I found 2 solar powered and automated CB boxes in some woods

[Squirrel 14]

were the radios in TX mode or RX mode. just curious if they were talking on the or listening for a SIGNAL

The PTT was held down with zip ties, so they were always only talking when they had power.

[Squirrel 14]

so squirrel, have you been trying for "radio checks" on 32?
got a truckstop within a few miles? some times you'll find a portable radio shop parked there for a day or 3. tell them what "your buddy found" and see what they say. find somebody local on ch 19. and ask them to pick another ch. to go to,,, (coincidently)see if they go to 32 .
have you been back to that area and listened on 32. or other ch for same kinda thing?
are you sure that is not private property?
go out there and start blabbing that you want to give the radios back, or just put one back.
are there any homing pigeons in the area?
any other signs of activity?

I've been calling out on 32, i got pops and cracks back sometimes, like someone is trying to tune in to me. I'll sometimes hear someone clearly having a long distance conversation, but I'm only hearing the person near me. Haven't interrupted him yet. No truck stops near here.

[Squirrel 14]

Those CBs are old emergency style, designed in the 70's and 80's to keep in your car. The idea was for people who didn't want a CB but if the car broke down you could throw the mag mount on and plug it in to the cigarette lighter and hopefully get to a REACT station for help. Since it was people who didn't want to regularly use a CB there are plenty of them to be found on auction sites still in the original cases. They aren't worth much outside of collector radios either since they were about as good a quality as hand held radios but without the benefit of a battery so they are not expensive. The price and case make for a good choice in this situation.

I agree with everyone above, I would avoid that area for a while and not mess with anything else you see.

Just a thought about the possible purpose other than malicious intent.

You don't record threats and name calling on a beacon experiment. These were put up there to harass. Hopefully they just assume the targets of the harassment found them and leave it at that.

I haven't gone back in the woods there yet, y'all scared me from doing so. I plan on keeping the radios for emergency use ,as they would be more practical with a built in power supply.

[443 Arizona]

i cannot tell by the pix but is there a road very near? you might have stumbled upon a drop-off/pick-up point for some Illegals. is there evidence of such activities along the road?(prior to you removing the units).
have you ever hunted,followed a game trail? i ask because, if not, get an expert like a border patrol agent to take over.
i think if i were you, i would let a borderpatrol or sheriff know what you've found. it may tie into help them.
funny, you say it was timed to run at 10? am or pm or both?

[Deleted User 14541]

Curiosity killed the cat.

[Squirrel 14]

i cannot tell by the pix but is there a road very near? you might have stumbled upon a drop-off/pick-up point for some Illegals. is there evidence of such activities along the road?(prior to you removing the units).
have you ever hunted,followed a game trail? i ask because, if not, get an expert like a border patrol agent to take over.
i think if i were you, i would let a borderpatrol or sheriff know what you've found. it may tie into help them.
funny, you say it was timed to run at 10? am or pm or both?

Lol, you have some wild theories. This all takes place in a urban business park, only illegals here are the ones landscaping. I do know how to track and follow trails, and i can tell they don't come by often. The timers were set to 2pm, 5pm and 7pm.

[443 Arizona]

ahh, the ol' 257 is at it again. :r&r:

[jon6667]

im just guessing. but i would say there is some kind of illegal activity going on there. be careful lots of crazy people out there.

[Scipio Kid]

Uhhhh... yes, the ol' 257.

I'm sure a lot of you were electronics buffs when you were kids. My best buddy and I set up stuff like this all the time clear back when we were 10 or 11 years old. Well, not CB's, they were still considered HI-Tech and you needed an FCC license etc. But we ran wires through the forest and set up our own telephone system and set up booby traps with Radio Shack sirens and stuff just to see what would happen. My point is, what did the voices sound like, 13 year old kids or 35 year old drug dealers? Like Radar said, this isn't really a high-tech set up. Those radios are everywhere on Craigslist (or similar) for 10-20 bucks each. The solar panels and other stuff are available at RS, Harbor Freight, & Wal Mart cheap.
Illegals-runners or drug dealers I'd think would have a bit more money and likely a higher tech setup. And younger kids would think it'd be funny to transmit threats or profanities if they thought no one could trace it back to them. Give 'em credit for ingenuity and figuring out how to make it work.

If it is just kids, they're probably afraid you're the cops or FCC confiscating their gear and they're scared to death. As several have suggested, you ought to keep monitoring Chanel 32 especially at 2,5 and 7. You know they had to be listening there at one point. Break for someone who knows a little about radios or electronics to help you with an antenna question or to give advice on equipment. Their egos might get them to talk back to you.

