Finding CB nets?

[zonejrsector9]

Ok thank you for all the input, from all.

I do want to keep things legal as far as radios used and output power yada yada. I won’t lecture anyone on that. Suffice to say I would own an opened up Q5 or QT60 but stick to 10 and 12 meters with them in normal times.

Also I haven’t seen a whole lot of folks saying they are in my area and that they know of nets in my area.

How about I ask this: Is there anyone in my area (Yavapai County/Northern Arizona/some central AZ) that would be up for meeting up on CB or starting a net? Can’t seem to make local contacts up here.

 

[merlin]

in the 80's i was known as the frog on lower 37 in bergen county NJ.
a bunch of us would get together almost every night.
green station wagon and would jump on and off the air due to being a security guard.
so i would guess they are still around.

Yea, thats like my old days, just never assoiated with a net.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Back in the day on 11meters the only way we could seem to talk local, was to operate Splits from 26.925/27.445 on USB to avoid all the skip and noise. Definitely not legal, but it was Much quieter.

 

[K6GBW]

Try to do local communication right now is going to be tough. Even in a big city like Los Angeles there are very few people using the CB for local communicaitons. Most are cranking power on modified ham radios and trying to work skip. You don't just get it on 35-40 anymore. People are doing it all across the band. The only people I hear doing any kind of "local" stuff on on the frequencies above CB. Lots of that is Spanish. The good thing is most of the people up there are using radios that don't sound like splatter boxes.

 

[KI4ZNG]

Anyone remember the 11n Dx contests some cb radio forums had years ago? Most were once a month and ran over a weekend and I remember one was every Sunday morning. Each member had an assigned call sign. You logged your contacts on the forum and a winner was announced when the contest ended. They were a lot of fun back then.

 

[MiCon]

Why not, indeed?

It's a matter of finding CB operators in your area, seeing if any of them are interested in a local net, and organizing it.

There are many reason to drum up interest in a net: casual conversation, local news & events, emergencies. I'm sure there would be some interest, but not for everyone.

In the 1960's I belonged to an organized CB club. We held meetings, had picnics, chatted on the air, but mostly we monitored a certain channel to assist motorists with directions, suggestions for places to eat, get gas, car troubles, and emergencies. We even assisted the local PD's and FD's with manpower for traffic control at community events, and search parties for missing persons.

It can be interesting, fun, and a service to the community. Have fun.

 

[KF0SKV]

I don't know if i would have called it a net, but a bunch of guys, myself included, in the northern Denver suburbs would gather almost nightly on 21 AM or 37 LSB back in the early 90's. It was very well run. Once a month they would gather for coffee at various places as well. Good times!

 

[KD8DVR]

While you are correct, for DXing CB is alive and well, but for local chit chat and traffic reports, it pretty much is, in my area.

Local communications are dead *because* the DXers ruined it for us.

 

[MiCon]

Ok thank you for all the input, from all.

I do want to keep things legal as far as radios used and output power yada yada. I won’t lecture anyone on that. Suffice to say I would own an opened up Q5 or QT60 but stick to 10 and 12 meters with them in normal times.

Also I haven’t seen a whole lot of folks saying they are in my area and that they know of nets in my area.

How about I ask this: Is there anyone in my area (Yavapai County/Northern Arizona/some central AZ) that would be up for meeting up on CB or starting a net? Can’t seem to make local contacts up here.

I'm in your area, but in the year I've lived here I've seen almost no CB antennas on houses or vehicles. My guess is, it's not used much here.

As for me, my wife gives me enough grief about the scanner noise. There's no way I could have a CB in the house.

 

[wtp]

the way i found some folks to talk to was to spin the dial.
but now with scanners that go down to 25 Mhz and some even have a CB service search to make it that easy.
do you have a scanner that can do that zonejrsector9 ?

 

[trentbob]

Been watching this thread, I personally don't know of any current CB Nets.

I remember back in the early 60s as a kid.. react in my local area were on Channel 21. They had self-designated numbers and I'm sure they had call letters but didn't use them. I got mine in 1965 from my dad KOG 0554 who was a ham and could care less about CB radio.

