27mhz....my radio roots

Without any doubt some of my best radio day's were spent on 27mhz!

It was 1979, i was 12 years old and in High School. There was no legal CB system in the UK at the time, however all of the kids were getting them and after a couple of visits to a friend's house to have a go on theirs i was hooked.

Colt 210

I eventually persuaded my parents to let me have one and my first rig was a Colt 210 (pictured above), 40 channels, 4w, AM and a Bodatious Pole aerial (2m tall helical) that i mounted on a large sheet of aluminum on the garage roof. The colt didn't last long as i upgraded to a Scooper, 120 channel AM with built in VSWR and Modulation meter. This rig used high level modulation and sounded fantastic, it would be great converted for 10m AM, so if you have one of these in your loft gathering dust send me an e-mail.....cash is waiting!

Cobra 148 GTL-DX

By 1982 i had worked my way up the ladder to get the Rolls Royce of CB stations, a Cobra 148 (pictured above) modified 200 channel multimode radio, Avanti Sigma IV aerial (7/8ths wave vertical) and a Turner Expander 500 desk microphone. If there was DX to be worked this was the setup to do it on...and i did it...lot's of it...until one sad day in August 1983 when i had a visit from BT's Radio Investigation Service (now the RA) and waved the Cobra 148 goodbye in an evidence bag! Like a lot of people who got "busted" i came back on the air legally but it was never quite the same again.

Ironically, i now occasionally get to work with the same person who took my radio away...what goes around comes around!