The state of CB in 2014

[robertmac]

Oh by GAWD. Tried to find something of intelligence on the crappy bad today and ALL frequencies sounded like I was in the Zoo with a lot of monkies with snail brains. What a crap shoot out. UGLY!!!!!

 

[Burninglight10]

Robertmac...I well understand the way you feel. At times I feel exactly as you but I made up my mind that I was not going to let the rift raft take away from my enjoying the radio. I work hard to find others in the area with similar interest in radio and work out ways to connect with them on cb. It has been a slow process, but am enjoying cb as in the 60's, Have even been known to buy a basic set up for others I felt would not abuse the priviledge. Have a way to go, but as long as it is progressing

 

[regent23]

Im coming back after 35 years, just orderd myself a new cobra 29lx, a k40 mag mount
and a new power supply, hoping to have a little fun here in NYC but I know its not gonna
be what I remember from the 70s. Also ordered a satellit 750 to do some hf monitoring.

Retired and a lot of time on my hands, hope it was worth the expense.

 

[sloop]

Hope you have better luck than I have had. Drove from the mountains to Burlington (NC) and back last week on US421 & I40 (abt. 200 miles total). I took my Cobra 25 with me and monitored ch 19....NOTHING... the entire trip! All I heard were the same old loud mouths talking to themselves on ch 6 and splattering 2 ch on each side and Spanish on ch 9 and 11. When I got home I was so disgusted that I took it back out and replaced it with a scanner.

 

[TheSpaceMan]

Im coming back after 35 years, just orderd myself a new cobra 29lx, a k40 mag mount
and a new power supply, hoping to have a little fun here in NYC but I know its not gonna
be what I remember from the 70s. Also ordered a satellit 750 to do some hf monitoring.

Retired and a lot of time on my hands, hope it was worth the expense.

In NYC try CH 31 AM in the evenings! There are a bunch of guys on there who have been chatting almost continuously since the 1970s!!

 

[Wally46]

I've had all my CB equipment out of storage now for a few years and I enjoy talking to distant stations during the day and enjoy listening to the truckers etc at night when it quiets down. I have a Mr. Coily Enforcer antenna up on a 50 foot tower and I'm on a hill so I get out really well. It's nice during the winter to sit in my shack with my scanners, CB, etc all turned on. Better than watching crap on TV.

 

[regent23]

Well so far my plan is a big flop, just about ready to pack up the rig and send it back. The band
is dead in NYC however that group of old timers on ch. 31 its as if time stopped and we are in 1979
Problem is they cant here me because they are in the bronx and my apartment antenna wont cut it
the other occasional stations I hear are beyond ridiculous just screaming nonsense into the mike
on and on and on and dont seem to be talking to anyone but themselves. So I think ill just focus on my
scanning wh ich is much more rewarding maybe ill upgrade to that new uniden hp but I think thats overkill for now here in nyc while the police are still on the old bands here. I have a nice uniden bc355n and a radio shack pro 107 which currently do a great job. Thanks for the feedback and comments.

 

[TheSpaceMan]

Well so far my plan is a big flop, just about ready to pack up the rig and send it back. The band
is dead in NYC however that group of old timers on ch. 31 its as if time stopped and we are in 1979
Problem is they cant here me because they are in the bronx and my apartment antenna wont cut it
the other occasional stations I hear are beyond ridiculous just screaming nonsense into the mike
on and on and on and dont seem to be talking to anyone but themselves. So I think ill just focus on my
scanning wh ich is much more rewarding maybe ill upgrade to that new uniden hp but I think thats overkill for now here in nyc while the police are still on the old bands here. I have a nice uniden bc355n and a radio shack pro 107 which currently do a great job. Thanks for the feedback and comments.

Well if you could get an antenna on the roof you probably would be able to reach them. I have been able to regularly hit them from a radius of about 40 miles from their Bronx locations!

