What made you choose your CB handle

Victors topic about old radio memories set me thinking. What was your handle, and how did you choose it? Mine was Big foot for obvious reasons, very large feet, it has now evolved to 13oots or 13ig13oots.

Great posting Mark and would be fascinating to hear how people came about with their CB handles.

Did they choose them? Were they chosen for them? Or maybe nowadays their old handle is a bit more embarrassing or 'cheesy' than when they first used it!


I did mention before but will add to this posting for the fun of it....

Mine used to be the 'Toe-Tapper' given to me after my annoying habit as a young man of clicking my toes unconsciously. (Real bad, my wife filmed it one evening...yes I still do it!...and it's loud like someone cracking their finger knuckles....I still don't realise until I get that "Oi!" and a filthy look. )

Then it moved on to the 'Gunslinger' and as explained previously was because when ordering my first proper QSL cards it was a spare printing plate I was able to buy cheaply. Yep, printing 'plates' for graphics were the order of the day back in 19-clickety-click and you obviously had to pay for them.

(People often moan about 'design' charges with modern stuff - suck it up as it's cheaper than having a plate made!)


Brilliant stuff Mark. Look forward to hearing about handles and the history of how they came about.

Back in the 70s i was wobbly well i did drink a bit back then lol.
Late 70s early 80s i moved to Anglesey but left radio for a year or so.
A friend of mine had a small aeroplane 4 seater and i would go up with him quite often just round the island and he would let me fly the plain witch i found easy.
One day he called asking if i was up for a flight i was so of we went to Mona airfield.
We took of and he said take over but we are going to the Isle of man.
I flew there and back fantastic and when we got back he said "we will make a pilot out of you yet".
And that was it cb handle Alan pilot.

Wow! That's great there Alan. (Much more interesting than mine. )

I had thought your 'Pilot' title was something to do with boats and you there at Angelsey. Even that's more interesting than mine!


Extremely interesting or not it would be good to hear about others CB handles, because it's all interesting stuff and makes for good discussion.

(I've got to go 'QRT' now as the grandchildren are due for a visit soon and tomorrow my wife has a rare day off from her retail work. Have a good weekend all! )

well in the mid seventies i started riding bike at 16 so my first one a yamaha fs1e and i have been riding ever since, so when i took up cb radio a bit later i used the handle skyrider and i became mobile with the multimode 2 in a customised escort van and at the weekends we were on the rigs till silly o clock in the mornings driving to southport and blackpool picking up copies all over, there was several of us in vans and cars in convoys happy times 

Well my first Handel was Yorkie, I was a Class one Truck driver in the late 70's and spent a few years going to Yorkshire and and back that was before the Yorkie bar of chocolate was invented   it stayed with me in the 80's when I started long distance on the Continent driving for P&O with Bulk Wine Tankers Yorki stayed with me as FM was illegal in Europe but we used anyway to get in touch over there, then Around 1990 I gave up continental work, or as we called it, going over the ditch.
Now I picked Wheel Nut because I have spent the most of my life Driving the big stuff, so I thought   why not, sums me up I suppose ?

When i first got on the radio back in the late 60's on my grandfathers radio my grandfather gave me the handle Wolfman because my favorite radio personality was Wolfman Jack, after i came back from Vietnam i moved to Palmdale California (originally from Flatridge Arkansas) there were several guys on the radio who were using Wolfman as their handles and since i was living in the Mohave Desert i renamed myself Coyote to keep confusion about who was who down to a minimum. 

2CT216.
The Coyote in the Mohave Desert.
Southern California.

Mitch is short for 'The Michelin Man'. When I got my first CB (a Sharp 23ch) I was working at a Michelin tyre warehouse and the name kinda stuck, but was later shortened. That first radio cost me £60, a weeks takehome pay, lol. My second rig was a President Veep 40ch and that cost £100 back in '79 (I ended up swapping that Veep for a Kawasaki S1 250 triple) Ah... happy days. I had a Major M120 that I swapped for a Triumph 2000TC too (my first car), but that was back when CB's cost and cars were cheap, lol.

"woodburner "mainly becasuse we used to sell fire wood, but these days sorry for this but its "owt fer nowt "
as my wife named me, if its free ill have it, lol... part of my northern`ness i think,but having said that, we have a bar in the garden, all for free, patio (Free), drive ( dare i say free) CB (free) ect etc the list go`s on much to my wifes errrrrr discust !!!

I was given my handle 'Night Prowler' in the 80's by my friend who was a mad AC/DC fan because I used to sleep all day and stay up all night, It is the last track on the Highway to hell album. Nothing to do with the serial killer

As someone fairly new to CB I was expecting handles would be in regular use and must confess that I am a little dissapointed to discover them rarely used.
I chose Crusty Juggler as I am both a juggler and enjoyed the film Hot Fuzz from which I got the name.
Al

Some great postings on here of how people came up with their CB Handles and enjoyable to read.  

I do remember that although Handles were common back in the day (trying to avoid Buzby & the Radio Communications Agency!) we often resorted to using our first names as we all knew each other on air. Sometimes the old 'rubber-ducky-10-4-good-buddy' felt a bit embarrassingly silly with the old Smokey and the Bandit references especially with put on 'American' accents. Sheriff Buford T. Justice quotes with northern, southern or west country UK accents were quite laughable really.

Each to their own though and so long as everyone was enjoying their radio nobody minded. 

Some should have had "DJ" on the front of their handles though with the amount of music being played on air and I've witnessed these sort of antics still even today!

Guys, if handles are rarely used on UKFM now, what do people use? Just getting my stuff together and I thought(Stupidly) that people were still using handles and shouting 1-4 a copy.

Tam, I'd say do what you like or whatever fits in with your local contacts but ultimately it's up to you.

I know for DX work a call sign does come in handy and none more so than a CT number supported by this great site, but others make up their own call signs and just see what's out there in a bit more of a laid back style. Some still use handles even with DX work and you only have to listen to the flurries of activity from the USA to witness that.

Adjust yourself with the contact being made at hand, give a handle if they've given theirs, exchange call signs or the ultimate in on air radio friendliness is simply your first name. (Even Hams like to exchange first names.)

Whatever you do just remember this is a fun hobby (some do take it all rather seriously ) and enjoy your self with the radio contacts you gain.

Thanks Victor, I do intend to have fun! We are doing the kitchen and then I get to play. I will have a decent loft space for experimenting with wires etc. Expect a lot of questions as I have no clue when building antennae apart from what I read on here and Google. Can't wait to get started as my first antenna will, I think, be one to use on 11m.