@@johncrichton4341 One day your on your 23 channel CB radio.. Then you find your self at the radio shack picking up a couple electronics kits and maybe subscribing to Popular electronics. Now your hooked, your building your own Frequency counter and hanging out at the ham swaps trying to score a signal generator or maybe a scope..... No rehab will fix this obsession
I turned 16 in 1974. Got my first car in '73. Immediately installed a CB, a Sears version of a Johnson radio. EVERYBODY had a CB in those days. Even cab companies used CBs to communicate. I bought a Turner +3 power mic and the truckers said I had a "big radio" lol. The 70s were the best years to be a teenager. Sure wish I could re-live those day!!! We had the best music, the best cars, the hottest chics, the best drugs and CB radio!!#
Johnson made good solid radios no doubt about it ! I am a CB operator in Seattle and I talk on a Johnson Messenger 250 with the power Johnson desk mic . CB is still a fun hobby ! Thanks for the good work. I'm a big fan !
I remember back in the late 70’s & early 80’s going in the truck with my father & chatting on the CB radio to my grandmother at the weigh bridge at the Quarry to let her know that dad was on his way to check in & get weighed. I miss those days.
@@MsCori76 You look more like you're 25 in your pic! It's funny, I clicked on your pic and saw I left a comment on your channel quite a while ago about your Radiola 55. I didn't even remember that. Lol It's a small world! I hope you had it recapped and working by now! Peace!!
@@timmack2415 LOL, the photo of me was taken about 6 months ago but yeah, I do get told a lot that I do not look my age. My oldest child is 21 this year. 😊✌🏼
@@timmack2415 I also did start doing some work on the radio & then was given a few more old radios & the Radiola got put back on the “Things To Do List” for another day. 😂 I would love to get back to doing more work on it but I’m now working 2 jobs a week now & don’t have much time to do things.
Yep. I lived it. I turned 16 in 1974. Got my first car in '73. Immediately installed a CB, a Sears version of a Johnson radio. EVERYBODY had a CB in those days. Even cab companies used CBs to communicate.
Yes! I got my first CB radio, a 6 channel one in 1974 while still in the Navy (Radar service tech). When I got out in 1975, I got an FCC First Class Radiotelephone license and did repairs first by myself then with a partner along with other stuff, including TVs and then for a small CB shop. Our local channel was 18. We had "Breaks" at the local diners for the enthusiasts and CB club members. I fitted my bicycle with the old CB, then with the 40 channel one later. The pack fitted on the top bar with a generator on the back wheel to keep the gel-cell batteries charged. CB died back then around 1980 when the sunspot cycle increased and the early PC computer models started showing up. I heard a couple fellows conversing about a Wang and a Commodore as one of my last times on CB. I then worked for Radio Shack from 1981 to 2001 to repair CB radios, scanners and other electronics along with the cellphones that came later. I and the other CB friends from the 1970's did not return to CB radio since.
This was my first radio, had it installed in my 69 Plymouth fury in high school. I remember the twang of that transmit relay thank you for sharing that.
Back in the good old( convoy)cb days . over hear in the UK it was all very Highly illegal ( made it more fun ) .we were getting all our gear via France on day trips hoping not to get caught.Then trying to disguise a Sigma 5 on your house lol .So thank you U.S.A for all the influence for us Brits ( I still have my Cobra 148) lol so 10.4 and god bless from over the pond
This side or yours I'm sure a lot of us old goats will be 10.23 waiting to do it again in that great new 10.20 in the sky when our 10.36 is up. KTM5481
When I was a kid in the 80s, we used CB on summer vacations to talk to the other family we traveled with, and also heard all sorts of interesting trucker conversations. I remember specifically one trucker telling another to "get that p.o.s. you're driving out of the way so this Peterbilt can get buy" and another time one rolled down the window yelling "what channel y'all on?" to Dad because he wanted talk to us..
Same here we traveled with family on road trip vacations and everyone had a cb. I remember the look on parents faces like they were getting a kick out of it.
All the best memories I ever had was on my CB radio in the late seventies early eighties, if I had that particular model I would have been king-of-the-hill! My first CB was a realistic mini 23 with a power supply and a mobile antenna that I used to talk all over the Albany New York area meeting all kinds of decent people, those were the days for sure!
Miss those days when I was 13 and rode my bike to the store to buy my first CB and then using it to mess with truckers at local truck stop with my friends.
In 1977 The FCC rescinded the fee requirement but still required a license. All you had to do is just send away for it and you got your license, all you had to be was 18 or over and an American Citizen or allowed to be here. April 28, 1983 was when the FCC stopped requiring everyone to have a license. 1977 was also when the CB bands were expanded to 40 channels. Older 23 channel radios were closed out as low as $29.99 and after sometime they could no longer be sold. It should be noted that 1977 was also the year when "Smokey and The Bandit" came out and was the #2 movie of the year! (Number one was some movie called "Star Wars")
Had one of these in the early `90s. Installed it in my Malibu wagon with a center roof mounted Wilson 1000. Drove up on the plateau near Sunset Point late one night and talked to a fellow in (IIRC) Argentina. Good times... Thanks for the memory.
CB conversation tends to be more interesting than HAM band conversation in my area. I'd love to hear that old Johnson on the West Coast in my receive up in the snowcaps.
Wow! That radio brings back some memories! We used it in my grandfather's camper to keep in touch with the other vehicles in our family caravan when we were travleling. My CB call was KEU3587. Just picked up a Sony TR-713 in near mint untouched condition. Works ok but from your videos I know it is capable of much more. Thanks for all the hard work. Great video! K4SI
I owned and operated this radio in about 1977, it was a cool radio back then...I think Dynascan made one in the 1980's when the mobile phones were just coming in....I owned that one as well...super bowl has never changed....if you were wondering what it sounded like from 1975 (when I first got into CB's) onward, now you know, it has never changed and it always sounds like the same guy, 10-4...i'm 10-7! ~Jack, VEG
Shango066, thank you for posting this. I have one of these. NO, I'M NOT KIDDING! I got it as "payment" for work I did at a friend's salvage yard in the early 90's. I attached it to a portable CB antenna and a homemade 12 VDC power supply. It worked great EXCEPT the earpiece in the handset; the speaker there was shot. I replaced it with another very small speaker and it works acceptably. FYI: Here in Metro Detroit the CB frequencies are always busy. Right the Johnson CB is in a box in my basement.
