Archmage Arcane
Velociraptor
Joined: 13 Jun 2019
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 448
Location: Connecticut, USA
20 Jan 2022, 3:13 am
naturalplastic wrote:
Archmage Arcane wrote:
I guess for anyone who wasn't there, the late 1970s would be hard to imagine. CB radio became a fad for a while. Many people had them in their houses and cars. As I said, the best modern analogy I can make is that is was like Facebook a long time before Facebook.
You wouldnt expound upon your ... philosophy life or whatever, on a CB radio like you can here on WP, or on Facebook.
More like Twitter (which limits you to X number of characters in a tweet). On CB you had to make it brief, and talk fast before someone could "step" on you (slang for talking over you). And that was another thing. You had to learn the colorful trucker lingo to use it. "Bear" means "state cop". "Beaver bear" means "a female cop", and like that. You needed a "handle", or nickname to id yourself(like we have nicknames to id ourselves here on WP).
It was more like "texting while driving". Except you didnt have to text. You could keep your eye on the road while talking into a mic. That was the good thing about it. The bad thing is that your boss probably did NOT have a CB set so you couldnt use a CB to tell your job that you're "running late" (the most common reason I ever text myself).
Actually, we did 'expound on philosophy' on occasion. I had a lot of hours-long conversations back in the day. Non-truckers didn't use a lot of the jargon, although all of us used some of it. If you were operating mobile and were talking to a friend operating from home [referred to as 'base'], you could ask them to call your boss and relay the message.
The 'stepping on' people did eventually become an issue (along with a reasonably strong solar cycle (Cycle 21) which 'opened up' 27MHz to ionospheric propagation for several years [you're talking to your friend across town, then suddenly somebody in Texas comes in like they're across the street and you can't hear anyone else]), and the fad began to die out.
28 Feb 2022, 10:55 pm
02 Mar 2022, 2:15 am
Archmage Arcane
Velociraptor
Joined: 13 Jun 2019
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 448
Location: Connecticut, USA
03 Mar 2022, 12:36 am
Fnord wrote:
This thread started out as one on Amateur Radio.
How did it get derailed to discussing the Children’s Band?
How did it get derailed to discussing the Children’s Band?
Thread got off topic. Happens a lot with neurodivergent people.
10 Mar 2022, 3:27 am
