CB Radios For Sale

Last week I got a message through Facebook from a young man called George. Who lives down in Devon

He had contacted me because he has a lot of CB Radio equipment which he was looking to sell and had contacted me to see if I might be interested or knew anyone that might be interested in purchasing them.

In his message he explained that his Great grandfather had recently passed away and this collection of CB Radios. Aerials and other accessories had belonged to him
His great grandfather was famed in his part of the world as a renowned rig doctor and was well known in his area. In fact people travelled great distances to have him look at their radios so he clearly had a great reputation.

George’s great Father was called John William Cleverly but was known to his friends as William and at the time of passing had over 700 radios in his possession.

George explained that they had cleared out nearly 500 of William's old radios but what was left was in great condition and that many of them were still in their original boxes. In fact the haul comes in around 195 Radios and microphones, countless antennas and other accessories like amplifiers and power meters.

Sadly, I don’t have the funds to be able to offer him a fair price and based on the quantity available wouldn’t have the space to store it all but I did offer to make a video on my channel to see if there was anyone else out their that might be interested in taking it off his hands.

Now, if there is someone out there who would be interested in purchasing the haul as a job lot then I’ve put a link to Georges email down at the bottom of this page so you can get in touch with him direct.

I know there are a lot of dealers out there who might be interested in getting their hands on so many original items or perhaps someone who would be interested in selling them separately on EBay or something.



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Video

Base Station CB Radio Antenna

This weekend was the first day of decent weather in my area after several days of storms and a lot of rainfall which was proceeded by months of relatively severe winter conditions including high winds and a number of snow storms across the Country so this was the first opportunity to take a look at my Home base CB Radio Antenna which has taken a bit of a beating this Winter.

The worst of it was that during these windy conditions the Coax cable which connects to the base of the antenna had worked itself loose so I have been without any access to the airwaves for several weeks before I took this opportunity to fix it.

At home, I use a venom half wave /Silver Rod which is one of the cheapest homebase antennas available and sadly the issue with them slipping is a bit of a known issue amongst CBers which has to do with the quality of the jubilee clips that it comes with.  The job of the jubilliee clips is to grip each section of the antenna around the next section of aerial to clamp it into position.  This is invariably where they fail.
Because of the excessive winds part of my antenna had slipped inside of itself and needed some attention to get it SWRed in properly again.  This was easily achieved by adjusting the length of each section of antenna to make sure it was exactly the right length to work most efficiently.

I have had the aerial at roof height for over two years though and in that time it has had to deal with a lot of bad weather conditions so it was due some maintenance anyway.  This was the right time to give everything a good 'once over'


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CB Radio Handheld

This week, I thought I'd bring out a few handheld  CB Radios to take a look at them.  Its often the case that when people first get into CB Radio that they tend to start out with some form of handheld Radio.

Since I got back into CB Radio I have collected quite a few different Handheld CB Radios which we will take a look at in a moment.  Typically, Handheld CB Radios were cheaper than the Mobile and Home base CB Radios.that were available.

Since they provide the power, Radio and Antenna in a single unit and you don't need anything else to get on the air.  This would be why a Handheld CB Radio would be a good start.

Certainly in the days when the channels were always busy and there was always someone out there to pick up your signal but Handheld CB Radios have a number of downsides.



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CB Radio with SSB

This time around we are looking at a Colt485DX SSB which as the name suggests is a classic Sideband Radio.  We've looked at a couple of Colt Rigs before with the Colt 210 which is an AM CB Radio we reviewed last year and we've seen quite a lot of the Colt 295 which is the little FM CB Radio that I have used a lot over the summer on the various DX Activation I did last year.

I've had a few Sideband Radios over the years including a HAM International Multimode II as well as a Tristar 777 which I used a lot last year and took with me on a couple of the Sideband Nets that  did last Summer.  Most recently I had a President Lincoln which  I only recently sold.

As I am planning some trips out this Summer I got hold of this Radio because it is quite a lot smaller than the other Radios I hsave had which means it should be a lot easier to carry when out on a CB Radio DX Activation.  I actually got hold of this Radio from a guy in France and have so far been really impressed with it.

