Breaker one-nine: CB radio in 1980s Sheffield
In the 1980s I was a CB fanatic. On channel 19 I was Slazenger, and four decades later some people still don't know me by any other name.
Slazenger, the stud of Woodhouse
My friends shortened Slazenger to Slaz, and it stuck so well that their children all think Slaz is my real name. That's how much CB got into our lives. The handles outlasted the radios.
Modest, I wasn't. I'd come on the channel as "Slazenger, the sex symbol and stud of Woodhouse" (obviously having myself on). Everyone had a line back then, and that was mine.
When a lady breaker came on (and Sheffield had plenty of them), I had another one ready:
"If you wanted a piece of the moon, I'd find a ladder big enough to go and get you a piece."
Everyone wanted a piece of the moon.
How it sounded
You'd put out a "fourteen for a copy" to see who was about, ask someone "what's your 20?" to find out where they were, and when a woman wanted to get on, you'd hear "one-nine for a lady breaker" and the channel would make room. If you've forgotten the rest, it's all in our CB lingo glossary.
Meeting at the Top of the World (and Asda)
Our meeting place was the Top of the World: the old Miners Training Centre at Treeton, near Rotherham. It sat high up, looking out over the Orgreave coking plant. We'd all park up there and chat, on the radio and face to face, before setting off on our convoys. It was where handles finally got faces, and where half the evening's plans got made.
Other nights we'd meet in the Asda car park, the same Asda where the supermarket scene in The Full Monty was filmed. I was still turning up there on the CB in the late '90s, when the film came out.
It's a view with history. Down below was the British Steel coking plant at Orgreave, where the Battle of Orgreave took place on 18 June 1984, one of the biggest clashes of the miners' strike, between thousands of striking miners and thousands of police.
If you were on channel 19 in Sheffield back then, you'll know exactly where I mean.
The rigs
I went through a few: an Amstrad, a Cybernet 2000, a Rotel 240 and a York. If you were on CB then, you'll recognise a few of these. Plenty of them still turn up on eBay for collectors.
| Classic rig | Then | |
|---|---|---|
| Rotel RVC-240 | Sold at Halfords around legalisation, and one of my rigs. | Find one on eBay |
| Amstrad CB 900 / 901 | Alan Sugar's take on CB. Cheap, cheerful and everywhere. | Find one on eBay |
| York CB radios | York was one of the early names in UK-legal sets. I had one. | Find one on eBay |
| Cybernet 2000 | Another one from my shelf back then. | Find one on eBay |
| Binatone, Fidelity and Audioline | Household names that all piled into CB after November 1981. | Find one on eBay |
Old 27/81 FM sets are still legal on the UK channels. Pre-1981 American AM rigs are a different story, so keep those for the display shelf.
A short history of CB in Britain
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Late 1970s | Convoy and the CB songs make it a craze. People use imported American rigs, which were illegal here. |
| 1980 | Illegal CB use peaks. Clubs campaign for it to be made legal. |
| 2 November 1981 | CB becomes legal: 40 FM channels on the UK 27/81 band, a £10 licence from the Post Office. |
| 1 September 1987 | 40 more channels added, matching the rest of Europe (the CEPT band). |
| 8 December 2006 | The licence is scrapped. CB becomes licence-free. |
| 2014 | AM and SSB allowed on the European channels for approved sets. |
Dates from CB radio in the United Kingdom.
From CB to Gadgets Galore
CB was where my love of gadgets started: getting a rig to work, fitting an aerial, talking to people miles away. In 1995 I started Gadgets Galore in a back bedroom, making data cables for the Nokia 5110 and 6110. Different gadgets, same buzz.
CB is still going, and it's licence-free now. If you fancy getting back on, see CB radio today for what's legal and which rigs to buy.
Were you on the CB? Share this page with your old breaker friends. Somewhere out there, someone still remembers your handle.