Very nice! My dad had an E. F. Johnson desktop CB Radio from 1970 hooked up to an outside antenna mounted on a 20 foot pole. That thing was a great communicator. 👍
I remember when I was about 10 years old and I had a set of Aleron walkie talkies. I was fascinated by the technology. I eventually became a TV tech and later an electrical engineer.
I had one of these in 1978. Great radio. We mounted it in my buddy's Valiant. Great radio. It got stolen while parked at transmission repair shop parking lot.
When you pulled the box out and I saw Johnson, I thought of that country novelty song by Cledus Maggard, "The White Knight". After he gets busted for doing 95 in a 55, a lyric says about his CB: "Best thing you can do with old thing is yank it out by the wires....I don't care if it is a Johnson". So Johnson must have been the brand of choice for CB radios. Fun trip to the past though!
What a great gift for you! 3:30 "Classy Class A motor home." A "Winny." Probably a Dodge chassis with a 360 small block truck or 440 big block four barrel. I worked on many of those back in 1980's and 1990's.
I was a tech in a small mobile radio repair shop in the late 1970's. There were a few telephone receiver type sets by many manufacturers. The 23 channel xtal matrix was normal as the older full 23 channel radios had a pair of xtals for each channel. Others CB sets had 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 channel pairs xtal slots for whatever channels you wanted. I worked for Radio Shack later and they manufactured their own wire, cables and xtals. The older police scanners had xtal slots inside as well for local selection plus a catalog was on sale with a list of frequencies across the US. The xtals made by Radio Shack did drift down in frequency with time. I suggested to the customers/store managers to use their other source for xtals. Well, the manager for the xtal shop was quite upset that I and other techs in the 2 dozen shops that RS owned said this and was adamant that there was nothing wrong with their xtals. The company closed that shop with the other in-company manufacturing for streamlining and cost cutting within a year.
I worked in a CB shop in Lyndhurst, New Jersey from 1972 to 1979, and sold many Johnson radios during that time. They made very good basic radios. Didn’t have all the bells and whistles that other manufactures had at that time. When this model came in with the handset, I thought it was such a ridiculous idea, and that no one would buy them. Boy was I wrong. They flew off the shelves, and I could only guess that the users wanted people to think they had a telephone in their cars and trucks, which was a super rarity in the 70’s.
I hear some stuff on my old childhood walkie talkie from 1977. ( I was actually 14 when I got it) Mostly distant stuff, hard to understand. It transmits on ch. 14. 100 mw I think. No squelch, of course.
@Mark Markofkane Back when I was a little kid in 1975 I got my first Archer Radio Shack walkie talkies space patrol with the morse code bar on the bottom so you could do code or voice. It also only Xmit about 150 mw but sure enough I had truckers talking to me back then..it was pretty exciting !
Back in the day, I had a '68 Impala Super Sport with one of these attached to the console. Had twin Hustler trunk lip mounted antennas. Neat rig. KTH 1124 was my assigned FCC number. Good for 2 base stations and 4 mobiles.
I worked on a Johnson CB base set at the tech college I was in.The set was brought in by a farmer--He says "not working-I tightened all of the screws in the set"Turned out he "tightened all of the trimmer caps-had to do an alignment job on both the receiver and transmitter.After that worked fine Was a tubed unit.Ran from 120V.Still remember that unit!School was in Springfeild,South Dakota.Middle of farm country.
While I don't believe Shango will ever ask the viewers of his content, I encourage everyone to allow the ads to run in his videos, rather than clicking the 'Skip" button. When you skip the ads, the channel owner does not receive advertising revenue from UA-cam. We are all fortunate to have folks like Shango, who share their knowledge, humor, and hobbies with us. You never see Shango hawking Chinese gimmick snarfuglern mulit-tools on his videos- and watching an ad or two all the way through will help keep his content free to everyone.
In the 1970's, Ch 6 was the soul channel in Denver. Each large section in town had their own channel. Mine was Ch. 18 and I was in a CB club and the truckers was Ch 19.
WOW !!! I Remember these radio. Way cool old 23 channel CB radios. Well, you can retune/crystal this way cool Johnson Radio for 10 meters and use it now that the band is in. It is a way cool radio !!! Ricky from IBM, Ret K4VMS/AAT9WG (Formerly KA6VMS de Simi Valley)
16:20 CB is not dead... its just we all talk on USB/LSB bands now, mainly LSB tho. have a nice clear day get you a good radio with side bands, normally 36-39 have a lot of people on the LSB band. On a good day even a barefoot radio with a 10-12 Watt PEP can reach from where you are to my home state of TN, been quite a few good skip days as of late.
Does anyone remember the phones that they had in taverns back in the 90s that were on top of the bar and they had a sign on top of the phone that said " Call Anywhere In The U.S.A. For 3 Minutes Only $2.00 " that is what that radio reminds me of.
@@aaronblair9583 .....Oh man, i remember them. And what was good about that was that if you were a good customer and the owner of the bar knew you, he would pay you off in cash if you hit the jackpot or had a high amount of credits on it then he would reset the machine with a button he had behind the bar. He had a miniature gambling device there that for states that didn't allow gambling. Lololol.
@@videosuperhighway7655 ......Yes, " FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY " lolol. The places where I used to hang out ,the owner would always figure out a way that there's some way to make a buck out of it for their pocket. Lololol.
There wasn't any test needed for CB in the 70s, you just had to register and pay the fee, just like GMRS radio today. When CB reached its peak in the late 70s, so many people were on it unlicensed they just did away with having to get one.
Not only that, with so many unlicensed individuals accessing the airwaves, it was physically impossible for " Uncle Charlie" to monitor much enforce compliance of the license requirements.
When we were wintering in Arizona, I discovered that the Boefang boom had hit in Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City. The kids had picked these up off Ebay for around 20 bucks and were using them, hitting the local repeaters as CB radios. They were talking about having sex with their girls in graphic terms, and their hot cars, what they did over the weekend and what parts they needed for their cars. It was rather annoying, I stopped monitoring those repeaters simply because it was like listening to the CB traffic in the mid 1970s when you couldn't get a break when you really needed something. It was sad really, I was waiting for the local club who owned the repeaters to come up and enforce the rules, but alas that too seemed to be gone. I was very happy to return to the upper mid-west where rules still mean something on the HAM bands.
