CB Radio "Skip"

[CFP387]

I've heard a lot about "skip" on the Citizen's Band Radio frequency band but have never known what exactly causes it. I do know that sometimes CB traffic can and does affect television and AM radio frequency transmission but has it ever been known to affect public safety radio traffic in the past?

 

[ka3jjz]

To understand how CB - and other HF services 'skip' - you need to understand the basics of how HF propagation works. See this article in our wiki and click on the AE4RV link in the writeup. It will get you started.

Skip right now on 27 mhz actually can happen when a brief period of ionization in our E layers comes up - happens sporadically during the fall and winter months. Beyond that, until the cycle starts to rev up again, it won't be happening all that much. There's just not enough solar activity to sustain it.

I haven't heard of it interfering with public safety stuff, but then again, during the last big solar cycle, a lot of folks weren't on 800 at that time, so if they were getting into TV frequencies, then yes, it's possible that some public service stuff was also impacted. Keep in mind that the lower VHF TV channels (2-6 or 7) encompass the VHF high band, where a lot of PS stuff used to hang out (in some places, still does)

73s Mike

 

[kfcrosby]

I've heard a lot about "skip" on the Citizen's Band Radio frequency band but has it ever been known to affect public safety radio traffic in the past?

Only to the degree that some of the older systems used to operate in the 30-50 Mhz range where "skip" happened. I remember listening to the Louisiana State Police on 39.30 and heard a State Highway Patrol repeater from California coming in real good on many occasions. In those cases the interference would cause the mobile units on the outer rim to have trouble contacting the base station and vice versa.

Kevin