Handheld CB Radio

Handheld CB Radios have been around for as long as there has been a 'Citizen Band' and early versions of the handheld variety were pretty bulky and cumbersome.  The technology of the age couldn't quite provide the minimal type of walkie-talkies that are available these days so things were slight more upscale compared to more modern varieties of handheld CB Radio.




The first handheld CB Radios I saw in the 80's had huge extendable antennas and needed upwards of a dozen AA batteries to function which added quite some considerable weight as well as then need to shell out a fair amount of money every time you needed to replace the batteries.



In a bid to slim down the devices themselves a number of cheaper and generally smaller handheld CB Radios were on the market but didn't give access to all 40 channels.  Most of the cheaper Handheld CB Radios only gave you access to 2 channels via a little switch on the front.  Normally just channel 14 (The calling channel in it's day) and one other which limited their usability somewhat.
No doubt these early handheld CB Radios had their uses and might have been useful for talking to folk who were mobile or home based nearby but because of their limited aerials and lower power had very poor range.

As a kid, me and a few of my friends had one of the cheap two channel ones and we used to love running around our street talking to each other so as toys they were great fun.  When the channels were a lot busier you could speak to people in the local area but for most 'real' CBer's they didn't provide the full experience so most people stayed mobile with a rig in their cars rather than going portable.





A number of manufacturers produced a handheld CB Radio packs for use in an emergency in the 80's which were designed to be kept in your car in case of a breakdown or an accident.  These were supplied in a carry case and had additional accessories including a cable to power it from your cigarette lighter socket in the car and a small external aerial to go on the roof of your car temporarily

Generally most handheld CB Radios will give you a fairly abysmal range although like everything CB Radio this has a lot more to do with your general altitude and terrain.  Since I was always in a built up area and never on open high ground my personal experiences were just mucking about with my mates on the next street.  Trying to get any signals whilst indoors though was pretty much impossible.

Much like CB Radio itself, things have moved on somewhat even for the handheld variety which now come with different types of aerial, rechargeable batteries and the ability to connect external mics and aerials etc improves the experience somewhat.




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