[W8MWA] FCC Personal Radio Service Revisions Will Affect GMRS, FRS, CB, Other Part 95 Devices

Tue May 2 06:52:14 EDT 2017

While we're all reminiscing, CB was also the "Gateway Drug" to amateur
radio for me, but my experiences started with me kicking and
screaming.  The "big thing" on my Christmas list was a Heathkit HW-16.
I thought for sure that I'd be getting one - but instead - I came home
from school and saw a vertical antenna on the roof of the house.
Going inside, I was told there was a surprise in the basement - where
I experimented with electronics.

Sure enough - surprise - on the table was a shiny new Pearce Simpson
Lynx 23.  I was then told that the husband of a fellow teacher my
sister knew said that amateur radio was "dangerous and full of high
voltages".  CB was "just like ham radio" and I'd be a lot better off
with the Lynx 23, than an HW-16.

Admittedly, the Lynx was a really good transceiver and I did make a
number of friends on channel 18.  Many of us eventually became hams
and some still are.  I also attached a used mobile CB and antenna on
my bike, plus did some mountain topping DX up on the Summit - long
before I did the same with 2M FM portables.

Cory

On 5/2/17, w2bsa at arrl.net <w2bsa at comcast.net> wrote:
> I must say that CB was what got me started as well. When I was about 9 or 10
> years old I got a pair of CB walking-talkies that we kids played with and I
> got hooked on electronics. Then I got one of those Sears and Roebuck base
> stations and talked all over the DC area. Lots of noise. It's also what got
> me started building stuff. My first legit radio was a Heathkit GR-64
> receiver that covered/s 500kc to 30mc or as we know it today 500khz to
> 30mhz. It still works today. Anyway, I continued with my interest until I
> finally got my Amateur Radio Technician license and then got my General and
> Extra after the CW requirement was removed. It's been fun and it continues
> to be fun and I have met a lot of good friends along the way.
>
> Best 73,
>
> Bill Stewart, W2BSA
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On May 1, 2017, at 23:42, Spence Graham <wt8wv.spence at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Back then (early to mid 1970's) Radio Shack came out with a 23 Channel CB
>> with something called "Single Side Band" and my Dad and some of the other
>> dentists at the WVU School of Dentistry all got them and put them in their
>> cars.  CB in Morgantown was quite an active crowd and "the handles" were
>> cute, inside jokes and sometimes edgy.  Soon I got a Cobra base station
>> when 11 meters went to 40 channels plus SSB.  Then a guy out on the
>> Grafton Road started selling antennas... and soon I was buying 50 feet of
>> tower and putting up an 8 element Shooting Star with a rotor... and bought
>> my own QSL cards!   Others were putting up 11 meter beams too and soon my
>> world was opened up to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, some South America
>> and the 50 states on about 10 watts and a generous sun spot cycle!  I
>> couldn't wait to get home from school to see who I could work next!  I had
>> a great shot into eastern Canadian regions.  I had 49 states after about 2
>> years but I was ever-seeking that last pesky contact to... ALASKA!  My
>> older and influential 11 meter chums were running illegal "linears" and
>> worked everywhere they wanted, it seemed.  One day (they knew my usual
>> routine after school), I turned on the rig and soon heard ALASKA... and I
>> went into major pounce mode... the signal faded in and out... the contact
>> in Alaska would only get portions of my call sign and QTH and said he
>> needed West Virginia and asked me to repeat my info over and over... I
>> yelled and screamed and repeated and repeated my call.  Soon it all faded
>> out back into the ether and I was hoarse and dry and dejected.  Five
>> minutes later they both confessed on the air they had set me up and one of
>> them... the faux Alaskan... was simply cranking the power level on his
>> linear up and down as the other one was spinning the beam back and forth
>> through 360 degrees azimuth.  I was ready to kill them dead and burn them
>> with fire. Rat bastages.  They never let me live it down.  Grin. After
>> that I got my Novice ticket, was off to Gaithersburg Hamfest and got a
>> Heathkit SB-102 and SB-200, a side paddle keyer and speaker and started
>> legitimate CW ops!
>>
>>> On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 10:03 PM, Cory Sickles <wa3uvv at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I never felt guilty.  I've always thought that was a stupid rule,
>>> conceived by someone who realized that 27 MHz was the wrong choice for a
>>> short-range-only band.  If he couldn't fight the physics, then set up a
>>> rule.
>>>
>>> In all the years I've paid attention, I don't know of anyone - running
>>> legal power - who got sighted for chasing DX.
>>>
>>> Cory
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On May 1, 2017, at 21:30, Spence Graham <wt8wv.spence at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> And to think that as a 13 year old I actually felt guilty "shooting
>>>> skip" (still have a boat load of those QSL's)... and THAT guilt lead me
>>>> to become a Novice Amateur Radio Operator and learn Morse Code!
>>>>
>>>> http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-personal-radio-service-revisions-will-affect-gmrs-frs-cb-other-part-95-devices
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 73,
>>>>
>>>> Spence
>>>>
>>>> Spencer W. Graham, II
>>>> WT8WV
>>>> 73 Crosby Road
>>>> Morgantown, WV 26508
>>>>
>>>> 2016 VP of Monongalia Wireless Association http://www.w8mwa.org/
>>>>
>>>> Check Out My Ham Radio Blog Site...  http://kb8fir.wordpress.com
>>>>
>>>> (ex-KB8FIR and ex-KA8LJO)
>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> 73,
>>
>> Spence
>>
>> Spencer W. Graham, II
>> WT8WV
>> 73 Crosby Road
>> Morgantown, WV 26508
>>
>> 2017 VP of Monongalia Wireless Association http://www.w8mwa.org/
>>
>> Check Out My Ham Radio Blog Site...  http://kb8fir.wordpress.com
>>
>> (ex-KB8FIR and ex-KA8LJO)
>>
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