SKIP Problems in Noise Abatement.

[slowmover]

The discourtesy of screwing up AM-19.

The understood Truckers Channel.

Got 39 to 119 other channels before we consider freeband.

The thread is not to whine and moan, but to introduce others new to CB how to deal with Skip overwhelming local comms. The exigencies of the road.

Your experience and advice. (This post is “where I am, today”; welcome suggestions on my behalf and that of others).

My experience is Mobile.
Almost all as a truck driver.
This is a vital tool.
Skip makes things difficult.

— Best system ingredients of antenna/coax system, cleanest 12V power and quality component selection (a step up from entry-level).

It’s vital to ensure NO 12V noise (engine-running), and nothing the coax is picking up from your vehicle or others. Test & research. Don’t compromise.

I’m using a new GALAXY 959b with an alignment & tune by Ray Brashear, a Palomar Engineer Transceiver Coax Filter, an ICE 411cb Bandpass Filter, (into a KL-203 amp) and Mini-8 coax into a P-E Feedpoint Filter and out a 7’ Skipshooter atop a Predator stud on PROCOMM P4 mount.

RF Bonded doors, antenna mount (with cab & exhaust to come).

Audio is via a West Mountain Radio CLEARSPEECH DSP Speaker (biggest noise clean-up after quality install).

— Listed the above to lend context to adjusting controls or making changes as below:

Step One: Find a quiet channel mid-day (relative), and dial RF GAIN back to almost dead. Then SQUELCH to almost cover that.

Step Two: Back to 19 (which will be louder; more voices) with this noise reference registered.

Step Three: This is where NB/ANL can be used to effect. (Don’t expect much). DSP or NRC can be adjusted. Both more for audio “quality” versus “quiet”.

Step Four: This is where the willingness to open the wallet and experiment enters.

The asswipes on AM-19 running base stations are likely the same ones who’d assure you they’re patriotic Americans. But “forget” to tell you they wear an N95 in the shower and have had all their vaccination boosters.

This form of opposition to good order might fade some (besides those who — like Internet hasbara, trolls, are paid to F up the natural order to the benefit of their masters) given you best equip yourself to:

Hear, and Get Heard.

Then to exercise that prerogative on AM-19. Speak up. Radio isn’t passive listening. Give Universe clues of what you’re trying to accomplish (which is to successfully complete your trip).

He helps those that help themselves.

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[slowmover]

We all of us have an ear cocked to understand. To know.

I’ve posted at length in the, “Do Truck Drivers Use CB Any More”, thread. Context you won’t find elsewhere. How, Where, Why, and When.

That aside, the best drivers don’t give up. It’s a tough job, and it takes that attitude to produce what’s needed. CB radio is no different.

Your private vehicle is significantly easier than a Class 8 fleet tractor. Take solace in that.

At this moment — radio controls adjusted as in the post above — I’m hearing as many or more drivers now it’s Sunday afternoon and they’re leaving after arriving Friday night for their Monday delivery.

I’m parked at home in Ft Worth and hearing a man on IH-81 in Virginia asking what southbound left behind them (typical query). My S-Meter barely budges.

Skip (propagation) changes who hears what over the course of the day as it changes, similar to the way daybreak moves across the face of the waters.

Bad now doesn’t mean bad later for local interference. (It’ll change).

You give up, . . you may miss what you were meant to hear.

Again, as in the post above, what have you found will clear out the underbrush to increase your chances of hearing (knowing) local road conditions while mobile?

My experience thus far makes add-on devices a good bet to make life easier on a CB Radio to deliver what’s promised.

And you may well hear me asking others to GET OFF 19 when driving isn’t what they’re doing.

19 got its start as a hailing channel. Introductions made and conversations taken to other channels. Now it’s the congenitally discourteous tell us they’re entitled to the channel drivers have used for fifty years.

I talk to Americans. Not to invaders. The Few, as there’s no helping the benighted. All but The Few owe their allegiance to someone not concerned with your well-being. Those others have established racial networks nationwide and use other comms.

You want groceries or a new set of tires? Whom is it you expect to stand up for what’s right?

Pay attention.

Citizen Band is a boon. Skip isn’t the problem it appears.

Maybe you’re a base operator reading this. Sly regular insults about using 19 for DX would be greatly appreciated.

Truckers can’t use 19 it’s a serious problem.

Skip may wind up a form of ally. Wouldn’t that be something?

.

 

[jhooten]

What about the truckstop shills who get on 19 with amplifiers that take a small nuclear power station to run, hooked to a golden screwdrivered radio that splatters from 25 to 30 megahertz, who key down for hours on end extolling the virtues of their truck wash, tire shop, cb shop, the daily specials in the cafe, how their coffee makes energy drinks look like watered down koolaid, and the high quality of the local lot lizards?

 

[slowmover]

Surprisingly, most can’t be heard on Skip to any great extent. I hear a few businesses across the country as I travel, but it’s only a handful.

The ones you note are aggravations for about a 15-25/mile radius. Would I like to torch them? (Ha!). The 10kW A-holes screwing 19 in your area may need special attention.

What an operator can do to get the most from his rig is my point in posting the thread.

I’m using my backup radio to test antennas, antenna mount and two (2) filters the past couple hours. Dialed in SWR on 7’ Skipshooter and added first the transceiver and then the feedpoint filters. Both help. The CLRspkr is what keeps it real.



I back the RF Gain down to an indicated 1 on the meter from an “quiet” channel and increase Squelch to a point just before silence. On 19 I now know the range.

But I don’t have local AM-19 on a Sunday to work against.

A lot of talk . . , so backing off the majority of Meter-indicated capture does the most for adjusting radio controls given add-on devices.

No surprise, right?

Two (2) types of mobile signal:

1. Weak
2. Strong

Two (2) types of conditions:

1). Advancing
2). Retreating

Thus four (4) possibilities.

Skip complicates this normal set by overpowering all four at times.

Finding the best compromise between what’s needed for local vs Skip is the game.

From dawn to dusk both solar and man-made interference increases thru mid-afternoon. Again, heavy Skip makes the usual radio adjustments more complicated than usual.

As we get nearer sunset I can increase RF Gain every 15” or so. By just over an hour past sundown I can open her all the up again till sunrise tomorrow.

Better filtration is a godsend for staying within a better-defined range as it’s quality at the end, not quantity we can play with to keep maximum range during the difficult period which coincides with highest traffic volume.

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[sunwave]

Skip will continue to roll and cause Channel 19 to be overwhelmed. Why is skip even happening? It happens seasonal and/or the solar flux charges both daytime F layers, F1 and F2, also, E layer get's enhanced. This allows signals below 30 mhz to bend with the curvature of the Earth. That combination of F layer and E layer enhancement really fires up that strong level of combined signals nationwide to almost peg the strawberry patch during the daylight hours from sunup to sundown as Solar cycle 25 continues it's rise to max. All is need is solar flux to be 150 or greater. It has been at 200 or above.

 

[slowmover]

And .. how to work with or around it is the point to this thread.

Skip is so overpowering that on first experience it might be enough to say, to hell with CB!

Yet that’s not so.

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[Trucker700]

The sun is just starting to wake up. It is going to be like this for several more years. Fun if you like DX'ing. But, annoying if you're trying to talk to the driver across the interstate from you.
James

 

[kk9h]

It’s a really shame that 27 MHz was chosen for this type of short range communication service and that flaw is highlighted every 11 years. Too bad it’s not like the VHF LADD service they have in Canada.

 

[slowmover]

It’s a really shame that 27 MHz was chosen for this type of short range communication service and that flaw is highlighted every 11 years. Too bad it’s not like the VHF LADD service they have in Canada.

That sort of thing (VHF) — while it could conceivably grow under some conditions — doesn’t help in trying to work with or around Skip in local comms for the majority.

I can see the use of two radios (common in Oversize hauling), but it’s of interest, IMO, to filter:

Hash
Static

So as to try to get voices “clearer” thus delineate Local from DX to the greatest extent on 27-mhz for purposes of this thread.

On the road we are all strangers using the travelers aid of a common frequency. Some may have “other”, but it won’t be useful unless at least two or more are so equipped.

I haven’t had time today to play with my mobile radio rig as I did yesterday, but first impressions are that clearest reception will be of help just as it is normally.

A new normal upon us. How to deal with it.

One reason — the important one — I continue with an old-fashioned GALAXY 959b is that it’s easy for me to distinguish Near from Far, and, often, Weak from Strong (where a glance at the S-Meter helps). Its vital to road-going comms to try to instantly locate TX source.

Is he coming or going. What pieces must I try to deduce to understand a warning, or just a heads-up?

The “clearer” the radio reception delivered, the more easily I might understand whether it’s Local or. DX.

The PRESIDENT Lincoln I bought 2-3/years back has a “better” receiver. But it delivers all as equidistant before grosser cues are evident. (Has gone into the pickup as that’s an antenna system much superior to my work truck).

I wouldn’t try to dissuade anyone from that radio or one of that quality. The ANYTONE Quad-5/V2 has real promise due to integrated NRC.

I’ll be back in the road in a few days and will try to find the balance of Squelch & RF Gain that appears to favor local while living with distant booming in.

A). May be that clock hours is an approach due to the way the truck business works. We already know that weekends have little to no truck chatter.

B). Skip can start right at daybreak, and that normal solar and man-made noise rises to a peak during the day meaning double-barreled noise. The peak time for serious wrecks seems to be early to mid-afternoon right as noise on 27 becomes deafening.

— This is the central concern as I see it. The a-wipes are crowding a channel they should avoid, right as truck drivers most need 27 (AM-19) to work for them.

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[slowmover]

Skip will continue to roll and cause Channel 19 to be overwhelmed. Why is skip even happening? It happens seasonal and/or the solar flux charges both daytime F layers, F1 and F2, also, E layer get's enhanced. This allows signals below 30 mhz to bend with the curvature of the Earth. That combination of F layer and E layer enhancement really fires up that strong level of combined signals nationwide to almost peg the strawberry patch during the daylight hours from sunup to sundown as Solar cycle 25 continues it's rise to max. All is need is solar flux to be 150 or greater. It has been at 200 or above.

The propagation map moves as we are also moving (makes also for increased weirdness).

Hear, and Get Heard has been my mantra quite awhile.

That The Few are limited in number. Those who would avail themselves of comms with others at a higher level of commitment (installation practice + components).

Powerful Skip makes realizing Distant Early Warning just that much more difficult.

But not impossible.

The goal of the truck driver or the man in his private vehicle are the same, at end. To arrive home safely with vehicle & passengers in the same condition as upon their earlier departure. The same with freight loaded at shipper delivered to receiver.

— There’s no substitute for being able to hear and to speak with those around us when on the go.

At this point it seems to me that efforts in quality lead the way.

Mobile Install Bible

I’ve previously mentioned (in the, Do Truck Drivers . . ? thread), the role that savvy base station operators play in some areas as a central clearinghouse to major local influences (weather, wrecks, construction) to lend confidence to those about their business.

To listen to such men rising to the challenge in Being of Help is to realize the sheer wickedness of those who do naught but impede or make out-of-direct-route journeys all but impossible. In the Employ of Evil. Let’s call that what it is, distinctly.

Most trucking is local or regional. A great metro area. Then there is cross-country where, (1) receivers are limited in number; or, (2), ones receiver is new on a continuing basis.

That last one is the most difficult. A map or GPS may have an adequate route, but not always.

For this alone CB became a byword of truck driving portraiture. One gets paid he delivers on-time.

The goal of trolls on-air is to disrupt the fabric of co-operation of savvy local with querying stranger. Earns their paycheck.

Many drivers gave up on CB years ago. Some never embraced it at all. Skip makes it hard even for the rock-hard enthusiast.

But not impossible.

What fixes or tactics “work” I hope this thread might highlight from the experience at this forum. A new guy is gonna be overwhelmed by the double-barreled noise he encounters.

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[jhooten]

It’s a really shame that 27 MHz was chosen for this type of short range communication service and that flaw is highlighted every 11 years. Too bad it’s not like the VHF LADD service they have in Canada.

"They" felt they would get less push back stealing 11 meters from the amateur radio service then re-allocating some v/uhf spectrum from the Part 90 pool.

 

[GROL]

"They" felt they would get less push back stealing 11 meters from the amateur radio service then re-allocating some v/uhf spectrum from the Part 90 pool.

In reality, can they not adopt GMRS, or would that preclude incesent swearing and 1000 watt mobiles able to talk over anything else around them. They are concerned about skip propagation but anytime I tried monitoring CB 19 it was a swear jar free-for-all and the loudest mouth trucker with the most power wins the channel. I have monitored GMRS and rarely hear anything on it, so there is likely a clear channel.

A thoughtful article about GMRS. GMRS 19 is suggested.

What’s The Best Channel to Use on GMRS Radio?

A question that some who're new to the General Mobile Radio Service radio sometimes ask is "which is the best GMRS channel to use?" There's really no single channel or frequency on GMRS that's the "best" to use, regardless of what you may have heard. "Which channels are best for the situation?"...

woofthebeatenpath.com

 

[GMB951]

FM Mabe

 

[slowmover]

Boys, load the gear in your car and help to find what works!!

From your base station and back again. The door is wide-open to what you might try

That’s the implied request.

1). Mobile is more difficult.

2). Skip makes that more difficult all over again.

You’ve heard — maybe ignored — that our institutions have been captured and turned against us.

Here’s case in point:

Where’s ARRL and the rest when it matters? Nowhere to be found, that’s where.

Three-million truck drivers in the USA, and no association/industry model to follow in setting up a Class 8 tractor.

Recall that during the height of the CV-19 hoax that no one published any articles on how to buy, sell, or trade using radio to conduct negotiations in fear of contagion.

All of this translates to ordinary men trying to do the same should circumstance put them in their family vehicle to secure adequate supply. To avoid political protest moved to the roads. Etc.

Radio isn’t passive. Is more than hobby. Matters.

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[slowmover]

On-air practice is key.

How do I get from here to there with problems out ahead on the usual route?

The maroons currently taking up air aren’t a fact. They’re an ephemeral vestige, lingering.

What would you want to find?

Skip is a step along that road and is a technical problem suited to a radio forum.

“See” the desired end. Delineate the steps to accomplish that end. Execute.

.

 

[slowmover]

Here’s one:

@JayintheMojave
Sonic Cushion Speaker Wiring?

Sonic Cushion
Post from thread
WEST MOUNTAIN RADIO “ClearSpeech” DSP Speaker


Parts (separate post)
WEST MOUNTAIN RADIO “ClearSpeech” DSP Speaker

How well it’ll work is up to him who decides to build and utilize it. Examples from actual use in back & forth conversation are what would make it real.

.

 

[jhooten]

In reality, can they not adopt GMRS, or would that preclude incesent swearing and 1000 watt mobiles able to talk over anything else around them. They are concerned about skip propagation but anytime I tried monitoring CB 19 it was a swear jar free-for-all and the loudest mouth trucker with the most power wins the channel. I have monitored GMRS and rarely hear anything on it, so there is likely a clear channel.

A thoughtful article about GMRS. GMRS 19 is suggested.

What’s The Best Channel to Use on GMRS Radio?

A question that some who're new to the General Mobile Radio Service radio sometimes ask is "which is the best GMRS channel to use?" There's really no single channel or frequency on GMRS that's the "best" to use, regardless of what you may have heard. "Which channels are best for the situation?"...

woofthebeatenpath.com

Another consideration was that, at the time, the equipment for UHF was less common and much more expensive. Considering the purpose of the CB service the equipment needed to be as common and inexpensive as could be.

 

[slowmover]

Another consideration was that, at the time, the equipment for UHF was less common and much more expensive. Considering the purpose of the CB service the equipment needed to be as common and inexpensive as could be.

The same remains true today.
CB is common and it is inexpensive.
These are strengths.

To get in the door is straightforward.

To know which way to go to Hear, and Get Heard beyond a half-mile to mile (frequent occurrence as I try to talk with Mr Mag Mount & his Cigar Lighter Wunderkind Radio) starts one on the path I hope leads here.

Everything which matters for a first-class mobile radio rig counts that much more to operate DX on SSB. And to figure out what’s valid local info when Skip is rolling.

I start north tomorrow 1,100-miles into Wisconsin from Texas. New 7’ Skipshooter mounted, and still dicking with slip-seater radio rig. Had to find and reinforce a box for it to ride upon in passenger seat.

Adding a third section to the TAC-COMM Radio Carrier to house a RigRunner below radio “inside” versus “outside” on the top. Room for recommended CMC filter inside once purchased is the main reason for the addition.

Will have to purchase an extra-long shielded audio cable and make a matching extra-long power cord for the West Mountain Radio CLEARSPEECH DSP Speaker to go across the cab to a location above and behind my left shoulder.

I’d like to get a handle on Day, Time of Day, and Radio + Device Settings to make a recommendation of what might be done to work with Skip rolling given a wallet open far enough to move up from “inexpensive”.

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[slowmover]

Big trucks are electrically-noisy as well as acoustically. Passing vehicles or being in some places can also overwhelm a mobile system . . right when you need to have heard a report.

Earlier in the thread I tested my PALOMAR ENGINEER feedpoint and transceiver filters used in the last truck and found them (again) good-to-go. Reduce the workload on the transceiver.

#4

Ones’ pickup, SUV or car may also benefit.

Below is a good discussion with links to more:

About CMC

https://myantennas.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/gm3sek_ferrite_chokes_web-SHORT.ppsx

https://ia803209.us.archive.org/33/items/hamradio_utils/CommonModeChokesW1HIS2006Apr06.pdf


From k0bg (Mobile Install Bible):

Common Mode Currents

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[KMG54]

FM Mabe

That would eliminate 3/4 of the problem right there and tones would fix the other quarter.