. Darn accurate stuff but what a pain in the rear to setup.

We had to clear a level patch of bush and setup three circles of antennae i cannot remember just how many were in the field but when done the best description i can think of is when they take an onion and make a deep fried onion bloom. :rofl: The shielding on all the cable feeds from each antenna were covered in ferrites and all cables cut to precise lengths. Was fun to play with that system but i am going back to the mid 70s now. :)
 
Yeah Chuck you dead right that's what I am finding out. I guess my title says it all. Late to the party again. Will see what its like on the way home. Only thing is with cell phones you can only yak to people you know. Some might enjoy yaking to new people. I hope so or I am gonna get it in the neck from Linda. However I sold it as an emergency tool. Fat lot of good in an emergency if no one is listening (lol) . Holding thumbs.
 
Rob Keeble said:
Yeah Chuck you dead right that's what I am finding out. I guess my title says it all. Late to the party again. Will see what its like on the way home. Only thing is with cell phones you can only yak to people you know. Some might enjoy yaking to new people. I hope so or I am gonna get it in the neck from Linda. However I sold it as an emergency tool. Fat lot of good in an emergency if no one is listening (lol) . Holding thumbs.
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I'd keep it around, may need it if you decide to take to the off-road. Many of the jeep and off-road clubs use and require them.
 
Approx 43 years late but catching up

To add to Darren's point, there are still areas (at least in my part of the country) were there is no cell phone coverage, even on the Interstate highways. A CB can be real handy in an emergency in places like that.
 
Ok So I have to make a confession, :eek: its seems to be my standing routine of late. They say its good for the soul so here goes. I must have set up dozens of transceivers in my time and one would think you would check things with a meter right. Well I decided to return my radio under warranty due to it popping fuses. Got the new one this pm and all excited I decided heck first I am gonna check my antenna set up. Now when I did this initially I did not have my multimeter with me. I mean there was nothing to go wrong right. WRONG. When I had put the base of the antenna on its bracket I did not put the insulation washer the right way around. So when I measured from the coax connector where it connects to the radio I got a short. I thought hmmm this must have been me when I soldered the connector on again after cutting off the waste. Wrong again, which I only found out after cutting the connector off and doing a continuity test on the coax. This led me to the bracket and :doh::eek::doh::eek: I spotted it. I have looked at that setup a dozen times but I dunno its got to be this age thing I just did not see the insulating washer and this time I noticed had it in position such that the nut above I was shorting to earth. No wonder I could not receive or transmit when down in the USA. Well I fixed that promptly then hooked up the radio again and what do you know there are guys out there and tons of them. So I took the car down the road to open field and tuned the antenna so fine that my SWR is near on 1:1 at channel 20. It was so nice to hear RF sound again after 35 plus years. It was music to my ears to hear guys on the radio old school style. I just came back and I tell you I could dance jig I am so happy. Its a bit sad that kids today have kinda been born into all the technology. I still think growing up through the evolution has been way better than their take it for granted outlook. I started as a kid at 10 and built my first crystal radio, and strung an antenna from my dads garage to the workshop (two separate buildings). It was so cool to hear a crackle in the earphones. Then moved on to hand me down grandmas valve radios and boy they could pick up well. So its been fascinating to experience the ride all the way through to the digital radio systems today. But I love having the crackle and pop of RF on the radio. Old School Rules.
 
Rob back in the day I ran a 21 channel tube set and was thrilled when the digital Phase lock loop 40 Channel's came out. Mine had both AM and side band capabilities. I tweeked mine up a little and well let just sayit was a smiggen over the legal 4 watts. I later discovered how to convert the PLL chip that sets the channels so my 40 channel got 256 channels. I later added a linear amp and was putting out 150 watts. I could talk to Florida from California when the atmosphere co-operated.
 
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