Would actually mimic ham radio Nets with self-designated three number designations.

Of course I don't have to remind anybody that every other car had a CB radio in it.😅😅😅.

Oh by the way, Channel 19 was not the truck Channel, when I was 10 in 1963. I remember my Township's School bus service was on channel 19 and my older brothers auto shop and towing service was on channel 19. Trucks used Channel 10 and 11 LOL. Only had 23 to pick from.

 

[merlin]

Breaker channel 7, unit 140 going QRT for coffee at denny's. Wouldnt you know 15 CBers show up.

 

[merlin]

Channel 19 was not the truck Channel

Wasn't til early 70s that truckers started on 19. Mostly made popular by "Wil and Sonney". That and "My handle is the white knight how bout it"

 

[prcguy]

In the 70s there were some on air gatherings on a certain night that you could call nets and I think we had competing nets on different channels as users of other channels were the enemy back then.

One thing that was fun was CB Breaks, an actual sanctioned gathering where everyone met at a pizza joint and shared stories, looked over each others mobile equipment (and women) and there was always a raffle with some equipment donated by local CB shops. I attended the enemy’s break a couple of times and won a bunch of their raffle items and as you can imagine was not very popular with that group.

Something you can do is find some of your local CB people and see if there is interest in having a gathering. Maybe find a place to host it and put flyers at local radio shops and 4WD shops. If you have any radio shops get enough people to commit to going then solicit shops for donated equipment to raffle off. When something like this gets popular the person in charge can then just buy some equipment to raffle off and with enough ticket sales there is usually a profit for the next gathering.

 

[trentbob]

In the 70s there were some on air gatherings on a certain night that you could call nets and I think we had competing nets on different channels as users of other channels were the enemy back then.

One thing that was fun was CB Breaks, an actual sanctioned gathering where everyone met at a pizza joint and shared stories, looked over each others mobile equipment (and women) and there was always a raffle with some equipment donated by local CB shops. I attended the enemy’s break a couple of times and won a bunch of their raffle items and as you can imagine was not very popular with that group.

Something you can do is find some of your local CB people and see if there is interest in having a gathering. Maybe find a place to host it and put flyers at local radio shops and 4WD shops. If you have any radio shops get enough people to commit to going then solicit shops for donated equipment to raffle off. When something like this gets popular the person in charge can then just buy some equipment to raffle off and with enough ticket sales there is usually a profit for the next gathering.

We called them coffee breaks, usually at 24 hour Turnpike rest stops. Back when there was no internet or cell phones, or even pagers, CB radio was boss, brick and mortar cb shops who would sell the scanners, antennas, coax, crystals and accessories were our source of information.

 

[BobW55]

I think many of us remember CB when it was a great licensed tool. Oh yes the coffee breaks we had. Im just north of Detroit, and just getting back into CB. Got tired of all the HF wire antennas that would break every winter. Kept my VHF/UHF, and now 1 stick in the air for 10 and up bands. I know CB is still used around here, you see antennas on trucks and a few farms still use it. With the new hands free law that went into affect this year, you cant hold a phone, but you can talk on a mic. I just have to keep scanning the dial till I find out where the locals are.

 

[kg4ehv]

Ahh yes the '70's. C.B. breaks and "t-hunts" always had a big crowd of good people.

 

[Randyk4661]

Back in the early 80's when I was on the air, there were some CB clubs we would get together during the night time. I can not recall any "Nets" like you might find on amateur radio today. But again I live in the Los Angeles metro area. Maybe there might be something like that in rural areas of the country for the farmers? I wouldn't count on it in any large metro areas.
CB has such a limited range to have any large scale net capability.

 

[KANE4109]

Wasn't til early 70s that truckers started on 19. Mostly made popular by "Wil and Sonney". That and "My handle is the white knight how bout it"

And don't forget "BJ and The Bear"!!!!
I actually still watch Will and Sonny ("Movin' On") on some streaming channels on the internet now!

 

[ladn]

I don't remember any formalized "net" activities during my CB daze in the '70's. Lots of the same folks would gather on a channel around the same time each night, but there wasn't really any structure to it. It was fun and informal.