Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Right, getting a rattle on now. The CB equipment search in the attic proved fruitless. I guess that I must have decided I would never use a CB again and turfed everything out. :( So I have been on to various sites but settled on the 4x4CB.com site. There I discovered the special offers and used that to built myself a reasonable system. I didn't go for the cheapest as this equipment will have a serious purpose and I want it to work.



The next challenge is to find somewhere to mount the thing in the Hippo.....

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Dave



Having the same dilema myself at the moment, is your Hippo a three or five door as I have a cunning plan for my three door, involving the inbuilt sunglasses holder.



Cheers



Tony

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Hi Tony,



My Hippo is a five door station wagon so no removable roof.



I have one idea to try and that is under the grab rail on the passenger side. In my Hippo I don't have a passenger side airbag so I'm going to have a look at removing the panel where it should be and seeing if I can fit the rig in there.



Alternatively I have considered getting a steel plate cut to fit the dash tray in the centre and then fitting the mounting bracket to that, the rig then secured on top of the dash. Not so keen as in an accident it could get airbourne and hit people. Also I would have to take it away and hide it when I'm away from the car.



I had to get myself up to date on CB as I see there are now 80 channels available. Quite amused by this as when I used to use a CB in the mid 90s, so many channels were never used, so what do we want another 40 for? I note that some rigs have selectable AM/FM but I assume that AM and its SSB derivatives are still illegal in the UK. I gave up with the rig in the past as all it seemed to have was people getting up on Westbury White Horse and seeing how far they could reach out. Trouble was I didn't have enough gain to get back to them, not that I actually wanted to. I used to put the rig on in the evening while doing other things. There was a couple of blokes always having a good old natter. Regularly on every night and the conversations used to be better than television. Then the rig failed, I think due to a broken wire in the mic cable. I'm an electronics engineer by trade but not into RF and although I fixed the problem and proved it out I never got that rig to work again. Assume something else had given up. RF electronics is a black art to me so I didn't spend to much time in diagnosing the problem. The rig ended up in the attic and eventually got turfed. Hopefully this new equipment will have a good SWR value and a better range.



As a matter of interest I gather that CB still uses "Handles". How does this generally work with the 4x4 network. Is there a standard that you follow? Do you use Q codes and / or 10 codes?



Many thanks,



Dave

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Hi Dave standard call signs (membership number) as shown in signatures and on the vehicles. We tend to avoid 10 -codes Q- codes etc. They can easily add to confusion.



For instance 10-4

used in the USA means message understood.

used by some UK Police services means on scene

used by some UK fire services means mobile from scene returning to station.



General guidance from the "powers that be" is that wherever possible messages should be in 'clear english'. That way everyone understands the message.

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Real names can work quite well too and they're easier to remember!



We have too many Marks in Wales group but saying Mark S or Mark M makes it pretty clear.

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Agreed but when working with other teams, if WE01 is behind GR01 "GR01 from WE01" saves trying to remember the guy's name.



Even though I know that GR01 is Darren

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Am I allowed to ask how many units there are in the Wessex team?

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

Of course you are.



I believe off the top of my head that the count is now up to 56 with roughly half a dozen applications at various stages through the process

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

[quote name="BobWessex"]Agreed but when working with other teams, if WE01 is behind GR01 "GR01 from WE01" saves trying to remember the guy's name.



Even though I know that GR01 is Darren[/quote]



Fair enough. And a bit more professional than "Oi, you in the blue Disco!" ;)



Haven't yet worked or been out with people who have numbers on their vehicles as neither of my groups have started using them yet. I'm sure we will as we get more organised and I'm sure it would be better for recognition especially at night.

Re: Greetings from Darmain
 

[quote name="Teresa Herefordshire"]
[quote name="BobWessex"]



Fair enough. And a bit more professional than "Oi, you in the blue Disco!" ;)



quote]





that works too im sure, but not if you got 3 blue ones...



or you just get 3 people answering you..