# C.B. Radio.



## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

During the 80s, around the Aussie coast, I was introduced to CB radio and kept an occasional QSX on the CB freqs on a spare RX. Did any of you ever listen or communicate on these freqs whilst at sea?

Steve.
(Thumb)


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

What a waste of an rx....


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

I had a Cobra 147 CB radio when I was on Washington. This set had 120channels of LSB, SB & USB along with all the AM & FM frequencies & with a morse key fitting in it too. The Sparky who was on board at the time was quite impressed with the output through a magnet mounted aerial on the ships side outside my cabin. It helped while away the night & many encounters with various CBer's of the feminine kind along the London river run. Luckily I was never caught with this equipment as I think it may have been illegal. Ha!!


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

In the very early 80s whilst the RFA Resource was loading armaments at Glen Mallan Jetty on the Clyde, I was trawling through the amateur bands for something to do to pass the time. As tuned up through 27 Mhz heading towards the ham ten metre band at 28Mhz I heard a very strong signal calling breaker one nine whoever he may have been. The signal input needle went right off the scale so it was a very nearby transmission. I went and had a shufti along the ship side and spotted a longish whip aerial sticking out of one of the catering staff's cabins. Rounded up the senior purser and went to the cabin in question. By this time the "operator" had removed the antenna and there was nothing obvious in the cabin except for a large biscuit tin which had a magnetic aerial mounting base stuck to it. However the purser explained to the lad that he might have been putting the ship in danger by squirting several watts of illegal RF only a few yards away from 500 lb bombs which were lying onm the deck. The equipment was produced and taken into safe custody - an AM/SSB illegal imported CB transceiver. Notices were eventually issued to the Fleet that such hobbies were not permitted onboard RFAs or in HM Dockyards.
For those who might question what problems might be caused by the ship's own high powered transmitters - they were subjected to the Radio Hazard rules and were silent whilst loading ops were underway. 
I wonder in this day and age of mobile phones what the rules are onboard such ships. Perhaps someone out there may know.


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## Geoff of Hull (Jun 25, 2007)

I also had a Cobra that I bought in Corpus Christi in 1980,It was used through a battery charger and a small antenna which screwed down at the top to adjust the swr,I used to take it away quite often when in Stevie Clarks and got real good copies whilst at sea,one being another vessel I remember being the Scillyonian the Scilly Isles ferry.
Remember once on the Hornby Grange Eddie Downing Engine room storekeeper had one in the other passage way,and we talked to each other to try them out and convinced the steward Steve Thompson that Eddie was in Aussie,that was a good talking point that trip and he never found out until 10 years later when I told him..


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## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

Although I did not ever use one at sea I did have illegal ex-us ones at the house and in the car on a slide mount . Later when the legal fm sets came on the market i changed to the fm frequency and...gave up CB altogether as all the kids were yaking on it (turkeys!) people were broadcasting music on them as well blocking channels.
The AM sets were much better, they saved a few lives by being used to call the nearest breaker with a landline to alert emergency services.
It has also been used to alert emergency rescue at sea. as one member of this could testify to. but i will let him tell you that story.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

R651400 said:


> Geoff that must have been one hell of a high quality battery charger to give you clean power to run a cb rig.
> Interesting that cb at sea was actually permitted or was it?
> American cb radios were all 27mhz amplitude modulated and became the norm throughout the world.
> When the UK eventually decided to allow cb in 1981 and to stamp out previous piracy by illegal US sets such as the Cobra, made the UK specification 27mhz fm plus another useless frequecy 934 mhz fm.
> CB is not everyone's cup of tea but at least it has brought radio communications to some who may not have had the technical expertise or opportunity to operate from their homes or vehicles before.


Connect your battery charger to a car battery then connect your CB to the battery, power is cleaned up, simples!!(Thumb)


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Geoff of Hull said:


> I also had a Cobra that I bought in Corpus Christi in 1980,It was used through a battery charger and *a small antenna which screwed down at the top to adjust the swr,*I used to take it away quite often when in Stevie Clarks and got real good copies whilst at sea,one being another vessel I remember being the Scillyonian the Scilly Isles ferry.
> Remember once on the Hornby Grange Eddie Downing Engine room storekeeper had one in the other passage way,and we talked to each other to try them out and convinced the steward Steve Thompson that Eddie was in Aussie,that was a good talking point that trip and he never found out until 10 years later when I told him..


