Its really tragic that the UK sold out the 934 Mhz CB band. I've build lots of high gain long boom yagies for 934 that worked spectacularly . Thank you for this really great story.
934Mhz was a wonderful band, I've still got both of my Cybernet Delta 1 radios, my Reftec BS-934 Homebase, and a box full of meters, splitters, antennas, and mast-top pre-amps. And yes, there are still some of us using it, albeit only the top 5 channels, but contacts are few and far between.
Need to get my Reftec up and running. Bought it on the bay as spares and repair. Still sealed from the last shop to work on it. The state of the soldering inside is shocking and with the amount of cold soldered joints it's a wonder it ever worked at all. Should have it rectified soon and an antenna built. You never know.
@@simov8chevy Theres a guy in Slovenia who sells on Ebay, he builds 934MHz colinear antennas that are almost as good as the vintage Nevada colinear. I've got two, they perform superbly even though the build quality is a little short of the Nevads.
I had a Reftec 934 as my first radio, then the Cybernet Delta one and then the Clarion JC10 which we were legally allowed to inport and use thanks to the test and development licence G9BSP. I also had the use of the 934 Mhz handheld thanks to a good friend whenever I needed to borrow it and it proved very us eful when I had a spell in hospital and used it to chat to family back home who were using my Delta one. The band gave some surprising results. One friend lived many miles away and try as we might, beam to beam both accurately aimed resulted in zero signal reception, but we found that if my friend pointed his beam at the local church steeple in the village and I pointed mine to a tall prominent landmark in my town, we had totally reliable contacts by picking up a reflected signal rather like what used to cause ghosting on analogue TV with multiple path reflected signals which many will have encountered in the days before digital TV. 934 Mhz was a band that you needed to know what you were doing and you could not just slap up any antenna fed with any old rubbish coaxial cable. But if you worked at it, the contacts achievable were amazing. All the users of 934 Mhz were polite to each other and had the same respect for the airwaves as Radio Amateurs had. There was never any bad operating pracices, no swearing, etc and most of the friends I made on 934 Mhz got such an interest in the workings of radio that almost all of them, men & women alike, took the radio amateurs city & guilds exams and quite a few, the post office morse test to become full class A radio hams.
Had the 934mhz frequencies piped into my Dad's scanner as a kid, seemed to be a small pocket of very infrequent users that were radio amateurs that used it as their own CB band away from the "riff raff" of 27mhz. PMR446 is what 934mhz should've been, the more you think about it.
We tried the Freq and unless you were 2000ft+ it's was. Very poor out side bro's house and around the corner nothing we went to CB and AM and made home made antennas and the rest is history with great memories thank you Lewis for the great video take care be safe
Great video, thank you. I remember hearing about 934 back in day and still have some of the magazines your referenced. I used 11m exclusively and remember taking up to approx 35 miles with my 4 watts and base antenna. There were several 934 users in my area where I lived in Doncaster, I remember seeing the vertical with 4 small radials and the Nevada yagi I with circular elements on rooftops. I also remember hearing people used to get good results by pointing their antennas towards flight paths and get signal reflections beyond normal range.
Remember 934 MHz CB back in the 1980s, during my Oxford University days. Our first CB band was on 460-470 MHz in 1948, with a lack of radios and technology. By the 1970s it was down to 8 pairs, 462/467.55-.725 MHz with 50 watts power and lots of restrictions and expensive equipment. By the late 1980s the rules were relaxed and licence easier to get. In 1996 unlicenced Family Radio Service was added, causing a mess and scaring off many licenced users. Then FRS and GMRS were put on the same radio, which really alienated many more users. Finally, in 2017, FRS was reorganised for all channels with 2 watts or less. Higher power requires a licence, with repeaters. Today many several Chinese radio makers make GMRS radios.Oh, the first FRS unlicenced radio service was proposed for 220-222 mhz, an underused amateur radio band. After the game protested the FCC backed off, only to continue to underuse the band. FCC later turned that band over to business radio, with amateurs using 222-225 MHz. There are also CB frequencies in the 72 and 75 MHz bands, mainly for sophisticated radio controlled planes.
I am a die hard CB radio user, use it for most of my communications with friends and family who live within range (27mhz) and have done for 30 years this February. I did at one time have a Minster 934 Homebase radio which was essentially a 40 channel 27mhz uniden 300 homebase with a transverter fitted. Although unfortunately the transverter had been removed. My other 934 tackle was acquired by a semi local operator this time last year who I believe passed it on to a guy in North Lincolnshire. I do still prefer the 27man band as it's less affected by terrain. Regards, Tim HT Warwickshire.
