CB radio

[KE0SKN]

I'm a ham...
Lets see. You call some one on a cell it cost you any were $20 to $100 a month to call mom. Me my ham radio i can call mom and it cost me $20 a year. Beats you monthly bill. And I can talk farther on ham then C.B. I can do more with ham then a cell phone can. so Ham radio is not dead at all. Beside Mores code faster than text sms. lol

 

[zz0468]

If you like to talk to short tempered elderly white men who go on about their medical issues every night, night after night than Ham Radio is for you! If you like to be lectured to about worthless trivia, Ham Radio is for you. If you like to spend hundreds of Dollars just to talk to the same four old farts you talk to on other bands, well, Ham Radio is for you.

Ham Radio is dead. The internet, and cell phones killed it. Hams have a near fit when you say it like that but it's true. They're not making classical music like they used to. Muscle cars are gone along with cheap gas. Mini skirts are not even a memory. Elvira's Grand Canyon gets you a location on MapQuest

I *am* a short tempered white man, although I'm not elderly, and so are all my ham buddies, so it works for me. I haven't spent hundreds of dollars to talk to the same group of people, I've spent tens of thousands. I spend a great deal of time on the air talking about worthless trivia, and I quite enjoy it.

Ham radio isn't dead, although for those who aren't technically inclined and use it merely to communicate, there may be better options now. My time and energies and money are spent on the more technical aspects of the hobby, the radio art itself. And as long as there is legal spectrum to play with, it will never die for people who share my mindset.

Enjoy your internet. As much as I enjoy complaining about my medical problems on the radio with my buddies, as much of a curmudgion I enjoy being on the air, the one subject I don't like to talk about on the air is how ham radio is dying. The more time you spend on the net, the less time I have to talk about it.

...and Ham Radio's dead. I should know. I was a novice, then a Tech Plus Ham. Now I play on the net.

No, you don't know. You never upgraded sufficiently, or advanced in the hobby enough to have a complete enough idea about it to declare it dead. I started as a Tech. Then I upgraded to General, and immediately upgraded to Advanced. I eventually upgraded to Extra. Every upgrade brought more self satisfaction, and more fun. After 35 years, I'm having more fun than ever.

 

[GeorgeMason]

Why compare CB and HAM? They both serve a purpose and I enjoy both, Its absurd and childish to denounce one or the other. Besides....... The original poster was not asking a question to compare the two.
In the immortal words or Rodney King......... Cant we all just get along...........

 

[af5rn]

Astrogoth does have an unfortunate point. I remember when the first PCs started hitting people's homes in the early 1980s. Hams -- the techno-geeks that they were at the time -- were way ahead of the curve on the PC. I remember that on ham radio was the only place I ever even heard anybody talk about home computers back then. I also remember that computers quickly became the most common topic of discussion on the bands, boring me to tears and pretty much driving me away. At that time, not even knowing of the Internet to come, I predicted that computers were going to kill ham radio. Twenty-five years later, it has pretty well come to pass.

 

[lugoffman]

Astrogoth does have an unfortunate point. I remember when the first PCs started hitting people's homes in the early 1980s. Hams -- the techno-geeks that they were at the time -- were way ahead of the curve on the PC. I remember that on ham radio was the only place I ever even heard anybody talk about home computers back then. I also remember that computers quickly became the most common topic of discussion on the bands, boring me to tears and pretty much driving me away. At that time, not even knowing of the Internet to come, I predicted that computers were going to kill ham radio. Twenty-five years later, it has pretty well come to pass.

Well with that said , the truth of the matter is the world has done nothing but got them selves in one big damn hurry !! But I still refere the HAM Lol!!! I look at it this way both CB (Criminal Band) , and HAM are really good to have. If you are like me , a true red neck and like driving trucks in the mud , and get stuck then you can use the CB to call your other red neck friend to pull you out , and then you can raise hell when you see your ford stuck , and a chevy pulling you out , now on the other hand you can talk to your red neck friend from around the world on a ham and tell him how your ford got stuck and you had to get it out using a chevy. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH !!!!! I could not help it I had to go there !!! Lol !!!!!!!

 

[R1VINCE]

^^^^^^^^lol^^^^^^^^

 

[funcritter]

Here in Denver, there are a huge amount of people still into CB radios. I have been since about 1988 or so. I have found that half of the people that were around the radio back in 88 are still on the radio. It seems things have gotten a bit better over the past year or so though people still get on to play music or throw dead carriers and occasionally, to be CB Rambo's.

The big thing over the past few years is for people to have modified or illegal CD radios. Everything from 10 meter radios that have been modded to do the 40 CB channels to running linear amplifiers.

The FCC does still enforce certain violations on the CB bands from people throwing carriers to running illegal radios. There is a link on the FCC website that lists all of these cases whenever they occur.

I have a CB radio in each of my cars along with a Wilson 5000 antenna on each. I see several other vehicles every day with CB antennas on them as well.

Last summer, I went through California all along the coast from San Francisco down to San Diego and rarely saw an antenna on a car nor did I hear anyone other than truckers using them there. I actually took off the whip on my antenna when I realized this and put it in the trunk. I do hear people from California however when the skip rolls in particularly in the day time lately.

CB radios are still a fun hobby to be involved with especially while traveling and I will probably always have one. I did use it once back around 88 or so to get help when my battery was dead. The battery still had enough power to run the radio, just not start the car.

 

[ridgescan]

I live here in Frisco and yes CB's have gone byebye. The ONLY CBers still doing it like the 70's are the Black folks out in Oakland. Hell-I drive past a couple CB STORES out in the east bay that still primarily do CB stuff!!! They ALL have linear amps and are the skip kings. MAN I used to piss them off by going up top of San Bruno Mntn. on the west side of the bay and with my LEGAL power and twin 102" steelies would flatten them out for a bit............until I saw a group of them parked at the mountain base one nite--I kept driving HAHA man the 70's were fun!

 

[brey1234]

Speaking Of Ham

Anyone out there who is into scanning and want to start an informal net?
Best time for me is on weekends ;-) Looking for someone who operates 80-40 meters

Also I run CB in the car---mostly to listen for traffic conditions on channel 19

 

[KC0QNB]

This is a trip, I got my CB license back in '77, cost $5, then I got the fiver back, my callsign was KATG5871, now my call sign is KC0QNB. CB used to be fun especially when you had the only decent base station in town, I ended up being a leader of sorts, and tried to keep everything clean and fun, it worked. I still have a few CB rigs, but no antennas sold them to the neighbor, cuz he doesn't have the interest in getting his tech license. There is a good thing that happened though, he can talk on his radio and I can talk on my radio and not hear each other at 30+over s9. I have a Cherokee AM base for sale, pm me.

 

[kb2vxa]

Ban the internet, all wireless devices and religion; bring peace to the world. Oh wait a minute, that leaves money, land and natural resources to fight over. Let me think on it; I'll get back to you.