I had one of those on my car as a car radio aerial, WOW, what a difference it made to medium wave stations! I could hear Capitol 194 in Warrington. Was it a DV27?


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

billyboy said:


> Although I did not ever use one at sea I did have illegal ex-us ones at the house and in the car on a slide mount . Later when the legal fm sets came on the market i changed to the fm frequency and...gave up CB altogether as all the kids were yaking on it (turkeys!) people were broadcasting music on them as well blocking channels.
> The AM sets were much better, they saved a few lives by being used to call the nearest breaker with a landline to alert emergency services.
> It has also been used to alert emergency rescue at sea. as one member of this could testify to. but i will let him tell you that story.


That's true, Billyboy. We lived in Bryngoleu Avenue in Holyhead and attached to the (now no longer existing) chimney was a Midland 5/8ths aerial complete with radials etc powered by a Cobra 148 GTL DX. (which I still have) One night my mother, Blue Dragon, was yakking with one of the locals when she heard "On the side Blue Dragon". She recognised the voice as someone on a FV who she used to talk to regularly so she spoke to this bloke. He asked her to give a count to ten and keep talking which she did. After a while he said "Thankyou BD, that's helped a lot". It turns out that the FV had taken a bad wave which had broken the wheelhouse windows and had knocked out the electrics. They didn't know exactly where they were or which way they were facing. This bloke (I wish I could remember his name) asked the Skipper if he could connect up his CB. The Skipper gave permission and it was set up. The first thing he heard which he recognised was Blue Dragon and somehow was able to get a DF therefore point the right way to a safe port (Reykyavik or Torshaven, I can't remember now.) She was told about what was going on but didn't believe it, untill about a week later when she got a postcard from that port signed by the crew.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Pat McCardle said:


> I had a Cobra 147 CB radio when I was on Washington. This set had 120channels of LSB, SB & USB along with all the AM & FM frequencies & with a morse key fitting in it too. The Sparky who was on board at the time was quite impressed with the output through a magnet mounted aerial on the ships side outside my cabin. It helped while away the night & many encounters with various CBer's of the feminine kind along the London river run. Luckily I was never caught with this equipment as I think it may have been illegal. Ha!!


That sounds like a similar rig to mine which is a Cobra 148 GTL DX and has a jack input for my CW key.


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

Geoff, nice ship the Hornby Grange. I was on the Swan River and I was at sea with Jack Barter R/O on the Royston Grange who died in that terrible accident in the R. Plate. Apologies for getting off the CB thread . rgds
Graham Powell


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

Coastie said:


> That sounds like a similar rig to mine which is a Cobra 148 GTL DX and has a jack input for my CW key.


Thats the one, GTL DX. I was talking to these 2 lasses one night & arranged an 'Eyeball' with one of them.............I didn't know whether to throw myself or the CB over the side after that one(Jester)


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

In 1967, the Mobil Astral had hand held 27mhz AM sets for berthing QSO's, so I assume their usage was legal. Unless it was for fixed freq use on limited channels. 

We put it to good use once when on passage from Oz back to the Gulf. I was called by the George Champion, of Universe Tankships. Their main fridge gas had leaked and did we have any spare. Yes we did and being 24 hrs or so ahead of us, they waited. He didn't have 2mhz RT or VHF, but we did find a 27mhz channel in common.

David
+


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

R651400 said:


> Agreed Coastie, I read it as b-charger only supplying dirty DC.


Ooops! Sorry!(EEK)


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Pat McCardle said:


> Thats the one, GTL DX. I was talking to these 2 lasses one night & arranged an 'Eyeball' with one of them.............I didn't know whether to throw myself or the CB over the side after that one(Jester)



I have been that man!!(EEK)


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

david.hopcroft said:


> In 1967, the Mobil Astral had hand held 27mhz AM sets for berthing QSO's, so I assume their usage was legal. Unless it was for fixed freq use on limited channels.
> 
> We put it to good use once when on passage from Oz back to the Gulf. I was called by the George Champion, of Universe Tankships. Their main fridge gas had leaked and did we have any spare. Yes we did and being 24 hrs or so ahead of us, they waited. He didn't have 2mhz RT or VHF, but we did find a 27mhz channel in common.
> 
> ...