@@JerryEricsson No offence man but never liked HAM repeaters because of how stubborn you guys are, everyone there is hobby lawyer telling you what you can or can't do. I see nothing has changed over the decades. I and my friends just ended using abandoned commercial repeaters back in the day, you could use text paging, selective calling, phone patches, talking freely about everything without listening to threats and being keyed over by "real" HAMs. Now hobby is dead and channels are empty and Baofeng kids are still a problem. Sad attitude.
It is a long time now, maybe some old timers can confirm this but I recall the license was done away with when Betty Ford got hers without waiting while the rest of the country had to deal with a backlog of applications. I recall it was a big stink back then. CB was fun for me circa 1962. My friend actually had a CB shack in the back yard with a homebrew cubical quad he turned via the Armstrong method. Shango speaks of crystal drift. Back then the CB band sounded almost musical with the variety of beat notes on every channel. Ahh, the good old days. We finally drifted off the CB bands and became bootleggers on the ham bands.
@@BillyLapTop As I recall, someone made a legal challenge on the filing fee. The government isn't allowed to make a profit, so they had to show that the fee was in line with the actual cost. Rather then do that, they dropped the fee. I think the license requirement died shortly after.
Back about '75 I bought my first CB radio, did take a test, did pay a license fee, and was assigned my government approved call sign with which I was required to sign on off, and identify myself if broadcasting over a prescribed number of minutes. My handle back then was Baby Bear.
@@adrinathegreat3095 I am talking about early 70s in california. I think it was 14. The walkie talkies had a fuzzy sound as they lacked squelch control.
Me, too. The set I purchased from K-mart in the mid-70's when I was 10 y/o broadcast on CB Channel 14, had only a 1/4 mile range (outdoors-forget broadcasting to your best friend next door), a metal expandable antenna (which bent/broke easily), and no squelch. Noisy little bugger.
I actually found a guy so well known by me in the mid 1960s that he had a mention on some CB site (ear plugger). He was known as Scrap Iron from Paterson NJ. He often used a linear and a rotating beam antenna. I had a Walkie Talkie at the time and never forgot his call letters. KOD 0769.
This CB radio should be in a museum because along with it’s packaging is a piece of Americana. If they will take it the California Historical Radio Society located in Alameda, CA would be a perfect place.
That guy sounds just like the guy I used to hear on my CB radio back in the 70's. My first CB was a used Johnson 123A I think. I paid the fee and sent in my forms and a few weeks later I had my own call sign. Its been so long ago. It seems almost like a different life now.
The law was imposed to deter cell phone (wireless) use. In 2017, the law was modified to allow 2-way and CB radios. The reason was that since the microphones are hard-wired to the transmitter, it is not considered "wireless".
If you are testing any transmitter, you should be transmitting into a dummy load. For that transmitter, an easily made, a ten watt 47 ohm resistor in a container of oil. The reason behind this is because, a mismatched load will return standing waves back to the finals in the transmitter and damage them. Tube transmitters are more tolerant of this for a short time, but transistorized final amplifiers will blow very quickly. Later solid state transmitters have power rollback circuitry that sees a load mismatch and automatically reduces the output power. Early CB units like this might not have such circuitry so it's best not to take any chance. A carbon resistor attached across the output is a straight resistance of 47 ohms with no appreciable reactance.
We were called the Pet Milk Boys on channel 34 were the Ham old timers used to talk in my area in the 90's. A lot of them died off and the children took over so I rather talk skip on side band then here all that trash before I got out of it.
It would be sweet to have a 1970 Chevy pickup for an example with a 1970s messenger like that one there along with the 2 m of that era and the HF radio of that era that would be cool
A very interesting specimen of the late 1970's from Johnson in mint condition!! I just got through with a Johnson Viking 2 AM and CW transmitter. Its also interesting that these radios when first introduced in the mid to late 1950's that what we know as CB radio today was only intended as a two way radio for business application only, then it changed in the early to mid 1960's and was aimed at public at large for general communication for the public, they were handy for OTR truckers and was a handy second choice for boaters as a backup radio, then the movies came out with trucker movies and CB was never the same since!! it grew real fast for awhile now its not as well used anymore, because of ham radio and cell phone use, and now cell phones might be in danger of slowly panning away due to high speed internet with Star link and the use of satellite phone technology coming of age both of which have more reliable communication technology, where as with cell phones you are limited to the availability of cell towers within 5 to 8 miles of your location, so dont expect a cell phone to work in the deep woods or in a state or national park, or out in the midwest out in the middle of nowhere somewhere!!
I have a all tube cb that was found in the desert in California 20 years ago somewhere in the Victorville area do you want it ? I have no idea if it works ?
Oooooh Wow!!! 😲 It's been such a long time since I saw a newspaper I forgot how they looked, I wonder how much can be earned by using them for printing copies on to consumer items? Eg: "Cough he Mug", "Tea-shirt", Ewps 😮😳 Err-"Coffee Mug", "T-shirt" 😅 and or A Page slapped into a Frame etc, etc? APU I dropped you a 👍
Another great 👍 thing of yesteryear 👍. We had an RV like that. It was a Winnebago. Too bad 👎 fuel pumps of yesteryear are gone. I thought that was also an AM/FM radio 📻. One to hang up ☝ on the wall. I didn't know that the 👌 crystals 🔮 in these got "drifty", or "lossy", through age. They're like 👍 capacitors, I guess, that get out of tolerance. USA 🇺🇸!! Radiotvphononut 📻 would approve!! I don't know 👌 if this would work as an actual home telephone ☎. Different VU meters there. They should be backlit. Nice colored CB radio 📻. Your friend, Jeff.
I have one of those a guy I worked with 10 years ago gave me. Never tried it but if I can find it I will have to check it out. Radio shack had a version or two of these phone style cb radios back in the day.
Nice piece. Remember that Radio Shack had their own version for those that couldn't afford the Johnson. I wish I still had my CB license from when I was a kid. Neighbor had a 1/2 wave antenna on their roof. I had a mobile whip for truck mirror mount that I mounted on the wire grate of a window well cover. Needless to say, range wasn't great.
