Jimmy (Streamer) was a member of the Channel 13 group, which ran from 1977, to about 1980.  Where Albert and myself were the "brains" of the group, Jimmy was more of the "muscle".  He hailed from the King of Prussia area,  about 3.5 miles from me, 2 doors down from Fred (Frogman), and 2 blocks away from Jim (Tank), who were also members of our group.  Jimmy lived on top of a good hill which, combined with an Avanti Astro Beam and a 100 watt amplifier, gave him the strongest signal on the channel. This allowed him to effectively clear the channel of malcontents, and to override most of the carrier throwers and other agitators. The downside to this level of power was that Jimmy often bled over other channels, a situation which would precipitate a fair number of our channel feuds.  He initially ran a Lafayette Telsat SSB 50a with a D-104, on his base, and then later upgraded to a Tram Diamond 60.   Jimmy got his start in CB back in 1974, and was one of the only "kids" who hung out on Channel 3, which was primarily an "adult" channel at the time.  He was accepted there, but he had little in common with folks his parents age.  Eventually he hooked up with guys more his age, which eventually landed him on Channel 13 when the group formed in 1977.

Jimmy was of slight build, and a little on the short side, but he would never back away from a fight.  Jimmy was also adept at carpentry, and he was a rabid football fan. We used to have frequent Sunday afternoon "Football and Nacho's" parties at Jimmy's.  I have fond memories of watching Roger Staubach's last days, when he hooked up with Tony Dorsett for Dallas, and the games when Terry Bradshaw still commanded the Steelers. We never had to worry about crumbs either as Jimmy had a pet raccoon, which he had rescued from a job site, and who was more than willing to take care of the cleanup detail.

Toward the end of Channel 13's run, Jimmy met and started dating the girl who he would eventually marry.  It turned out that she had no love for CB radio, or for Jimmy's radio "pals" (Ironic, since it was one of those same "pals" who first introduced them).  Eventually, she managed exert her influence and pretty much removed Jimmy from the radio scene altogether.  A few years later, Jimmy bought a house at the other end of my neighborhood, not far from Steve.  Despite our relatively close proximity, we rarely saw each other other than drive-by waves.

Today: Jimmy is still living in my old neighborhood.  He's still married, and has a couple of kids.  He's still working in the construction business, as far as I can tell from a distance.  He had a mobile CB antenna on his truck, but I've never run across him on the band since the Channel 13 days.

 

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