You could buy these sets in England as long as the shop wrote on the receipt "For Export or Spare's Only". We bought a couple for a new build I joined in 1967 on Teesside.


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

Back in the 1970's we used utilize CB-band walkie-talkies for communications between the bow and stern and the bridge whilst docking and undocking. Unlike the modern VHF-band radios, the reception of the CB-radios tended to be disrupted by any intervening steel structure. You had to make sure to step out to a place where you were actually visible from the bridge in order to insure that the bridge would actually hear you. 

Worse than that, however, was the fact that every American truck driver ("lorry driver" to the British) had a CB radio in his cab, so our communications were always cluttered up with a constant stream of chatter coming from the nearby roads. A whole CB-radio subculture sprang up in the States during the second half of the 1970s, with with it's own special jargon, and generating a whole host of pop-culture music, television and movies. For a while every truck driver (and wannabe truck driver automobile motorist) had a CB radio in his vehicle, all of whom generated an endless stream of mindless radio chatter.


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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

On the Jebsens 'S' boats we had bridge/fore/aft walkie talkies that used frequencies in the CB bands - not a problem in the majority of ports but, one evening when berthing in New Orleans all of our channels were swamped with local CB traffic.

I told the bridge to instruct fore and aft to switch of the walkie talkies for a minute - having then tuned into the channel that we wanted to use on the walkie talkie on both the ships main Kelvin Hughes Rx and Tx I broadcast a request for the CBers to 'QRT' as we were berthing a ship. I received a couple of friendly acknowledgements and a couple of doubters but they did keep off the channel while we berthed.

Just to be courteous I then sent a 'QUM' and our thanks when we were FWE.

Steve.
(Thumb)


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

I remember reading some years ago (probably on this site) of an occasion when the fo'c'sle team was instructed to let go starboard anchor, the anchor of a nearby ship was released - to the consternation of both bridge teams.


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Niarchos used to supply hand-held american CB transceivers to all their ships; the extending rod antennae always got broken and so a stock of spares was held at Skaramanga shipyard.
Then 'intrinsically safe' UHF walkie-talkies became available and were issued to all of the tankers in the fleet, but the bulk-carriers still had to make do with CB.
The CB craze referred to by Klaatu83 in post 19 was in full flow when we came to the Cayman Islands and some people had huge multi-element quad antennae on their roofs or slung between palm trees in their yards. Chit-chat back and forth to the States was a major source of entertainment, there being, at the time, only one local (AM) radio station and no TV. It was quite impressive what could be achieved with only 4 watts!
Then marine hand-helds became dirt cheap and so everyone bought those but, of course, couldn't get the same range and the whole idea went out of vogue.


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## IMRCoSparks (Aug 22, 2008)

In the early 70's there was an extensive salmon fishing fleet out here on the BC coast.
In the desperate quest for confidential frequencies, so the fishermen (fisherpersons? fishers?) could communicate with their partners they sought out the early CB's. 
These were 8 or 12 channel crystal controlled models. They would swap around the Tx & Rx crystals in a random fashion then push the mic and try to scan which frequency. Some of the transmissions were not even in the 27mhz band
When the 40 channel synthesized cb's came along it made the crystal controlled cb's even more valuable as you couldn't meddle with the new ones. Some were still being used in the 90's
Ken


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## BOB GARROCH (Oct 10, 2008)

I found out by listening to a CB, used by one of my customers, that the lady next door to my house, was operating a CB to promote her business. Her callsign was 'REDLIGHT" By the ammount of replies she was busy.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

IMRCoSparks said:


> When the 40 channel synthesized cb's came along it made the crystal controlled cb's even more valuable as you couldn't meddle with the new ones.


