The following syndicated column ,written by Ink Dipper, appeared in newspapers during the third week of October, 1976.

Expansion of the Citizen’s Band from 23 to 40 channels has stopped some prospective CB buyers dead in their tracks.
The new 40-channel rigs won’t be on the market until early January, and manufacturers are using a variety of approaches to sell out inventories of 23-channel models.Most are doing one of two things – either offering to convert 23-channel models to 40-channel capability or cutting prices on present stock with offering conversion.
Hy-Gain was one of the first companies offering to “retrofit” recently purchased models, and it estimates that adding the new channels will cost about $20 per radio. Most conversion plans are similar to that.

Officials for companies offering retrofitting plans say they want to sell a product that will not be obsolete in a few months.
But companies not offering to convert CBs don’t want the expected headaches of setting up temporary conversion facilities.
And they see a risk in converting because no one is certain how the Federal Communications Commission will react to converted CBs.
When the expansion was announced, the FCC added new electronic filtering requirements to lessen possible interference.
Manufacturers are now trying – and not always successfully – to gain FCC approval for new 40-channel units under the toughened requirements. And gaining approval for retrofitted rigs, some manufacturers feared, would be an even steeper hill to climb.
A prospective CB buyer can find slashed prices on radios that can;t be retrofitted, with some models selling for half the regular price.
The radios won’t be obsolete in the sense that they can’t be used, but a CBer who buys one of them won’t have the freedom of 17 new channels. Most CBers, finding channels crowded in the lower 23, will want a radio with 40 channels.
An exception to that is the trucker, who relies on channels 9 and 19, Channel 9 is the emergency channel and channel 19 is the trucker channel, and you don’t need a 40-channel model to operate on them. Manufacturers are betting, if they don’t offer conversion, that the truckers will but out a big part of the inventories.
Besides retrofitting and price cuts, manufacturers are offering other deals to lure in customers for 23-channel units. One manufacturer, Sharp, will replace each radio it sells from July 26-January 31 with a “comparable featured” 40-channel radio. The replacement cost will be $30.
Another company, Hadnic, U.S.A., will allow customers buying its 23-channel units to purchase 40-channel sets at half price having to return the 23-channel sets.
If you want yo buy a CB, you can go in a lot of directions to find a deal, but make sure you know what you are getting into. If the salesman says that there is a retrofit or replacement offer being made by the manufacturer, get it in writing.
The companies with the offers should be giving out certificates guaranteeing it.
And if the certificate has to be mailed to the manufacturer for the retrofit or replacement make a photostatted copy of it just in case your radio is lost in the expected shuffle.

The following syndicated column, written by Ink Dipper, appeared in newspapers in the 2nd week of October, 1976:

A CB HOT line? That’s what Maryland CBers are talking about. Or how about a Holiday Inn CB line? One of the latest improvement in the CB world involves travelers being able to use CB more effectively.
If you haven’t been through Maryland this year then you may have missed one of the more original and best organized CB plans.
Maryland’s Division of Tourist Development has started a program called CB HOT line (Helping Out Travelers). The program trains CB club members to give out reliable tourist information via CB.
And if you’re wondering about how these CB helpers are designated, well, they’ve thought of everything. Just look for bumper stickers saying Maryland Travel Info, the CBer’s call numbers, and the channel monitored.
The originator of the plan, Bob Willis, Maryland Tourist division director, says he happened to be traveling in a car with a CB, and heard someone asking directions “by making an appeal over the air waves.”
That “appeal” may have lead to the development of one of the most coordinated travel bureaus in the United States.
But you may not have to go to Maryland to see the system in action. Willis says he was contacted by a governmental agency which would like to use the idea of a HOT line nationwide.
Could this be where CB is heading? CB was first planned for small business purposes and not for chit-chat, so perhaps Maryland is giving the rest of us a hint of what will come.
It’s a great idea for those travelers who always leave the road map on the kitchen table. Or those who are a little too adventurous for their own good, and need help.
There’s also the Holiday Inn trial of CB going on in the Boston Area. The plan has received both good and bad reviews from innkeepers, as well as guests.
One Holiday Inn representative says the problem is the excess noise on CB. The base stations for the experiment were placed behind the main desk so the person working could hear the calls or give them. Holiday Inn executives just couldn’t see the practicality of hiring someone only to monitor the CB action.
But placing the unit near the lobby area has brought complaints from guests who say it’s too noisy and only aggravates them. And innkeepers aren’t saying anything good about its use yet.
Holiday Inn people say they’re not trying to sell rooms by CB, but are simply trying to do a public service by giving travel conditions, directions and, if asked, room availability.
Their main worry is that if the plan is put into effect then there is no reason why unprofessional innkeepers won’t take to the air waves to barter for the cheapest room. Their greatest hope would be that the FCC would help by establishing one channel for just this type information.
There’s been no final word from the committee, which decides of the worldwide chain will get ears. But if they do take to the airwaves it will benefit every CBer from campers to traveling salesmen.
With one sate and a well known American institutions getting into the CB routine, at least a few channels may get some badly needed organization.