Wouldn't you know, the first thing you finally get after listening to static for an hour you get someone that sounds like they are from the southern tip of Alabamee. Yeehaw. You were the only person on CB that day speaking real English. .
7:20 Not that people followed those rules to the letter, mind you...memories of being a kid in the '70s, listening to the truck driver & tradespeople crosstalk on my little kiddie walkie-talkie that used CB channel 14. Man, oh man LOL.
America doesn't belong in a museum. America truly deserves to breathe free and live. Now that all of us have lulled ourselves into using Jack-ass or Zuckerberg, all by convenience, maybe it's time for a Free Speech CB-revival.
10 meter band today is a free for all and very active. I took a 3 page test in 1970 and application fee to receive a license for C.B. My F.C.C. assigned call was KKJ 6686. Run a Galaxy 959 and a Ranger 2970N2 multi band now.
Wow, surprised even superbowl was quiet. Propagation seems to be starting to work a bit in the UK at least, managed to hear "Donnie" in Bonnie Scotland, Stornoway no less, from mobile in Rhyl nearly 600 miles away. Not too bad for UK27 FM at that, will have to drag out the AM rigs and see who's on.
I have a couple of CB handhelds the generic GE ones. One transmits but the audio is crap, I ended up modding it so I can play a music player through the amplifier but it transmits but the audio is VERY distorted and yes I've heard CB radio audio it is clearer than that. The other radio just makes this loud buzzing noise when you turn it on and I've salvaged parts from it. Not sure if I'm going to try to fix it.
I've taken a portable (plug into cig lighter) handheld CB onto the 101 through the valley and can talk to truckers on channel 19. I also live near the 101, and can monitor passing trucks talking.
When you mentioned the included January, 1977 addendum about the license, that agreed with my thoughts this must be newer than 1971 mentioned in the video title, because the car on the right side of the box looks like a late 70s Cadillac Seville or something like that. It sucks when oddball frequency crystals drift, that were custom made for a manufacturer. I was given some UHF wireless stage microphones and receivers to repair, and the crystals and either dead, or so far off frequency... and at 15.45632 MHz (or something weird like that) are unobtanium.
Ha ha I have one of those and it is like new. It’s in my 71 c10 and yes it works beautifully. Paired with a 108” stainless whip. I did get pulled over and got a lecture but no ticket. He let it slide because of the cool factor.
I started with a old halacrafter that my dad got when got out of the Army air corps and rebuilt it in to a C.B. radio. I still have a c.b. and a ham but I use the ham as a scanner.
I got my first CB in 1974, I had to get license. Paid I think $50, they sent my money back and said it was I believe only $10. When I got the license my call sign was KYN9968, I still have a radio with stickers for the call sign
My call sign from 1958 was 20W1254 and my mentor in those days was David Bell and his call was 20W1197. He was ruining a home brew rig and got cited by the FCC for being off frequency. Most of us built our own sets that were designed by a guy named Stoner, therefor the sets were called Stoners. They were one channel sets. That solar cycle back in 1958 still stands out that it was the best so far where HF radio transmitting is concerned. I didn't know that at the time but you could hear people on there plain as day on skip. We didn't have CB jargon in those days, people just talked normally. Another thing, you would get cited for was doing skip, the FCC didn't like that and they could yank you license or fine you or both.
Playing with a NOS CB transceiver 40 years too late! There is always some guy out there with a large antenna set up talking with a southern type accent on the air. Just got to find him. Of course you almost never hear the guy he is talking to.
CB Radio was the gateway drug for many of us ham radio and electronics enthusiast
Ain't that the truth.
It's a slippery slope...
@@johncrichton4341 One day your on your 23 channel CB radio.. Then you find your self at the radio shack picking up a couple electronics kits and maybe subscribing to Popular electronics. Now your hooked, your building your own Frequency counter and hanging out at the ham swaps trying to score a signal generator or maybe a scope..... No rehab will fix this obsession
Yeah used to tinker with them when I was a kid, even played with freeband frequencies back then.
I remember having a trucker reply to my 'callout' as a 5 year old kid on a toy walkie talkie I got for Christmas. Totally magic.
I turned 16 in 1974. Got my first car in '73. Immediately installed a CB, a Sears version of a Johnson radio. EVERYBODY had a CB in those days. Even cab companies used CBs to communicate. I bought a Turner +3 power mic and the truckers said I had a "big radio" lol. The 70s were the best years to be a teenager. Sure wish I could re-live those day!!! We had the best music, the best cars, the hottest chics, the best drugs and CB radio!!#
Amen, brother
*BOOM* Good stuff, fella! Thanks for the chuckle and smile. *hahaaha!*
Johnson made good solid radios no doubt about it ! I am a CB operator in Seattle and I talk on a Johnson Messenger 250 with the power Johnson desk mic . CB is still a fun hobby ! Thanks for the good work. I'm a big fan !
I have four of those old five channel tube models and they all work...
I remember back in the late 70’s & early 80’s going in the truck with my father & chatting on the CB radio to my grandmother at the weigh bridge at the Quarry to let her know that dad was on his way to check in & get weighed. I miss those days.
You don't look old enough to have been around back then.
@@timmack2415 I’m 45 years old.
@@MsCori76 You look more like you're 25 in your pic! It's funny, I clicked on your pic and saw I left a comment on your channel quite a while ago about your Radiola 55. I didn't even remember that. Lol It's a small world! I hope you had it recapped and working by now! Peace!!
@@timmack2415 LOL, the photo of me was taken about 6 months ago but yeah, I do get told a lot that I do not look my age. My oldest child is 21 this year. 😊✌🏼
@@timmack2415 I also did start doing some work on the radio & then was given a few more old radios & the Radiola got put back on the “Things To Do List” for another day. 😂 I would love to get back to doing more work on it but I’m now working 2 jobs a week now & don’t have much time to do things.
I MISS THOSE CB DAYS .WHAT A GREAT TIME AND THE FRIENDSHIPS MADE OVER THE AIR WAVES
Yep. I lived it. I turned 16 in 1974. Got my first car in '73. Immediately installed a CB, a Sears version of a Johnson radio. EVERYBODY had a CB in those days. Even cab companies used CBs to communicate.
CB radio is coming back!
I agree!