The other Radios I had also had some other Modes on them that the Colt 485DX doesnt have.  The other rigs came with both CW and FM Modes where this Colt Radio has only LSB,SSB and AM Modes.




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YouTube Channel Update

I posted the first video on my CB Radio YouTube channel on the 6th February 2016, very shortly after obtaining my Charlie Tango Call sign.  I only realised quite recently that it has therefore been two years since this YouTube channel was created.

I started the Channel just as a way to record my progress in the CB Radio hobby and initially posted footage of me first getting set up on CB Radio both as a home base set up in my garage but also as a mobile set up in my car and even a number of portable activations around the country last Summer

By early February last year I’d attracted about 80 YouTube subscribers.  i decided then to start a Blog Site and started to post regular CB Radio posts on that.  Over the course of the last year I’ve been putting a lot more work into the Channel and had a great summer last year heading out to various bits of the country doing a number of CB Radio DX Activations.  The summer also gave me the chance to fly my new drone and I managed to capture some pretty good footage whilst out and about.

I also launched a new CB Radio site called ‘The Breakers Yard’ and have put a lot of work into building that along withe two UK and US Amazon affiliates sites I have put together.

The winter time is generally a bad time for Radio range because of the lack of Sunshine so the airwaves generally quieten down during the summer months so it was the ideal time to focus down on producing some new CB Radio videos indoors in the warm.

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Free CB Radio Giveaway

Back in January I posted a video about YouTube’s Demonetisation of smaller YouTube channels as at the time I only had 500 subscribers and would need to have at least 1,000 Subscribers before the deadline of 20th February This Year.

I was planning to do a Prize Giveaway once I got to 1,000 subscribers anyway so decided to promote my YouTube channel by offering the chance to win their own brand new CB Radio to new subscribers.

In my video I stated that in order to enter the prize draw for a UK/EU 80 Channel AM/FM CB Radio you had to comment ‘I subscribed’ and also to ‘like’ the video.  I also asked that in order to help me achieve the other criteria of the YouTube Partner Program changes which requires 4,000 hours of watch in the last 365 days people stayed a watched a playlist of the other videos on my YouTube videos.

I did a review of the CRT One on my YouTube channel back in December 2016 and this is the upgraded CRT One N which also has a signal meter.  You can check out the video by following this link :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stOP60Pnr0c

The response to this video was amazing and it helped me to easily achieve the objectives of 4,000 hours and 1,000 subscribers required to allow my channel to continue to be monetised well in advance of the deadline and the response to the giveaway was astounding!

i was planning to close entry to the Prize Draw when I achieved the 1,000 subscribers but as I managed to achieve it early I have kept the entry window open until the end of February.

So its now early March and as promised I’m now going to do the actual Prize Draw and everyone who subscribed since that video went out and followed the other steps needed to qualify for the Prize Draw will be added to the list of names who then will be automatically entered into a random draw.

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New CB Radio Playlists 2018

If you have visited this site fairly recently you might already realise that I have been posting a huge amount of new CB Radio content on this site in recent months and in fact have been posting literally every single day since the first day of January.

This work equates to over 60 new YouTube videos as well as detailed web articles covering a vast array of different CB Radio topics from getting set up on CB Radio to more advanced radio theory about Single Side Band and Amateur Radio in General.

As there is so much new content I’ve decided to organise them into separate playlists as well as different website pages broadly organised into separate CB Radio related themes.

Hopefully this will help you to be able to find the type of information you are looking for and should make it easier to watch a specific series of videos as well as read through the same specific information on my website that relates to the CB Radio topic that you are interested in.

As there is such a huge amount of information I am hoping that you will be able to find something that you will find useful and hopefully will enjoy watching the videos enough that you subscribe to the my YouTube channel so that you are kept informed of new content as it is created.

https://www.youtube.com/c/26ct1994

My YouTube channel has been running for over two years now and there’s a lot of good CB Radio videos available from it.  I also post new content every week so there is always something new to enjoy.

My website ‘The Breakers Yard’ has been running since late 2017 and already is chock full of interesting CB Radio related articles as well as links to my Amazon Affiliate CB Radio stores for both the UK and America so please take the time to explore both my YouTube channel as well as my new Website.

