CB radio 13 codes
Devised and developed by
Grub, his brother and Plastic Bucket.
1978 ish.
Hi folks,
do you know where the CB radio 13 codes originated?
Australia, that's where.
I recently came across something amusing online.
Something I helped make. So, in case someone ever asks the question, 'where did the cb radio 13 codes come from?', here it is, before I forget or die.
Many years ago, in the land of Oz, not long after getting a license for my first CB radio, (a Roberts RCB-55 AM), two of the guys living behind me, Grub and his elder brother and myself, developed over several days of blood (if you wern't tripping over something, it was because you were somewhere else), sweat (it was summer), and tears from laughing, the cb radio 13 codes.
This was our way of having a comeback at sharp tongued witty individuals occasioned now and then. We knew what we were talking about, they didn't. This would annoy them and they would leave, such was the plan. It never worked of course.
Looking at them now, some of these codes may be considered politically incorrect.
But going back even further, I had Noddy and Gollywog books, so, you know, it's history.
These codes have been spied by foreigners that did not understand them, they have tried to interpret them for their own people.
The codes first appeared online during the 1990s, along with the 'Shite' or 'Jobbies' list.
I wonder if anyone copied that and modded it?
Looking, OO.
Wow, that's scary, it's plastered everywhere, and heaps of variations.
I searched for one of the jobbies, the 'pop a vein in your forehead' jobbie,
It found every version, ha ha.
The 'jobbies list' was originally called, 'The Shit List', and was circulated in Australia by fax between offices during the early 1980's.
One of these faxes hung on the back of the loo door for a few years, by then I had a TRS80 with a dot matrix printer, woo hoo. I added a couple of 'incident reports' to it and renamed it the 'Shite List', and later, again changing it to 'Jobbies' because some folks would be offended by the crass term 'Shit' or its likes, and I love Billy Connolly, and that is what he would probably call them if he wasn't allowed to say 'shite', so, in honour of Billy Connolly, 'Jobbies' was unleashed online.
So, everywhere you see 'Jobbies', you can blame me for it not being 'Shit' or 'Shite'.
OK, now you will have to go and google for the 'jobbies list' somewhere for a read.
Use the same search term as I did, 'pop a vein in your forehead',
you'll find it.
All those others that do say 'shit', must have been other folks had that fax and did the same, or didn't like jobbies and moved back to 'shit', I see a poopie there too?
I can't remember which one I stuck in, I need the original fax again, don't I?
Ha, reckon I might be pushin that one, but ya never know what a good rake around will come up with. To see how it evolved from early 80s to now.
Some of the 13 codes have been translated into the language of others, some have totally escaped and eluded decoding by the foreigners and remain safely Australian.
Or, they left out the politically incorrect ones.
This is mainly due to the fact that Australians talk meaningless gibberish and are trying to confuse foreigners.
What that really means is, foreigners don't understand or relate to our lingo.
Below are the original CB radio 13 codes.
Original code was typed on paper before there were computers in every house.
I am half sure, I saw the original within the last few years somewhere.
I'll have a search, if I find it, it might be something to include in the CB radio museum of history, if there was one.
Below the code listing are two webpages in foreign lands that have attempted to decode and understand our cipher.
They did a pretty good job in translating most of it.
They also left some of it out, maybe they didn't get it.
OK, some of it is Oz Only, like talking about John Laws. Who's that, they say.
With a few spaces left in the code sequence to allow for expansion, the additions ended up being tacked onto the end, and carry on from there. So, the original gaps, still exist.
The other contributions are pretty good and are sideband related, not something I had to play with at the time,
it would be another 2 years yet before I saw my first sideband set, a Pace 1000M.
While I had the Pace 1000M, I heard my own echo, my own voice and words about a second after I stopped talking, I thought someone was mocking me, but, no, it was me. It only lasted a few minutes, it has never happened to me since on any band.
Compare the original Aussie 13 code from the late 1970s, with the 'Foreigners versions'.
Reading what the foreigners have turned it into is just as funny as reading the original.
The C.B. radio 13 codes.
13 - 1 All units copy you and think you’re a cretin.
13 - 2 I copy you but I’m not answering you.
13 - 3 You’re really spunky when you’re angry.
13 - 4 I’m really sorry about that mate, it really cuts me up.
13 - 5 Same to you but with knobs on it.
13 - 6 So I made a mistake, none of us is perfect.
13 - 7 If you don’t copy me it’s your lousy equipment because I’m running 3,000
watts.
13 - 8 You sound so illiterate your parents never saw the minister.
13 - 9 Are you running a piece of obsolete equipment ?
13 - 10 I’d gladly help you but your problem leaves me puzzled.
13 - 11 Have you tried blowing your nose ? It might clear your head.
13 - 12 It still sounds like you have foot and mouth disease.
13 - 13 Yours friends must have put pins in your co-ax again.
13 - 14 So now I know what a lousy antenna sounds like.
13 - 15 Why did you get a licence if you’re only running 100 milliwatts ?
( You’re a Mud Duck )
13 - 16 The white mouse running your generator must be tired.
13 - 17 You’re only able to go horizontal because your antenna fell down.
13 - 18 If I could understand you I would be tempted to answer you.
13 - 19 Are you talking into the back of the microphone ?
13 - 20 Are you choking on your mike or are your dentures loose again. ?
13 - 21 Far out ! Are you being paid by the word.
13 - 22 Lady, is that your voice or are you pulling the cocky’s tail ?
13 - 23 If you had spoken for another 30 seconds you would have put John Laws
out of business.
