Hobby Radio Craze
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Random Hobby Radio - the good, the bad, and the ugly - because, as the late Oscar Gamble said, "They don't think it be like it is, but it do!"........................................................................................
07-08-2025 - 6:00 AM - Good Morning! It's Tuesday. The radio club of a nearby city will conduct its weekly "emergency practice net" tonight on the club's VHF repeater. I'll probably listen in. For the last few months, they have been conducting their club meetings over the air. Those are interesting. On the CB Radio right now, two guys are chewing the rag on Channel 12. I'm not sure yet if they're local or just passing through town. I found them because I had the radio set on 40-channel scan. I'm falling way behind on my Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® contacts. I'll try to make a few today. My coffee is ready.
07-08-2025 - 6:15 AM - A few years ago, I was listening to two local CB Radio Operators having a conversation on Channel 6, when a well-known station in Jamaica started transmitting. When he did, he "cut the lips off" both local stations. I could not hear them, even though they were less than 10 miles from me, whenever the Jamaican station—1500 miles away—keyed up. I hope he's up-to-date on RF exposure warnings.
07-08-2025 - 6:30 AM - It was 1973 or 1974, and I was in Germany. I remember having a favorite elevated area where I would park and fire up the mobile rig. It was a Midland 13-862 that I ordered through Montgomery Ward. I would sit in the car and talk to Germans and U.S. military people for hours. I remember band conditions being tranquil while I was in Germany. Maybe we were at or near the bottom of the solar cycle. I guess I could look it up, but it's not important. Those were fun times! I found a beat-up version of that radio at a hamfest last year and bought it for $10. See the pic below. It has someone's call sign on it. UPDATE: That period was during Solar cycle 20, which began in 1964 and ended in 1976. So, while I was in Germany, we were near solar minimum.
07-08-2025 - 6:40 AM - It was late 1975 when I stopped in Williams, Arizona for gas. I was on the way to San Francisco to play Army. In those days, the Radio was buzzing with activity, partly due to the speed limit being 55 MPH and the associated "smokey" reports. I asked the station attendant - yes, they pumped your gas and cleaned your windshield back then - about the nearest McDonald's. He said, "We don't allow them here. Only the good places!" In 2010, we stayed overnight in Williams - before going to the Grand Canyon - and had Big Macs at the local McDonald's! Times change. The CB Radio was also a lot quieter.
7-08-2025 - 6:45 AM - It was the late 1960s. I was sitting in the family CB Radio-equipped car when I heard two kids (I was a kid, but they were younger) playing with CB walkie-talkies. Before long, I had them believing I was a visitor from another planet hiding in a nearby storm drainage pipe. After about 15 minutes, some adult had heard enough and told me to knock it off. I did. Damn Kilocycle Kops!
07-08-2025 - 6:55 AM - There's a lot of chatter on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the requirement that commercial truck drivers be able to speak some level of English. Understanding the requirement and whether or not it is needed is swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other. Some people commenting know what they're talking about. Some saw the words trucker and English and imagined all kinds of things. CB Radio was mentioned, hence my limited interest. I'll let them hash it out. I've learned to keep my two cents in my pocket. I might need it for radios or radio accessories.
07-08-2025 - It was in 1976 and 77 when I would climb - in my Datsun B210 - to Mount Davidson, one of the highest points in San Francisco to receive more local signals on my AM-FM portable radio with extended VHF receiver coverage. I was interested in that, even more than listening to Dr. Don Rose on KFRC. With an extended VHF tuning range, in the days before scanner radios were popular and affordable, I could listen to commercial entities of all types. I even found the frequencies for car phones. Cordless phones were, as far as I know, not out at that time. I don't remember hearing any. It didn't matter since there was no shortage of scanning targets. Manual spin-the-dial scanning. I'm sure Hobby Radio enthusiasts still use that elevation for one purpose or another.
07-08-2025 - 9:15 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing - National Current Ops / Monitoring – July 7-8, 2025
New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
• Flash Flooding – Texas
Hazard Monitoring:
• Severe Thunderstorms – Mid-Atlantic to Northeast
• Excessive Rainfall / Flash Flooding – Southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast
• Fire Weather – Western U.S.
• Tropical Activity:
Eastern Pacific:
• Disturbance 1: Low (10%)
Disaster Declaration Activity:
• No new declaration activity
Event Monitoring:
• No new significant events
07-08-2025 - 12:30 PM - The 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band is a little sleepy this afternoon, so I'll go back to the CB Radio and see what the area truckers are up to. This is a good time to listen there, also, because conditions are not conducive to "skip" at the moment.
07-08-2025 - 12:50 PM - Morse code bracelet makers/sellers: Please use spacing between characters; otherwise, it's just gibberish, no matter what your cheat card says.
07-08-2025 - 2:00 PM - I bought a 1960 copy of CQ Ghost Ship, a book by Walker A. Tompkins, K6ATX (SK), almost a year ago. It's one of the Amateur (ham) Radio books I read in 1966. Others were Death Valley QTH, DX Brings Danger, Grand Canyon QSO, and SOS at Midnight, all by Tompkins. These books were updated in paperback (featuring more modern equipment) in 1985 or so and sold by the American Radio Relay League. Nope! I want the original hardcover versions. As I did with SOS at Midnight, I paid too much for CQ Ghost Ship, but the nostalgia value is worth it.
04-28-2025 - 1:50 PM - A good source of entertainment for scanner radio owners is the local school bus operation. You don't have to wait long for interesting radio traffic in my town. Our city transit bus drivers are also good for a laugh now and then, mainly because they think no one can hear them. I'm not about to let them in on the secret world of scanner owners.
More to come!