I once saw a '48 F-8 tow truck at an auction that had a vintage two way radio. It looked like it was an original aftermarket piece of equipment. Man, was it huge! It took up all of the leg room on the passenger side. I don't know if all communication equipment was that big back then but I don't think they were used very much by the common man, only people like cops, firemen and tow trucks. I remember police unit being so big that they mounted them in the trunks of the cars.

 

My first CB was in a 51 Studebaker Commander Starlite Coupe. It was a was Globe 6 volt tube type and was about 18"W X 12"D X 5"H (about 1958). My call number was 17W-7119.......................don't ask how I remember that. -- Chuck

 

Motorola & Midland were back then & are still the biggest makes of just about every type of Two-way radio equipment.

 

The C B radio band came into existance in the late 50's, my father had the the forth or fifth license issued in the state of Arkansas at the time. Chuck, I don't know where you came up with that call sign but it isn't CB, they started with three letters followed by four numbers back then. That call sign looks more like a HAM radio call sign. Motorola did not make CB radios back then and Midland did not exist at that point in time. The main players in the CB radio market were Johnson, Halicraft (sp?) and Heathkit.

 

I still remember my CB call signal. It was KTC-6349 and the CB was mounted in a 34 Plymouth PE.

 

Danny--I am installing a craig power-play 8 track for my nostalgia in high school days. I have a cb -but it is a new one and portable. I can still remember those 8 track tape mis-haps/ oops-it ate my tape--darn,Stairway to Heaven!!!! haha!!! Bill

 

8 track in the 50's? Nah, but RCA had a 45 RPM record player available back then. It was a must to put one in your 50's custom leadsled interior so you could play the "banned" rock and roll music of Buddy Holley, The Big Bopper, Bill Hailey, Jerry Lee Lewis etc that couldn't be played on the radio.
My brother has a working 8 track in his 68 Camaro Convertible!

 

8-track, 8-track?
If you Really want to get Nostalgic, install a 4-track Tape-player!
Or for that matter, an Under-dash mounted Record-player!

 

The 8 track was in my original 56 that I drove in high-school --and was before that--our company truck. When I put the 8 track in--wow it brings back good memories---oh-yea this was 1972-1975---way before the 50s---but still nostalgic!! haha!!!!!Bill

 

Now you got me going. I found my CB license dated 1958 and the call sign is 17W-7119. The 17 was for a region which included Nebraska and some other states, I think the W was for west and the numbers were issue numbers for that region. The FCC regulations allowed communication only between CB'ers in the same region and talking "skip" was reason for license revocation. You were also required to identify yourself by call number every time you signed on or off. -- Chuck

 

Never had to to fool w/ a C.B. Lic., as I've my R.T.O. Lic. from Flying, so it wasn't necessary.

 

Do a search on eBay using these words: vintage cb tube
and several candidates show up.

At least one of those looks way too new to have tubes (LED displays and tubes aren't generally found in the same box), and another one might possibly be some kind of two-way radio that isn't CB. There's also a slight chance that some units have been modified to work on the amateur radio 10 meter band over the years.

A gutted vintage two-way radio could make a good place to hide an AM/FM/CD deck or even a car computer.

 

At some point they changed that. In the mid or late 70's ours (well...my parents) was KAHW-9762 here in AR. No clue what that means.

I ran a CB up until abou 90 or 91. I had forgot about those.

 

Finding a true 50's era CB might be more difficult than imagined. According to Wikipedia true CB did not come into existance until 1958. Until the mid 60s an amatuer radio operator's license (and test including morse code) was required. AFAIR most early CB radios were refequencied ham equipment used for communication by service companies. CB radio as we now know it became a fad and phenominum in the late 60s with truckers and in the 70s with the general public with the availability of test free licenses, inexpensive transistorized FM units and the reduction of the national speed limit. They were the "cell phone" of the day except everyone shared a "party line" so "handles" were used to identify yet keep the identities of the users confidential.
According to my research the early units used AM technology, so would not be useable (or even legal?) today to reach other CBers using FM, SSB etc, unless they were also on antique equipment.