From CB Radio to Social Media

I primarily started writing as an outlet for my rather “all over the place” thinking.

I’ve written daily journals in the past and they have helped in some ways to boost my concentration … but ultimately unless the subject is particularly close to my heart, I lose focus and it gets messy.

I’ve been a bit of a loner for most of my life, an introvert with little time for people’s egos. They just leave me cold and disinterested.

Before the internet (and smart phones), it was Citizen Band radio that grabbed my attention. Although legalized in the UK in 1981 (FM), I had used the (not so legal) AM band as an introduction to the airwaves.

At one point, I realized that all of my friends were on the CB. That I’d narrowed my social circle to those people with a “handle”. I’d also lost touch with the few school friends that I had.

It is funny how I failed to preserve ties with perfectly nice people, but ultimately my connection with people is seemingly selfish, whether that’s a good or bad thing I haven’t yet decided. I do wonder how they are and what their lives have turned out like, but ultimately I accepted that people would somehow not miss their connection with me?

Back to the CB, I was struck by the randomness of it all. One day you could be talking nonsense to a friend, I was known for waffling on about nothing until the early hours … then someone pops in “on the side” of the conversation. Unlike the internet, you had a human voice to communicate with on the CB, a realism that is lacking from text chatting. You could quickly ascertain the personality within the first few “overs”.

I could barely walk down any street in my home town without being able to point out a CB’ers location, some with large families that all used the rig as a way to keep in touch with friends and family.

One particular memory I have, whilst talking to a friend just around the corner, late one night … “on the side!” came a voice, it was “Steam Boat” from the next town. We let him into the conversation, both intrigued as to who it might be. He introduced himself and we did likewise, the 3 of us exchanging pleasantries for about an hour, or two … or perhaps three. Around 4am, just as we were calling it a night, Steam Boat asked us both round to his house … we both agreed, and my friend picked me up to go and have an “eyeball”. This was common-place back then, although at 4am perhaps not so.

I remember entering his living room and seeing the big oxygen tank at the back of his chair. He made us a both a coffee and proceeded to tell us old war stories … running around in a forest without any bullets left, laying in a hospital ward with no wall at the end, because a bomb had blown it away the night before … it was wonderful to listen to these stories first-hand, instead of reading from history books.

Then came the original reason for our visit. He’d promised to show us a card trick that Paul Daniels’ agent had been trying to buy from him. It was the usual “pick a card” and put it back in the pack. Okay, we thought, let’s just play along … To our shock and dis-belief, the card was in an envelope behind a clock on the mantelpiece. We only played it the one time, but it definitely left us with a sense of … WTF just happened?!

As a sidenote, he had begun making a model of the HMS Victory (Nelson’s flag ship) … not a plastic kit, but hand made from the intricately carved hull, down to the cannons and rigging. He was stuck without a decent picture of the rear of the ship, and as strange as it seemed, I had a set of 12 drawing prints that I happily passed on to him, knowing that it would help him to finally finish his model. Thankfully, he did finish it prior to his passing some months later.

This is just one example of quite a few encounters that I had through the CB radio. I’m sure there are many people in their 30's to 60’s (and older) that made similar connections around the same time period. The social interactions, even for someone as un-social as myself, were very varied indeed. You kind of “got a feeling” about the type of person you were talking to, or could listen in on conversations and choose whether to participate or not. Sure, there were still ego’s … but you could just be who you are and were accepted. Someone asking for a “radio check” (signal check), was often a method used as a conversation starter, besides the “19 for a copy!” call, formally asking for someone to speak to.

As (another) side-note, as explained previously I was a “late-nighter”, often waffling until the early hours of the morning. During many of these long nights, I’d got into the habit of keeping a log book by the radio, something which is adopted by Radio Amateurs, to keep a log of call signs and signal readings. That’s when I started up my own networks. I’d sit on a channel with a friend, announcing every few minutes that if there were any long distance stations (30 plus miles or more) able to pick us up, then come in and we’d try and get some long distance copies. Many times, this would just be a dozen or so people, which was quite good by itself … but at the weekend (usually) it could get quite out of control. We had to limit each exchange to just a brief Signal and Audio check and a few minutes chatter, but several times we reached 60–70 people on the channel, which we’d list down (in order) and ask each person who they’d like to speak to. From the Central UK / East Midlands area, we would often speak to southern Scotland, South Wales (Brecon) and the south coast of England into Devon. It became a regular occurrence and most found it exciting to talk across great distances, seeing that CB was only designed for a 10-mile distance, it was amazing as well as appealing to all ages and walks of life.

Once I’d left my teen years and entered into a married, working 8–5 life, I no longer had the time, and the CB’s were left in a cupboard and later sold off for pennies or given away. The Internet was rearing it’s head, and socially, things were about to change … for the better perhaps, where access to knowledge is concerned, but socially ? I do feel that we’re not communicating in the same way and there’s not the same type of connections that perhaps people once made.

From my own perspective, it feels as though perhaps human connection has become fragmented … lost in a sea of memes and 5 second videos. Faces looking at screens, all experiencing the same thing … distracting from the world around them. With the advent of AI, knowing what’s truly real is becoming even more difficult … if we experience our reality in the digital, instead of the analogue.