"Bush Boogie"
The "Bush Boogie" was a cute name, originally coined by Art, for a small radio jamming device, usually made from a cheapy 100 mW walkie-talkie (a Radio Shack micro Space Patrol was a good choice). Normally we would employ such a device when we were forced to deal with people who caused trouble on the channel, and who would not stop even after they had been tracked down and their identity revealed. The idea behind the "Bush Boogie" was that a small, low powered transmitter placed relatively close to a station's antenna, would block the station operator's ability to receive on that channel, thereby limiting their ability to interact (cause trouble) with the other people on the channel. If you can't hear them, you can't agitate them. The signal would be only strong enough to affect the desired recipient, but not strong enough to affect anyone else who was more than a 1/4 mile away. A walkie-talkie, powered by a 9V battery and locked in the transmit position, would last for the better part of a week. After which time the unit had to be retrieved and the battery changed. This is why we normally went for the really cheap 3 or 4 transistor units, which typically drew the least amount of battery current. This battery limitation drove some later modifications, including placing a few 9V batteries in parallel , or using a Ni-Cad battery pack (More capacity). Normally, we didn't have to use it for long, as the mental midgets who used to be a thorn in our behinds, would usually lose interest and move on to other "prey" when they couldn't hear on the channel after a few days. But sometimes we'd have to leave it in place for a bit longer as some people were a bit persistent. It was not surprising that coincidently many of these same people often found their coax cables cut not long after.......
Specific circumstances drove some later innovative variations from the basic Bush Boogie. Some of these later versions involved utilizing a P.L.L. (Phase Locked Loop) circuit and then driving the VCO with pulsing or warbling audio creating wideband F.M. which would sweep a broader range of channels. This was used for those people who polluted more than one channel. Only one of these was ever built, and it required sacrificing a 40 channel CB radio (This one had a dead receiver, so it wasn't much of a loss). There was also a higher powered version, which could jam a whole block of unruly people. The latter version was designed and built, but never actually deployed. Increased battery drain made it impractical.
I also remember a somewhat humorous story involving one of these devices. This time the joke was on me. During the early 80's, one of our Channel 30 regulars ("Uncle" Jimmy) had obtained some low power battery powered transmitters, which operated on class "C" CB channel "7a" (27.045). These were about half the size of a pack of cigarettes, and had a short piece of stiff wire for an antenna. Anyway, one of these devices ended up in Art's hands, which meant trouble for sure! Well, during one of our frequent regular visits to "Uncle" Chuck(ie)'s for beer and conversation, Art decided that he was going to toss one of those transmitters into the back of my truck (Seems that the bed of my truck was a common target for just about anything back then). This happened right around the time of the "Bottle Rocket" incident, and was another of Art's attempts at revenge (we were always playing little pranks on each other). The only problem was that the Bush Boogie's transmitter operated on RC Channel "7a", and we usually talked on Channel 30. At the time, I was running a modified Midland 77-882 in the truck. The first night, after Art slipped the "Bush Boogie" in the back of my truck, nothing happened when I drove home as the low powered, carrier-only transmitter just did not have enough power to significantly affect my receive on Channel 30 even though it was less than 3 feet from the antenna. Rats! Art was not one to give up easily however, and he was determined to make this prank work somehow. The right thing to do, of course, would have been to change the crystal in the thing to Channel 30. But as many junk parts as Art had at the time, he didn't have any Channel 30 crystals. The solution he came up with instead, was to invent some hokey story about needing to test out some new project he had been working on, and that he needed me to go to Channel 7a to test it with him. I was never one to question any of Art's wild and crazy projects, so the next night as I was driving home from Chuck's, we went to Channel 7a. When I changed channels, I immediately noticed the "S" meter sitting in the red zone, and could only hear Art faintly heterodyning in the background. Of course, any signal this strong immediately got my attention, as this was not something which I normally encountered on the usually quiet RC channels. So to say that it piqued my curiosity would be an understatement. However, I started becoming suspicious when I noticed that the signal wasn't changing, despite my having traveled some distance after my initial observation. Any normal signal will vary somewhat as you move closer or farther away from it or you pass obstacles. But this signal was rock steady, suggesting that it was co-located in my truck. By the time I got close to home, Art started to over ride the carrier, as he lived only a few houses up the street from me. He tried to act innocent enough, as I explained the situation to him. But, by that time, I knew something strange was up and I started looking around for a "Bush Boogie" once I was home. It didn't take long to find it, hiding under some leaves which had become trapped behind my spare tire, and I knew right away who was behind it. Ok, you got me this time......