 

[regent23]

Hi Spaceman, I know I wish I could but im in a large apartment building so no can do , too bad because
im right next to the east river with a clear shot right to queens and the bronx would be in easy range for me. Anyway I can listen well on my scanner to ch 31aand they come in well. Thanks for your feedback and have a good weekend

 

[TheSpaceMan]

Hi Spaceman, I know I wish I could but im in a large apartment building so no can do , too bad because
im right next to the east river with a clear shot right to queens and the bronx would be in easy range for me. Anyway I can listen well on my scanner to ch 31aand they come in well. Thanks for your feedback and have a good weekend

Get 2 or 3 nine foot whips. Mount one vertically outside your window (radiator), and let the others (radials) drop down at a 45 degree angle. You should have the range close to that of a roof mounted antenna.

 

[n9emz]

I am 66, was in cb back in the late 60's and early 70's and both the wife and I loved it. I recently wanted to see what was going on in the cb world, so I lput in 2 new bases, using cobra 29's with appropriate power supply and 2 pt 99 antennas. In nw Louisiana, the cb hobby is really picking up, I have enjoyed it to the point I have put a new cobra 25 in the car. The only thing I hate is the big guys on 6 that bleed all over the spectrum.

Same situation here. I was on the air off and on up until 3 years ago when I retired and relocated back home to FL. Right before moving, I sent off a couple of old bases for routine servicing and then stashed them in the attic when I got them back.

Last Saturday I became curious, dragged one of them out of storage, and checked out the Band. It was wide open from Nova Scotia to Australia until about 11pm EST, and then long ground wave set in until around 2am....I was good for around a 50 mile radius. I was pleased considering I haven't put up a base antenna yet and was running a 4 Watt rig from my garage into a Wilson 1000 on my pickup out in the driveway.

Click to enlarge and 73!

Satisfied that the Band's still alive and equipment still works, I packed everything away in the attic again for future consideration. I have an ocean, three rivers, and must be a million lakes to play with now.


d201 3.08.14 by n9emz, on Flickr


truktenna by n9emz, on Flickr

 

[scannerdaddy]

i once had a 14/wave ground plane(hustler or antenna specialist?) on a 10 ft. mast mounted to a tripod supported by 3 or 4 guide wires on the top of my folks house when i was about 17-18 years old. one day a huge wind storm hit the cleveland area and blew it all over. oh well. it was FUN while it lasted.

 

[n9emz]

i once had a 14/wave ground plane(hustler or antenna specialist?) on a 10 ft. mast mounted to a tripod supported by 3 or 4 guide wires on the top of my folks house when i was about 17-18 years old. one day a huge wind storm hit the cleveland area and blew it all over. oh well. it was FUN while it lasted.

One of the fortunate few and congrats. Many an occasion I regretted the bug had bitten and I'd probably be better educated and wealthier today had it not. What the heck....took me 40 years or so but I got over it.

 

[davenlr]

I use mine daily driving around the state in my work truck. Typical helical loaded antenna on the mirror mount. No amp. No problems getting out.

Favorite antenna was a A/S Starduster. That mix between a half wave dipole and a discone had such a low angle of radiation, it sometimes outworked my 3 element Wilson beam. I have a CB capable Yaesu sitting here, but mainly listen. Dont have a good antenna, and the ones available these days for base stations pretty much suck

 

[n9emz]

I was pathetic back in the late 70s; ran base and mobile, amplifiers, heavy into DX and late night local ragchew. Otherwise, I was unreliable and often non-productive; up all night running my jibs, often either late to work the next day and/or dragging my butt so bad I should have been charged to show up on a worksite rather than be paid. I was even divorced by my first wife but, if I had known earlier that I could get that done with CB, I would have saved us both a lot of misery.

Late 70s I went the Amateur route, tangentially a result of CB. All my CB heroes stepped up, wasn't much difficulty in the jump, and picking up a bit of theory and CW proficiency was entertaining. Life, you might say, was good by twice and bad by at least the same multiplier. More screwing up on the job(s) and second divorce....that one still stings a bit.

Story of my life: Without murphy's law it wouldn't have had much in the way of focus and direction. Lessons learned 2x finally sunk in and were finally adhered to, although perhaps a little loosely in the beginning. Well enough that I became work-reliable and stayed away from marriage for awhile. I knew when to say goodnight and shut the rigs down circa 1983.

My airtime has been equally split between Amateur, CB and SWL.and sporadic since then. Both the Amateur and 11M Bands seemed to metamorphose into soap opera sort of scenario where you could miss one or more episodes and easily get current on the story line; or, miss maybe a year and become current with what seemed like re-runs.