Unfortunately I dont, I'm not really big on social media or taking photos. I swapped it for a Watson 23amp switchover psu, which I still have. The guy who had it from me I think sold it around 2010. He had it for a few years. The only differences obvious were a perspex panel stuck over where the switches were, and the CB PA was used to switch the 934 transverter in. Upon carefully removing the panel, it still had all the original lettering behind. The panel was retained by the radio as it moved on. It had a bnc connector on the back, and where it would normally say uniden on the speaker it said Minster. Best regsrds, Tim HT Warwickshire
The Grandstand transverter was hilarious in that it was not interlocked in anyway, the 27MHz driving rig was supposed to be on a specific channel, with the 934MHz channel steps tuned by the transverter. Even a few years after it was introduced I remember users being a bit fed up with interference from cellular base stations. Certainly a blast from the past, did help a friend build a 934 CB back in the day, used RF sections from a mobile phone (transportable) interfaced with the bulk of a UHF PMR. Obviously not type approved but it did work...
Thank you for this 934 story. Around 10 years ago, I converted a large load of Kenwood trunking 900 mhz transceivers to the 934 mhz and 928 Amateur bands with commercial levels of power available. The Standard KPG software prevented these frequencies being programed so I had to get into the HEX code and rewrite it in order to get those channels working which were restricted by the standard Kenwood software. That hack, took a lot of hours but once you got familiar with it, I just pulled out my note book and programmed the hex code. Now, Range, I had hundreds of kilometers under ducting conditions but not as far as 433-440-477 Mhz. Extra power does help a little but most of the time, 934 seemed to be even more line of sight than 70cm frequencies. Today I believe 934 is now saturated with mobile phone companies. What I'd like to hear is just how many people who still listen out on a working 934 transceiver. You can see a picture of my 934 mhz yagi at the usual site where you can see this kind of stuff.
Would have loved to be on 934MHz back in the day, but equipment was way too expensive compared to both 11m and my schoolboy income back then! Mind you, comparing 2m, 70cm and 23cm now, I reckon 934MHz would have been a bit of a challenge back in the early 80’s.
Hi Lewis - great video in mate. I bought one of the very first Reftec 934 radios - it spent most of its life at a Rig Doctor near Sevenoaks as it kept on drifting off frequency!! The best part for me was earwigging on people's mobile phone calls which seemed to drop in from time to time. I wish I'd kept the radio as it cost a lot of money when it was first issued.
I came across a 934 MHz CBer on a hilltop in the 1980s … he was using a possibly home-made helical beam antenna and was talking to another station about 30-40 miles away … it looked quite an impressive set-up.
I still have 4 different 934 radios and SWR meters mobile antennas and I've made 18 element Beam works very well around 60 miles plus on top channel I've not used it for years now .
Brilliant video. I knew a couple of breakers who had 934 one was Dick, Coffee Pot down in Hailsham East Sussex he had a Comtel Kestrel which was pretty good we had some good contacts with that. The other was Jim, Dinosaur from Sutton Valence near Maidstone he had a Reftec. Blimey, brings back memories 👍
Thanks for this upload, that was one of the most indepth articles of the 934mhz band I've ever come across, well done on doing so much research, I was active on 934Mhz from 1987 until around 1995, of all the bands I've ever used ( Class A Radio Ham ) 934Mhz was by far the most enjoyable band & most suprising in way of range achieved, I loved the band, I was based in Speke, South Liverpool & used the callsign CA-148, I had contacts all over the UK & into Europe when the band was open, used a 12 element Loop yagi with mast head pre amp, wish the band came back, I would be on it like a shot, I used Comtell NPR mobile sets with a couple of NPR handsets, those where the days.
Takes me back Lewis. Had a couple of Delta 1s. ( homebase +van) lived in Warrington but worked out of Manchester Airport ( south side) H100 cable +large "N" type plugs.. nightmare after rg58 + 259s.🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍.
HF was never the best place for CB. Somewhere in the VHF band would’ve been better. 934MHz never took off as the equipment was, comparatively, expensive. Though no longer allowed to be used, 934MHz equipment still commands high prices.