I don't think anyone's trying to triangulate your position. At least not by the bumps and bleeps you hear on your end. The only way they can find you is to get you to transmit so if they're baiting you, they'd be trying to engage in a longer conversation. Knowing that most CB's are mobile, it'd take some ongoing back & forth to get a fix on your position. And given the quality of the transmitters you found, it seems unlikely they'd have any kind of reliable tracking equipment.

But it is a mystery and everyone here loves a good mystery, it would seem, based on the feedback you're getting.

So far as your setup goes, nothing wrong with a Radio Shack Radio. My oldest working radios are 'Realistic'. Not that that means anything about whomever is now making them and Uniden and Cobra and Galaxy etc in China. Probably all made in one place with different names on them. Still, most of us are partial to one brand or the other. And those mag mount mobile antennas are great. I have three (again old 'RS') and they work great. Not just good but great. I put one in the middle of the roof on my Buick and ran to check out a Cobra 29 I found on Craigslist. I also took a cig-lighter plug-in power supply so I could test the thing out. Took less than a minute to set up and had a 1.2:1 SWR match (also took a good SWR meter but the internal one on the 29 would have been good enough for testing). I called for a radio check and got several replies right off the bat. Talked easily with a guy I know 15 miles away. They work and they don't put holes in your roof or fenders. I hear the 'Little Will' is far better than the 'RS' but heck, I can talk to anyone with the setup I have. Although I've sort of settled on Cobras and Unidens, I've had lots of Radio Shack stuff over the years and never had a complaint. Back in 1990, I bought a new custom van and was headed for Disneyland with the kids. With not a lot of room or time to mount a radio, especially a big Cobra, I ran to RS and got the smallest thing they had. I put a 4' whip on the mirror and the little radio mounted on the console without any trouble and the digital channel selector buttons on the mike were really handy. While the thing didn't have many features, it really got out and was a lot more useful and dependable than my 1,200.00 dollar cell phone on the trip. While I bought that little radio just for the Disneyland trip, it stayed in that van until I got rid of it 8 years later and then went into my son's Baja Bug where it remained until we sold it 5 years ago. It still worked great after 20 years!

Anyway, I, like so many here, would love to hear the outcome of your clandestine exploits with the tree radios. Keep us informed!

-- Tuesday, 04 October 2016, 13:00 PM --

Oh, and 543FtWorth,
Curiosity did not kill the cat. My buddy with his '52 Chevy pickup and no glasses killed mine.

Also, give a shout from time to time for "Lil Hombre" on 19 & 22 AM. He's my oldest and best friend. We bought our first CB radios together a long, long time ago. He took a week long trip to Dallas and liked it so much he decided to stay a while longer. That was 35 years ago! If you do get through to him, tell him "Howdy from Scipio". He'll really be confused.

[Deleted User 14541]

Oh, and 543FtWorth,
Curiosity did not kill the cat. My buddy with his '52 Chevy pickup and no glasses killed mine.

Also, give a shout from time to time for "Lil Hombre" on 19 & 22 AM. He's my oldest and best friend. We bought our first CB radios together a long, long time ago. He took a week long trip to Dallas and liked it so much he decided to stay a while longer. That was 35 years ago! If you do get through to him, tell him "Howdy from Scipio". He'll really be confused.

I'll keep that handle in the back of my mind. I don't get on 11 meters too much these days. A few years ago we had a lot of good operators and it was a blast on Friday and Saturday night. I hope it picks back up. It's not a bad place to live but I'm ready to retire 100 years from now and move back to the sticks.

[Scipio Kid]

Like so many, I can't retire. Too many bills to pay.

It's like the Disney song "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go"!

[Squirrel 14]

I ventured into the woods today, not far though, just spent my time looking in the tree canopy for more equipment.
After that, i got on channel 32 and listened to a 3 person conversation about someone they're beefing with. They repeated his address many times over the air and how they're going to "get" him. I googled the address and can see antennas clearly in the yard. The house is about an hour away.

[Squirrel 14]

Uhhhh... yes, the ol' 257.

I'm sure a lot of you were electronics buffs when you were kids. My best buddy and I set up stuff like this all the time clear back when we were 10 or 11 years old. Well, not CB's, they were still considered HI-Tech and you needed an FCC license etc. But we ran wires through the forest and set up our own telephone system and set up booby traps with Radio Shack sirens and stuff just to see what would happen. My point is, what did the voices sound like, 13 year old kids or 35 year old drug dealers?

They definitely aren't kids, i place them in their 40's and 50's, regular southern dudes. They seem to like picking fights with other cb people though, lol.