Yes! I got my first CB radio, a 6 channel one in 1974 while still in the Navy (Radar service tech). When I got out in 1975, I got an FCC First Class Radiotelephone license and did repairs first by myself then with a partner along with other stuff, including TVs and then for a small CB shop. Our local channel was 18. We had "Breaks" at the local diners for the enthusiasts and CB club members. I fitted my bicycle with the old CB, then with the 40 channel one later. The pack fitted on the top bar with a generator on the back wheel to keep the gel-cell batteries charged. CB died back then around 1980 when the sunspot cycle increased and the early PC computer models started showing up. I heard a couple fellows conversing about a Wang and a Commodore as one of my last times on CB. I then worked for Radio Shack from 1981 to 2001 to repair CB radios, scanners and other electronics along with the cellphones that came later. I and the other CB friends from the 1970's did not return to CB radio since.
I been using cb continuously since about 1975. Never died. Still plenty of friends using it as well here around chi town.
For some of us old farts, the CB was the cell phone/internet of our era.
For those who know how to do it.....one can chop up and reconstruct the carrier wave for data ....voice and internet. Who'd thunk it?
I still use my cb
This was my first radio, had it installed in my 69 Plymouth fury in high school. I remember the twang of that transmit relay thank you for sharing that.
Back in the good old( convoy)cb days . over hear in the UK it was all very Highly illegal ( made it more fun ) .we were getting all our gear via France on day trips hoping not to get caught.Then trying to disguise a Sigma 5 on your house lol .So thank you U.S.A for all the influence for us Brits ( I still have my Cobra 148) lol so 10.4 and god bless from over the pond
This side or yours I'm sure a lot of us old goats will be 10.23 waiting to do it again in that great new 10.20 in the sky when our 10.36 is up. KTM5481
All the good stuff was in America, Brits were struggling at yhe time for good radios,stag,cobra ect,twigs
When I was a kid in the 80s, we used CB on summer vacations to talk to the other family we traveled with, and also heard all sorts of interesting trucker conversations. I remember specifically one trucker telling another to "get that p.o.s. you're driving out of the way so this Peterbilt can get buy" and another time one rolled down the window yelling "what channel y'all on?" to Dad because he wanted talk to us..
Same here we traveled with family on road trip vacations and everyone had a cb. I remember the look on parents faces like they were getting a kick out of it.
I’ve been a Ham for 37 years but I think thats the coolest CB I’ve seen.
What a difference to the late 70's when everyone and their dog was on CB... fond memories of those days!
Shango waited a long time to show us his Johnson.
Hehe
You said Johnson ha ha
All the best memories I ever had was on my CB radio in the late seventies early eighties, if I had that particular model I would have been king-of-the-hill! My first CB was a realistic mini 23 with a power supply and a mobile antenna that I used to talk all over the Albany New York area meeting all kinds of decent people, those were the days for sure!
Miss those days when I was 13 and rode my bike to the store to buy my first CB and then using it to mess with truckers at local truck stop with my friends.
In 1977 The FCC rescinded the fee requirement but still required a license. All you had to do is just send away for it and you got your license, all you had to be was 18 or over and an American Citizen or allowed to be here. April 28, 1983 was when the FCC stopped requiring everyone to have a license. 1977 was also when the CB bands were expanded to 40 channels. Older 23 channel radios were closed out as low as $29.99 and after sometime they could no longer be sold. It should be noted that 1977 was also the year when "Smokey and The Bandit" came out and was the #2 movie of the year! (Number one was some movie called "Star Wars")
Yep you got a call sign too. Mine was KBRL7542
That's why I bought up all of the 23 channel ones I could find along with the crystals
That cb transmission sounded like it came from 1971. It was trapped in this radio waiting to get out. Some long deceased trucks jabbin jaw.
Had one of these in the early `90s. Installed it in my Malibu wagon with a center roof mounted Wilson 1000. Drove up on the plateau near Sunset Point late one night and talked to a fellow in (IIRC) Argentina. Good times... Thanks for the memory.
Brings back memories, my dad had one in our truck. It was my first CB radio. Now am Ham Radio operator K7CRB
CB conversation tends to be more interesting than HAM band conversation in my area. I'd love to hear that old Johnson on the West Coast in my receive up in the snowcaps.
Wow! That radio brings back some memories! We used it in my grandfather's camper to keep in touch with the other vehicles in our family caravan when we were travleling. My CB call was KEU3587. Just picked up a Sony TR-713 in near mint untouched condition. Works ok but from your videos I know it is capable of much more. Thanks for all the hard work. Great video! K4SI
Wow ! Had one of these ! Never thought I'd see another one again. Was really cool back in the day.
Love the video, I was born in Waseca MN and many of my friends parents worked at EF Johnsons.
I owned and operated this radio in about 1977, it was a cool radio back then...I think Dynascan made one in the 1980's when the mobile phones were just coming in....I owned that one as well...super bowl has never changed....if you were wondering what it sounded like from 1975 (when I first got into CB's) onward, now you know, it has never changed and it always sounds like the same guy, 10-4...i'm 10-7! ~Jack, VEG
Shango066, thank you for posting this. I have one of these. NO, I'M NOT KIDDING! I got it as "payment" for work I did at a friend's salvage yard in the early 90's. I attached it to a portable CB antenna and a homemade 12 VDC power supply. It worked great EXCEPT the earpiece in the handset; the speaker there was shot. I replaced it with another very small speaker and it works acceptably. FYI: Here in Metro Detroit the CB frequencies are always busy. Right the Johnson CB is in a box in my basement.
Very nice! My dad had an E. F. Johnson desktop CB Radio from 1970 hooked up to an outside antenna mounted on a 20 foot pole. That thing was a great communicator. 👍
A definite piece of Americana history. Thank you for sharing it with us.
I remember when I was about 10 years old and I had a set of Aleron walkie talkies. I was fascinated by the technology. I eventually became a TV tech and later an electrical engineer.
I had one of these in 1978. Great radio. We mounted it in my buddy's Valiant. Great radio. It got stolen while parked at transmission repair shop parking lot.
Met my first GF on the CB, I had a voice activated mic and would fall asleep and key out channel 14 all night snoring hahah
I used to love messing with the cb radio my grandfather had one in his car wed get on 195 and talk with truckers
My father had one of these when I was a kid in the 70s. I had forgotten it was a thing.
