Activity on the Interstates

[KK4JUG]

Not like it used to be. Even as recent as the last 10-15 years I've noticed a decline in activity.

Certainly no one has to say "Breaker, Breaker" anymore.

 

[BushDoctor]

I live at the intersection of interstate 81 and Interstate 66. Except for a brief conversation once in a while i do hear activity when traffic stops or when the opposing lane warns of a back up like a few miles or so on the opposing side. I have found out how to avoid backups in my travels I have 200 rescue squads programed in my scanner and as soon as i hear of an accident if its mile marker is one that matches my the interstate I am on I am off to fine other ways to get where I am going like route 11 or route 55 or route one and even sometimes other less traveled short cuts to my destination. Being a Greyhound bus driver for over 25 years I have taken a scheduled run through neighborhoods and arriving at my destination 30 minutes earlier then a bus who left Washington 30 minutes prior to me and same for some of my arrivals in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and other places.

 

[KK4JUG]

My GPS does the same thing and I don't hear truck drivers questioning other's parents' marital status or euphemisms for various bodily functions. And, as was mentioned earlier, I have a pleasant female voice guiding me down the path.

 

[merlin]

CB is about dead where I am, very rarely some chatter from a couple trucks on the interstate.
Long about next year with the solar cycle rising, I am hoping on some skip.

 

[trentbob]

In my area which is substantial with regard to citizens band radio as again, for decades and decades it was the Hub on the northeast. This was it. I started as a kid around 1965.

It started to get really bad but truckers stayed with that with all the nonsense but you lost your four wheelers.

People used cell phones and the internet. The biz, as hard as it was , People just didn't want to listen to the garbage In their ear.

The business got more sophisticated, the driver was responsible for more than he was before and it was all on line.

Add in The GPS apps like waze and they gave you your smoky reports.

 

[FLA727]

Using Waze is ok if you have a passenger to look at the app and respond to it when prompted. I stopped using it a year or so ago because it was more of a distraction. To hear the radio reports from other drivers was just easier for me. I don't have to take my eyes off the road. Perhaps these apps have got better but I still like the good 'ol CB

 

[Ensnared]

Unless you are in a remote area, Interstates are pretty active on channel 19 in Texas.

 

[jonwienke]

Same in the WV/VA/MD/PA I-81 corridor.

 

[imonitorit]

During a recent FL to MA and back trip on I-95 I found CB comes to life during a traffic backup. There were a few times I heard "smokey bear" and debris in roadway reports that weren't posted on WAZE yet.
I still find it to be one of the best ways (for now) to communicate with motorists in your immediate area. Hopefully with GMRS license fee being lowered, 462.675 will take over as the unofficial road channel. GMRS FM radios are less noisy and a great improvement.

 

[russbrill]

During a recent FL to MA and back trip on I-95 I found CB comes to life during a traffic backup. There were a few times I heard "smokey bear" and debris in roadway reports that weren't posted on WAZE yet.
I still find it to be one of the best ways (for now) to communicate with motorists in your immediate area. Hopefully with GMRS license fee being lowered, 462.675 will take over as the unofficial road channel. GMRS FM radios are less noisy and a great improvement.

I have the new KG1000G GMRS Radio, so I can listen to 2 channels at once. I listen to a local repeater on 19 and I monitor 20 Simplex..

 

[mancow]

CB is about dead where I am, very rarely some chatter from a couple trucks on the interstate.
Long about next year with the solar cycle rising, I am hoping on some skip.

Hopefully there is one.

 

[Duckford]

During a recent FL to MA and back trip on I-95 I found CB comes to life during a traffic backup. There were a few times I heard "smokey bear" and debris in roadway reports that weren't posted on WAZE yet.
I still find it to be one of the best ways (for now) to communicate with motorists in your immediate area. Hopefully with GMRS license fee being lowered, 462.675 will take over as the unofficial road channel. GMRS FM radios are less noisy and a great improvement.

For all the bashing of AM and all the endless praise for FM, I've never heard much of a difference on two way radio. Sure, hi fidelity broadcast radio where they have all their equipment set up commercially. But as for the average Ham, I've never heard the "great" sound of FM. Because good sound is like a chain, and the weakest link determines the final quality, most people aren't set up to maximize the theoretical and actual potential of FM. I've heard a lot of HF SSB that sounds way better than anything on VHF/UHF. Even some really well setup CB AM is just as good as any FM analogue.

