I don’t see many big rig with CB antennas around here. In the past 2 years I've only made contact with 2 drivers as they were going through here and lost them both very quickly. Maybe 2-3 miles out. Not much of a set up Im guessing
A few of the specifics from the thread I linked above are:
1). Time of day:
Pre-dawn to roughly 1100; and,
2). Location:
Nearest to areas in the region where trucks congregate to load/unload (warehouse district, railhead, river/sea port); and LOS to major highways especially interchanges.
— Men working local can operate almost blind-folded, so it’s
regional who are seat-edge concerned with road conditions farther from city center.
In any metro on the periphery are bulk haulers (gravel, rip-rap, cement in a city) who are tied to construction
as a group making multiple round-trips passing each other as they do. With
Skip the interfering factor the last two years it’s not simply “likely”, but probable that they’re not on 27.185, but are on an adjacent channel such that
anything they hear is of interest to them thereby.
Having said that, it’s also probable that only a few out of a dozen will have radios worth mentioning.
They’re to be heard from roughly 0500 to 1300 and are those you’re most likely to hear.
— This is dependent on geography.
Loggers, grain-haulers, etc.
3). The “big” rigs are men who run significant distances in (usually) their own trucks. May not be gone from home for 10-14/days, but have runs that will net them 2-3,000/miles in around a week
or that high-value freight has them moving city-city (manufacturing Midwest).
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania. This job description is on-air till late in the day (1700).
4). The glory days of cross-continent OTR passed long ago (replaced by container trains with China-junk).
As most of America consumes, but doesn’t produce this accounts for “freight” which doesn’t pay beans (except by volume). This is mainly high driver turnover “mega carriers”.
Probably the group most identified as “truck drivers” as rig-type plus livery spells that out unmistakably.
Least likely to have decent radios.
If one is on-air from 1600 till late he’s missed most of what would have occurred
and that he needs be LOS to (above locations)
and that he can ID
who (group) is on-air to predict
and that he
himself has both strong TX and a conversational aptitude developed.
— Get out a good highway map and fold it open such that one’s home (and/or commuting route) is somewhat centered. Look to see what’s 5-miles around (full daylight) and a second radius of what’s 10-miles (pre-dawn).
Assuming one is in/near a major metro:
Men in truckload service headed in-bound to morning delivery have a radio turned up. Men going from that delivery to get re-loaded are past the first use of the days energy. Men re-loaded and outbound are wearing down.
A). 0500-0900
B). 1000-1400
C). 1400-1800
The
big outlier is LTL for late-night (hours past sunset).
Less-Than-Truckload shuttling freight for their company over a large area on
scheduled service runs. Same route five nights/week, often. Can have
excellent radios.
Find a major city and devise routes of 300-miles which loop back.
Major Carrier
Fleet Truck
Employee
This is the last remaining group to fill a lot of shoe pairs re CB heritage.
The slip-seater. Often, a Union carrier.
He nightly tracks the growth of potholes.
If you’re a night owl with a good station, you can make friends.
Herb oughta be thru in about twenty-minutes.
The thread has depth (maps & links) by which clarity develops.
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