As I said I have organised my most recent content into new playlists which you can find by going either to my YouTube channel or by clicking the appropriate links on the sidebar of my Website.

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Crossing the Finish Line

Today is quite a memorable day for me!  As it marks the end of a continuous streak of new content on this site for 60 days!  As many of you will already realise I have been posting new content on this site (as well as on my YouTube channel) every day since the 1st of January this year and this represents the last day of 'The 60 Day Challenge'

Firstly I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been following the progress, joining in by adding comments and sharing both the videos and blog posts on the social networks such as Facebook and Instagram.

Your feedback is always gratefully accepted and its given me the motivation and impetus to keep going and complete the who;e challenge and believe me it has been a huge amount of work.


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What are the Division Codes?

When someone gives out a call sign on amateur or CB Radio it usually consists of various numbers and letters of the alphabet.  An example of such a call sign is my own 26CT1994.

When used on the Radio it is pronounced "Two, Six, Charlie, Tango, One, Nine, Nine, Four".  This is to ensure that each part of the call sign is sent separately for ease of legibility.  The phonetic use of the letters is also important to the legibility of the call sign.

Usually the letters denote the Radio Club that the operator is part of and the last few numbers are their unique identifier of the operator themselves.

The first numbers used in a call sign, in this ccase "26", 'Two, Six' is known as the division code and denotes what area of the world that operator is broadcasting from.

The Division Codes used in the UK are

Division 26 - England
Division 163 - Wales
Division 108 - Scotland
Division 29 - Ireland

Countries around the world have each been given a division code to identify the geographic location of the radio operator.  Division codes are integrated into a radio operators call sign to denote which country they are calling from.

Below is a breakdown of the division codes by country followed by country by code.




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CB Radio Nets

The common trend of thought is that CB Radio is dead.  Most people accept that since nowadays we have mobile phones, PCs and all other types of digital devices there is no longer a need to communicate with others over the radio.

Even people who still own a CB Radio complain that there is no one else out there and there's no point in putting a call out anymore or even turning the CB Radio on these days but the real truth is that over the last few years more and more people are returning to CB radio as a hobby and in fact in most parts of the Country there is usually an organised net taking place on one night or other of the week and a lot of these nets are very popular especially in the summer.

The chances are that there is a CB Radio net in your local area at least one night of the week and if you had your rig switch on at the right time and tuned to the correct frequency you might start picking up the odd signal.

To stand the best chance of getting good signals is to drive out to some height ground in the right area and the specified day and time and sit on the channel.  If you hear nothing you should try putting the odd call out and if nothing still comes back then try a few of the adjacent channels to see if they have needed to move off of the planned frequency.

So in order to get the best from your CB Radio it pays to know when these nets are taking place and the best way to find out is by looking on the internet.  Most radio clubs will promote their own nets and you would be able to find still more info on lots of Facebook Groups as well as mentions on various YouTube videos.

Someone was kind enough to create a google map which lists a full directory of different nets taking place each week.  These are constantly being added to as the list continues to grow

Here is the Google Maps link

In face, heading out to the countryside on a summers Sunday afternoon is an especially enjoyable way to spend your time and either driving up to a well known high point or a quick ramble through the hillside with the appropriate kit and setting up a portable station for a few hours is really great fun especially if you get a load of calls in your log book on the day.

This tends to be how a lot of folk enjoy their radios and it is the obvious benefits of enjoying the radio that is bringing more and more people back to it as a hobby even in 2018




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Portable CB Radio

One of the best ways to use a CB Radio is to venture out into the countryside, head up a hillside and run your CB Radio from there.  The benefit of this is that you will be out in wide open space at a good height and this vastly improves your range especially if you normally run your CB Radio from a built up area.

Usually the easy round this problem is to run your CB Radio mobile and drive up to a better location but the other option is to run your CB Radio completely portable with a battery and take down antenna.

In order to run your CB Radio portable you will need to have a long hard think about exactly what equipment you are going to need to take with you.  Often this will need to include some form of shelter to keep you and your equipment out of any bad weather, your aerial and whatever equipment you might need to erect it, how you intend to power your CB Radio usually some kind of battery or collection of batteries and of course the CB Radio itself.