The following article, written by Ink Dipper, appeared as a syndicated column in newspapers in the last week of September, 1976:

Your CB could be your best good buddy when you’re at home. But if you plan to travel to Mexico, you better find a resting place for the CB. And if you’re going to Canada, plan ahead.
Many of us CBers have gotten so attached to our little buddies that we don’t like the idea of leaving of them at home, especially when we’re going on vacation.
However, we’re finding that we need a permit with us if our CB goes with us to Canada. And, in Mexico forget it.
Several stories came out in midsummer saying CB could be taken into Mexico by writing a certain official for a permit. What the stories were not saying that simply got a “request denied” answer.
New stories soon followed saying that not only could Americans not take their CBs into Mexico, but there was no permit they could obtain to do so.
Mexican officials say there was never official plan for CBing visitors carry their units into Mexico.
Now the world is that a bilaterial agreement will have to be negotiated by the U.S. State Department and the Mexican government before Americans can legally take CBs across the border.
Until recently Mexican border authorities simply sealed CB units when owners failed to have valid Mexican Permits (which no on ever seemed to have). The units were covered with tape rendering them temporarily inoperative. If the seal was broken, a heavy penalty would be imposed on re-entry into the United States.
Richard Everett, an FCC official, is saying that CBers shouldn’t take the chance on having their units seized or sealed. He said that simply not taking them into Mexico was his best advice.
Everett says there is a treaty in negotiation with Mexico, but he doesn’t seem to know when we can legally modulate south of the border.
But if your desire is up Canada way, then there’s little problem except time. There is a reciprocal agreement between the United States and Canada which states that any American licensed CBer can obtain a permit to operate a CB in Canada.
That means the CBer must obtain a permit application through any of the Canadian Department of Communications regional offices. Fill it out and return it with your copy of your American FCC permit to the regional office nearest your planned point of entry.
Canadian officials are advising that it may take as much as 60 days for processing, so plan ahead. If you get to the Canadian border minus a permit then you simply will have to declare the equipment

The following column written by Ink Dipper, appeared in syndicated columns in newspapers during the 3rd or 4th week of September 1976:

Will 1978 be the beginning of the end for CBing in America or is that just a cry of “wolf”?
We’re not crying wolf, but there is something disturbing ahead for CBing as we move toward the peaks of the 11-year sunspot cycle.Sunspot activity causes CB signals to “skip” thousands of miles. These bouncing signals block out local signals and knock out the normal effective range of a CB radio.
The peak of activity will begin in 1978 and last from three to five years. No one can say for certain how bad the problem will be, but there is little optimism.
At least two independent studies suggest dire problems for CBers. Proposed solutions offer little hope.
It seems inconceivable that sunspots, which are eruptions of the sun’s surface can cause havoc on the world’s most widely used from a wireless communications. But it happens, and here’s how:
A normal CB wave is like light from an electric bulb – it goes out in all directions. The signals that go up simply pass through the Earth’s atmosphere.
But when sunspots build in intensity, they increase the amount of electrical energy in a layer of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere. The energy buildup causes the layer to become reflective – just like a mirror. And instead of passing through the atmosphere, the signal reflects – or skips back to earth.
We CBers who went through the last skip peaks are probably the least optimistic about what will happen in 1978. Sunspot skips sometimes decreased range by 75 per cent or more. There is always a small amount of skip specially in the summer. But this is usually related to sunspots and nothing like the skip in the last peak period.
The Federal Communications Commission is aware of what is coming. FCC officials have been studying two reports, one done for the U.S. Department of Commerce and the other for the President’s Office of Telecommunications Policy.
The dilemma, the studies point out, is clear. The peak will come and skip will increase.
Also, sources inside the FCC say, that the agency has a report stating much the same thing.
A solution to end all of this would be to move the citizen’s band to a higher frequency range, one not hit as hard by the “skip” phenomenon is now on the 27 megahertz range, and suggested ranges for the move are the 50 and 200 megahertz range.
But a move to the higher frequency would make the average CB set cost more – possible as much as $1,000 – because of added electronic refinements needed to operate at the higher level.
If the FCC did move CB up the frequency spectrum – and abandoned the 27 megahertz frequencies – it would mean that Americans would own millions of useless two-way radios tuned to frequencies that no longer could be legally used.
Whether the FCC takes actions or not, we don’t believe the end of CBing is at hand. Too many people have CB radios now, and some them will ride it out. But the phenomenal growth of CB use could end unless a practical solution can be found.