A similar situation applied on the UK coast but with normal marine VHF (and even with MF) radiotephones. When synthesised equipment came on the scene, many of the fishermen preferred to stick with their old Sailor RT144 sets because they could alter the channel settings to 'private' frequencies on which they could talk to their pals and their wives at home. Most skippers carried unlicensed crystals for MF frequencies, which they plugged into the MF R/T set when they went aboard, and removed when they landed their catch - making sure that they weren't in evidence when the radio surveyor came around.

Their wives and their agents could then keep 'skeds' to listen for the boat and get the latest updates on how the trip was going.


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## 5TT (May 3, 2008)

I joined a ship that had those cheap 27mhz CB walkie talkies too and on undocking it was obvious that we had terrible problems with them, often deploying a runner to get messages across. So, first job at sea I gathered them all together and set about restoring them. I don't recall there being too much wrong with them other than being off frequency and needing replacement telescopic antennas. I always carried one of those Thandar pocket frequency counters with me, very handy for jobs like this.

Anyway, with those all working nicely again I noticed that the ship was equipped with a wired intercom system at the docking stations but that the junction boxes, microphones, loudspeakers etc were broken, connectors badly corroded etc, but the amplifier and control box were working fine. 

I mentioned this to the OM and suggested that I restore the intercom and keep the radios as a backup and he was all for it. I requisitioned the parts and everything I needed arrived soon afterwards, Safmarine were always pretty good that way. 

On the big day when we were going to try this lot out I went to both docking stations, plugged the kit in to the shiney new junction boxes, tested it and retired to the bridge to observe.
It was working fantastically well until suddenly an out of breath cadet arrived to report a problem with the aft bridge comms .. so I grabbed a couple of nicely restored radios, presented one to the 3rd mate on the bridge and made off to the aft station to see what the problem was ... 

Now, the 2nd mate was a big burly red headed Scotsman who used to interpose an expletive into almost every word he spoke, and on decoding his explanation it became evident that he'd managed to trap the microphone cable under a line on the winch and pulled the connector out of the new junction box, wrecking the box and severing the connections in the process ... I handed him the walkie talkie but before I could turn away to survey the damage a bit closer he extended the antenna and pulled it clean out of the radio, I couldn't believe it, there he was with the radio in one hand and the antenna with a bit of black plastic on the end in the other .. 
The OM was stewing a bit by the time I returned to the bridge to grab the 3rd and final radio, which was presented to the wrecking crew with the antenna already carefully extended, making it very clear (in words that he could understand) that he was down to a runner if this one meets a similar fate, which fortunately it didn't. 
A tube of araldite and a shortened microphone cable took care of the repairs, but I seem to recall we went back to radios as the prime mode and the intercom as backup after that, and that arrangement seemed to work pretty smoothly ..

= Adrian +


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## andrewwalker1234 (Feb 14, 2009)

I use to have a Ham Major and a 12 ft Shakespear on my roof objected passing the Ham licence and well I was a PMG just used to chat up and DX on it 
gr8 fun.


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## EimbTrader (Aug 25, 2007)

King Ratt said:


> In the very early 80s ... signal calling breaker one nine whoever ....


Hi King Ratt,
that sounds to me like the 1978 Trucker Ballad "Convoy" starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw and Ernest Borgnine.
Truckers form a mile long "convoy" in support of a trucker's vendetta with an abusive sheriff...
Part of the lyric:
_Uh, Breaker One-Nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck
You got a copy on me Pig-Pen? C’mon...
_
All the best and dont worry 
EimbTrader (Wave)


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Hello Eimb Trader. Thats a big ten four then! I could never understand how Scots CB - ers all of a sudden developed American accents and strange phraseology when they got a mike in their hands. 

I won't worry

KR


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

'Breaker 19 for a copy' I remember that from listening in once to a 4W UK licensed CB, strange phraseology indeed. Come on all you CB'ers, whats your handle?


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## G0SLP (Sep 4, 2007)

Well, good buddy, you're ratchet-jawing with Mister Fixit


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

Got my ears on Mister Fixit, big truckin' it down to windy at double nickel avoidin' Kojak with the Kodak an rakin the leaves big buddy, come on

Sad innit?


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## Criffh (Feb 27, 2006)

All they did around my neck of the woods was swear at each other.


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

Radio Shack have a lot to answer for.(Jester)


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