Mother Shocked By Foul Language On CB Toy Bought At Wal-Mart

Here's another example of why we need to start teaching amateur radio at least by high school.

Turns out a mother in West Virginia bought this radio toy for her 3-year-old that apparently had a CB Receiver and the poor, impressionable little tyke overheard trucker conversations about drugs and strip clubs.

The mother is in shock because the radio was supposed to only have a range of 20 feet but it picked up conversations from 275 miles away.

Uh ... a toy radio for a 3-year-old may have a TRANSMIT range of 20 feet, but have you ever heard of a KILOWATT LINEAR amplifier there, ma'am?

Yes, boys and girls, if you ever are brave enough to tune in the CB band (also known as 11-meters to those in the ham radio hobby), you will hear VERY naughty truckers who have bought highly illegal equipment that will boost their transmit signal to something in the range of 1000 watts.

After all, these gentlemen (and a few ladies) have access to a huge diesel plant that can be inverted to run a fair sized VHF television station. All that power on 11 meters can lead to all kinds of deleterious side effects.

Wal-Mart, where the radio was bought, says that model is being discontinued.

Perhaps they'll try something that works on the FRS band - less likely to be populated by foul-mouthed truckers and more likely to be frequented by better behaved golfers and the like.

Or perhaps they'll go to something digital - something perhaps with the "guts" of a 5.8 GHz scrambled cell phone.

Of course I suppose that would involve spending SERIOUS money and we are talking about Wal-Mart here.

In any event - people - get your ham radio licenses. Learn this stuff.

It might save your kids picking up some new words some day that you'd rather they not ...

Related:
Mom claims toy picks up bawdy trucker talk - The Huntington Herald-Dispatch