GMRS is potentially a good thing, more bandwith and different bands is another tool in the toolbox. But it is also potentially another problem as it could split an already diminished radio using public because some people won't adopt both. If you see some people stay on CB and some only use GMRS, it could be one of the worst things to hit the motoring public.

Since CB came first, because of its old and knowledgeable base, because of its heritage and how well it is known, and the fact it truly is license free, is the way I'm going for "less than Ham" radio service. I'm sure that those truckers who still use CB will continue, and especially those who are well invested and have overcome the power limitation by simply getting an (illegal) amplifier have no need for GMRS. Since CB and its channel 19 are so well known, I think it will weather GMRS just fine.

With a little bit of "extra" power, 11 meter can often beat 70 CM to death with a baseball bat, performance wise. Better radio horizon, and other HF advantages means you can do things with 11 meter you can't with 70 cm. Add in SSB and a good setup, GMRS can eventually become the vastly inferior performer simplex wise, with the repeaters being the only advantage for GMRS. The sheer amount of "import 10 meter" radios flying off the shelves is a sign that the 50 watts FM GMRS does not have a real life advantage over real CB users in the real world. In the end, the only real advantage GMRS has is the fact you can get more gain from a shorter antenna, and 11 meters means that the common compromise antennas hurt performance. The rest of GMRS's arguments are null.

In a major emergency, another issue could arise with GMRS, in the sense that there are very few channels. Repeater frequencies eat up more bandwith. And UHF is very crowded, with a lot of demand threatening it.... how many users does it take to fill the channels to overcrowded on GMRS? CB has 40 channels, plus (I don't support freebanding) 5 Alpha channels within the band, for 45 within CB itself, along with a long history of free banders who open up a lot of more bandwith potential if things do get REALLY bad. Right now the bands are dead, but if all these radio buying folks start squalking the at same time, GMRS could have the same problem 23 channel CB had in the old days during a crisis.

I think GMRS is a good thing. But when people start talking about replacing CB with GMRS they get on my bad side, in a very bad way. Radio bands complement each other, they don't replace each other. When Midland and others are attacking CB to promote GMRS they are doing a not good thing.

If you want my honest opinion, and I mean HONEST opinion. The ONLY reason GMRS has any popularity is the $20 Baofangs being used illegally on FRS and GMRS. That's it. GMRS is a bleed off for the idiots who buy them and use them without a license, and they could easily reason that sacrificing GMRS and FRS is a small price for chasing the "kids" out of the Ham bands.

CB will continue on because of illegal amplifiers overcoming CB's power problem. GMRS will thrive because of illegal use by $20 HT's.

Let's support all the services, and not try to run one off the road for another.

 

[imonitorit]

For all the bashing of AM and all the endless praise for FM, I've never heard much of a difference on two way radio. Sure, hi fidelity broadcast radio where they have all their equipment set up commercially. But as for the average Ham, I've never heard the "great" sound of FM. Because good sound is like a chain, and the weakest link determines the final quality, most people aren't set up to maximize the theoretical and actual potential of FM. I've heard a lot of HF SSB that sounds way better than anything on VHF/UHF. Even some really well setup CB AM is just as good as any FM analogue.

GMRS is potentially a good thing, more bandwith and different bands is another tool in the toolbox. But it is also potentially another problem as it could split an already diminished radio using public because some people won't adopt both. If you see some people stay on CB and some only use GMRS, it could be one of the worst things to hit the motoring public.

Since CB came first, because of its old and knowledgeable base, because of its heritage and how well it is known, and the fact it truly is license free, is the way I'm going for "less than Ham" radio service. I'm sure that those truckers who still use CB will continue, and especially those who are well invested and have overcome the power limitation by simply getting an (illegal) amplifier have no need for GMRS. Since CB and its channel 19 are so well known, I think it will weather GMRS just fine.

With a little bit of "extra" power, 11 meter can often beat 70 CM to death with a baseball bat, performance wise. Better radio horizon, and other HF advantages means you can do things with 11 meter you can't with 70 cm. Add in SSB and a good setup, GMRS can eventually become the vastly inferior performer simplex wise, with the repeaters being the only advantage for GMRS. The sheer amount of "import 10 meter" radios flying off the shelves is a sign that the 50 watts FM GMRS does not have a real life advantage over real CB users in the real world. In the end, the only real advantage GMRS has is the fact you can get more gain from a shorter antenna, and 11 meters means that the common compromise antennas hurt performance. The rest of GMRS's arguments are null.