In most cases you will be driving to your chosen location and then walk the final distance, usually up a steep incline and will typically be away from your car for several hours.  This will mean that you will also need to bring any food or drinks you will need while out with you.

By the time you account for all of the equipment you will need along with all of the other items you will need you'll quickly realise that the bulk and weight of this type of equipment creates a series of challenges when wanting to carry a backpack up to an appropriate vantage point for an afternoon.
Here are some useful ideas if you are planning to run a CB Radio portable in the future



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How to send a Radio Report on CB Radio

An important part of most QSOs is knowing how well you are being received and often the best way to do this is to ask for a radio report from another station.

The standard signal reporting method for amateur radio is the RST (Readability-Signal Strength-Tone) system.  The best signal report for CW (morse code) operation is RST 599. With voice, we don't use the reading for Tone and just give a RS report, a perfect signal on voice is RS 59 or just “five nine.” You’ll typically hear something like : “your signal report is five nine in North London.”

If you are good copy, you will usually get a “Five” for Readability. The Signal Strength is usually what the operator is reading on the Signal Meter of his receiver. Of course, with both CW and SSB, the S-Meter will be bouncing around a bit, so some interpretation is required.

More importantly, there is considerable variation in S-Meter calibration, so signal reports can vary from radio to radio. (S9 is commonly defined as 50 µV at the receiver input, with each S unit representing a 6 dB change in signal strength.) A 55 or 57 report indicates that the signal is very readable but the signal strength is not as strong as a 59 signal.



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How to get a Call Sign

For certain bands you must complete a series of exams to qualify to operate legally and obtain a specific call sign but this isn't the case for the 11M Band using Single Side Band.

 

It is possible to obtain a vanity call sign from the ARRL or FFC if there is a specific call sign you would like to obtain.  A Vanity call sign is a special Amateur Radio call sign specifically chosen by a person or club who is currently an Amateur Radio licensee (similar in purpose to Vanity license plates on cars).

 

Vanity call signs usually include alphabetical characters of personal significance (e.g., licensees initials, parts of names, hobbies, etc), or sometimes are simply chosen because they are shorter calls, or sometimes they have double or triple duplicate characters (e.g., W1WWW).

 

There are however a number of 11M DX Clubs who are happy to issue a call sign to a new member.  Joining a club is a great way to meet others with the same interest and many clubs have some kind of forum or Facebook group etc whee you can share ideas and stories with other members of the club.

 

 

 

 

 

I jinxed the Charlie Tango DX Group based in the UK around a year ago and was immediately impressed by the warm welcome I received.  I asked a few questions about getting set up and asking for information about buying an aerial and a few of the members were only too happy to help.

 

The Charlie Tango group also run a weekly net which attracts hundreds of members to get together on the airwaves from up and down the country.  There are those within the club who go out most weekends to do extreme activations from hard to reach places up in the hills or other sites where good signals are expected.

 

There are also a number of other DX Groups who would be happy to issue with your own call sign and although I have no experience of them, a simple search of DX Groups in google gave me the list below of clubs that are always looking for new members.

 

 

 

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Good Practices When Calling CQ on the Calling Channels

It is not good practice to maintain a QSO on a calling frequency even though propagation may appear poor, it may not be poor for radio users in other parts of the world.

After you make a general call on a calling frequency it would be considered best to QSY to another frequency then put out another general call on your selected frequency to get responses from anyone who may have copied your original call on the calling channel.

If you standby for responses on the calling channel you are creating additional QRM for other radio users on the calling frequency which is often all ready busy with other general calls from other radio users.

You should also avoid using radio frequencies which are close to a calling frequency.  For example, if you QSY from 27.555 to 27.560 or 27.565 and your signal is 9+ to other stations in Europe you may well be creating interference on the calling frequency when you transmit on adjacent frequencies.

If someone is making a specific CQ Call such as CQ Germany, CQ USA or CQ DX you should only answer a call of that type if you are in the area being targeted.  You shouldn't really respond if you are not in the targeted area since this was the type of response being requested.

Some radio operators may not understand the real meaning of DX. In Europe, for example we can consider stations in other continents such as South America or Russia as a DX but would also include countries which are generally harder to reach or are not often on air.