This syndicated column by Ink Dipper appeared in newspapers in the third week of September, 1976.

There is a movement afoot to have the Federal Communications Commission change its rules to permit young people under 18 years of age to obtain a license to operate a Citizens Band Radio.
At this writing young operators must be a member of a family in which there is a license issued to someone 18 or older. However, there have been so many instances where proficient operators younger than 18 have performed “heroic” roles that the hue and cry for licensing is being raised.
“CB is for everyone,” goes the battle cry.
Gene Mallyck, prominent Washington FCC attorney, says: “The movement has two thrusts. The first is that CBing has become a hobby with younger people and they feel they have a right to have a license in their identity. Secondly, it has become widely-known at the Commission that younger people are operating units, even there isn’t a license in their family and the feeling developing at the FCC is that it would be better to permit them to be licensed in their own name.”
The popular song, “Teddy Bear,” written by a veteran trucker and CBer Dale Royal and recorded by Red Sovine, tells the story of a crippled boy in his earliest teens who talks with truckers on his home CB unit. The recording has sold over a million copies.
In Garden City, Ga., there is a 15-year-old, Mark Davis who mounted a CB units on his bicycle so he could modulate while he rode. He has the transceiver mounted on his “two wheeler” between the handlebars in a wooden box.
Mark said he has watched the four-wheelers and 18-wheelers spinning by his home with their CBs going and found it a little frustrating.
“I’m not old enough to get a license to drive a car, and I’m not old enough to have a CB license jeither,” he said. “So, when my Dad got his CB license from the FCC, I got my own unit and decided to put it on my bicycle. All the other kids at school are jealous.”
His handle is “Bud Man Jr.” He picked the name from a character in a television beer commercial.
Stan Bennett, editor of Magic Magazine, reported recently that CB is a hobby and many of his young readers are interested in “Amateur magicians are usually active and creative young people.” he said, “They are constantly involved in hobbies, CB is a natural.
“There are now many CB-magic club around the country in which the members discuss various tricks, which ones are good and which ones are not so good,” he said. “One group calls their base station ‘Houdini’ and hand like ‘Blackstone’ and ‘Conjurer’ are widespread.”
“Many of them use channel five as their meeting place,” he reported. “They call it the ‘nickel channel’.”
Break…break..this is Magician. The Ink Dipper may disappear.

This column originally appeared in syndicated newspapers in the second and third week of August, 1976.

