Lets see now...how did I get started? When I was in elementary school in the mid-70's, my best friend's parents were truck drivers. I ended up spending all of my time dreaming about being a truck driver (still do sometimes). This just happened to be right smack in the middle of the CB explosion. I remember my favorite tv show was "Movin' On", and my favorite song on the radio was "Convoy". I even had a record called "Convoy" that I loved because of all of the neat CB pictures on the cover!
Later, when I was in high school, another friend got me interested in radios. My dad gave me an old Hallicrafters S53A Shortwave rig, and a Pearce-Simpson Tiger 23 CB.

My friend built me a power supply and I hooked it up in my room, but was never able to talk to anyone since my antenna was a base loaded whip bolted to the side of some shelves. It sure was fun to listen, though. Through the rest of high school I kept trying to figure a way to put the Pearce-Simpson in my car, but somehow never got around to it.

A couple of years later I happened to be at Radio Shack one day, and for some reason, bought a CB and antenna. I want to say it was a TRC-417, but I'm not sure. My friends bought CB's too, and we had a ball talking to each other on them. That radio lasted through my next vehicle, but I'm not sure what happened to it after that. What did happen was I got my ham license...I was now KC4BUE (now AB4KA) and started into ham radio.

For a long time it seemed like even though I always had a 2meter ham rig in my truck, I wanted a CB too. It was usually more fun to listen to on the road. My next CB was a Uniden 510XL. I remember giving it to my brother, but I'm really not sure why.

Over the next few years, different things happened (met a girl) and I ended up getting rid of all of my radios. But...shortly after we got married I managed to swing a deal with a friend of mine for a nice Ten-Tec ham set. It would be a couple of years after that before I would get me a new CB...It was a little Cobra hand-held job. Pretty nice for traveling, but it just wasn't the same. Not to mention that it can be hard to install a CB in a small car.
Well, a couple of more years go by and we move...now I don't have any room for radios. That, combined with other interests, and I ended up selling out again. Problem is, I could never get completely rid of the bug. The radio bug, that is. Recently I was blessed with being able to buy my late stepfathers truck from my mom, and now I have lots of room for radios (not to mention my wife has decided it's easier just to humor me and let me buy stuff now and then). Now I'm the proud owner of a beautiful new Uniden PC68XL!

"That rig sure looks good in my Dodge Ram. And I still dream of hitting the open road...Breaker 1-9!"