Do truckers still use CB Radios?

[Groundhog1960]

I was parked close to State Highway 63 between Willow Springs Missouri and Mammoth Spring Arkansas the other day in a high spot talking on the radio and I started paying attention to 18 wheelers going North and South on the road.
I estimate about 70 - 75% of the big rigs I saw there had cb antennas on them. I was there almost 45 minutes so I saw a lot of big rigs going both directions. So, many still do. It's a good thing, imo.

 

[Giddyuptd]

I was parked close to State Highway 63 between Willow Springs Missouri and Mammoth Spring Arkansas the other day in a high spot talking on the radio and I started paying attention to 18 wheelers going North and South on the road.
I estimate about 70 - 75% of the big rigs I saw there had cb antennas on them. I was there almost 45 minutes so I saw a lot of big rigs going both directions. So, many still do. It's a good thing, imo.

Many have them still. Now whether it's on or volume up is another. With technology many use that anymore. The days of most not having cell phones are gone and many relied on cb to fill the drive time. It's really a ymmv and you'd have more luck around a truck stop or major interstate hearing anything though the intellectual conversations have gone to mostly cooler talk and rant arguing to jokes of various nature between many at the truck stops.

 

[slowmover]

The background noise level gets higher and higher during the day. 1500 or so it’s unbearable with a typical truck CB and it’s poor systems.

It’s not really the drivers.

There’s not a sweet spot between ANL, RF Gain and Squelch that doesn’t just wear you out with static unless you’ve equipped the audio with DSP, or in the past few months bought a radio with DSP integrated, and upgraded Antenna & Power systems.

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[slowmover]

I was parked close to State Highway 63 between Willow Springs Missouri and Mammoth Spring Arkansas the other day in a high spot talking on the radio and I started paying attention to 18 wheelers going North and South on the road.
I estimate about 70 - 75% of the big rigs I saw there had cb antennas on them. I was there almost 45 minutes so I saw a lot of big rigs going both directions. So, many still do. It's a good thing, imo.

Find pictures of FREIGHTLINER Cascadia as the antenna is molded inside of body above windshield, thus, “invisible”. That truck is 25% or more of all big trucks.

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[slowmover]

Decent example of being in xtra-high volume East Coast traffic serving NYC & New England from eastern Pennsylvania.



One bad wreck. The way around is 22-South to 61-North (best I can tell; complicated area). But you have to have had Distant Early Warning to both make the proper exit and possibly make en-route adjustments on the fly.

Plenty of good radio rigs. PA & OH are probably best in this regard.

The one to which we are listening is what most would consider “good” as it meets average expectations. Which are lower than what is possible. The driver has a quality external speaker, but the rig as a whole is not what it could be.

This is a decent example of how CB actually sounds while driving a big truck with the volume turned up.

But it’s a very long hour for the driver and he’s missed his pickup appointment time as a result. He’ll get loaded, but will they make him wait having missed the window? You don’t get paid for this problem.

PA is hilly and the eastern portion is densely settled. Not easy or advisable to try to go around sometimes. Only with a radio can you learn your chances.

The problems of time, distance and lowering one’s daily average compensation is what you hear in the voices recorded.

Not an unruly crowd. But the car’s impatiently (illegally) cutting thru traffic are what heighten tensions. That it’s “normal” in no way makes it right.

“Traveling faster” isn’t any form of ROW. With your radio, ask the driver if you can change lanes ahead of him (“Hey, eastbound white Volvo pulling an empty stepdeck, got a copy?”) Proximity makes your radio louder. (“Yeah, I’m in this blue mommy van with turn signal on and need to exit just up ahead . . . okay, thanks driver. Have you a good one”).

Do truck drivers still use the CB
Sometimes more than you expect.

You’ll make that guys whole day right in following the above advice. It’s so rare one can almost count on one hand the number of times a 4-wheeler acts so politely in a year of driving 120,000-miles.

I usually offer them a range check in return.
Or to help with Mic Gain.

Living near any major truck interchange I can’t imagine not having a decent CB in the car.

Here’s the population density. Trying to get in at the proper location from outside is the game. Allentown is straight north from Philly (low density by comparison to the coast).



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[oldradioguy2010]

Just for kicks, I use my 2m/440 antenna with my scanner. For what ever out there on 11m.
Saying that yes, a scanner ant works fine. When it comes to receiving a wet nuddle works.
But no transmitting.
Give it a spin.

DW
So. Cal
Merry Christmas to all.

 

[slowmover]

Am in a tractor new to me and ran out of time to get radio installed the way I wanted. Plus, that the OEM power connector was missing as I’m using a backup radio.

Cigarette lighter plug = bad
CLP into a multi-outlet (3 from one) = beyond bad.

Not news, I know. But I’m running a radio quieter than box-stock plus am using a transeceiver coax filter and a DSP speaker.

The built-in antenna isn’t any better than a WILSON Lil Wil mag-mount — meaning piss poor — so it’s a fair replication of what too many base CB capability upon after a road trip in the family vehicle.

Four (4) types of signals in combination:

1, Weak radio
a. Near
b. Far

2. Strong radio
a. Near
b. Far

All of these are different .
Now let’s add the variable:

A. Advancing
2. Receding.

Wishing to understand what’s happening as it’s happening requires clean power as a given.

