CB Radio Suggestions?

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chinze57

chinze57

Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
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I’ve got a 64 Dart and I’m toying with the idea of putting in a CB radio. What would a period correct radio and antenna be? Any suggestions on antenna location?
 
CBs took off in 1976

I had a Pace CB144, 23 channel, (24 if you can get to 23a)

I had a slide mount under the dash, power connector is still there.

Antenna was a trunk lip mount. My dart still has the scars to prove it.

Cobra, radio shack, were also popular at the time.
 
Not period correct but D100s had them optioned in the late 70s

e9d65d8ed9264e160df4ec2d2e74bade.jpg
 
c.b.s come about in late 60s, took till early 70s to catch on big! but now days with gps and cell phones the c.b. world has faded alot! earliest c.b.s were 23 channel and midland, johnson, pace, ranger, layette were some the high end brands by 72 could get j.c. penny, sears, realistic, and kraco's! i got a couple realistic's and kraco's and a 23 channel cobra but id be skeerd to hook power to them, 3 cb men all say itll go up in smoke if i did....diodes dried out or something! then your gonna want a vintage antenna like a shakespeare or a fiberglass frances or any magnet mount you could find! flea markets and yard sales best places to search for such! if you planning on using it, get a 40 channel cobra 29 or a uniden 76 and a wilson 1000 antenna and you will be good to go!
 
There likely is no "period correct" CB that you would want. CB by the way was created in about 59 by the FCC by turning the 11 meter amateur radio band into the CB. Early radios that would be "period correct" would be vacuum tubes, not transistors, and would be 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 etc channels. "Back then" you had to buy a pair of crystals for each channel that you wanted to use

Something like this Johnson was "top of the line" back then



Another Johnson a bit later on

 
A period correct would be a really shitty 23 channel. I think you should move up about a decade.
 
Here's a REAL fish outta water. A TUBE CB from the mid to late 70's and it's 40 channel. According to Wiki, 40 channels were authorized by FCC in 1977

 
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RustyRatRod said:
A period correct would be a really shitty 23 channel. I think you should move up about a decade.
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Is the CB being added for looks only?
Not criticizing, but if you do get a functional unit, will there be anyone out there to talk with?
There is a long distance truck driver in the group that I golf with in the summer. I asked him once about CB radios, as I remember and participated in the mid 70’s CB craze. I had a 23 channel Cobra. His reply was, ‘ I don’t know anyone that uses a CB radio today’.
 
They are used around here locally "some." Things like local yard operations with dump trucks or road clearance for forest/ logging roads. But local logging is "about done" here
 
my68barracuda said:
Is the CB being added for looks only?
Not criticizing, but if you do get a functional unit, will there be anyone out there to talk with?
There is a long distance truck driver in the group that I golf with in the summer. I asked him once about CB radios, as I remember and participated in the mid 70’s CB craze. I had a 23 channel Cobra. His reply was, ‘ I don’t know anyone that uses a CB radio today’.
Click to expand...

lol there are lots of people still on cb.
 
Looks like now is a good time for CB.

we are in about the bottom of a sun spot 11 year cycle.

1980 killed it for me. Couldn't talk to someone 5 miles away.
 
my68barracuda said:
Is the CB being added for looks only?
Not criticizing, but if you do get a functional unit, will there be anyone out there to talk with?
There is a long distance truck driver in the group that I golf with in the summer. I asked him once about CB radios, as I remember and participated in the mid 70’s CB craze. I had a 23 channel Cobra. His reply was, ‘ I don’t know anyone that uses a CB radio today’.
Click to expand...

If I add one it’s gonna be functional. No use having it in a daily just for show. I know a few people in my area who do cb and ham. I’m looking at potentially road tripping cross country this summer and know plenty of truckers who swear by it still as a way to get information about accidents and speed traps, so that’d be a nice benefit
 
chinze57 said:
I know a few people in my area who do ... ham.
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OMFG NOT "hamsexy...................."

Hamsexy dot com | SPANK ME LIKE A BAD PUPPY

Urban Dictionary: hamsexy

hamsexy
(HAM' secks-ee) adj. i-er i-est Colloq.
1. Opposite of sexy.
2. Gaudyness and uglyness related to amateur radio equipment or operators.
3.noun, proper. An online journal of amateur radio fashon and folly.
Those thirty antennas on your car make you so hamsexy.
The comment "I'm running 0 watts" is both hamsexy and stupid. (N4XE and a D)

pork3.jpg


dsc01287.jpg


dsc01290.jpg


porcupine-jpg.jpg
 
my68barracuda said:
Is the CB being added for looks only?
Not criticizing, but if you do get a functional unit, will there be anyone out there to talk with?
There is a long distance truck driver in the group that I golf with in the summer. I asked him once about CB radios, as I remember and participated in the mid 70’s CB craze. I had a 23 channel Cobra. His reply was, ‘ I don’t know anyone that uses a CB radio today’.
Click to expand...
im one them trashy truckers,..depends on area, lotta places ant nuttun but static,..get around a big city might get some air play just depends! it got to ware you couldnt trust a traffic report or weather report by mid 90s, and if you do find some talk going on its so fulger and adolescent ya cant stand to liston to it...
 
dirty white boy said:
im one them trashy truckers,..depends on area, lotta places ant nuttun but static,..get around a big city might get some air play just depends! it got to ware you couldnt trust a traffic report or weather report by mid 90s, and if you do find some talk going on its so fulger and adolescent ya cant stand to liston to it...
Click to expand...

Last time I used a CB regularly was 1981-82. I was doing Cannonball runs between Asheville, NC and Clarksville, TN every other weekend to see my girlfriend. Biggest problem then was an idiot near the NC-TN line with a jacked up base station. He delighted in walking all over channel 19 and pissing the truckers off. He had one of those annoying D104 mic's. I still have my old CB....so I may go dig it out and see if it still works. :)
 
Not much going on with the CB any more. I had one in the Dakota and about the only thing to hear were alligator bases speaking in Spanish.
Many trucking companies dont allow them, citing distracted driving.
IIRC the old 23 channel raydios are verboten.
I have an old Royce 23 ch with a cute little switch on it. Tune to 19, flip the switch and ya get 4 more channels. Tune it to 4 and go down 4 channels. Or something like that. The components in the tuner are getting out of spec for certain channels.
I also have a Cobra 148 GTL with the mic plug on the side, supposed to be better than the newer ones with the mic on the front. Its been leaned on a bit by a former Navy avionics tech.

I had a friend in high school whose dad was big into CBs about 1970. Had two antennas on the house and one in every car.

I remember the old Johnson CBs. The " black face", "white face", "silver face", etc.
There is notheing wrong with the old D104 "chicken choker" mics....until you put that damned "tweety bird" in it.
 
Oh yeah....antennas dont do much for paint jobs. The trunk lip mounts will put two divots in the paint on the bottom of the lid where the Allen screws are and the bracket can mess up the paint on the top side.
Magnet mounts are flat out hell on paint even though they dont move.
If you can get a gutter mount if your car has em.
 
You can buy brand new CBs (and there a good selection) at truck stops like Pilot and Loves.
 
Anything 23 channel, the 40 channel units came out later.

My grandfather had a CB in the Barracuda before I got it, this is the third different antenna he had on it, he had a 48" Firestik antenna with a quick release on it.
I have the correct radio (I still have the original trunk lid that he drilled the holes in).
1979-01-01_001.jpg



Alan
 
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