How many of you were into CB Radio back in the 1970s? It was a lot more than Smokey Bears and convoys, good buddy! For me, it was the primary facilitator of my social life from the time I was 12 until age 16.
The unit above was my first CB: a Midland 13-882C mobile which I ran in the house off of an old car battery. The radio alone cost $139.99 + tax. This was a lot of money for a kid who’s sole income came from mowing lawns and raking leaves. I worked all summer and saved my money. By the end of August, 1976, I was on the air! 10-4, good buddy!
Channel 14 was the “Kids Channel.” Many of us had home base stations in our bedrooms. This usually meant having to install a big antenna on the roof and drilling holes to run coaxial cable through the walls. My parents put up with this because “at least we knew you were at home and not out getting into trouble”, as they revealed to me many years later.
What my parents didn’t realize is that I could cause trouble on the CB, too! For one thing, I liked to play music and practice being a radio DJ. Needless to say, people didn’t appreciate this when they were trying to talk to someone else. I’d keep agitating until one day, I’d turn on my CB and hear nothing but static. Nobody could hear me, either. It seems someone had come over in the middle of the night and cut my coax. As in the cable that connected the CB in my room to the antenna on my roof. Gee, why would they do this to a nice boy like me?
Relive the CB days (daze?) of the 1970s and 80s, including actual CB radio tapes here: