Old but new CB'r Upper Mojave Desert

[TheSpaceMann]

Well I was like a little kid and even though I haven't gotten my antenna yet I stopped at walmart and bought a cheapo $15 antenna, which is just that.

I have to have the levels turned down so low to stay below SWR 1.5 that I probably can't even get out of town, but in the middle of it all, somebody replied about my radio check. I came back but then he never replied.

I'm getting the Mexicans on 14 so at least I know it works. I did hear some truckers on 19 further up the road but either they didn't acknowledge me or I really suck on Xmit with the way it's set.

I have a feeling that once I get that Wilson 1000 I'll be good to go and be able to talk up and down the 14/395 from Olancha to Mojave and 4 corners. I am really excited.

Now I just have to figure out memory channels and memory scan so I can bypass the Mexicans. Not that I have anything against Mexicans, but my Spanish sucks. It would be a good way to pick up better Spanish though, lol.

The day time backight is pretty hard to see though, even at Max intensity. But it might be because I am in the Sunshine Capital of America.

I also decided to go all in on my setup. Got a Road Devil Mic coming too.

You're doing great! A nice base station antenna should soon be on you're agenda!!

 

[KB0VWG]

Well I was like a little kid and even though I haven't gotten my antenna yet I stopped at walmart and bought a cheapo $15 antenna, which is just that.

I have to have the levels turned down so low to stay below SWR 1.5 that I probably can't even get out of town, but in the middle of it all, somebody replied about my radio check. I came back but then he never replied.

I'm getting the Mexicans on 14 so at least I know it works. I did hear some truckers on 19 further up the road but either they didn't acknowledge me or I really suck on Xmit with the way it's set.

I have a feeling that once I get that Wilson 1000 I'll be good to go and be able to talk up and down the 14/395 from Olancha to Mojave and 4 corners. I am really excited.

Now I just have to figure out memory channels and memory scan so I can bypass the Mexicans. Not that I have anything against Mexicans, but my Spanish sucks. It would be a good way to pick up better Spanish though, lol.

The day time backight is pretty hard to see though, even at Max intensity. But it might be because I am in the Sunshine Capital of America.

I also decided to go all in on my setup. Got a Road Devil Mic coming too.

Take that 15 dollar back to walmart, I bought one of those a few months ago just to try it out and the swr's would never go below a 3.5 no matter what I did. I returned mine and got my money back I liked it because it was short and easy to stash behind the back seat of my wifes car but I went ahead and used my K30 antenna instead and works fine.
Like they say sometimes you get what you pay for.
kb0vwg
wqoi992

 

[swen_out_west]

yeah, i only bought that antenna because i'm dying to hear rcv around the local area. it's just temporary anyways, Just tracked my Wilson 1000 and it"s finally moving again. Apparently, it got caught up in that snow over there. The tracking shows it still in route, last scan says it finally left NC at 1:34am on the 17th. Hopefully I will have it Monday or Tuesday. But yes, not much traffic around here on CB.

Not sure how far that cheapo is picking up from and those truckers were closer than I first thought, The Mexicans don't count, from what I hear those guys are literally using AM radio station transmitters, lol.

 

[swen_out_west]

You're doing great! A nice base station antenna should soon be on you're agenda!!

Yeah, that would be nice but I really want to have it in the truck. I might eventually move it in the house to play with 38-40 LSB, but that can wait.

With getting back into radio the bug has hit me, lol. Already looking into getting 2 more radios and scheduling my test, lol.

 

[KD8DVR]

10-4, Good Buddy. Good to hear ya. Tracking the package says it's at the local Post office. But, although the antenna shipped 2 days prior it won't be here until next week. I suspect the length slowed down it's speed.

Well I can at least wire it up and read the manual. I did find a local shop that still does radio tunes if need be. Not sure if the 980's internal cal meter is enough or not.

I feel like a kid waiting for Santa to arrive, lol. I hope the lack of traffic isn't a major letdown.

Since you have LSB I really think if I park the truck on the back of the house looking straight at the dove springs area by red rock canyon, I shouldn't even have to leave the yard in LSB.

You don't want to call someone a "good buddy" That means you want a romantic interlude in a rest area men's room. The meaning changed a few decades ago.

AntiSquid Disclaimer: All comments are personal opinion only and may not imply actual fact.

 

[KD8DVR]

CB use has declined a LOT. You likely are working fine with your current setup. In my area, a large metro area, even 19 is silent. A recent vacation trip yielded no CB traffic. CB has died, due to the illegal amplifier jockeys, making their "inbred long distance calls" and ruining local communications.

With the solar cycle declining, the ability to make illegal distance contacts will decrease immensely, or altogether. This could make CB get a small resurgence, until the next solar cycle makes the band unusable again.

The Spanish speakers may nit be Mexicans at all. Due to how radio propagates, it is more likely Central/South America. CB propagates similar to 10 meters. Rarely have I heard A Mexican station....but I've worked all central America and most of south America.

Being an elitist ham, I really do not hate or dislike cb at all. I think there absolutely have to be license free radio services anyone can use. My issues lie with the lack of regard for rules and regulations and the total disregard for other cbers.

Enjoy your radio

AntiSquid Disclaimer: All comments are personal opinion only and may not imply actual fact.

 

[jbantennaman]

My two cents:

Radio is radio, be it GMRS, CB, FRS, Ham.
The only difference is the frequency used and the license requirement.
For someone that applies themselves, playing cb radio can in fact be a learning experience.
The more you apply yourself, the more you can learn, the more you will be able to do.

The radio and the power factor is just a small part of what it is all about.
In the 60's and early 70's - when the legal operators played by the rules, the antenna manufacturers went out of their way to make antennas that improved a meager 3 watt AM signal to something perceived as being more.

In the 60's / 70's - automobiles used lot's of metal in their body and made a perfect ground plane - the metal counterpoise beneath the antenna.
The metallic body gave the installer multiple options - where it could be installed.
The lack of other rf equipment inside of the vehicle made it possible for the user to have a fairly decent signal. The only hindrance was the spark-plugs and wires made ignition noise.

Knowing that a real cb radio antenna needs to be about 9 feet long, the body panels needs to be bonded together, and the antenna needs a counterpoise beneath the antenna - all these things will improve your signal.

Just increasing your transmit power does very little to improve your reception.

Transequitorial propagation - skip - in the winter, allows people in the southern half of the USA to receive those Spanish speaking stations, and to work them, even with just a couple of watts - if you have a good base station antenna.

As with all buddy groups, if you want people to talk to, you need to develop your own buddy groups.
I think the biggest problem today is the lack of free time.
There is always more things to do then there is hours in the day.
TV, cell phones, the internet, sports, family, having to work multiple jobs - just to stay afloat, has killed radio. We just don't have people monitoring the frequencies anymore.
The ones that does, doesn't always come back to a stranger - because it it cliquish.

Too many times a person will try to get into radio, just to find out that there isn't many people locally monitoring the frequencies. Even CB - with 40+ channels, it is hard to have someone on more than a couple of channels, and even then only occasionally having their radio turned on.

Buying just one radio really won't help your cause, you need multiple radios and family and friends willing to use them. That rule, in the early days of CB radio was what made it popular.
In those days, it was like being able to monitor cell phone frequencies.
You could hear some interesting conversations, which gave it a voyeuristic attraction.

Since the world has moved on, those people are no longer there to monitor the frequencies, or talk to.

Throwing good money after bad on something that probably won't get you much satisfaction is a money pit.
Maybe you would be better off just taking the plunge and getting your amateur radio license ticket.

 

[swen_out_west]

I understand the concept of good money after bad, I'm actually using both the CB project and GRMS I am on as a way to rekindle my Comm days. Yes, I am thinking of taking my test next month for other reasons. (Mainly, to get people to stop hounding me, lol)

Plus, don't think I already don't know the increase of traffic on the HAM freqs. I monitor all freqs, I had to take the local WINSYS repeater off my active scan list because it gets hung up on that freq.

Besides the biggest reason for all of this is to try to rekindle local traffic by the 'common folk'. I really don't need to listen to a guy in Australia or sitting in a hotel room in India.

 

[swen_out_west]

For those following both of my threads (this and GRMS/FRS) there are a ton of people out there that want to and have been setting up comms, But they don't want to get into their HAM license for personal reasons, the biggest being that they are intimidated by the HAM world. Not from a difficulty aspect either (I passed multiple practice tests without even studying just based on my past knowledge and experience), some like myself have worked in the field before and just need to study the environment, ie: vernacular (yes, that's spelled right, the r and n together look like a m) and culture between the Military, Civilians and especially HAMS can be quite difficult.

Anyways, neither this project (nor the money i've spent on FRS/GRMS is a money pit, IMO). I'm right where I need to be in bridging the gap between us common folk and the HAM community, as well as having everything covered so I can talk to just about anyone out there. I just need to suck up my own ego and deal with the HAM mentality to get my license next month so that I can actually be taken seriously.

I am still apprehensive on getting licensed because then I have liability when the common folk or as in the case of the 2 local Hams I met yesterday make blatant mistakes and violations(But, you can't set them straight because they have their HAM license.).

 

[TheSpaceMann]

It really depends on where you are. As a person who travels the roads often on business, I have found that there are areas in the US that are still loaded with local CB activity! I have often found this in areas where there are senior citizens, many who may have lost a lot of their mobility, and are using CB to stay in touch with the outside world and old friends. You can tell that a lot of these people are out there talking, because when 11 meters opens up, you will here people chatting with locals on all the channels, even though they are hundreds of miles away! And most of them are just using legal power and antennas. Here is a link to an online CB receiver in the SF area, where you can hear quite a bit of local CB activity most evenings... www.CBradioClub.com/san-francisco-bay-ca.html

 

[swen_out_west]

You don't want to call someone a "good buddy" That means you want a romantic interlude in a rest area men's room. The meaning changed a few decades ago.