There are many people wondering today what CBers are like, what makes them tick, are they different from their fellow Americans.
The music which has emerged to reach best-seller lists and most-played on popular radio stations indicate that CBers are “folksy” and friendly. From the big hit by C.W. McCall, “Convoy” to Cledus Maggard’s “White Knight,” both telling a story about CBing with a touch of humor, to the current sad one: “Teddy Bear,” there is the single strain of togetherness among those who modulate.
A crippled lad, whose Daddy was a trucker and killed in a blinding snow storm wreck, yaks with a trucker on his father’s CB. The boy’s handle is “Teddy Bear.” He desperately wants to ride an 18-wheeler again. The trucker says his “freight can wait” and he U-turns to go to the boy’s home to give him that ride.
Upon arriving there, he finds that he wasn’t the only one monitoring channel 19. The block in front of the house is lined up with 18-wheelers giving “Teddy Bear” the rides he wanted so much. They, too, were expressing their compassion.
The ability to mobilize people to help in times of need is manifest all over the country. Wherever there are CBers. Not long ago in Snohomish, Wash., 19 CBers pitched in to help when the worst wintertime flooding in 50 years inundated the fertile Snohomish River Valley. According to The CB Times-Journal, the club members used their CB units 24 hours a day. They monitored Channel 9 for distress calls and used four channels to coordinate their rescue efforts. They went into action overnight and kept the endeavor going for an entire week. No money. No overtime pay. Just helping out.
In the Ohio River Valley, CBers from Pittsburgh to Parkersburg, W.Va., and from Columbus to Harrisburg, a base station is operated almost constantly by a watchful and helpful lady, Mrs. Jerry Hoit. Known throughout the area as “The Swami,” rarely a day passes when she has not handled a distress call.
Few have met her, but her smiling voice: “Break…break…this is The Swami lookin’ at ya’ on channel 10…come on back”…is truly famous. She has traced a trucker on the wrong medication by putting out a 10-33 and the relay help of a CBer in Nova Scotia, jawed a CBer who was “a little drunk” home without mishap; and by instant action saved the life of a little girl seriously hurt.
Attesting to this new spirit of comradeship, Gus, a St. Bernard dog, was on a training trip, learning to carry a backpack. High in the Sandia Mountains behind Albuquerque on La Luz trail, Gus’s feet became raw from the rock and gravel. He could no longer keep up.
Weighing over 200 pounds, Gus’ exhaustion and wounded paws literally flattened him. His owners skied to the nearest Forest Service phone. Through a relay with Albuquerque’s Citizen Band and Rescue Team, Gus was carried safely home to recuperate.
The exploits of CBers who do not even know each other, but who respond to a distress call with a singleness of purpose, reminds one of the pioneering days when covered wagons criss-crossed our country. Helping out was a way of life for those early settlers. CBing offers this same flavor and spirit in 1976.
The fun in ratchet-jawing is amplified with unit of purpose in helping out. Does this make CBers different than their fellow-Americans?

BONUS:

“Teddy Bear” by Red Sovine

“Convoy” by C.W. McCall

“White Knight” by Cledus Maggard

CB Convac was a syndicated column that appeared in newspapers from 1976 through early 1978. These columns were written by the editor of The CB Times Journal with the handle of Ink Dipper. This is the first column. It appeared in newspapers in the second week of August, 1976:

CBing has become the great American pastime. It is approaching bowling in the number of participants, close to football in the number of fans, and like band-aids in the number of adherents.
CBers are you and me, or, at best, many of us. And growing at the rate of one-half million per month, according to the FCC. That means it won’t be long until it’s YOU, as well as me.
OK, so you’ve made the big step and purchased a CB unit for your car, You’ve even made a couple of trips down the super slab and have successfully avoided prowling bears, swarming county mounties.
You’ve desperately tried to keep up with the ratchet jawin’ truckers who swirl through the concrete jungle faster than the speed of sound.

But there’s just one more thing you have to do. Despite the fact that your long-awaited license has arrived from the harried FCC bureaucrats laboring for Uncle Charlie, you still haven’t quite managed to get up the gumption to push the button.
Will I say the right things? What if they answer back in this strange language with some question I won’t understand? Is my handle silly…will they laugh?
Well, let’s take the last question first. Of course your handle is silly, it’s yours…but now that you’ve been listening to CB convacs for awhile, let me ask you…have you heard a handle that is unique? It’s everyone establishing his or her own identity.
Besides, it’s your radio system, your handle and your highway (the bears even work for you). So take heart. Push the button. And give out with some ratchet-jawin’. If you’re a freshman and still queasy about breaking channel 19, flip over to another. There;s a bunch to choose from, and talk to someone else.
Now for some serious convac.
You have your license. You have had your CB installed. You should be somewhat acquainted with the FCC regulations governing the CB use. You are also aware that Channel 9 is used solely for emergency traffic.
Hence, you now have not only a play-toy that helps pass the long miles…you also have and instrument that can prevent accidents, save lives and aid law enforcement. Remember, your CB uni is your only outside communication in the isolation of your car.
At the outset of your CB career, you should familiarize yourself with the 10-code and basic CB language. Become cognizant of the responsibilities that come with owning a CB radio. If you observe something that would present a traffic hazard, get on your radio and tell it fast. Simple things, like and animal on or near the expressway, can cause serious accidents when you’re clipping along at 55 mph or more.
So, until the next time keep the rolling side down. The shiny side up. And with a big set of three’s and eight’s…we gone.

(See my previous post on 10-codes here)