When you pulled the box out and I saw Johnson, I thought of that country novelty song by Cledus Maggard, "The White Knight". After he gets busted for doing 95 in a 55, a lyric says about his CB: "Best thing you can do with old thing is yank it out by the wires....I don't care if it is a Johnson". So Johnson must have been the brand of choice for CB radios. Fun trip to the past though!
What a great gift for you! 3:30 "Classy Class A motor home." A "Winny." Probably a Dodge chassis with a 360 small block truck or 440 big block four barrel. I worked on many of those back in 1980's and 1990's.
I owned a '76 Escapade Class A based on that platform. $200 I paid. It was a pile of junk, leaked like a sieve when it rained and smelled moldy.
You have the funniest videos! You manage to make me laugh and learn something new at the same time. 73's W1RMD.
I was a tech in a small mobile radio repair shop in the late 1970's. There were a few telephone receiver type sets by many manufacturers. The 23 channel xtal matrix was normal as the older full 23 channel radios had a pair of xtals for each channel. Others CB sets had 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 channel pairs xtal slots for whatever channels you wanted. I worked for Radio Shack later and they manufactured their own wire, cables and xtals. The older police scanners had xtal slots inside as well for local selection plus a catalog was on sale with a list of frequencies across the US. The xtals made by Radio Shack did drift down in frequency with time. I suggested to the customers/store managers to use their other source for xtals. Well, the manager for the xtal shop was quite upset that I and other techs in the 2 dozen shops that RS owned said this and was adamant that there was nothing wrong with their xtals. The company closed that shop with the other in-company manufacturing for streamlining and cost cutting within a year.
That thing is a survivor new in the box it looks like fantastic 👍❤️
I worked in a CB shop in Lyndhurst, New Jersey from 1972 to 1979, and sold many Johnson radios during that time. They made very good basic radios. Didn’t have all the bells and whistles that other manufactures had at that time. When this model came in with the handset, I thought it was such a ridiculous idea, and that no one would buy them. Boy was I wrong. They flew off the shelves, and I could only guess that the users wanted people to think they had a telephone in their cars and trucks, which was a super rarity in the 70’s.
I hear some stuff on my old childhood walkie talkie from 1977. ( I was actually 14 when I got it) Mostly distant stuff, hard to understand. It transmits on ch. 14. 100 mw I think. No squelch, of course.
@Mark Markofkane
Back when I was a little kid in 1975 I got my first Archer Radio Shack walkie talkies space patrol with the morse code bar on the bottom so you could do code or voice. It also only Xmit about 150 mw but sure enough I had truckers talking to me back then..it was pretty exciting !
Back in the day, I had a '68 Impala Super Sport with one of these attached to the console. Had twin Hustler trunk lip mounted antennas. Neat rig. KTH 1124 was my assigned FCC number. Good for 2 base stations and 4 mobiles.
I worked on a Johnson CB base set at the tech college I was in.The set was brought in by a farmer--He says "not working-I tightened all of the screws in the set"Turned out he "tightened all of the trimmer caps-had to do an alignment job on both the receiver and transmitter.After that worked fine Was a tubed unit.Ran from 120V.Still remember that unit!School was in Springfeild,South Dakota.Middle of farm country.
Man I swear that's the same guy we've heard on a alot of your old cb videos.
While I don't believe Shango will ever ask the viewers of his content, I encourage everyone to allow the ads to run in his videos, rather than clicking the 'Skip" button. When you skip the ads, the channel owner does not receive advertising revenue from UA-cam. We are all fortunate to have folks like Shango, who share their knowledge, humor, and hobbies with us. You never see Shango hawking Chinese gimmick snarfuglern mulit-tools on his videos- and watching an ad or two all the way through will help keep his content free to everyone.
16:47 I see the old "Superbowl" Channel 6 is still around. I remember that same guy being on there well over a decade ago.
I get him in canada in the evening.
In the 1970's, Ch 6 was the soul channel in Denver. Each large section in town had their own channel. Mine was Ch. 18 and I was in a CB club and the truckers was Ch 19.
@@Starphot 6 is used for skip when conditions are right. You’ll hear guys from Florida in California.
This video sure brings back a lot of memories!!!
Love the addition of your Mine Explorers handle on the cardboard receptacle.
WOW !!! I Remember these radio. Way cool old 23 channel CB radios.
Well, you can retune/crystal this way cool Johnson Radio for 10 meters and use it now that the band is in.
It is a way cool radio !!!
Ricky from IBM, Ret K4VMS/AAT9WG
(Formerly KA6VMS de Simi Valley)
16:20 CB is not dead... its just we all talk on USB/LSB bands now, mainly LSB tho. have a nice clear day get you a good radio with side bands, normally 36-39 have a lot of people on the LSB band. On a good day even a barefoot radio with a 10-12 Watt PEP can reach from where you are to my home state of TN, been quite a few good skip days as of late.
Does anyone remember the phones that they had in taverns back in the 90s that were on top of the bar and they had a sign on top of the phone that said " Call Anywhere In The U.S.A. For 3 Minutes Only $2.00 " that is what that radio reminds me of.
Yes! Remember the countertop video poker arcade machines?
@@aaronblair9583 .....Oh man, i remember them. And what was good about that was that if you were a good customer and the owner of the bar knew you, he would pay you off in cash if you hit the jackpot or had a high amount of credits on it then he would reset the machine with a button he had behind the bar.
He had a miniature gambling device there that for states that didn't allow gambling. Lololol.
I remember having to use a call card to call long distance
@@jpolar394 lol tons of those “For Amusement only!” Machines in bodegas etc back then
@@videosuperhighway7655 ......Yes, " FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY " lolol.
The places where I used to hang out ,the owner would always figure out a way that there's some way to make a buck out of it for their pocket. Lololol.
There wasn't any test needed for CB in the 70s, you just had to register and pay the fee, just like GMRS radio today. When CB reached its peak in the late 70s, so many people were on it unlicensed they just did away with having to get one.
Not only that, with so many unlicensed individuals accessing the airwaves, it was physically impossible for " Uncle Charlie" to monitor much enforce compliance of the license requirements.