13 - 24 Y’know, you made more sense the last time you were smashed.
13 - 25 Some sensible stations and myself have hit the kitty in order to buy your rig.
See you when we get there.
13 - 26 Next time you eat garlic, would you stop breathing into the microphone.
13 - 27 Heard you were limp wristed but I thought you could key the mike.
13 - 28 A band-aid would make a better patch cord than that thing.
13 - 37 It sounds like somebody must have kicked your head in.
13 - 38 You sound like you’re talking with your head in a bucket of water.
13 - 40 Your signal is terrific but give me a land line so I can find out what you
want.
13 - 41 Either my receiver is out or you’re on channel 28.
13 - 42 Either my speaker cone is ripped or you’d better try it again when you’re
sober.
13 - 43 That was a beautiful transmission, now try it with your mike connected.
13 - 44 I love the way your new rig sounds, now I know why they aren’t made any
more.
13 - 45 Your transmitter must have a short circuit because there is heaps of smoke
coming from my rig
13 - 46 That’s a new antenna ? I could get a better signal out of a dingo’s tail.
13 - 47 What a fantastic signal, give me a few minutes so I can drive the mobile up
your driveway and copy your message.
PDF version 1.0 produced by VK3UKF
The data above came from one of the first PDFs I ever made, while I was in Castlemaine. That PDF along with the others I made at the time, is resting online at my website, here, CB radio PDFs
I have no idea of the whereabouts of Grub or his brother these days.
Plastic Bucket still occasionally picks up the mic on the chook band, but these days, is usually hanging out for a satellite or the Space Station to come along.
My callsign history is as follows, (I've never written this down anywhere before, so, here goes), dates are from memory.
Plastic Bucket 27 MHz 1977-1979 (I came up with this beauty, all by myself)
VBM570 27 MHz 1980-1990 (Government numbers, no flair here)
Class license introduced somewhere along the line, license for CB no longer required, but, still use the VBM570 on air.
Captain Nimrod 27 MHz and 477 MHz 1990-2000
Got this tag from working in mines and someone else getting confused with Captain Nemo. It stuck, too late.
I still get called this???? Hello Daryl :-)
VK3UKF 2001-present (More government numbers, this is me now)
So, the code has grown a little, from the original above, all in good fun.
It has a few additions by others.
So, at least 2 people got a laugh out of it. Hopefully a few more.
The 13 codes also get a mention in Wikipedia, and referenced to,
AN English Radio Site. Wikipedia
????
I love the way no-one else says where THEY got it from.
Wonderful.
Possibly guilty of the same thing myself somewhere, but I do try and make sure I ask first, or at least use the disclaimer, 'I don't know where this came from, if yours, please email me for credit and link to your page'
Do they remember where they got it from?
Well you would think so, if you had to remove Australianisms and John Laws from it, wouldn't you?
Grub's brothers brother, (Grub himself) was a mate I would tend to wander off with for a bit of fun and somehow every now and then we would get in strife. Grub's brother worked at an electronics firm in Melbourne and wore the first ever red LED watch I ever saw. Grub's dad was in the Air Force.
Grub's dad was very unimpressed when the two of us let ourselves into the Air Force base, let ourselves into an aircraft, and had a play with the controls, and everything else inside. Talk about trouble, what a lesson that was.
We got chewed out for ages over that. Funny thing came to light a while after we learned our lesson.
My grandmother showed me an old black and white picture of a jeep with a kid in it and some soldiers. The kid was my Dad, the soldiers were from the local R.A.F. base, bringing him home, after finding him wandering around the base.
Sound familiar?
History repeats itself?
Sorry about the nick names and all, but if I ever catch up with these blokes again, and ask if I can put their names to this, that's when they will appear.
A note to myself here, if you find the original 13 typed version, the Seddon Song, should be on it also. The Seddon Song was sung on air at times, and produced total confusion in all that ever heard, it would confound and annoy for days, because, none of it made any sense at all. The Seddon Song could be most likened to the drunken ramblings of a semi-conscious station master telling passengers about the next train arrival at the station and its details, causing everyone to become instantly lost, thinking they were in fact at Flinders Street Station, where the norm was no-one ever understood the announcements anyway.
I like the old CB's, I have another set with the 02A chassis and PLL.
I modded that one to work on a Russian satellite band, it uses direct binary program code into the PLL bypassing the channel selector.
Definately, when I die, no one will ever figure out how it works, :-)
and here it is, a Russian satellite RS12, picked up on that old CB on 29 something meg.
Radio Sputnik 12 recording + others
The page above has been around for a while, some of these spacecraft, crashed and burned a long time ago, or is that, burned and then crashed?
The old CB days on 27 were fun. I used to receive postcard things from other countries, they must have picked up on some extraneous transmissions. :-)
My first QSL card came from Melbourne, a young lady of similar age to myself at the time, while both of us were hundreds of miles from Melbourne, we had an eyeball, I found the card not long ago,
Pussyfoot Pam Central Radio. I wonder if she still gets on?
Plenty of slots left for more politically correct 21st century additions.
Bye for now folks and especially to all those spunky YL's, and possibly now XYL's, cheers.
Plastic Bucket, VBM570, Captain Nimrod, VK3UKF.
Where to find me ON AIR, sometimes.
CB, Melbourne UHF CH 4 (if the repeater is going).
CB, Melbourne 27 MHz (Look at the pic at top, OK, you can't see) 35 LSB.
Amateur, Mt Macedon or 147.250 MHz FM
Amateur, trying to use a satellite or the Space Station.