In a far rural area it’s maybe two miles of ability in RX & TX (question & answer). Maybe.

In a busy metro, can’t be heard, and can’t hear. (1/2-mile).

These short distances preclude distant early warning and the often necessary conversation to get around a problem.

Clean power is mandatory (as you’ve read on every site). It’s not minor.

I’ve been across West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona the past ten days. Played with this power “thing”. Metro and rural.

Dirty power cuts capability by 2/3.
Those categories above and the variable.

POS to BATT then NEG to closest DC Ground.

A BUSSMAN MBRP fuse is how I avoid a spliced power wire in my pickup (shown; first iteration), or in a big truck. A low amp draw radio system can use “less”, but it’s still important to get things as you see here. Don’t cheap out.

Cover it, use ANCOR wire, heat shrink and split loom (as this is permanent), and take time in careful routing.



Do truckers still use the CB? Yes, but one must desire to capture faint signals in order to hear much of what’s possible to hear.

What’s possible is much more than you may currently believe.

Wiring & Grounding

 

[slowmover]

Skip is quite strong most days lately. Hard to hear local when far distant coming in.

DSP in radio system plus clean power makes then adjusting RF Gain & Squelch an action producing results.

Dirty DC flat defeats radio system component and antenna system qualities.

One might spring for state-of-the-art with an ANYTONE NT5555-V2 AM/SSB radio, a UNIDEN BC20 speaker, and a SIRIO 5000 mag mount. (Great!). $400 for what last year would have run you $7-800 in comparable performance.

But dirty power will defeat you. ($25 in materials to get it right).

The noise floor will be so high one can’t filter distant RX to concentrate on what’s local (to a meaningful extent).

CB Radio is today for The Few.
The ones who plan to get home.

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[slowmover]

Radio benefits by your experience in knowing how to delineate between Skip and Local (near & far).

Practice

 

[slowmover]

 

[steve9570]

Yes it is very busy !

 

[tomhank]

Even though smartphones may be the primary method of communication in the modern world, radios are still very much alive and well. There are several benefits to purchasing radio equipment, even when off-roading in a Jeep. Although there are many other radios available, a decent selection will let you use the Citizen Band radio service.

 

[slowmover]

As said, newest radios with NRC (DSP filter) and I’d say with SCAN to find locals trying to communicate on other than AM-19 when Skip is blaring in (truck drivers known to me doing local & regional needing to talk with their fellow drivers).

Coax filters also a good idea. Chasing noise went from a good idea to one that’s mandatory for the traveler.

6’-7’ antennas where a quarter-wave can’t be used (9’). Total height to 14’ works.

Use these as reference to any radio purchase due to brand-new circuitry not previously available in a CB. Line-by-line feature comparison against others..

 

[slowmover]

'To those saying CB is dead,' this trucker's Channel 19 distress call story might change your mind

A truck driver recently shared a viral social media post about how his CB radio call for help was answered by two fellow drivers.

cdllife.com

 

[slowmover]

Channel 9 has long been regarded as the emergency channel. So of course the south of the border types now crowd it day & night as it’s less affected by Skip.

— Chitlins on 6.

— Beans & Rice on 9.

— Mental retards & paid trolls on base stations crowding 19.

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[slowmover]

Again, population density is greatest predictor of CB RADIO usage and along Interstates connecting those. Exceptions are routes which serve the giant metros, in that they’re not obvious except with a Road Atlas.

Those highlighted counties contain more population than all the rest, combined. (Some counties are oversized compared to population footprint within).

Conversely, the local chit-chat is greater in those rural areas not subsumed by road traffic. Scanning radio recommended.

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[west-pac]

I never hear any trucker chit-chat on Ch19, even with two different types of scanners monitoring. As a kid in the 70's, CB radios were cool!

You're likely not using the correct antenna for CB either.

 

[slowmover]

You're likely not using the correct antenna for CB either.

Latest NRC radios feature Scan capabilities that would outperform a typical scanner.

.

 

[Freemor]

Is chan 6 still the superbowl?

Very much so. It interesting to watch Ch 6 on my SDR and see just how messed up their radios are. Off frequency, Splashing 2 channels over on either side, etc

RE: Truckers, Like many have said above. Having a proper antenna is a must and Location, location, location. I hear a lot when skip is running. And a regular trickle when it's not but I'm fairly rural and there are pockets here in NB and in Maine to the south where cellphones don't work. So that plus the half wave dipole I use probably accounts for the steady trickle.

But still nothing like the 70s

Half wave dipole in on my CB, SDR uses a Tram 1411 Discone both about 20 ft up

 

[bharvey2]

I took another road trip during the Thanksgiving week from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Seattle, WA area primarily along the I-5 corridor, a major trucking thoroughfare. As my 2M/70cm radio antenna connector decided NOW was the time to fail, I ended up monitoring a CB for a good part of the trip. I don't think I heard any local trucker traffic the entire time. The closest confirmed radio traffic was southern California. What I did hear was PLENTY of skip during the day. So much so that I would have considered CB almost unuseable for local traffic. What I heard was SSB on the upper few channels, the ever-present channel 6 broadcasting stations bleeding into the adjacent channels, a few 80M inspired rants and an unending supply of gibberish. Normal conversations, while present, were a rarity. CB might be a worthwhile mode of communication in some parts of the U.S. but unfortunately ,I wasn't hearing much of it