In a major emergency, another issue could arise with GMRS, in the sense that there are very few channels. Repeater frequencies eat up more bandwith. And UHF is very crowded, with a lot of demand threatening it.... how many users does it take to fill the channels to overcrowded on GMRS? CB has 40 channels, plus (I don't support freebanding) 5 Alpha channels within the band, for 45 within CB itself, along with a long history of free banders who open up a lot of more bandwith potential if things do get REALLY bad. Right now the bands are dead, but if all these radio buying folks start squalking the at same time, GMRS could have the same problem 23 channel CB had in the old days during a crisis.

I think GMRS is a good thing. But when people start talking about replacing CB with GMRS they get on my bad side, in a very bad way. Radio bands complement each other, they don't replace each other. When Midland and others are attacking CB to promote GMRS they are doing a not good thing.

If you want my honest opinion, and I mean HONEST opinion. The ONLY reason GMRS has any popularity is the $20 Baofangs being used illegally on FRS and GMRS. That's it. GMRS is a bleed off for the idiots who buy them and use them without a license, and they could easily reason that sacrificing GMRS and FRS is a small price for chasing the "kids" out of the Ham bands.

CB will continue on because of illegal amplifiers overcoming CB's power problem. GMRS will thrive because of illegal use by $20 HT's.

Let's support all the services, and not try to run one off the road for another.

You misunderstood my opionion completely. I was not, nor was it my intention.. to bash any radio service or run one off the road for another.

 

[mmckenna]

Radio services can absolutely compliment each other.

The right service to use is the one that does what you need. To say that one is better than the other ignores a lot of the capability.

Properly set up FM radios will sound better than AM. If you've been using GMRS for a while and you don't think it sounds as good, if not better than CB, then you likely have something set up incorrectly. Referencing Baofengs, they traditionally sound like something that falls out of the south end of a northbound horse. The bubble pack GMRS radios almost always run narrow band FM, and sound crappy on GMRS due to less bandwidth, poor speakers and poorly aligned radios.

Use a proper commercial radio that has Part 95 certification, is programmed correctly, using wide band FM and a good external speaker, and it'll beat the pants of CB day in and day out.

A CB set up well with a good external speaker does sound pretty dang good. But cheap off the shelf CB's using a small diameter built in speaker will sound less than ideal.

One benefit you overlook with GMRS is the ability to run coded squelch. For those of us that use/used it that didn't want to listen to everyone else, set up a CTCSS code and you get some peace and quiet.

Range may not be as good as CB when conditions permit, but that depends on the atmosphere. Relying on CB getting you 50 miles would be hit and miss. On the other hand, a GMRS repeater at a good location will get you 50 miles every day of the year, doesn't matter what the sunspot cycle is. I used to have access to a high level GMRS repeater and could regularly get 100 miles in some directions. Add in our own CTCSS tone on that repeater, and we had it all to ourselves.

I don't think GMRS will replace CB in our lifetime. It works well for what it's intended for. Random contacts don't work well with CTCSS/DCS codes. It is well established and accepted.

GMRS is the same. It works well for what it's intended for. Not everyone wants to make random contacts, sometimes they just want to talk to another car a mile away.
Many dislike large antennas, go through this website and you'll find lots of people asking about how well a 2 foot tall CB antenna will work, and then complaining because it won't.
A 6" quarter wave whip will work well on GMRS.

A big issue with GMRS is that most consumers have no idea what they are buying. They buy a radio that looks cool and assume that's it. They are often disappointed by the performance. But for those that understand radio, they know that adding a permanent mount antenna on top of the vehicle, doing a proper radio install, and setting it all up correctly delivers a lot of useable communications that just fits the needs of some.

I've run both CB and GMRS, as well as ham, LMR, analog, digital, AM, FM and SSB. All have their place.

If the FCC wanted to do something more with CB, allowing FM like many other countries already do would address a lot of it's shortcomings.

But to each their own.