Thanks for the RS radio support!

[MDYoungblood]

Those radios you found wouldn't have any effect on a station an hour's drive away from where you found them, maybe a station within a mile might be bothered by them. Bickering and fighting on the CB is an everyday occurrence here, "Radio Rambo's" can be found everywhere.

3's

Greg

[drdx]

I would take what I wanted out of the box, then dump my cat's litter box in each and put them back where you found them. Then, put one of those game cameras up so you can record these nuts and post it. Or, use common sense and do nothing.

That's boring though. So.....open up a Hotmail account then an ad on craigslist advertising cb radio stuff with pics of the boxes you found and the gear, and the panels, and tell them in the ad that you will be tailgating and having a sale on it at Walmart, out by the sign. (just playing the odds here, they HAVE to know where that is), and see who shows up. Look for anything with an antenna on it. Now that's a good time. If they've gone through that much effort you may as well make them burn some gas and gather some intel on them. Then if you're really bored you can proceed, find out where they are, and replant it or just make a spark gap transmitter and trash all of their RF stuff. Single channel bombs are so 90's. Everyone knows that you have to hit the whole rf spectrum if you're wanting to have some fun.


-drdx

[Scipio Kid]

Somebody needs a(nother) hobby. But I'm with you drdx, nothin' wrong with a litt'e good ol' fashioned fun.

Sounds like these guys are in there 50's but stuck mentally at 13. Who in their right mind plots to get someone because they don't like his radio attitude or comments. Sheeesh idiots, turn your radio off for a while & get a life.

[MDYoungblood]

a spark gap transmitter and trash all of their RF stuff.

-drdx

Aww man that's so mean,,,, an cool,,, lol. Anyone needs plans of this?

3's

Greg

[Squirrel 14]

a spark gap transmitter and trash all of their RF stuff.

-drdx

Aww man that's so mean,,,, an cool,,, lol. Anyone needs plans of this?

3's

Greg

I don't fully understand, are we talking about a radio detonator essentially? Please share the plans, might need this one day.

[19dt2120]

No not a radio detonator,just a horrible broadband jammer!
But be aware FCC won't like that stuff!

[drdx]

Yeah, that stuff is fun to plot but I'd never proceed with such plans. Other than the obvious legal stuff, how bad would you feel if your project ended up jamming something that made someone's emergency life or death call turn into just a death/disconnected call? I myself am addicted to not being in jail, fined and attempting to avoid the hell factor.

Now if you can, something more frequency specific or short range that just blocked receive you may be ok but it all has its risks.

-drdx

[MDYoungblood]

a spark gap transmitter and trash all of their RF stuff.

-drdx

Aww man that's so mean,,,, an cool,,, lol. Anyone needs plans of this?

3's

Greg

I don't fully understand, are we talking about a radio detonator essentially? Please share the plans, might need this one day.

LOL, no it's not any kind of detonator. You probably have seen a contraption (always in mad scientist movies) that has a spark jumping across two electrodes, the distance between the two is the gap and naturally the spark is well, the spark. This can be tuned but it will interfere with a wide spectrum, some good plans can be found on the web, do a search. I built one years ago for the Halloweener's, big bulky, bunch of car batteries, car ignition coils, if you got too close the spark would jump toward you (luckily never zapped a kid).
Personally I would go with drdx's suggestion of dirty cat litter, when the owner of the box comes to see why it's not working and opens it up .

[443 Arizona]

how boucha Squirrel14, you got that floppy ear on the wave? me and da boys in da hood are lookin for ya...be takin it to 32, cmon.

-- Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:57 am --

pair of 7's on the Squirrel, I wonder what happened to him?

[Scipio Kid]

I'm afraid we've lost him. Apparently those radios were set up so Donald and Hillary could make outrageous allegations anonymously against each other. I think our Squirrel friend got in between them (a place no man ever wants to be). I think they took him out (probably for Pizza, but I wouldn't want to speculate). When this is all over (the election) I'm hoping they'll release him (without asking who he voted for) and he can resume his presence here and on channel 32.

Other wise, he may end up a political prisoner for another 4 years.

[443 Arizona]

i'll bet he was off puddle-jumpin around in them woods instead of working and the boss fired him.

[MightyMo]

Wow! This is quite the bedtime story! I couldn't sleep tonight so I hopped on good ol' CBRT and came across this. Read the whole post top to bottom. I feel like a kid reading one of those mystery books from grade school. Just as you get to the good part where the bad guy shows himself again, your dad comes in and tells you to turn out the light and go to bed. What a cliff hanger. Hopefully Squirrel is alright and will get back on to finish the story.