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How To Call CQ

The Q codes are widely used on SSB radio as well on many other bands and are used specifically when giving instructions on the radio.

 

Calling 'CQ' is the understood way to say 'I am calling any station' on a frequency.

CQ DX

Probably the most commonly heard is  'CQ DX' meaning calling any long distance station.

 

There are some variations such as 'CQ 11 Metres' or 'CQ Any US stations' where one is saying anyone me in the 11Metre band and the other any US Stations.

 

 

Division Codes

You may add division codes. For example 'any division 26 (Two Six) stations' meaning any U.K. stations.

 

You would normally include your call sign as part of the CQ call so people will know who to respond to

 

For example 'This is Two Six Charlie Tango One Nine Nine Four calling CQ and standing by'

 

You would then wait to hear a response such as Charlie Tango station.... or Someone may announce their call sign when responding 'this is Alpha Papa Two zero calling Charlie Tango One Nine nine four'.

 

You then will have made a contact.

 

 

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What are the CB Radio Frequencies?

Since the early American rigs began finding there way to these shores, the demand for Citizen Band radio was met by a number of changes in legislation.  

It is no longer necessary to hold a licence to operate a CB Radio and over the years additional modes have been added.

The following charts display the relevant frequencies for each of these modes and are also available to download on he link at the bottom of this post.




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CB Radio on YouTube

This is a post that I have really looking forward to doing as it was the guys on YouTube who reignited my interest in CB Radio and share their own experiences and adventures with CB Radio nowadays.

I've been fortunate to have been able to talk to a number of them both on the Radio itself when out at one of the 'Nets' or online either on Facebook or on YouTube itself. 

Its thanks to the guys who post their videos on YouTube  that I got back into the hobby again and have shared my own videos on YouTube for two years now.

So here's a list of good CB Radio YouTube Channels you might enjoy yourself!

Please understand that I've not listed them in any particular order so please don't think of this as a 'Top Ten' with the last listed channel being my No.1. 

This is just a list of channels that I've come across and enjoyed in the past 

No doubt there are other great CB Radio YouTube channels which I've missed or not listed here and this is only because I've not come across it before.

So with that said lets take a look at the channels I've selected:-



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CB Radio Base Station

Most CB Radios that have been produced over the years have been specifically designed for Mobile use.  For decades CB Radios have been most commonly found and used in vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

From truckers to farmers and 4 x 4's  to Camper vans the CB Radio has been a regular feature in all of these. Less common these days are the bigger brother of these radios known as Home base or Base Station Radios.

Along with the drivers of the CB World there were many who had these Homebase CB Radios usually in pride of place  of their living room or kitchen allowing them to speak with friends and neighbours with similar equipment in their own homes.



These Homebase CB Radios tended to be much larger than thier mobile counterparts and most had additional features which thier mobile brothers rarely came with.  MOst Homebase CB Radios have much larger front facing speakers as well as headphone jacks and most had integrated SWR Meters and other features like RF Gain and Mic Gain which were generally only found on higher end Mobile CB Rigs.

The key differences with Homebase CB Radios and thier Mobile equivalents was their ability to plug directly into the electrical mains supply where mobile units were designed to run on 12 Volts through a car battery.



Most Homebase CB Radios also benefited by the addition of a desk Microphone rather than a handheld mic found on mobile CB Radios.  These Desk Mics often came with additional features and some were also 'Power Mics' which made them sound better and easier to use than the handheld Mics they were usually supplied with.  Some Desk Mics also allowed you to add echo or other sound effects to your transmitted signal.



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CB Radio Shops

Getting hold of a CB Radio is a pretty straightforward task these days especially with the advent of online shopping but there are still a good number of traditional 'brick & mortar' shops which specialise in Radio equipment of all types and offer a good range of CB Radio equipment and accessories .

A lot of these shops have been inn the Business for a long time and their staff have excellent knowledge and experience in using CB Radio equipment so can offer really good advice to anyone looking to get into CB Radio as a hobby.

Fortunately there are CB Radio shops up and down the country so you may find there is one close to where you live and as well each having their own websites are also available on the phone or available for you to pop along for a visit.

Here are a few of the best B Radio shops in the UK


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