AntiSquid Disclaimer: All comments are personal opinion only and may not imply actual fact.

Well that's queer. I find it quite disturbing how people read too much into it and change the definition of a word. I was having quite a gay day, too. Think I'll just lay down on my couch after I am done with my *** out in the yard and pet my pussies.

LOL, go ahead and censor the above paragraph and post. But you'll find that every single word if sticking with Webster's dictionary is quite acceptable to use.

One of the words got censored, too, lol. Even though British slang is cigarette and the true definition is a tiring and/or unwelcome task

 

[KD8DVR]

Well that's queer. I find it quite disturbing how people read too much into it and change the definition of a word. I was having quite a gay day, too. Think I'll just lay down on my couch after I am done with my *** out in the yard and pet my pussies.

LOL, go ahead and censor the above paragraph and post. But you'll find that every single word if sticking with Webster's dictionary is quite acceptable to use.

One of the words got censored, too, lol. Even though British slang is cigarette and the true definition is a tiring and/or unwelcome task

AntiSquid Disclaimer: All comments are personal opinion only and may not imply actual fact.

 

[swen_out_west]

Well I got my antenna and it seemed really good at first. Positive I got it set up right and seems like I was picking up a lot more than the other day,

I radio checked a guy only 3 miles away I can barely hear him, Pretty sure it's, he's one of the fools I met this weekend, I just said, 'Thanks' and moved on. Based on our conversation on Saturday he isn't going to believe his radio has a problem anyways. Or I was still to close to the high lines.

Think I'll head towards ridgecrest and get the evening group to radio check with me.

 

[swen_out_west]

Alright, a few adjustments and I'm good.

So I never had a good setup. Is 8 miles on an AM mobile in open country respectable? Although the high power transmission lines wreaked havoc on my long distance when I was going down the 395.

Was thinking about an Amp but my rcv and transmit are about the same. What would it matter if people I can't hear can hear me?

 

[swen_out_west]

Yes, already thinking of setting up a base antenna although the whole idea from the start on all my radio projects was mobile and portable.

But like I said in one of my earlier posts, pretty sure this radio will reach out to at least jay if I get a good directional antenna.

 

[swen_out_west]

Holy crap. I had to dig deep to understand what he was saying. but I was talking to a guy on 19AM in Little Rock, AR. And yet I have troubles getting to town 9 miles away because of the high transmission lines 1/4 mile away in the line of sight. Yes, I know that skip can make it easier to hear someone half way across the country than someone 15 miles away. I'm just excited because the setups I used to run were junk because I couldn't afford anything better and they were literally LOS only.

Now I just have to figure out SSB, I heard some traffic and one actually came back on my radio check but no matter what I do I can't understand him. The talkback feature is tough to do in real time for a guy with bad hearing. Oh well, I'll get that when I am in Mojave and can actually start with a good contact on Jay.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Holy crap. I had to dig deep to understand what he was saying. but I was talking to a guy on 19AM in Little Rock, AR. And yet I have troubles getting to town 9 miles away because of the high transmission lines 1/4 mile away in the line of sight. Yes, I know that skip can make it easier to hear someone half way across the country than someone 15 miles away. I'm just excited because the setups I used to run were junk because I couldn't afford anything better and they were literally LOS only.

Now I just have to figure out SSB, I heard some traffic and one actually came back on my radio check but no matter what I do I can't understand him. The talkback feature is tough to do in real time for a guy with bad hearing. Oh well, I'll get that when I am in Mojave and can actually start with a good contact on Jay.

Sounds like you're making progress! Why not put up an A-99? That will work wonders for you when the band is open!

 

[swen_out_west]

Sounds like you're making progress! Why not put up an A-99? That will work wonders for you when the band is open!

Yes, already looked into that. But since the idea from the start was mobile and portable comms I am going to wait until this is all set up. Then I'll start setting aside the funds for a base station.

I wish I still had my old 23 channel (Midland??) with wood cabinet I had for a base station in the 80's that thing would be cool to have in my radio room.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Yes, already looked into that. But since the idea from the start was mobile and portable comms I am going to wait until this is all set up. Then I'll start setting aside the funds for a base station.

I wish I still had my old 23 channel (Midland??) with wood cabinet I had for a base station in the 80's that thing would be cool to have in my radio room.

What model Midland base station was it?

 

[swen_out_west]

I don't remember, pretty sure my parents sold it at a garage sale at some point. It might still be in the garage but I have no idea. Pretty sure my dad threw it out or sold it. They got weird about me looking through the garage last time I was at their house 3 years ago.

Actually did a quick search on Ebay, that's like the one I had. The 13-882b.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Midland-13-...9e0696d&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=172418935007