 

[WX4JCW]

I’m a Trucker and I have one but rarely if ever do I even turn it on anymore, most of the time it’s a political battle like social media, plus the brotherhood that truckers enjoyed in years past is just not there as it used to be, I used to talk all the time with other drivers to keep each other awake but most use phones, it’s bad in the winter but you can’t convince this new breed of drivers to get on, and as far as bear reports after 2.5 million miles driving safe I get tired of no response after keying up so I quit trying, over powered radios were just part of the culture, we really don’t adhere to social norms and don’t really play well with others hence why we drive and to be honest I get more information on my SDS200 than I do on the CB, accidents etc, so I know where to go to avoid them, Waze killed the CB in my opinion

 

[Duckford]

I’m a Trucker and I have one but rarely if ever do I even turn it on anymore, most of the time it’s a political battle like social media, plus the brotherhood that truckers enjoyed in years past is just not there as it used to be, I used to talk all the time with other drivers to keep each other awake but most use phones, it’s bad in the winter but you can’t convince this new breed of drivers to get on, and as far as bear reports after 2.5 million miles driving safe I get tired of no response after keying up so I quit trying, over powered radios were just part of the culture, we really don’t adhere to social norms and don’t really play well with others hence why we drive and to be honest I get more information on my SDS200 than I do on the CB, accidents etc, so I know where to go to avoid them, Waze killed the CB in my opinion

To be fair, politics is a growing cancer spreading and destroying everything in modern life. Everything on the TV, then everything on the internet. Then chat rooms, BBS message boardes, and yes, even radio. To be even more fair, sometimes you turn on 80 meter LSB and listen in, on the big boi band reserved for General and above. The band for Prime Time Players, well dressed and rehearsed and ready to do great radio practice. And, even in the sacred land of Amateur, you get the SAME nonsense. Politics, rudeness, pig fighting, more politics.

You want to hear some of those guys talk about stuff beyond radio in tall HF bands. Until they ACTUALLY DO talk about something else. Because we all know where that goes....

 

[alcahuete]

For all the bashing of AM and all the endless praise for FM, I've never heard much of a difference on two way radio.

Seriously? Then you haven't listened enough. Heck, try FM on 10m and even there you can hear the difference. Way back in the day, my friend and I used to talk 30 miles or so base-to-base on 10m FM. Way better, and way more pleasant to listen to than AM.

With a little bit of "extra" power, 11 meter can often beat 70 CM to death with a baseball bat, performance wise. Better radio horizon, and other HF advantages means you can do things with 11 meter you can't with 70 cm.

Of course. Different bands for different uses. Not sure how old you are or how long you have been around, but when Solar Cycle 25 kicks off, CB is going to be utterly useless for local communications, except for very strong signals and late at night. If you want any sort of reliable local communications, you're going to be stuck using VHF/UHF.

In a major emergency, another issue could arise with GMRS, in the sense that there are very few channels. Repeater frequencies eat up more bandwith. And UHF is very crowded, with a lot of demand threatening it.... how many users does it take to fill the channels to overcrowded on GMRS? CB has 40 channels, plus (I don't support freebanding) 5 Alpha channels within the band, for 45 within CB itself, along with a long history of free banders who open up a lot of more bandwith potential if things do get REALLY bad. Right now the bands are dead, but if all these radio buying folks start squalking the at same time, GMRS could have the same problem 23 channel CB had in the old days during a crisis.

The bands (GMRS or CB) will not be packed during a crisis. They aren't during earthquakes, they aren't during hurricanes, they aren't during tornados. Just not enough users to pack the bands.

If you want my honest opinion, and I mean HONEST opinion. The ONLY reason GMRS has any popularity is the $20 Baofangs being used illegally on FRS and GMRS. That's it. GMRS is a bleed off for the idiots who buy them and use them without a license...

Same could be said for the idiots illegally running CB amplifiers and export radios. That's the only popularity with CBs. It really is. You don't have a bunch of people sitting around running 4w radios. If you compare a 50w GMRS radio to a 4w CB, there is just no comparison. I used both in high school and college (well, CB and 2m/70cm ham simplex) and the difference is huge. Particularly around the general college area, CB would have all sorts of fading and range issues. Switch over and no such problems. Then we could get on repeaters and cover huge distances, reliably, every single time. You just can't do that reliably on CB.

The real popularity with FRS/GMRS is that you can buy cheap bubble pack handheld radios that are actually efficient. CB handhelds don't work worth a darn. Then you get to antennas. Most people don't want a 5+ foot antenna on their car. 6 inch? Sure. I see people (particularly convoys) out here with 1/4 wave GMRS mag mounts all the time. A 1/4 wave is 6 inches tall.

It really comes down to different tools for different jobs. That's why ham radio is so wonderful. There is a reliable band for DX, local comms., and everything in between, every single day of the week, 24/7. It's a fascinating thing.