I remember in the late 70's when many people were campaining for legal "cb" band and 220mhz "ex lancaster bomber" freqency was much proposed. Thatcher and her army turned that one down flat with some flannel about it "needing it to be reserved for future projects".. my take on it is this: UK government saw little "need" for what they saw as riff raff to actually have an exceptional reliable radio system . So Thailand got 220 mhz AND 78mhz for more rural use ....
This is interesting because in Australia we use 477MHz and it's the only cb band in use today in Aus. Repeaters are everywhere and state governments operate many repeaters for highway safety. Simplex range up to 25km is common with over 150km possible with the right radio (50 watt power station) and antenna.
@@jayrogers8255 nobody does. All vehicles (with CB) are fitted with 477MHz UHF CB, those who want the extra range of HF will join a 4WD club and have an amateur license
@@jjcoolaus so is 27MHz even allocated to CB anymore there? CB here in Massachusetts is just about dead, but the locals are on GMRS (462/467MHz), as are the 4x4 guys.
I remember the 934, there was lots of talk about it on the 27mhz band when it came out but i don't recall anyone getting one due to the high price of the equipment. I did see a couple of those Cybernet delta's at a radio rally some time back and the guy selling them still wanted a fair price for them. Great informative vid Lewis. De M0HLG
Mack the Hack who used to have a column in CB Radio Magazine noticed early on that analogue mobile phone users in cars were using 934 mobile antennas as they worked better! I was offered a 934 rig in about 1990 but wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!
Really interesting Video. Ive been a 934 user, interesting back, difficult to use but enjoyed the challenge back in my younger days!! regret selling my equipment!
I had a Cybernet Delta 1 for a couple of years, but there was only three operators here that I knew of, they were all Radio Amateurs. Two of them I knew personally and the third was a mate of theirs, I may have met him, but if I did he never let on. Mind you he might not have known who I was until I was highlighted at the local club on FSTV demo one night. He may have not even got to the club, I could just make him out, not enough to talk to him, the others were 8 miles away as the crow flew, I could hear them but on some day with bad weather their signal was way down. I sold it as there was no one on for nights at a time and it cost to much to have sitting around. Even back when Cybernet sets came in there was rumours of the frequency being closed down, this was due to the job the others did in radio. So between lack of use and the rumour of it being stopped, I thought I would cut my losses and get rid of it. Ouch, I had to sell it at a loss, no one was interested in 934 up here except the Radio Amateurs I knew. It was rumoured there were a few others on, but I never heard them at any point and the set sat turned on all the time. Mind you all I had was a vertical about 60ft up. There was a hill behind me stopped me from getting south at that frequency, so if there were anyone there I would not have heard anything. Nice video of a forgotten frequency. To expensive, to high and no one wanted it.
I knew one of the "unknown" G9 operators, namely Ron "Gorilla". He was a rig doctor, based in the Charminster area of Bournemouth, Dorset. Ron repaired CB, Ham & marine radio equipment. He passed away over a decade ago, after rapidly going blind during the 1990's.
I had a lot of nice contacts with with the UK from the west of the Netherlands on 934 MHz (not legal), with a Stabo 80 channel radio and a Procom stick until GSM was starting and it was impossible to receive any stations. I remember that a lot of UK stations had a Delta and stacked antennas, '73 PE1RTT
There are some short-distance HTs in the 900 MHz ISM band, but most of the users on that band are cordless phones. The ham band is a bit lower, with repeater inputs at 902, outputs at 927. Weak signal is at 903 for the most part, ATV from 909 to 926
Considering it was the early 80's, 900MHz was cutting edge for citizens band. I grew up in a large east coast city of America and our police department didn't get 900MHz into the very late 90's and early 2000's.
This takes me back i had some cheap kit cant remember what make it was I was lucky to have open fields for miles in front of my house and regularly spoke to people all over Wales which from Somerset on rubbish equipment was very good
I was working at Telecoms / Nevada from around 1987. Repairing 27Mhz stuff and the music side of the business. Remember the 934Mhz going on, not seen one of those cybernet transceivers in like 32 years now. We used to sell them.
hi i was on 934 from 1981 till 1998 in Surrey worked all over the uk with 2 25ele tonnas to a delta 1 even worked switzerland I was a G9 i believe there were only 7 of us and i was one of the undisclosed few who paid £50 for special licence,my normal call was 26sc129 does anyone remember BRIAN HOLLIS of Weybridge Surret BH172. very well known operator,is he still around?
