Castle Vale CB Radio In The Mid 1990's

I'll always remember when I heard CB radio for the first time in the mid to late 1990's. And it wasn't a nice conversation. It was an argument between two guys. One of them was definitely from Castle Vale, and I'm not sure but I think he was in a tower block which was called Concord Tower [now long demolished]. I can't remember his name, but he went by the callsign / handle of either silver rod, silver star, silver bolt, or silver something. If I could take a guess I would go with silver rod. These two guys were arguing over who had better equipment in their homes, and who owned better stuff. Comparing stereo separates, clothes, scanner radios, all types of stuff. I couldn't believe how materialistic that "silver rod" guy was.

Over the weeks / months of listening it became clear that this silver rod guy was a complete idiot, arguing with anyone and everyone about having better stuff than everyone else, like it was a competition. It was all he ever talked and argued about. Bragging about his CB setup, his Bose separates and speaker systems, His Armani Jeans, how he has loads of money and only uses things he buys a few times and then throws them away etc. He literally only went on the CB frequencies to argue with people about how much money he had and start trouble.

Not sure what happened to him. But I think trouble may have found him. I remember a few times him having arguments with people and arranging to meet up and fight it out. Maybe someone took him up on his offer. This isn't out of the realms of possibility either, it does happen. I've heard people on the CB's in the UK arrange to meet and duke it out a fair few times. And sometimes it has happened. There was something similar recently, where someone was shouting his mouth off. 

He is well known on the CB radio circuit in the Birmingham area. I do know his name but I won't say it. Anyway, he started giving it the big one and said something quite bad about someone's family member. And because some of the CB community in the Birmingham area is quite tightly knit [they know each other in real life and meet in person regularly, go to each others houses etc], people knew where this loud mouth guy lived. So the person he was arguing with went round to his house and punched him in the face.

Did he deserve it? Possibly. However, he is a total pisshead and sounds harmless really. All talk. A fragile alcoholic that most people would be scared to hit in case serious damage was caused. So most people wouldn't have bothered. It wasn't worth it. But sometimes you get one that's young and / or stupid enough to take it to that level and not think about the consequences. Thankfully the guy who got punched was OK afterwards. He tried to save face by coming straight back on the CB chatting away like he was unfazed by it all. But I think that encounter shook him up and taught him to have a bit more respect. 

Anyway, I wonder if something similar happened to silver rod... I listened to him for a while back in the mid to late 90's, then I was busy with other things and never listened to CB radio for quite some time after that. You have to remember, scanners were much more interesting in those days with the Police, Ambulances, the Police helicopter, cordless phones etc. CB radio seemed quite boring in comparison. When I returned to CB radio some years later he was nowhere to be heard. 

Although I have to admit, I never stuck around for long as I was always so busy in those days. Always outdoors living life. Does anyone remember "silver rod" [I think] from Castle Vale and what happened to him. I would love to hear if he ever grew up, became a better person and looked back at how much of an idiot he was. Hopefully he did. I wonder if he's still out there, still listening in after all these years...

Listening To SDR Frequencies Online Free

If you don't have an SDR dongle, a normal scanner, or a portable SDR receiver like the Malahit DSP2 , there are still ways to listen to SDR radio. There are some websites that list lots of SDR / Scanner frequencies from all over the world that can be listened to online for free. I was quite surprised when I found a few to be honest. I never thought they existed. But technology just keeps on rolling forward. All you really need is an Internet connection to tune in.

Image: One of the channels I have been listening to: g0xbuwebsdr.ddns.net

I've been listening to all types of stuff. American CBs / truckers, people talking in little towns in Utah, 2 meters in the UK, CBs from all over the UK, airband and much much more. Basically, anything you could listen to on SDR radio or a normal scanner multiplied by 100 due to your signal range not being limited to the capabilities of your own radio equipment.

So, many countries can be heard. I only understand English, so I just stick to the English speaking countries. But there are so many that are foreign, like Russia, South America, France, Italy, Netherlands, Finland etc. Something for everyone really. 

Of course, the big difference here is that with scanners / SDR dongles etc, no Internet is needed to pick up signals. But obviously with only listening online it is absolutely needed. Still good though, as almost everyone has the Internet these days. But if the Internet goes down your hours of listening to SDR online are over... For a while.

Anyway, my favourite websites for listening to SDR so far are:

http://websdr.org/ [Best]

http://kiwisdr.com/.public/ [Good]

Below: for just police and emergency services [and the rail-road] in the USA

https://radiostationnet.com/scanner/ [Best]

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/ [Good but audio ads are quite annoying]

How To Scan Saved Channels Egzumer

So this is presuming you have already saved some channels to the memory that can be scanned, and that Egzumer is already installed. First off, turn on the radio. You should now be in the VFO dual frequency screen, in frequency scan mode. There will be an "F" to the left of the frequency. Press and hold down the number 3 on the keypad to toggle between frequency scan mode and memory scan mode. On the screen, "F" is for frequency scan and "M" is for memory scan. Make sure M is on the screen so that memory mode is selected. Please see the picture enlarged if you are unsure.

