Wireless communication

A hundred and one outdoor hobby books showed us kids how to make plastic cup telephones, stretching a dozen feet of fraying string (or washing line) across the back garden into the den or treehouse. Like pre-infrared remote controls, though, they were deeply unsatisfying and could similarly cause one or more members of the family to trip up and drop a tray of Sunday tea and Jaffa Cakes.

Some kids were blessed with a slightly more sophisticated intercom system, being able to “buzz” a close friend or neighbour if the wire could stretch between two open bedroom windows (or maybe that was only the sort of thing that happened in American TV movies). What we really wanted was a set of walkie-talkies. Sadly, the only type that fell in the range of a child’s purchasing power were the kind that had a transmitting range of about six feet and, frankly, we’d have been better off investing in a long cardboard tube to carry out covert conversations. Or just moving closer together.

Lucky girls could get pink walkie-talkies, with packaging that depicted their usefulness for gossiping. Boys could get camouflaged varieties, or something badged up NYPD style (plus, of course, every TV cop show from CHiPS to Columbo produced a tie-in version). The holy grail, however, was the heavy duty long range walkie-talkie that came inside a full “spy kit” attache case set, nestling in styrofoam alongside a mini camera and Luger complete with twist-on silencer, and plastic handcuffs. Especially desirable were the kinds that could transmit Morse code and had different channels, frequencies and so on.

The ‘Eighties, however, brought the C.B. radio revolution, with talk of “smokeys”, “rubber ducks” and “10-4 good buddy”, and the bulky blue Ever Ready guzzling walkie-talkie fell out of fashion. Kids nowadays are far more likely to have Internet-ready mobile phones and Bluetooth headsets than some crackly plastic crap. Thankfully the walkie-talkie lives on, the preserve of lowly TV studio production floor team members - probably the only people left in the world who still get a thrill from saying “over”.