In the land of 40 channel CB radio a lot has changed over the past sixty or so years. When I first got on the CB band there were only 23 channels,(24 if you count the channel you would get when placing the channel selector knob between the space and channel 23, lol. If you had a 23 channel ssb radio you would have an extra 46 channels besides the regular 23 AM Channels. Then in 1977 I believe the 40 channel CB arrived with 40 LSB and 40 USB extra channels in addition to the 40 AM,  if you had the radio with SSB capabilities. In the (60’s) 70’s and 80’s CB was at its peak. It was a great time period to grow up in for many reasons. We had Schwinn Stingray bicycles, mini-bikes, Daisy air guns, and sling shots, cherry bombs and ash cans. Great music, neighborhood sports, all kinds of mom and pop restaurants, baseball cards, garage bands, Spalding and Pinky rubber balls, roller skates,  etc, etc. We were even allowed to go ice skating on local ponds. Now they arrest or fine you due to liability issues.  We all had inexpensive fun, even for it’s day. Today you would be considered a criminal and your parents would be thought to be bad role models for some of those activities or possessions. I bet a lot more young people are injured and die today from drugs and other dangerous activities then when I grew up. In spite of our dangerous toys of the time. All anyone cares about now are expensive cell phones or sneakers, etc. Big fun? That’s a post for another day… You didn’t need big bucks to own a base or mobile w/ power supply cb station.  Radio Shack and before that Lafayette had everything you needed including Antennas, coax cable, radios and you were on. There were even dedicated CB stores that sold many of the better brands. The beauty of it was all CB radios were 4 watts maximum on AM whether you had a $25.00 radio or a $1000.00 radio. Anyone could turn up the audio control and wattage control inside the radio. Books were sold that listed every radio made and where the “secret adjustments were.” No big deal so now your CB would transmit with 6 watts instead of 4, lol. But…what differentiated the mice from the men? Audio, no matter what channel or part of the country you were at “How’s my Audio” could be heard on every channel numerous times. Unlike stereo/hifi/audio applications. it wasn’t the audio quality CB’ers were after. They wanted blasting, distorted, OVER MODULATED audio that would rattle the speakers in the radios of other listening operators. That made you king of the hill. In fact if you turn on a CB radio today it’s still the same. How’s my audio…In fairness CB is nothing like it was in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Most of the channels are silent, years gone by you couldn’t find a channel that was quiet day or night. Now it’s the complete opposite. Channel 19 is still active with truck drivers as it always has been. I don’t hear anything going on with channel 9 which used to be the country wide emergency channel. Channel 38 LSB is still hopping with activity with interstate communication. Channel 6 is rocking with the more competitive CB’ers with ultra strong signals and audio that is so loud it can blow your speaker out. Then you have the illegal channels above 40 which most operators use SSB. It’s legal to listen there but illegal to transmit. Very interesting listening where you can hear clandestine stations in the US and around the globe.

CB brands of yesteryear, well the most popular were Cobra, President, Uniden, SBE, Courier, Realistic, Pace, Pearce Simpson, Teaberry, Hy-Gain, Tram, Browning, DAK, Demco, Sonar, and dozens more which I can’t recall at this time. The top of the line Tube radios were made by Browning and Tram. If you search on ebay, the big old Browning and Tram base stations demand a hefty price to this day. They really were bigger, better, and cooler then the rest. Not to mention the prices of these radios hovered around $1000.00 even in the 1970’s. Then you had the Cobra 2000 and President(Uniden) Madison which were the top of the line transistorized base stations. There were also ham radios that were converted or were CB accepted before CB was a “CB” band. Yaesu 101 series, Johnson Rangers, were converted to illegally operate on 11 meters which is the CB band.

CB today is all but dead here in NYC. There are still some of us on a couple of active local channels but it’s a raindrop in what once was a hurricane. We are old timers now, there are No younger people on the CB in my neck of the woods. It’s very civil, not much arguing or fighting like the old days. Everyone just gets on to BS and talk about different vintage radios and the old days. Believe it or not…it’s a nice thing to reflect about the past. Many times we talk about CB’ers from the golden age of Citizens Band. Unfortunately, many are gone, Time goes fast and waits for no one, 1970’s/80’s Close to 50/40 years ago, a life time. If they were thirty to fifty years old most are silent keys as they say in amateur radio. As previously stated it’s a generation gone and there are no new operators to take their place except for the truck drivers who use it mainly for entertainment now. At one time the CB was a valuable traveling tool. Emergencies, directions, locations of cops giving tickets, short cuts, traffic avoidance,  entertainment, loads of chic’s who were also CB’ers, etc. It was a fun time. Now most drivers have GPS, cell phones, much more reliable vehicles etc. I hear many times on channel 19 which is the mobile channel or trucker channel “where is a good place to eat, or someone breaking chops, it’s more entertainment although there still is some serous usage.

Ok, I know…the title of this writing is which CB has the loudest audio. Here goes, you need the audio limiter chopped out or the audio potentiometer turned up in the radio to play this audio game. A power microphone is also necessary for most radios. The people (tech’s) who state “don’t turn up the audio or don’t yank the audio limiter are full of ****. Yes some radio’s, if you extract the modulation limiter the radio becomes useless (99% of the radios need their audio turned up or the limiter removed plus a power microphone.) That’s unless you want to sound like a mouse peep in the distance. The loudest radio’s are usually the most powerful with operators pushing illegal power in the form of watts through a garage / backyard / underground built linear amplifier. The loudest radios I have heard in the past fifty or so years with no amplifiers behind them are: (not in any particular order) Magnum S9, S6, S3, Omegaforce, General Lee, Some of the Galaxy models, Tram Base Stations, D201, etc,  Browning MKIII & IV, Cobra 2000gtl and mobile version 148gtl, President/Uniden Madison and mobile version Grant. Along with those Uniden/Cobra radios are also the 142GTL and Uniden Washington. The Cobra 29gtl, 25gtl’s probably had the Best quality and loudest audio of the bunch. Not to much to look at with just the basic controls but they really rock and roll. Tuned down to 2 1/2 watts with the audio limiting diode yanked, adding a power microphone, those things were so loud it was ridiculous. Many of the other radios were screamers but these were the most memorable to me. None of them were loud until worked on by a local CB technician. Remember, they all came from the factory pushing wimpy 50%-75% audio. To sound like you have large genitals on the CB you need 100% or over modulation, lol. That involved turning down the wattage a little and turning the audio up all the way or extracting the audio limiter and of course adding an Astatic or Turner Power mic. Today most of the stores or companies that sell CB’s charge extra for a (tune-up) on your purchased radio. (Most of the stores are online companies, there aren’t many CB stores left except on heavily traveled commercial trucker routes.) You guessed it…turn up the audio pot or rip out the limiter by the roots.) Different name “tune-up” but same game.  Writing this post was a ride down memory lane for me. I had many friends on the CB radio that I still communicate with today, both on the radio and off. I met my wife who was the sister of a friend I used to talk to on the radio. So, it was an important part of my life. Here in Staten Island NY they still have a CB break every Sunday morning at a local Burger King where the users all get together for a cup of coffee. It’s a nice thing, a very nice thing. Everyone gets along and has a common interest in CB radio, motor cycles, vintage cars, etc. What I find sad is that when we are gone so will CB radio. Cell phones and computers just don’t cut it for us. Until next time….Everyone have a Great New Year!

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