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Radio: Crystal Sets & CB Radio

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
  • Start date Start date
I was born in 1940 but I cant remember the year this took place. When I was attending senior school a classmate used to make radio recievers out of empty cigar boxes. I will not mention his name but his family lived above a grocers shop which they also ran in Oakhurst Road Acocks Green.
 
I've tried to get the DAB transmissions but I am not having much luck, I dont know why as its a radio signal and this is a radio !!
 
Hello Bilsat, I cant help you Im afraid, I said a lad at school used to make crystal sets but I am no good at all with radio. With the DAB thing, I have an expert on Ed Doolans show on the radio talking about it and apparantly you cant recieve it everywhere just yet but I live in Qunton and I have a DAB portable with a 3' wire arial out of the back and that seems to work alright. Sorry I cant be more help.
 
Hello Bilsat

That's a record player isn't it? A friend of mine had one - the sound was a bit wobbly, as I recall! I preferred my Dansette!

Regards

Paul
 
I remember my dad making one in his garden shed where he also used to repair watches. Did you have to solder the bits together or am I getting mixed up as usual?. bye. jean.
 
Yes you would solder the wires together, Jean. I made a couple of crystal sets when I was young, the coils wound on a toilet roll core like Bilsat's. The reception was poor, and we had a radio - sorry "wireless" - anyway, so I moved on to begging old valve sets and trying to repair them with a moderate success (and a few electric shocks!)
 
Yes paulE, you are correct it is called a Discatron and you could walk around and play 7" 45rpm records, an early Walkman! quite a clever idea for its time, found this one at a car boot several years ago but still looking for the "delux" model with the radio built in...
In the 60/70s when the company closed down the radio modules were sold at almost every radio shop, as were the mechanisms, needless to say I didn't buy them...
They were built in Birmingham I believe in Newtown, there is a lot of info on the Internet
 
Who else used a CB radio.
I have great memories of mine in the early 80's.
You would hear me calling... "CQDX. CQDX. NOVEMBER BRAVO ZERO ONE. CALLING CQDX. CQDX.
Just been looking through 2 albums of QSL cards I received from most countries in europe.
It's so easy to talk to people on the world wide web today, but them days it was hard work. It was so exciting to hear someone call your call sign back at you from somewhere in the world:)

73s and 88s 10.10 till we do it again:)
 
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Have you still got one of your own November-Bravo club cards Froth.
Skip talk, those were the days.
My own CB handle, Boomerang, come back.
 
Templer said:
Have you still got one of your own November-Bravo club cards Froth.
Skip talk, those were the days.
My own CB handle, Boomerang, come back.
Click to expand...

I've been looking for one Brian, with no luck.
I think you'd be talking to yourself these days Dave.
 
Eyeball Eyeball Michael and I ran a C.B. club in the 80's at the Mile Oak Pub. The Tamworth United Breakers We used to run a quiz on air on a Wednesday night and people would drive to Tamworth just to take part. We were Eagle Eye and Delta Lady!
 
Wendy said:
Eyeball Eyeball Michael and I ran a C.B. club in the 80's at the Mile Oak Pub. The Tamworth United Breakers We used to run a quiz on air on a Wednesday night and people would drive to Tamworth just to take part. We were Eagle Eye and Delta Lady!
Click to expand...

My handle was High Rise:rolleyes:
 
Found my hand held, 10 batteries in the back, with a low/high switch beneath them, batt`s flat :(
 
Frothy you have brought back some memories from the days when we had one. I was Tennis elbow and the twins were Red Rover Sport Billy. We were outside a Chinese takeaway one night and ended up talking to someone in the next car without realising it for a while and she said she wanted a handle so one of the lads suggested Prawn Balls and she accepted. [The name that is] .Jean.
 
Blimey, this thread has brought back a few memories, good ones I hasten to say. Do you know I can still remember the make and model of the two CB rigs I had, one was a Tristar 727 120 channel AM/FM job and the other was the bigger Tristar 747 model, that one had more channels but I can’t remember exactly how many. CB had a great following when everyone used the AM frequencies, slightly illegal I know, but things went down the pan when the Government licensed the FM legal CB’s with a 4 watt maximum power output. The government was involved so you also had to buy a license to use them from the Post Office. With the 4 watt maximum power output and also using FM you where lucky to transmit to the end of the street. Their downfall was you could buy these FM CB’s from high street shop’s, from the likes of Argos, I think Argos was called Shoppers World back then and also Woolworths, this made them freely available to the idiots of our world and they were badly abused giving CB a bad name.

I still remember standing on the roof of my van adjusting the SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) on the aerial, me memory is working overtime, I remember the aerial was called a DV27, it had a little adjustment on the end which you could adjust to get the best SWR by moving the little bit on the end up & down and using a SWR meter in the aerial lead, I never could get it bang on.

Yes certainly happy days!
 
Me and Tom used to run the CBC .California Breakers Club at the old California pub on Barnes Hill ..we used to charge £1 for the members on Sunday Eve after a few weeks we had enough to take 30 of the members kids to Weston ...Signing off from Mobile Maniac and Lady x
 
Dave I remember all the makes you mention. The club we ran was so popular we had over 400 members and the meetings were on a Monday night. It was so popular the pub gave us our own room at the side of the pub some may remember it. It was called the Warren. The club was so well known we didn't have to buy raffle prizes they were given to us if we advertised where they came from. We had treasure hunts, fun weekends, camping trips the social side was very good and we raised a lot of money for charity. I organised a sponsored assault course it was near Streetly the army cadets came to help it was a brilliant family day and raised a lot for a local cancer charity. As you say it was good until the government took charge then it was spoilt by idiots. I will have to get Michael to sort out his QSL cards.
 
Like most I started on AM and was a member of a couple of clubs, went on a demonstration to London, to campaign for 220 MHz, instead of the 27 MHz offered by the Government, when they hinted they were going to make CB legal, their argument against 220 MHz was that it was a military frequency, and was the frequency used by Lancaster bombers, not that one had flown for over 30 years.
I then moved to FM CB when it became legal in 1981, the law was passed very quickly, within months of first being mentioned, which led to a shortage of rigs, the manufactures could not make them quick enough, I had mine a week before they became legal and was not able to use it, until the November, (yeah sure).
Had many good times and met a lot of people, a couple who I still see now, we went on to take our Radio Amateur Licence, and have remained buddies ever since.

10-10 till we do it again, Mercury going clear, pulling the plug and shutting down.


Colin
 
Too right David Riley. Great days good crowd of people, just like on here.
I lived in a block of flats on the Bromford. Had a DV27 on a Mini Bonnet on the balcony. Did'nt have much joy with contacts from there. When I moved out to a house.I Got myself a Silver Rod, put it on a 20 foot scaffold pole, wilh my superstar 360 the world was my oyster.
Everything was wall to wall and tree top tall.
Just going for a 10.100:D
 
maggieuk said:
Me and Tom used to run the CBC .California Breakers Club at the old California pub on Barnes Hill ..we used to charge £1 for the members on Sunday Eve after a few weeks we had enough to take 30 of the members kids to Weston ...Signing off from Mobile Maniac and Lady x
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Maggieuk I remember the California Breakers I thought it was a fantastic name for a C.B. club. There was a big meet once at the Belfry who also had a club. I think that's where we met e few from your club......great memories.
 
i still have mine and use it.what fun i had with cb,while repairing them at a shop in stechford we built a huge amp.when we switched it on.people was phoning us from miles away to say they could hear us calling.the only probs were it blanked all the tvs and set off alams all over brum.we had to pack in playing when the post office payed us a visit.now i play at being a ham but its not as much fun 73s
 
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I would have to take miles away from were we lived so he could have an eye ball with one of his good buddies :P and his food was now a nose bag.
 
Who remembers Rob Dogs on the Kingstanding Circle ( Hewards, still there)
You could buy all your rigs and stuff from there.:)
 
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