CB Radio-A [Preventable] Wireless Wasteland

[ericjohn]

My kinda guy. The old saying is, Don't cry, BUY! Hence: CB = Constantly Buying.

"While I am steppin out the Bayou with this big ole maul down while they are rollin a gate on me in Cali. Cause the gate don't lie" I heard that on the Super Bowl once.

Some of these guys are very serious about there CB set ups. Legal or not. Don't believe me? Search CB keydown videos on youtube. Get ready to see mobile stations with over 25KW. Suburbans & their motors built just to Keydown on some poor mudduck. They may have six plus high output alternators just to keep things running.

There are even a few millionaires and famous people who are into CBs. Don't believe it? Search up Prime Minister No Excuses on the Bowl. The Bowl refers to Channel 6. Its the big boys play ground. There are base stations running well in excess of 50KW into custom built 8 element beam antennas on 100 ft towers.

Lots of amazing stuff out there if your into that.

Just like people think were are nuts for loving lights, many think they are nuts for loving CB radio. So you say its against the law? Yup, so is speeding and speeding is more dangerous, but I bet many of us here do it daily.

FCC = Broke. They have cellphones to hack, sorry cellphones to worry about. I believe that is their main transceiver focus these days.

Channel 6 annoys the living daylights out of me. And the worst part is that they aren't really discussing anything, they are just blabbering nonsense. Channel 6 is by far the worst frequency where this behavior goes on.

Flashlights will only be made illegal if an extremely oppressive government comes into existence, but that is a whole other story. They would use excuses that brightness can damage eyes if used to protect oneself. Actually some police departments forbid that carrying of heavier flashlights, but I don't want the discussion to head in that direction right now.

Speeding is a victim-less crime until someone is injured.

 

[FRITZHID]

EOTWAWKI = end of the world as we know it.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

CB really started to go nuts after the 70's hit Convoy came out. I think that song sold more CB radios than any marketing campaign did.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I'm not sure if there are 1 KW amps on trucks, but I do believe there are some for base stations. I have heard of some CB transceivers[with these amps installed] causing nearby light bulbs to turn on and other phenomena.

These KW amps are either designed for VHF low band and modified for CB or they are a completely illegal imported black market item.

I was testing out a 4 Watt portable (with stock antenna) in my living room and when I keyed up, it caused my wife's touch lamp to come on.

I had a 75 watt amp and it could like up a 6 watt fluorescent tube by exciting the gas in it doesn't take a huge amount of power to do so. Like I said a KW amp takes about 80 or so amps to run and yes some trucks have them but to be honest a base with 250 watts can usually walk all over a 100 watt mobile because the antenna is higher and larger and has more gain. Under skip conditions someone 4 states away running 4 watts parked on top of a hill can talk to you... even talk to other countries. I've talked to about a dozen countries with only 4 watts on a base station and perhaps 30 or so of the states. Skip conditions make it hard to use CB radios long distance at all it is cyclical comes and goes when it is dead quiet a decent mobile setup can be heard 40-50 miles with no signal showing up on the meter just the noise creeping in.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

CB really started to go nuts after the 70's hit Convoy came out. I think that song sold more CB radios than any marketing campaign did.

CB's were great but after awhile around where I am it became littered with more and more low life type people in the cities as the radios got so cheap anyone could get one and cause a lot of trouble keying down and cussing at people to stir them up for hours.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Now CB radio is mainly for truckers and looking out for speed traps and at times roadside information but with smart phones and GPS the need for CBs has dwindled to near nothing.

 

[Str8stroke]

I had a 75 watt amp and it could like up a 6 watt fluorescent tube by exciting the gas in it doesn't take a huge amount of power to do so. Like I said a KW amp takes about 80 or so amps to run and yes some trucks have them but to be honest a base with 250 watts can usually walk all over a 100 watt mobile because the antenna is higher and larger and has more gain. Under skip conditions someone 4 states away running 4 watts parked on top of a hill can talk to you... even talk to other countries. I've talked to about a dozen countries with only 4 watts on a base station and perhaps 30 or so of the states. Skip conditions make it hard to use CB radios long distance at all it is cyclical comes and goes when it is dead quiet a decent mobile setup can be heard 40-50 miles with no signal showing up on the meter just the noise creeping in.