My last Amateur transmission went out sometime in the wee hours back in 2008; CB followed the same path in late 2010 although I did fire an 11M rig up last Saturday night. I'd have faced some difficulty if it had been Sunday night. I'm married again (for over 20 years) and I slept until 11am (retired and no job but the XYL is up usually before 7).

It was fun but not as much as back in the day, and it never will be. I don't think it's as much the fault of technology as it is that we as a people have changed. I figured I'd while away much of my downtime hours on the radio after retirement. Au contraire!. What downtime? I'm back home among old friends and family and I have my days loaded with far more fun and interesting things to occupy myself with than radio communications.

I now have no HAM equipment, only back in the day CB rigs that I either lusted for and couldn't afford or ones I and those like me could and ran....and I keep them all operable; newest from 1973. I often ask myself why and consider selling or trading them off but, before I can pull the trigger, a good reason to keep them comes to mind. They're a piece of back in the day I can put my hands on and actually use if the notion strikes.

What the heck. If the grid goes down from an EMP event....I'm still on the air.

 

[regent23]

Listening the past few days here in nyc on my bct15x scanner, perfect
reception, but the stuff im listening to is mind boggling
Everyone starting major fights with eachother, and the language
Is unreal what has happened to people today. Its thunderdome out there. So
glad I returned the rig I bought, got the book to study for amature so thsts
my april project.

 

[Dawn]

Sam, it sounds almost like parallel life except I wisened up and pulled the plug much earlier, but I can empathize with the marriage thing. First stung so bad after busting my *** and burning the candles on both ends to provide and finish college that I got dummped after 2 years. Took the next 20 years and 2 months afterwards to step back end once the last kid was out on her own. Retired now too and not by choice. You're right about what leisure time? Unless it's in the wee hours of the night and like you, my mate gets up at the crack of dawn and me a few hours later to stale coffee. The few hours at night I look forward to. Great marriage though and never dreamed it could be this wonderful after the hell I went through and then sat through 20 years of carnage watching all my friends go through gut wrenching divorces out of the blue. Can't tell you how many guys I seen served by surprised at work and the stunned look of a lightning bolt hitting them out of the blue. Then the slow death by a thousand cuts by the legal system screwing them over. At least mine was out the door within a year and we tolerated each other for the next 16 months with nothing to split except my daughters that went to my ex MIL which also happens to be my Godmother and went our own ways. Worked out well. She had technical custody, I had the girls after they started school.

I started going down the rabbit hole during the early 70's between working a part time job and on the CB, I had enough by '72. Got my amateur ticket in '73 and married the following year. The band went down the tubes around that time leading up to the boom. Tried to capitalize off it by doing repairs before the 40 channels out of our apt. Part of the reason for the divorce. Wound up dealing with a bunch of waste case, drunken and stoned loosers that lived on the CB and didn't have a life like gamers today. Spent their nights raising hell and giving each other grief. When that spilled into my life with a-holes showing up at 2AM and laying on their horn or annoying our neigbors because I didn't come to the door to fix or take in a CB because I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to go to my real job, we got kicked out of our apt. becuase these idiots made us a nuisance to our neighbors.

I never let the amateur part interfere with family life. That stayed at my parent's house with my shop. Just me and the girls with more then enough on my plate just shifting from work mode to parent. When you work on radios all day, it sort of zaps the enthusiasm out of it. You loose that pining for the latest and greatest when you fix the latest and greatest daily. I'd rather have the time with the kids then ragchew. Paid off in the long run. Never had the heartaches virtually everyone else did with their kids although you sweated out the end of every day waiting for the shoe to drop that never did.

 

[SouthernRoller]

Still a few locals around here rag chewing at night, but during the day it's mainly truckers passing through. Late at night with the local elevation, you can usually make some great contacts though.

 

[jdobbs2001]

Are people still using those Texas star 3 pill linears and splattering 100khz of 11meters with howwwwboutit over and over? Or has that phase died out.

What about the freebanders using those open galaxy radios to transmit out of band?

 

[n9emz]

Yeah, Dawn....irony. Reality always interrupts when we're busy making other plans. Lately I've been thinking getting the commercial ticket.