When we were wintering in Arizona, I discovered that the Boefang boom had hit in Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City. The kids had picked these up off Ebay for around 20 bucks and were using them, hitting the local repeaters as CB radios. They were talking about having sex with their girls in graphic terms, and their hot cars, what they did over the weekend and what parts they needed for their cars. It was rather annoying, I stopped monitoring those repeaters simply because it was like listening to the CB traffic in the mid 1970s when you couldn't get a break when you really needed something. It was sad really, I was waiting for the local club who owned the repeaters to come up and enforce the rules, but alas that too seemed to be gone. I was very happy to return to the upper mid-west where rules still mean something on the HAM bands.
@@JerryEricsson No offence man but never liked HAM repeaters because of how stubborn you guys are, everyone there is hobby lawyer telling you what you can or can't do. I see nothing has changed over the decades. I and my friends just ended using abandoned commercial repeaters back in the day, you could use text paging, selective calling, phone patches, talking freely about everything without listening to threats and being keyed over by "real" HAMs. Now hobby is dead and channels are empty and Baofeng kids are still a problem. Sad attitude.
It is a long time now, maybe some old timers can confirm this but I recall the license was done away with when Betty Ford got hers without waiting while the rest of the country had to deal with a backlog of applications. I recall it was a big stink back then.
CB was fun for me circa 1962. My friend actually had a CB shack in the back yard with a homebrew cubical quad he turned via the Armstrong method. Shango speaks of crystal drift. Back then the CB band sounded almost musical with the variety of beat notes on every channel. Ahh, the good old days. We finally drifted off the CB bands and became bootleggers on the ham bands.
@@BillyLapTop As I recall, someone made a legal challenge on the filing fee. The government isn't allowed to make a profit, so they had to show that the fee was in line with the actual cost. Rather then do that, they dropped the fee. I think the license requirement died shortly after.
Hey I've got one of those! The speaker in mine was broken so I rewired the useless pa jack to act as an external speaker jack and it works just fine
Back about '75 I bought my first CB radio, did take a test, did pay a license fee, and was assigned my government approved call sign with which I was required to sign on off, and identify myself if broadcasting over a prescribed number of minutes. My handle back then was Baby Bear.
I remember as a child having toy walkie talkies that broadcast and received on channel 14 of the citizen band only.
I'd guess you are from the UK then, as ch 14 was the calling channel before it was moved to 19
@@adrinathegreat3095 I am talking about early 70s in california. I think it was 14. The walkie talkies had a fuzzy sound as they lacked squelch control.
Me, too. The set I purchased from K-mart in the mid-70's when I was 10 y/o broadcast on CB Channel 14, had only a 1/4 mile range (outdoors-forget broadcasting to your best friend next door), a metal expandable antenna (which bent/broke easily), and no squelch. Noisy little bugger.
you got mr. california! he's always on channel 6
That thing is cool!
Princess phone for the car!
Good Buddy!
That guy talikin' - does he know this was meant for communication?
I actually found a guy so well known by me in the mid 1960s that he had a mention on some CB site (ear plugger). He was known as Scrap Iron from Paterson NJ. He often used a linear and a rotating beam antenna. I had a Walkie Talkie at the time and never forgot his call letters. KOD 0769.
I still have a CB RADIO a Galaxy DX 959. Most CB’ers these days are only active when the Long distant skip is strong.
This CB radio should be in a museum because along with it’s packaging is a piece of Americana. If they will take it the California Historical Radio Society located in Alameda, CA would be a perfect place.
That guy sounds just like the guy I used to hear on my CB radio back in the 70's. My first CB was a used Johnson 123A I think. I paid the fee and sent in my forms and a few weeks later I had my own call sign. Its been so long ago. It seems almost like a different life now.
Nice old classic cb!, worth money to a cb radio collector!.
In California, anything with a push-to-talk switch is exempt from the "cell phone while driving" restrictions.
The law was imposed to deter cell phone (wireless) use. In 2017, the law was modified to allow 2-way and CB radios. The reason was that since the microphones are hard-wired to the transmitter, it is not considered "wireless".
made in Waseca MN where i used to live. Even worked at EF johson back in the 90's. 2nd shift
Our construction equipment used this technology. My office had this Johnson unit. I collected time cards and other stuff via this CB.
My father had a couple of these Messinger CB's they were pretty good radios. These days, it could be challenging finding good crystals.
If you are testing any transmitter, you should be transmitting into a dummy load. For that transmitter, an easily made, a ten watt 47 ohm resistor in a container of oil. The reason behind this is because, a mismatched load will return standing waves back to the finals in the transmitter and damage them. Tube transmitters are more tolerant of this for a short time, but transistorized final amplifiers will blow very quickly. Later solid state transmitters have power rollback circuitry that sees a load mismatch and automatically reduces the output power. Early CB units like this might not have such circuitry so it's best not to take any chance. A carbon resistor attached across the output is a straight resistance of 47 ohms with no appreciable reactance.
ive still have a working cb base station on my desk. and few other old raidos that work just fine
Art Bell used to call it the children's band.
We were called the Pet Milk Boys on channel 34 were the Ham old timers used to talk in my area in the 90's. A lot of them died off and the children took over so I rather talk skip on side band then here all that trash before I got out of it.
I remember when logger bosses had these in their trucks. Awesome!
Thanks on the 130a demo. Cool.
My father bought his Johnson Messenger 123A CB just after the license requirement went away in 1977. Used it for years.
It would be sweet to have a 1970 Chevy pickup for an example with a 1970s messenger like that one there along with the 2 m of that era and the HF radio of that era that would be cool
A very interesting specimen of the late 1970's from Johnson in mint condition!! I just got through with a Johnson Viking 2 AM and CW transmitter. Its also interesting that these radios when first introduced in the mid to late 1950's that what we know as CB radio today was only intended as a two way radio for business application only, then it changed in the early to mid 1960's and
was aimed at public at large for general communication for the public, they were handy for OTR truckers and was a handy second choice for boaters as a backup radio, then the movies came out with trucker movies and CB was never the same since!! it grew real fast for awhile now its not as well used anymore, because of ham radio and cell phone use, and now cell phones might be in danger of slowly panning away due to high speed internet with Star link and the use of satellite phone technology coming of age both of which have more reliable communication technology, where as with cell phones you are limited to the availability of cell towers within 5 to 8 miles of your location, so dont expect a cell phone to work in the deep woods or in a state or national park, or out in the midwest out in the middle of nowhere somewhere!!
