CB Radio? You must be joking!

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I recently have started clearing some old junk out of my storage space, and came across a 40-channel Citizen's Band radio. I hooked it up and started flipping through the channels. Most were dead (channel 6 is still full of foul-mouthed bootlegger), but channel 17 seems to have an active community of men and women. Listening to it, I realized that I was hearing many of the same kinds of banter that are found in on-line chat rooms. Most of the people seem to be within a mile or so, and most seem to know each other.

I wonder if anyone WP members own or use a CB radio, and how often they use it.

I've never had nor used one.

back in the 70s i had a license, and i was known by a very few as "the silver bullet." i had a mobile 23-channel unit with a portable antenna, and since i lived at a high elevation i could get signal out ok. i liked listening to people more than chatting. i really liked listening to skip from people a long ways off. if i were more organized i would be a ham. i really like the 6 meter band, it is the best combo of bandwidth and distant propagation capability, especially when cooperative atmospheric conditions lower MUF sufficient to permit dx'ing via skip and other methods. but i like the challenge also, of extracting as much reach out of the limitations of CB [4 watts output and limited antenna height]. a monster beam antenna can make CB travel very far, even if the FCC doesn't like it so much [150 mile legal limit].

I never talk, just listen, once in a while I get alerted to speed traps, which is good when my Ricky Bobby gets out (I wanna go fast!!).

I never got into it that deep-I got into ham radio and now all the CB's are getting their licenses and turng the VHF and UHF repeaters into 10-4 good buddy time-I worked on CB's when they were in the state police cars but not very often.

I have 1 Desktop CB and 3 Car CBs

Also I am working on getting my Ham license I am using Study Material from Gorden West W6NOA

Used to have a pretty nice radio in my truck back when I was driving for a living.
It was all customized and I ran it through a big linear amplifier so I could talk farther and nobody could talk over me.

I cranked it all the way up one time when I was parked over by my parents' house, talking to a guy like 15 miles away.
My dad called my cel and said he could hear me through the TV.
They have cable TV, so no antenna to even pick up my signal lol.
If I turned it all the way up at the truckstop and the guy parked next to me had his radio on, there was a pretty good chance it was gonna mess his radio up.

With truckers, it's like some sort of a testosterone thing to try and have the biggest radio at the truck stop.
Some of those guys spend an awful lot of money to have the best and coolest looking cb set-ups.
My whole set-up from mic to antenna probably was worth about $700-800, and that's only about mid-way up the price scale for what these guys spend sometimes.

CB radios, HAM and shortwave still work when cel towers, internet and 911 doesn't.

Thank your lucky stars people still use them.

I recently came across one the same way while clearing stuff from my deceased father-in-law's workshop, and I was surprised to discover it easily sold for a decent price on eBay! Some of the older radios can be upgraded with additional frequencies, and that was the case with this one.

I still have an old 23-channel CB hooked up as a base unit in my own project area, and I typically have it monitoring channel 19 in the background while I am working out there. Much of what I hear is just foolish banter, but like you have also said, there are still some "active communities" of people on the CB air. Personally, I like hearing some of the local truck traffic as they run their daily routes and/or just pass through town. However, I have yet to ever talk with anyone myself since my antenna receives far better than it transmits and I really have no need to talk with anyone there anyway! But then like cw10 has mentioned, that radio will still be there and working whenever anything else might not be.

'Course you have to have power, which is fine for CB, but probably not so fine for HAM and shortwave, since I thought most people used them from home. And if cell towers, internet and 911 services are all down, power is probably out, too. Or have they gone mobile too, now?

Also, I've known people with HAM licenses, but I've never known anyone who broadcast anything via shortwave. It always seemed like the kind of thing people might buy only receivers for and that a lot of the stations were rebroadcasted versions of "regular" radio programming, just that you could pick up the BBC or Radio Moscow or whatever, from thousands of miles away. That's not the case any longer?





[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb2GzRckU9s[/youtube]

'Course you have to have power, which is fine for CB, but probably not so fine for HAM and shortwave, since I thought most people used them from home. And if cell towers, internet and 911 services are all down, power is probably out, too. Or have they gone mobile too, now?

Also, I've known people with HAM licenses, but I've never known anyone who broadcast anything via shortwave. It always seemed like the kind of thing people might buy only receivers for and that a lot of the stations were rebroadcasted versions of "regular" radio programming, just that you could pick up the BBC or Radio Moscow or whatever, from thousands of miles away. That's not the case any longer?


you can still get both Moscow BBC and many others BUT a real HF/shortwave antennae is needed. think a "slinky" or some other specialized antennae; easy enough to make yourself if you have a good copy of the ARRL handbook. and I should also point out that some receivers are much better than others. I myself run tube equipment.You can still get Cuba even with a dinky Coby world band radio but again time of day and seasons do affect the signals. as for transmission equipment with a high enough ( and well enough designed) antennae even low watt signals can get good distance but this only works to a point.Mind the suns behavior as well.

the FCC takes a dim view of anybody broadcasting without a broadcast license.

That and RFI( be it pirate transmission, bandwidth drifting or Tesla coils).... they sure don't have sense of humor. OH and Linear Amplifiers WILL piss them off royally.you do have a set wattage you have to stay within.