Ham Op Gets CB Radio Christmas Gift Again
WREXHAM, Wales – Wrexham area amateur radio operator Milt Arbunt received a thoughtful, but misguided Christmas gift from his family, creating what seems like a new tradition he wishes he they would stop.
For the fourth year in a row, Arbunt received a CB radio for Christmas from a family member at the annual Christmas gathering. Milt Arbunt, 34, is a “Final Glazing Supervisor” at the Cadbury plant in Wrexham and has been an active amateur radio operator for the past twelve years. He does not use nor does he have any interest in Citizen’s Band radio.
“I just know Milty loves playing with his radios,” said Arbunts’ aunt Jean about the selection of the CB radio as a gift this year. “He’s always back there in his office turning knobs and playing with blinky lights. The one I got makes a farty noise! I thought he’d have so much fun playing with that with his CB buddies,” she said with a chuckle.
Arbunt says his aunt actually bought him the same radio three years ago. “Auntie Jean was actually the first one to start this CB buying thing for Christmas and I think she’s also been the one to keep suggesting others in the family do the same,” said Arbunt.
“Heck, even if I wanted to open up the CB’s transmit capability, I wouldn’t be able to use it on the ham bands as it has far too much spurious emissions… and I don’t mean the built-in fart noises.”
“I even made a wish list and distributed it to my family members this year, hoping I could avoid getting another dang CB. I have a Signalink digi interface on there and a Yaesu MD-200 mic for my FTDX-3000. I figured maybe they’d get the point. I guess not,” he said.
He has been able to return the radios and get his wife a gift with the money. “I’m getting her a clothes iron again this year!” said Arbunt. “I got her one the last two years and she seemed happy enough.”
By K5PO, on the scene
### HamHijinks.com
photo credit: Kyle Fox via photopin cc
Thats as funny as CB’ers buying the Baofeng UV-5R expecting to be able to talk their buddies on CH#20. Get a lot of traffic for “baofeng CB radio” on my web site.
Many Chinese radios cover 477 MHz band Australian UHF CB uses.
Some people have amateur radios and CB radios. You can enjoy both!
The guy should be thank full he has family who buy him Christmas pressents. Maybe the radio ham should bite his lip and switch on his CB radio and experience the unlicensed thrill that is 11m , but then again I doubt he will, most hams totally despise the CB radio despite it been the stepping stone to their hobby.
i started in 11meters (cb) when i was 15. 40 years later, im going for my general class license. CB was fun, but ham radio is way better! you can legally run more than a kilowatt and talk all over the world! that being said. CB WASN’T the stepping stone for ha radio…. ham radio was around way longer than CB radio. i chose to go after my ham license so that i could talk all over the world LEGALLY. you’re not supposed to talk to anyone over 135 miles away on CB….
Inside the top ten of my favourite articles, thankyou!
BRILLIANT !! I wish somebody would keep buying me CB radio tackle haha,, great story even for a sleep subject as mundane as ham radio.
can you please tell me about Cobra?
Some years ago, a US Army recruiting team had a table at the Boxboro convention. They were handing out bags with the CB “10 codes” on them, so, yeah they were in the wrong place.
There were two sergeants and a 2nd Lieutenant. Being a long haired-hippie type, they lured me over and attempted to engage me in conversation – I said “nah, not interested. Besides, you know what happens to guys like me when they get into the military?”
“No, what?”, the one of the good sergeants replied… in earshot of the other two….
“Guys like me end up being second lieutenants…” — which caused the two NCOs to explode in laughter…
I enjoy it both.
If he gets his wife another iron this year, it might’ve the one she uses to put him out of her misery! 10-4 Good Buddies. I’m puttin’ the pedal to the metal and goin’ bear huntin’. See ya on the flip flop. Roger Dodger over ‘n out.