This one seems to have passed me by and I don't recollect this service. Must have been the period I had put radio to one side. Glad It had really by the look of it's short lifespan.
I used to be on 934, also modified the radios to improve their selectivity to remove mobile phone splatter.. I even built a functioning repeater which was tested up on the purbecks so locals could talk to a station in Guernsey.
had a couple of radios on 934 first one a reftec mobile lasted a couple of days before exchanging it for a replacement reftec as there were very temperamental beasts even cleaning it with a yellow duster sent it wacky last set was the npr 934 now that was a belter of a set had a few quirks as well still have it somewhere gave up using it once the mobile phone towers swamped all channels
I recall reading somewhere online over a decade ago that 934 MHz was previously used by the RAF in WW2, something to do with bombers, and was unused until they decided to put it into use for CB. Like the very weird frequencies that exist on 27/81, 934 was also chosen because it was very far away, potentially expensive and very, very UK-specific, meaning that the RA could have absolute control, and in effect undermine the hobby as much as possible!
Interesting that the UK actually got as far as introducing a UHF CB band in the days... Of course it was considered (and sometimes implemented) in many places in the world. It probably would have been best to have some band around 160 or 470 MHz where about 40 channels at 12.5 or 20 kHz spacing could find room, it would be a good compromise between equipment cost, antenna practicality, range, etc. Maybe with 5W max. But in those days "there was no room" for such a band, and now that there is plenty room there is no demand anymore.
thery was 3 934 operators in wantage we were runing beams and cybernet delta onces qround 1987 to 1988/89 when i got my ham ticket which i still hold today g7bxu
Just as in the states, we loose our spectrum one bit at a time. We still have limited allocations in the 900 MHz band but for how long. Years ago ( early 1990's) we lost a portion of our 220mhz spectrum to a "new format for commercial repeater use. It was known as ACSB*. There was only 1 yes 1 MHz split between Rx and Tx frequencies. The two formats were LTR and MPT1357(? my memory not as good today) these turned out to be complete failures. Many tried to use Rx and Tx combiners and then duplexer to use one antenna. NOT! The amount of filtration needed worked against everything. One had to use a separate Rx and Tx antenna and then it was still sketchy if there was no vertical separation. * Amplitude Compandered Side Band.
Little known fact - there is still a legal allocation between 869.40-869.65 MHz 500 mW e.r.p. Channel spacing 25 kHz that can be used for voice. The Alan 860 and Alinco DJS800 are handhelds that works on the relevant frequencies and the Kenwood TK-980/940 are mobile units, no doubt there are others. OFCOM doc IR2030 proves it, pdf reader pages 25/26 www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/84970/ir-2030.pdf
@@jamesmahoney6009 Yes and those. What are walkie talkies if not a form of radio mic.? There is nothing in the legislation restricting the use of walkie talkies on those frequencies, that's why I posted the information. If I missed something please feel free to point it out, I am quite happy to be corrected.
@@jamesmahoney6009 Have been using this band (869.40-869.65 MHz) for a while with Alan 860’s and I spoke to Ofcom who said as long as you comply with the requirements of IR 2030 which are 500 mW e.r.p. Channel spacing 25 kHz and listen before talk to minimise interference then you are good to go - can even be use legally airborne.
I had no clue it was possible to transmit CB radio on the UHF band at 934 MHz. For me, CB radio has always only ever been at the top of the HF band on 27 MHz.
I totally had no idea the 933/934MHz band was free to use. in fact, it would be perfect for data, or some sort of WiMax that's more efficient in UHF. Dunno about France/Europe in general, there's nothing about it but dam, that would be interesting.
An interesting video, I don't remember much about this band being used for CB, although I do remember listening to the old analogue Mobile phones on that frequency, when I bought my first scanner in 1996, heard some very 'interesting' conversations at the time!! By the way, Thanks for mentioning Nevada communications, their headquarters & showroom is just a couple of miles from me in Portsmouth, both myself & my late father bought many radios, scanners, & other related bits & bobs from there.
