Originally Posted by
Gasman
My story...
Ive been a truck driver all my life. I got tired of having a bad rx and tx and most the time had no clue as to why. Some times a radio did well, then take 8t to another truck and it sucked. Burning them out or they stop working and i bought a new one. After a while i had a big box full of these cb's.
We had a real electronics store in town, not just radioshack (cell phone shack now) so i went in and started asking questions about fixing them and to understand more about it all. The guy tols me to go down stairs and see Skip and Henry. I went down and found Skip. Told him i wanted to fix my radio. He offered to fix it for a fee but i said no, i want to learn and fix myself. He told me it takes years of school to understand electronics and he wasnt going to school me.
I kept going down stairs for a few weeks asking questions and finally Skip said "if you really want to learn, prove it by getting your Ham lic then come back and see me". A month later i walked in and showed him my lic. And started asking even more questions. Now about Ham radio and how it works and what i needed to enjoy what i just got myself into. He hooked me up with an ht and got me on the air. Then sat me down and started teaching me how to fix radios.
3 months later, i out ranked him in Ham lic. A year later my station was bigger than his, and two years later i started fixing CBs for all the trucker in town. It paid for my Ham equipment and has now paid for most of my razor stuff too.
CB repair is now next to no buisness as drivers want to run the modified 10 meter radios and i refuse to fix those. I will tell them i will un-modifiy it then fix it if they show me a lic from the fcc.
So wanting to learn to fix my CB got me hooked on Ham radio. Now days the CB is in the truck still but its for rx when something happens on the road in front of me. Other than that, its not used. Too much bs happening i dont want to listen too on 11m.