Image: Picture shows memory mode "M" selected, and the two "I" symbols which represent scan lists.

Make sure that there is at least one "I" looking symbol is to the right of the frequency in the top corner. These "I" symbols represent scan lists. There is a total of two of these. If both scan lists are selected you will see 3 "I" like symbols next to each other in the top right hand corner. One on its own, and two close together. This means both scan lists are selected [On] and will be scanned once a scan is started. To toggle between scan lists, turn one or both on or off, press and hold the number 5 on the keypad for a second when in memory mode. You will see the I's in the corner disappear and reappear when pressing and holding number 5. For the first time, make sure that all three I's are present in the corner.

Now to scan the memory channels just press and hold the scan button on the keypad. Once it starts scanning release the scan button. And that's it. You are now scanning the saved channels like a normal scanner would. You can then use the up and down arrows to to scan up and down, or continue scanning when it stops on a channel. If it won't scan further than one channel up / down when using the arrows, just press and hold down the scan button again to continue scanning through the channels.

In Summary:

• On the main VFO dual frequency screen in frequency mode - Press and hold down number 3 for one second to activate memory mode.

• Make sure scan lists are selected ["I" symbols in the right corner]. If not, press and hold down number 5 for one second once or twice to activate one or both scan lists.

• Press and hold down the scan button for one second to start scanning your saved channels.

These instructions are the same on all radios that have Egzumer installed. So this will work with the UV 5R Plus, UV K5 8 and K6.

Rare PINK Quansheng

Came across this on the Quansheng subreddit and thought it was quite cool. Never seen one before. A rare bright pink Quansheng K5 / K6. The person who bought it said they got it from alafone.com, and it goes under the colour "red" on that site. But it is pink. It's the same as any other Quansheng UV K5 8 other than being pink. I did do a quick search on Aliexpress and Amazon to see if it was available and it was not. I did find a nice blue one for sale that I've never seen before though. I had a quick look at the website where the person bought it from and on there it is called "rose red" in terms of the colour name. There's also some camouflage / army green / desert style Quansheng's also.

The endangered pink K6
byu/Active_Emu_845 inQuansheng

Baofeng DMR 1701 Flashing Charger

I watched a review of the Baofeng 1701 which was a few years old and the guy mentioned that he was quite disappointed because the charger was always flashing red and green when no radio was inside being charged. I didn't think much of this at the time, and when I got my own Baofeng 1701 and eventually needed to use the charger, when no radio was inserted it did not flash. The light was solid red. But now, for some reason it flashes when nothing is inside. See the video below.

 

Not sure why this has changed. I don't really mind though as I don't leave it plugged in like the reviewer I mentioned does [and that's why he didn't like it]. But yeah, it would be annoying if I did have it on standy all the time. Quite distracting beings as its a USB powered desktop charger and would have to be close to a computer of some kind. Unless I bought a much longer lead.

Anyway, it works fine other than that. Its solid red when the battery is being charged, and solid green when fully charged. No flashing. Not sure if other models flash like this when nothing is being charged.

I Bought a Baofeng DMR Radio

Well, I've gone digital. After hearing quite a few tractor sounding signals on my analogue scanners, and knowing that they were most probably digital signals, curiosity got the better of me and I bought a digital scanner. Only to listen, not to transmit. I did a fair bit of research before hand, and it was clear that the Baofeng DM 1701 was one of the top cheap choices for getting into DMR radio. I wanted one with OpenGD77 software already installed, and that's exactly what I got. Reading on some of the forums, most said there is a huge learning curve to learning how DMR radios work in comparison to using an analogue scanner. 

But I have found it fairly easy to do the basics like program channels, scan frequencies etc. I think that most people who are well-versed with analogue scanners will pick up the basic operations of a DMR radio quite easily.

So, what's the Baofeng 1701 like?

All in all its good. I like the fact that its digital and analogue. So even though I bought it for digital, it's nice to be able to switch to analogue and see what's going on there as well. Channels can also be saved as both digital and analogue and all scanned together, which is quite a good feature. What surprised me about digital is how there is no squelch noise. It seems strange. I turn the radio on and it is silent. The two knobs at the top are volume and a scroller / selector wheel, no squelch. The squelch is digitally programmed in percentages.

And only when a signal is picked up and someone talks do I truly know how loud the radio is turned up. I much prefer the old analogue manual audible squelch to be honest. Another surprise was how almost any antenna works really well at picking up digital signals. There is no special digital antenna, all my "analogue" ones work really well with DMR. Pretty much anything will do. And the reception of digital is really clear. It's not like analogue where you can pick up a weak signal that has a lot of hissing but make out what was said. With digital it seems like you either hear it and it comes through clear, or you don't hear it at all.

