Antennas from yesteryear

I always remember using a dv27 on a biscuit tin in the attic way back in the early 80s. Worked a treat almost got the SWR down to 1 to 1.

Happy days.

Does anyone else have interesting stories from the pioneering days of CB.

Neil

The old DV27 on a biscuit tin worked wonders when the breakers you were talking to were up to at least two or more streets away! (Seemed everyone had a CB in '81/82!)

Takes a bit more nowadays with breakers further apart unless there's a good bit of 'skip' in.  

Me? AM/SSB with some Bremi 'bottles' gave a lot of fun back in 19-clickety-click.

I do miss eyeball/meet-ups though.

Great posting there Neil and I hope others have similar happy tales.

(Think all us old farts had a biscuit tin antenna at one time....hard to replicate with modern plastic biscuits pots!)


All the best,
Victor

dv27 on an old mini, with amstrad 901, then upgrade to mighty magnum home base up @ 40foot

in the eighties i had an elctronica special which i used with my ham international multimode 2 and it is still the best ant i have owned 

back in 81 had a antenna like a Cherokee half breed on a mag mount on biscuit tin, then upgraded to an antenna called a whiskey something (was like a dv27 on three legs) with a york jcb 861

Back in nineteen eighty something

I took a Maxcom 4E, 3-5 amp power supply, a cheap as chips SWR metre and a Grey DV27 on a mag mount with the biscuit tin, to school for a 10 minute show and tell about my hobby.

45 minutes later the lesson came to and end and I had sold the complete kit, just swapped out the DV 27 for a home base Boomerang style antenna.

Razz229 wrote:

Back in nineteen eighty something

I took a Maxcom 4E, 3-5 amp power supply, a cheap as chips SWR metre and a Grey DV27 on a mag mount with the biscuit tin, to school for a 10 minute show and tell about my hobby.

45 minutes later the lesson came to and end and I had sold the complete kit, just swapped out the DV 27 for a home base Boomerang style antenna.

Love it. I had a Maxcom 4E for a while, and it's sister AM version Vice President Roy. Basic rigs but had a whole lot of fun with them.

Just found this on the bay.
dx27 is it

Victor wrote:

The old DV27 on a biscuit tin worked wonders when the breakers you were talking to were up to at least two or more streets away! (Seemed everyone had a CB in '81/82!)

Takes a bit more nowadays with breakers further apart unless there's a good bit of 'skip' in.  

Me? AM/SSB with some Bremi 'bottles' gave a lot of fun back in 19-clickety-click.

I do miss eyeball/meet-ups though.

Great posting there Neil and I hope others have similar happy tales.

(Think all us old farts had a biscuit tin antenna at one time....hard to replicate with modern plastic biscuits pots!)


All the best,
Victor

I've still got a few old metal biscuit tins, now they are mostly plastic.  I had a Bremi BRL210, back in the mid to late 1990's (EL509).  About a decade ago, I picked up a Bremi BRL200 with a pair of 6JB6's in it, they were pretty much knackered and flashed over a few times.

I used to use a half breed style base load on a biscuit tin as it was all that I had, I later upgraded it to a 1/4 wave piece of wire and added more metal under the tin to give a better ground. i could manage 7 miles or so on 4 watts which wasn't bad as my location was low down.

The radio was a Maxcom 20E which had the worst receiver selectivity this side of a fidelity 1000. If anyone came on any of the other 40 channels and hit me more than S9 it would go almost completely deaf.

Antennas. 
The first antenna that i used back in the 70's ( yes i'm an old man) was a 108 inch stainless steel whip (Francis Amazor) mounted on a 24 foot steel pipe, i know that sounds weird using a mobile antenna as a base antenna but it worked, then i got an old Antron 99 which i still run to this day, (sanded and revarnished several times)then in my mobile i use an old Wilson 1000 that i've replaced the coax on several times. (RG8X instead of the original RG58U coax).

Radios.
Mostly Cobras. ( like them for some reason)
Cobra 148 GTL  or my Ranger 2950 Mirage (switch from one to the other every couple of weeks) for my Base station.
Cobra 29 LTD Classic or my Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB for the mobile.

yes that's how i started many years ago DV 27 on a biscuit tin then i progressed on to my electronica special on a pole and ham international multimode 2 and that got us to san fransisco

every one into lay lines they run all over the world, this night went up the hills and found a lay line i put a steel pipe as a marker then into the car as it was getting cool then, onto the cb and there was a few on and i was getting a low signal, and tried and i said give me five mins so i drove over the marker, and i was hearing this low signal but it had came up, clear and strong so i shouted in, and i never told him what i had done and he was hearing me, no skip he was in workington. he then said you got a kicker on, i told him he said that i was daft so be it most of my good spots are on lay lines it works, and i all ways do it now when i get to the right spot