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First CB Radio Purchased

Looking backward from 2009-11-19.

I bought my first CB radio today from a stored called Don’s Communications, in Grazierville, PA (just south of Tyrone). It was a Midland 23-channel base station, model 13-863.  This radio offered the maximum legal transmitter output of four watts, squelch, automatic noise limiter (ANL), TVI filter, antenna warning light (that came on when the standing wave ratio (SWR) went about 1.6:1 or so), TX light, and it has a public address feature which I never used.  It was not sideband-capable (just AM).  But I enjoyed it for hundreds of hours in the ten or fifteen years that I owned it. 

I paid $199.99 for it, and earned much of that from working in the WPSBC school kitchen.  Plus, I saved coins and bills that relatives had given me for birthdays, first holy communion, and similar occasions.   Finally, Mom gave me a good percentage of the funds for my birthday, and because she was just a swell Mom; if she hadn’t, I’d have had to wait another year or two before I could afford the CB.

Also that day, we purchased a quarter-wave ground plane antenna as well as fifty feet of RG-58 cable, and the store owner, Don, and his son, put the PL-259 connectors on each end of it for us. 

We did not as of yet, have our license.  So I could not transmit with the radio immediately.  I think this authorization to transmit came a few weeks later and the station call sign that the FCC gave Dad was KIP-3372. 

I couldn’t resist talking however, before the license arrived, especially when I heard my uncle Ken Hesley chatting.  So I talked back at him and later that day, my father yelled at me for breaking the rules.  Apparently, his brother told him that he heard me transmitting.  Fortunately, though it seemed like an eternity, the license came pretty quickly so that before the end of the year, I was able to introduce myself to other CB’ers, and make new friends as well as rediscover some old ones via that CB radio.

At that time, CB’ers used nicknames or handles to hide their true identities.  I used a string of handles including:

  • Bellwood blue devil (after our local school football team’s name)
  • Pound of butter
  • Potato chip
  • Car starter
  • Glass breaker

I didn’t stick with    blue devil   for too long because it seemed so unoriginal with the local football team so prominent in the community.  So I tried several other handles,  and eventually settled on   glass breaker.   I don’t know why I picked this one.  I mean, it’s not as though I really enjoyed breaking glass. It just sounded cool.  So I used it, and it stuck, because others liked calling me it as well.  

Yep, CB radio gave me a great reason for looking forward to Fridays and dreading Sundays.  Since I couldn’t take the CB to Pittsburgh with me each week, and since I loved talking on it so much, I thought about it all week at WPSBC, longing to use it again on Friday night. Then I’d feel poignantly sad each Sunday afternoon when I’d have to leave it behind.

Mom liked it too and gabbed on it often while I was away at school.  Her handle was   the free spirit.

A couple other kids at school got radios as well, including [Mentat] and [Tad].  [Tad's] handle was   button buck, and [Mentat's] was   pioneer.

I made several fast friends about as quickly as it took to open the envelope that held the license.  I’ll list some of their handles here:

  • [Big Bob]
  • [Big Wop]
  • [Blondie]
  • [Blue Goose]
  • [Cave Rat]
  • [Corn Flakes]
  • [Drummer Boy]
  • [Foxy Lady]
  • [Frosty]
  • [The Horseman]
  • [J Bird]
  • [Little Abner]
  • [Little Leopard]
  • [The Live One]
  • [Long Liner]
  • [Magnum Force] (Foxy Lady’s husband)
  • [Maniac]
  • [Murphy]  (deceased)
  • [Music Man] 
  • [Moody Blues]
  • [PA Angler]
  • [Panty Draper]
  • [PD]
  • [Peaches]
  • [Pixie]
  • [Purple Demon]
  • [Sleepy]
  • [Sour Grapes]
  • [Sweet Mama] (Sleepy’s wife)
  • [Swinging Gate]
  • [Tootsie Roll Pop]
  • [Tumbleweed]
  • [Whippoorwill]
  • [Yamaha Kid]
  • [Zig Zag] (Moody Blues’ boyfriend)

I really liked [Maniac] and will post more about her on the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog later.

So as you can see, getting involved with CB radio greatly expanded my social circle of friends; it was a smaller version of Internet chat today, and in our group, we never cussed, or discussed very hostile-laden or inflammatory topics

I hope that some of these folks are still around, will see this, and decide to contact me.  I’d enjoy catching up with them again after over thirty-five years.

Tom Hesley

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 7th, 1974 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Citizens Band, First Experiences, Journal, Mentat, People, Platonic, Radio, Relationships, Tad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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