Video: Some potential shoplifters keeping security on their toes

Sometimes it can be hard to make out what is being said with digital because some people seem to speak really fast, mumble or have accents, and it can be quite hard in comparison to analogue to understand what was said. You have to listen carefully. And the volume levels can be so different. Like, one person will talk and it seems clear and at a nice volume level, then the other side will reply and almost blow the speaker up! So it can be a bit of a constant mess around with the volume knob when a signal is received to keep everything well balanced.

And speaking about the volume knob, it's not good if you have no headphones and want to listen quietly because other people are trying to sleep in your home. The volume does not go down gradually once it reaches a low point. It just cuts off. The lowest volume before it cuts off at its lowest level is not that low at all. Compared to the Quansheng UV -K5 / K6, 5R+ or any other normal analogue scanner, which volume levels all go down extremely low before they cut off completely. Almost fade out. The Baofeng 1701's volume knob does not have this level of gradual precision fade-out at the lower end.

Still though, the radio has been a lot of fun so far. And I would say digital signals seem more interesting right now than analogue. Maybe it's still a bit of a novelty for me at the moment. I'm hearing loads that can't be heard on an analogue scanner, as many things have gone digital. I hear mostly shop security guards, traffic wardens, property watch guards, shopwatch, workplaces, delivery companies, hotels, construction workers and some things I'm yet to identify. Not sure what they are. 

Also, I never knew I'd be able to listen in to other peoples hotspot setups. I can hear people, who are at work doing some sort of security / tow truck type jobs that are using a hotspot, and they are all over the country, connected to each other. Because the hotspots are using the Internet, I can hear their work chatter from all over the UK. The same goes for some of the digital HAM frequencies I've been picking up. I can hear people from all over the country.

Battery Life

Battery life is OK. But it does not stay at one hundred percent for very long. Some radios, such as my Quansheng's, when fully charged they can stay at one hundred percent for a long time before they start to discharge. But the Baofeng, while still decent, is discharging quite quickly from one hundred percent. Don't get me wrong, it does sit at certain points for a considerable time, like 99%, 94% and 88%. But in an unfair comparison, the Quansheng battery life is better. Still, though, the Baofeng battery can and does last the week, or a bit longer if used sporadically a few times each day. So its not too bad.

OpenGD77 Firmware

A bit of a love hate relationship. While it is excellent for making things like saving channels, scanning frequencies easy, there does appear to be a lot that's been left out of the software. And if you do not have a cable and CPS software, there are some basic options that you would have thought would be a no-brainer to include that have been left out and can only be edited / saved with the cable and CPS software. 

Things like deleting saved channels, changing the background / text colours, and even adding new zones. All these things and more can only be achieved by having the cable and CPS software. Basically, the radio must be connected to a computer to changed these things permanently. So, if you are going to buy this radio, be sure to buy the cable with it also, as it will be required at some point.

The Baofeng 1701 with OpenGD77 already installed is certainly not perfect, but I'm glad I bought it. For what I need, which is finding new digital frequencies, saving and scanning them its a great radio. I use the Quansheng to hunt down what sounds like digital signals, then enter them into the Baofeng. Sometimes they still can't be heard. Maybe they are encrypted or transmitting in a protocol standard that the radio can not decode.

These types of signals will still register with the radio and the top light even goes green like its receiving a normal, hearable signal. But nothing will be heard. The radio isn't faulty, it's more than likely just an incompatible signal for DMR mode.

However, most of the time I can successfully use the analogue radio to hunt down the signal and listen to what is being said on the Baofeng. It's quite cool and makes a nice change to buying yet another analogue radio. I've got loads of those!

I'm no expert with DMR, but If there's anything you'd like to know about this radio, leave a comment and I'll try my best to answer. 

The Quansheng TK11 First Impressions Video

Yes, it's now released and for sale. People have been waiting for this radio to drop for quite some time. For a while it seemed like it would never happen, but the day has finally arrived. I hope it lives up to expectations. It's got lots of cool features and the built quality looks great. So, what advantages does it have over a modified firmware Quansheng. Well, from what I can quickly see. It can go lower than an Egzumer'd Quansheng. Which goes to 18MHz. The TK11 goes down to 0.153. I presume that's KHz and not MHz. Transmit power is up to "10 Watts". Out the box the Quansheng TK11 can transmit on CB. Two antenna connections. The second one is a T-Shape, which deals with all the lower bands like short wave.

The Quansheng TK11 can be found for sale here

 
Battery is 3000mAh or 2500mAh depending on where you look. The TK 11 goes all the way up to 1160MHz. Apparently it is waterproof. And I'm sure there will be some reviewers putting that to the test. I can wait to see those results. All in all the Quansheng TK11 [is it the "8" or "5"] looks promising. I'm not sure what chip is inside this thing, but hopefully, once the mod developers take a look under the hood, they might be able to turn it into some sort of super radio. Out the box it is rather impressive anyway. No need to modify it for most people. But the temptation is always there if some mods do become available.