CB RADIO.

[tarsus]

Hello, I do not know how old this Harvard H-407 is but I assume that it uses the old frequencies and would therefore not be of much use. I have looked on the internet to try and find out when they came out but have not had much luck. The new frequencies I have found came out in 1981.  Any idea. Thank you.

[Colin]

I would guess that your radio was manufactured in the early 80's.  CB Radio was "legalised"(?) in the UK in 1981 and there was a mad rush of manufacturers flooding the market with, literally, hundreds of "badge engineered" radios.

 

Here's a link for you that details the original UK CB Frequency allocation;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

The Harvard appears to have used the same board as the Amstrad CB901 (and a few other makes).

 

Here's a link to the Owners Manual

 

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/874667/Harvard-H407.html

 

Newer radios have 2 bands.  The original "UK40" 27.60125 - 27.99125Mhz,(FM only) and the "new" "CEPT40" 26.965 - 27.405Mhz (AM/FM/SSB) whilst your Harvard will only have the original "UK 40" FM channels.

 

I wouldn't say that the radio was of no use.  The original UK 40 is probably fairly quiet these days but, great if you want to avoid all the "clatter" that comes out of Europe when "skip" conditions are in favour(?) of it..

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

Used to have a couple, one being a Cobra..

 

Built my own aerials back in the day.

 

Did you know an unwrapped cheese triangle give you about 3 mile range, but only last half an hour before they dry out !

(I like to experiment..)

 

What are the legal frequencies you can use these days ?

I remember making one of these aerials from a few old florescent tube light covers that had been thrown away, since they was made of aluminium:

https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/antennas-propagation/cubical-quad-antenna/quad-basics.php
 

[tarsus]

Hello, Thank you all for the info. but nobody seems to be into CB around here. If there had been interest it would perhaps have been good to have got a group together to share ideas.

[Colin]

There are quite a few Amateur Radio users on Shetland.  Might be worth trying to look up a few of them.

 

There always was a CB Radio Group(s) here (Viking Radio (the biggest) + a couple of others).  VR1 (Jim Bruce (the founder) died a little while back.  End of an era.

 

I used to build my own wire antennas.  Dipoles, Delta Loops, Quad Loops etc.  It was very absorbing but, ultimately, not as good as sex. 

[MuckleJoannie]

I never got CB radio. Just a bunch of folk with silly user names speaking rubbish.

 

 

 

Oh wait...

[john_greenmeadow]

Draqging up an old thread...

For the summer I thought I'd stick a CB in my works van to see what I could find - there should be some decent skip to Europe and further afield now that the sunspots are coming back. I have a "Multi band" CB that can do SSB/FM/AM on all the different CB bands - most of them illegal in the UK of course.

In the UK we can use the original UK 40 channels and also the European (CEPT) 40 channels, which also align with the USA channels. We can now also use AM and SSB too. 

To keep things simple to start with I'm going to scan the "old" UK 40 channels on FM so that anyone with an old standard UK "CB27/81" type rig will be on the same channels, and I'll give the odd call out on Channel 19 from time to time when I'm driving around, unless someone knows of other CB activity locally.

So far all I've heard are some workmen (SIC?) on Channel 9 during the daytime and nothing else. I see CB antennas on a few vehicles, mostly trucks, but a few vans and cars too....

John - should I have a CB handle these days? How's about "Rig Doctor"....?

 

[Colin]

Good luck..

There must be an awful lot of old CB's gathering dust up here.  Might dust off one of my old ones for a look around.