To get back on topic, I have taken so many roadtrips over the years. I-5 from San Diego to Canada, I-15 from LA to Vegas and Salt Lake City, I-40 eastbound to Florida. There's just no traffic at all. You get occassional locals here and there, occassional truckers, but absolutely nothing close to what it used to be. Oklahoma City was probably the most used that I have heard, and a bit in Florida. Outside of that, CB is officially dead. There are pockets of use here and there, but by and large dead.

 

[imonitorit]

Cool

 

[slowmover]

Let’s see: I have AM-19 turned on 10-12/hrs daily and about 300 days/year when covering most of the United States in a given year (excepting the PNW) over the past 8-9 years. 80-120k per year depending on the job.

Someone who trusts Big Brother to provide him with any & all worthwhile info is none too smart. That’s better than 90% of people in this country (and several tens of millions not citizens). These would be the television owners.

At any given moment the provider or some bad actor can cut off those services. GPS, Internet, etc.

You don’t own the service.
Access is conditional and not guaranteed.
You may be barred.

Whereas with Citizen Band you do own the means (and with other radio service not relying on repeaters).

If CB were dead, I wouldn’t bother having upgraded my gear to a higher level of performance. There are details of installation and using tips/tricks from the Amateur set which greatly pay off in mobile use.

I recently drove Chicago to D/FW with a tuned DX-99v2 and a little Wil stick to the roof of an SUV rental. Great SWR. Cigar lighter plug power.

An atrocious experience of over 1,000-miles of listening. Not 10% of what “CB Radio” can do (meaning the whole package including quality audio) as that’s a route with which I’m familiar (means I know how to correlate conditions encountered).

Citizen Band isn’t plug-n-play if one wants all that it offers (mobile SSB as case in point; working that plus AM Skip). A $500 radio fresh off the bench won’t overcome the vehicle/antenna problems.

I’ve around $1,100 in gear + supply for the mobile unit I run (more accurately, any radio plugs into Power and Antenna systems where the combined expense —not labor —is $600-plus; radio includes aftermarket mics and misc assigned to only that radio.)

A big truck requires more of everything to get the best (an ongoing problem). A private car or pickup is (ought to be) a good deal less (before radio price factored in).

Sure, it isn’t hard to have something that’s pretty good for 2-5/miles mobile; but it leaves out a lot of what else is available.

DSP Audio is such a game-changer that you can reliably discount any opinion without it, meaning, the next ten thousand long-experienced and technically-competent operators you run across don’t know that of which CB is capable.

Threads like these are pure trolling. Designed to discourage others from trying. Asswipes.

No, this isn’t 1979 again. So what? It’s not 1896 either.

My $1,100 rig pays for itself 2-3X per year as a function of my job constraints.

As a matter of safe highway travel the avoidance of a single serious incident it is without a dollar value.

Can any of you vouch for whom it is on the highway around you? Then why are you willing to be trapped in a huge crowd you might have avoided far from any services

Oh, yeah . . you paid for lullaby’s to keep you sound asleep.

The easily-discouraged I guess I’m glad don’t have radios. The burning airliner they’ll not ever depart after crash-landing. Face diaper attached and clutching vaxx certification.

Some days and some places don’t have much activity. That’s your fault, ydid nothing to dial up your neighbors on the party line.

AM-19 is the old hailing channel. Now, trucker-town. No one is barred. Start there and stay. Take a conversation elsewhere.

Ones ability to speak and converse is the dead & dying part.
The willingness. The spark of life. Let him who has ears, hear.

CB radio is doing just fine.

.

 

[slowmover]

I’m a Trucker and I have one but rarely if ever do I even turn it on anymore, most of the time it’s a political battle like social media, plus the brotherhood that truckers enjoyed in years past is just not there as it used to be, I used to talk all the time with other drivers to keep each other awake but most use phones, it’s bad in the winter but you can’t convince this new breed of drivers to get on, and as far as bear reports after 2.5 million miles driving safe I get tired of no response after keying up so I quit trying, over powered radios were just part of the culture, we really don’t adhere to social norms and don’t really play well with others hence why we drive and to be honest I get more information on my SDS200 than I do on the CB, accidents etc, so I know where to go to avoid them, Waze killed the CB in my opinion

Higher speed limits are what killed trucker participation. Then the worst become dominant to fill the longer silences.

Just keep asking what is their name, and what is their home address?. Ask why they don’t have any friends?

Counter that this IS their place. Might be some friends.