Breaker break, 1 Adam 12, 1 Adam 12. This is a Shango066 classic!
Say hello from Romania 🇷🇴🇷🇴 dude Nice video s
I have a all tube cb that was found in the desert in California 20 years ago somewhere in the Victorville area do you want it ? I have no idea if it works ?
OH HELL YES. WE REBUILT 2 LAST MONTH AND DONATED 1 TO A CATTLERANCH TRUCKING CO AND THE OTHER IS GOING TO OUR BARN,
Oooooh Wow!!! 😲
It's been such a long time since I saw a newspaper I forgot how they looked, I wonder how much can be earned by using them for printing copies on to consumer items? Eg: "Cough he Mug", "Tea-shirt", Ewps 😮😳 Err-"Coffee Mug", "T-shirt" 😅 and or A Page slapped into a Frame etc, etc?
APU I dropped you a 👍
Another great 👍 thing of yesteryear 👍. We had an RV like that. It was a Winnebago. Too bad 👎 fuel pumps of yesteryear are gone. I thought that was also an AM/FM radio 📻. One to hang up ☝ on the wall. I didn't know that the 👌 crystals 🔮 in these got "drifty", or "lossy", through age. They're like 👍 capacitors, I guess, that get out of tolerance. USA 🇺🇸!! Radiotvphononut 📻 would approve!! I don't know 👌 if this would work as an actual home telephone ☎. Different VU meters there. They should be backlit. Nice colored CB radio 📻. Your friend, Jeff.
I have one of those a guy I worked with 10 years ago gave me. Never tried it but if I can find it I will have to check it out.
Radio shack had a version or two of these phone style cb radios back in the day.
Nice piece. Remember that Radio Shack had their own version for those that couldn't afford the Johnson. I wish I still had my CB license from when I was a kid. Neighbor had a 1/2 wave antenna on their roof. I had a mobile whip for truck mirror mount that I mounted on the wire grate of a window well cover. Needless to say, range wasn't great.
I have that exact transceiver tester you pointed at that you said you had that thing will do (almost )everything
Wouldn't you know, the first thing you finally get after listening to static for an hour you get someone that sounds like they are from the southern tip of Alabamee. Yeehaw. You were the only person on CB that day speaking real English.
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7:20 Not that people followed those rules to the letter, mind you...memories of being a kid in the '70s, listening to the truck driver & tradespeople crosstalk on my little kiddie walkie-talkie that used CB channel 14. Man, oh man LOL.
17:00 "I hear a transmission". Cliven Bundy?? Wild to see 45 + year old electronics never used. Thanks!
Dont wait another 6 years to call him up and thank him for the gift.
I love american CB Radios; Huges from Brasil
America doesn't belong in a museum. America truly deserves to breathe free and live.
Now that all of us have lulled ourselves into using Jack-ass or Zuckerberg, all by convenience, maybe it's time for a Free Speech CB-revival.
Don,t tell herbert sussman he won't buy it.he,s a tard.
10 meter band today is a free for all and very active. I took a 3 page test in 1970 and application fee to receive a license for C.B. My F.C.C. assigned call was KKJ 6686. Run a Galaxy 959 and a Ranger 2970N2 multi band now.
Wow, surprised even superbowl was quiet. Propagation seems to be starting to work a bit in the UK at least, managed to hear "Donnie" in Bonnie Scotland, Stornoway no less, from mobile in Rhyl nearly 600 miles away. Not too bad for UK27 FM at that, will have to drag out the AM rigs and see who's on.
Fuel pump noise?
I have a couple of CB handhelds the generic GE ones. One transmits but the audio is crap, I ended up modding it so I can play a music player through the amplifier but it transmits but the audio is VERY distorted and yes I've heard CB radio audio it is clearer than that. The other radio just makes this loud buzzing noise when you turn it on and I've salvaged parts from it. Not sure if I'm going to try to fix it.
That motor home looks like the one that Dr. Gonzo Gates on "Trapper John, M.D." lived in, while parked in the hospital parking lot.
Johnson radios had excellent audio.
I've taken a portable (plug into cig lighter) handheld CB onto the 101 through the valley and can talk to truckers on channel 19. I also live near the 101, and can monitor passing trucks talking.
The first transmission you got, sounds like that guy from the Craig CB radio video.
The Johnson Messenger 130A...it's the "RVer's Choice!"
When you mentioned the included January, 1977 addendum about the license, that agreed with my thoughts this must be newer than 1971 mentioned in the video title, because the car on the right side of the box looks like a late 70s Cadillac Seville or something like that.
It sucks when oddball frequency crystals drift, that were custom made for a manufacturer. I was given some UHF wireless stage microphones and receivers to repair, and the crystals and either dead, or so far off frequency... and at 15.45632 MHz (or something weird like that) are unobtanium.
Ha ha I have one of those and it is like new. It’s in my 71 c10 and yes it works beautifully. Paired with a 108” stainless whip. I did get pulled over and got a lecture but no ticket. He let it slide because of the cool factor.
I started with a old halacrafter that my dad got when got out of the Army air corps and rebuilt it in to a C.B. radio. I still have a c.b. and a ham but I use the ham as a scanner.
I got my first CB in 1974, I had to get license. Paid I think $50, they sent my money back and said it was I believe only $10. When I got the license my call sign was KYN9968, I still have a radio with stickers for the call sign
My call sign from 1958 was 20W1254 and my mentor in those days was David Bell and his call was 20W1197. He was ruining a home brew rig and got cited by the FCC for being off frequency. Most of us built our own sets that were designed by a guy named Stoner, therefor the sets were called Stoners. They were one channel sets. That solar cycle back in 1958 still stands out that it was the best so far where HF radio transmitting is concerned. I didn't know that at the time but you could hear people on there plain as day on skip. We didn't have CB jargon in those days, people just talked normally. Another thing, you would get cited for was doing skip, the FCC didn't like that and they could yank you license or fine you or both.
Playing with a NOS CB transceiver 40 years too late! There is always some guy out there with a large antenna set up talking with a southern type accent
on the air. Just got to find him. Of course you almost never hear the guy he is talking to.