Breaker Breaker. Is There Anyone Out There?

Weren’t the days of CB Radio just fantastic? Burt Reynolds made CB look cool. Forget mobile phones and the Internet; people would get on the air and ask, “Who’s out there, go?”

A’right, I used to be a CB guy, too. I admit it. I was a teenager, fresh out of high school. I had a driver’s license and a car with a CB and spent most of my air time asking that ever-repeating question to the crackling static. Having said that, I was a little more serious about it than others. I was a part-time side-bander! (If you’re not into radio, you probably just said, ‘Huh?’)

Oh yes, if you know the tech I’m talking of, you also know the hierarchy. AM CB Radio was basic-levelled CB Radio. Side-banders were elitists!

Side-banding allowed users to broadcast their signals further. The equipment was more expensive, and side-banders used the airwaves more respectfully. AM’ers didn’t. Their world was awash with low-brow chatter (like Twitter) because everyone had it and had something to say.

Regular AM users could hear part of the side-band wave, but not all. To them, the signals were garbled, making the whole side-band thing appear mysterious.

I’d park my vehicle on the highest hill, switch to side-band and start communicating with a stranger in Guam, the United Kingdom or even Canada. I enjoyed reaching out to someone across the seas — from my car!

Citizen’s Band Radio signals weren’t meant to cross vast distances. Governments didn’t want their citizens sending information to foreign lands. Four watts was hardly enough power for a signal to cross a neighbourhood. Limiting the citizens’ band power output kept the transmitted info local.

(Don’t ask me how they manage the Internet today!)

Owing to the efficiency of the side-banding process, it produced slightly more output power, and my special antenna ensured every watt reached the air. This antenna was the ONLY one left of its type in the state. There was a good reason. People were getting killed with it!

Antenna manufacturers knew there was a problem with tall CB antennas mounted on cars and trucks. Drivers kept bashing them into objects like garage doors, bridges and power lines. Manufacturers stopped making them as compact antennas became more practical and preferred. There was a trade-off with using them — reduced range.

My antenna was the original 1/4 wave CB antenna. At 2.75 meters (9ft) high, she was a whopper when mounted on the centre of the roof of my car! She had a broadcast range like no other, but she had drawbacks. She was useless when driving at speed on a highway. The wind tipped it back so far that it altered its propagation properties so much that I couldn’t broadcast anywhere! But when I was stationary, and the stick was perfectly vertical, no one could beat me at the Citizen’s Band Radio game.

My setup looked kinda silly. It turned my small hatchback into a giant Dodgem car! I didn’t care. I had an interesting hobby, and it made my teenage years fun.

In my novel, I used one of my CB transmission sites as a murder scene. You may have visited it. It’s off Armstrong Road, right by the Logan River. Back in the day, it was just a dirt track that passed by a football field.

My spot was down the end of it, all the way to the bridge.

CB days were good days. So is writing dark fiction and putting my tech knowledge into a book. (See Below)

–Michael Forman

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