You covered my next point. With "Skip" aka "Mother Nature" a 4 watt station and good antenna can go around the world if conditions are right. Other times it can't even make it across town. Heavy uses channels are 6, 11, 19, 28, 38 (due to the use of 38LSB Lower Side Band). Those are ones the average CB user should steer clear of. I normally try to use 32 for local talking. Any town that has local users will typically have a Rag Chew channel. The other ones can be totally dead.

On another footnote. The FCC only has jurisdiction in the United States. There are many super loud stations we receive here in the US that are from foreign stations. So the FCC could shut down every station here and you would still have some foolishness.

BTW: 6 is totally stupid. We had a local guy who was one of those Ch 6 Operators. His handle was Smooth Operator (atleast that is what it sounded like he was saying). He spoke in a different tongue. lol He was anything but smooth. His station was so powerful and illegal he would bleed over all 40 channels when he talked. I can only imagine what his neighbors must have thought. Many calls to the FCC were totally worthless. They never did anything. Guy finally died and now we can use the radio locally again. It is invaluable during emergencies and for traffic information.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Many years ago I had a landlord who was a CB'er. He lived downstairs, and whenever he ran with "boots on," I could pick him up on my telephone and stereo. :scowl:

 

[bykfixer]

Good topic. Good info here.

Folks: CB's are the favorite of truckers. It's been that way since the 70's.
No disrespect to truckers. But like many-a livelihood in the States, there are millions of less than well mannered folks driving over the road haulers.
Just like my chosen proffesion of construction, it is not generally made up of college educated, well thought out individuals. Instead it's loaded with folks on a self-destruction binge who live for the moment until they either expire or retire on disability shortly before expiring...

A couple of movies came out back in about 1976 featuring cb radios and every car in the neighborhood had a cb antenna. Some 'luxury' cars (Buick Park Ave etc) had AM/FM/8-track/cb systems.

The trouble is society has gone down the tubes. Pop culture breeds "the raunchier the better" across the planet anymore.
And folks who want clean-cut conversations or want to discuss ideas these days are considered weaklings or out casts.

Reading this thread gave me ideas where I can find meaningful conversations over the air waves.
Thank you!

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Good topic. Good info here.

Folks: CB's are the favorite of truckers. It's been that way since the 70's.
No disrespect to truckers. But like many-a livelihood in the States, there are millions of less than well mannered folks driving over the road haulers.
Just like my chosen proffesion of construction, it is not generally made up of college educated, well thought out individuals. Instead it's loaded with folks on a self-destruction binge who live for the moment until they either expire or retire on disability shortly before expiring...

A couple of movies came out back in about 1976 featuring cb radios and every car in the neighborhood had a cb antenna. Some 'luxury' cars (Buick Park Ave etc) had AM/FM/8-track/cb systems.

The trouble is society has gone down the tubes. Pop culture breeds "the raunchier the better" across the planet anymore.
And folks who want clean-cut conversations or want to discuss ideas these days are considered weaklings or out casts.

Reading this thread gave me ideas where I can find meaningful conversations over the air waves.
Thank you!

CB was raunchy back into the 80s already, there were a few decent people but between the excessive skip cycles and hookers and raunchy people and not really making any decent friends on the CB I sold out my base station and used part of the money for a computer, a commodore 128

 

[bykfixer]

My pop traded his cb and some fishing gear for the (at the time) state of the art comador vic 20.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Not to hijack the thread, but another Commodore user here. C-64 and Amiga 1000. :wave: The C=64 was pretty popular in the ham radio community for a long time.

 

[FRITZHID]

Not to hijack the thread, but another Commodore user here. C-64 and Amiga 1000. :wave: The C=64 was pretty popular in the ham radio community for a long time.

Damn man, every day you give me another reason to respect you. Lol

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Not to hijack the thread, but another Commodore user here. C-64 and Amiga 1000. :wave: The C=64 was pretty popular in the ham radio community for a long time.

There was a time in the days of the commodores they had online BBSes had chat rooms that were sort of like CB in a way but without moderation they also fell prey to rabble rousers.

 

[Jumpmaster]

There was a time in the days of the commodores they had online BBSes had chat rooms that were sort of like CB in a way but without moderation they also fell prey to rabble rousers.

We ran a BBS in high school, but we moderated the ever lovin' daylights out of it, so it wasn't a problem for us...

 

[Lynx_Arc]

We ran a BBS in high school, but we moderated the ever lovin' daylights out of it, so it wasn't a problem for us...

IRC is the CB of computerland IMO.... with many rooms unmoderated and all sorts of things happening even criminal at times.