That's all in the 934 band. Aside from pagers, which are higher and lower, and ATCS which is 896 to 898 And 935 to 937, I think this would be great, depending on the power output. The stock Motorola 37s receive that high. I don't know if they have talk-around capabilities for 934 talk Or listen. I this the 37s receive in the 930 to 940 range and you transmit in the. 895 to 905 range. I believe that some of the models did have the ability to program either full simplex or an emergency talk-around that allows you to talk and receive on the 930 to 940 MHz The power output on the radios can be set from 1/20th of a watt, which goes about 100 feet to 35 watts that will cover 30 mile radius. So, I wonder what the stock power output was
With an open band 27 MHz, on time here is the US, I couldn't communicate with, vehicle I could 1/2 mile away. For it's stated reason for it's existancence 27 MHhz CB was usless. Here for a time Tandy/ Radio Shack, markeket a 70cm Framily Radio Service xcevier, that could be eefective for some typical mobile use. Got around the antenna restriction, by puting the RF circuit in, and the antenna, on a magnetic hockeypubck; ruding the adio and control via a cable, to a handheld control unit in the vehicle. Pretty short lived on the shelf, because at the tin the cellur network was fiiling in the the rural expanse of the use, and the comomy of scale kick in for cellular service.
You missed a chance to participate in a fantastic band with unique propogation properties, I was active on 27Mhz also & the best decision I ever made was to try 934Mhz, I learnt more about technical aspects of radio propogation & UHF/SHF phenomena in a couple of years than I could have ever learnt sticking to 27Mhz.
I have seen mention of 'future CB like allocations above 900 MHz' in articles about CB radio in the Netherlands. I guess this would have been the same spectrum as in the UK. This idea was never implemented for as far as I can tell.
Does anyone have the info for the 40 channel modification upgrades for UK 934Mhz 20ch CB radios? I tried looking on the net years ago and found nothing.
Typical of governments: give you something then take it away. Big business takes precedence. "Operators were seen as lacking the technical background to work with these frequencies". What's that supposed to mean? It's CB. They don't need to know anything. They connect things together so where is the technical knowledge in that? It's not amateur radio where we can make a radio, aerials and test equipment if we want. That needs technical knowledge. G4GHB.
In the early 1970's, there was a proposal for a Class E Citizens Band in the USA. It would have allowed 25W FM (at the narrowband protocol of that day) on 220 MHz. I forget the number of channels it would have had, but I think it was around 80 or so. The shorter wavelength would have made mobile antenna mounting and use of ht's from inside vehicles and buildings very practical. Unfortunately, the greedy hams who now as then, under utilize that band, as well as the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) fought tooth and nail to keep this under-utilized spectrum and they won. Eventually, the hams lost a huge chunk of 220 MHz to industrial interests, anyway. How much better off we would have all been if Class E had passed. Thanks ARRL! 😕
I prefer 222 to 2m as the band is much quieter, laid out logically, & pretty uniform around the hemisphere. I’m glad CB never got it. I have 4 HTs, 3 mobiles, & will be signing on a 222 repeater soon! Also, why did CBers want 220 anyway, when there were Class A/B CB at ~462 MHz?
@@jayrogers8255 The CB proposition didn't want all of 220 MHz, just a small portion of it. The greedy hams prevented that from happening. Years later, the FCC took a nice chunk away from the hams anyway and auctioned it off to corporate interests. The hams lost anyway. How much better for everyone it would have been if we had the Class E CB. Class B CB was around 453 MHz, I believe, but was limited to very low power and had notoriously short range. Class A CB, now called GMRS, was limited to commercial land mobile gear (police/business) and was VERY expensive. The Class E gear would have spawned a new industry with competitive brands and products much like was already experienced on Class D at the time.
@@grigorirasputin5020 It looks like the Class E CB would’ve been 224-225, is that correct? Yes & no: 220-225 was shared between hams & government radiolocation until 220-222 was reallocated. At that time, amateur was made primary exclusive on the remaining 3 MHz from 222-225, and years later got 219-220 with a secondary status. A lot of hams still whinge that we lost 2MHz, but we were made primary, so that’s a pretty nice thing! Now, GMRS is getting more popular, & there are FRS & MURS, so a Class E CB seems like something that wouldn’t happen today.
I had a 27mhz model. I think I had mine in the early 80s. By the late 80s, nobody used CB any more so I sold mine to a fisherman who used it on his fishing boat. Now I'm in the USA I have a CB here USA and same-story. Nobody uses CB any more aside from truckers and redneks. I have mine on my RV so I can talk to truckers etc.
I never really got the idea of this band. Horrible natural range meant that it wasn't even as good as the 27Mhz band for range, only perhaps for sound quality. It is also not a very good mobile band except for very close proximity contacts. Even the adjacent ham band is mostly a place for very specific point to point communications,. Without repeater networks it is not the most usefull band to work in.
