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How far have you thrown your 4 watts?

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cpsTN

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I am curious about the longest distances various users of CBs have transmitted. This is with the 4-watt LEGAL limit only, please!
 

kb2vxa

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Let's get real, working "skip" is no challenge at all. I've worked 40 miles base to mobile over flat terrain and 80 miles mobile to mobile but I was sitting on a mountain at the time. SO, how far have you pushed your 4 watts without assistance from Mother Nature?
 

reedeb

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Ignore the sour grape!!

In the early 90's I spoke to a young lady in Austrailia from Maine with a regular Radio Shack Rig on a 102" steel whip [even got a QSL card from her a few days later to confirm it] Had a guy in my town who had been trying to reach Aussie land for quite some time and was he ever mad when I showed him the card [ he had a big radio, huge antenna, and lots of power too]
 

DX949

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Ignore the sour grape!!

In the early 90's I spoke to a young lady in Austrailia from Maine with a regular Radio Shack Rig on a 102" steel whip [even got a QSL card from her a few days later to confirm it] Had a guy in my town who had been trying to reach Aussie land for quite some time and was he ever mad when I showed him the card [ he had a big radio, huge antenna, and lots of power too]

Thats cool ! they say just before a big storm you can get lucky on skip,in this situation its possible to talk for about 3 to 5 minutes.Working CB skip is fun.
Sour grape is right.
 

kd5enp

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Back in 1976 in Memphis, TN. I was driving down the road using a Uniden CB legal wattage with 102" steel whip and had a conversation from a guy that said he was in Seattle, Washington. Never verified but it sounded like he was just down the street.
 

reedeb

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Not on CB but 2 meter ham we had a hurrican moving up the Atlantic coast and a low front moving in from out west I was talking on an HT [3 watts on a mobile antenna ]I was working in Portsmouth NH at the time so the repeater was almost 35 miles away had a guy come on talking to me and said he was in Portsmouth also......Portsmouth VIRGINIA also in a mobile. THIS was veriied by the owner of the repeater who heard all this I believe this was 1996
 

ksphotoguy

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Mar 23, 2006
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western Kansas
on CB I have made it to 40 miles in my vehicle with a Cobra 148 and a Wilson 1000 antenna. I was talking to my wife with the same setup in her car.

Just today, on 2 meter I made it from Ellis Ks to a repeater in Colby Ks and had a conversation with a ham operator for about 5 minutes. I was using a Yaesu 2800 and a roof mount antenna. It is approximately 90 miles distance.
 

chrismol1

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Back in the day I chatted with a fellow from California & Puerto Rico. I'm located in New York. Thats roughly 2000 miles, It was spotty most of the time I barely made our their location
 
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scannerdaddy

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Northfield Center, Ohio
what 4 watts will do

back in the mid to late 70's i had a pace 23ch. am/ssb rig. on the roof of my house i had a tripod with guy wires and a 10ft. mast. i used a hygain super something or other. i believe it was 5/8 di-pole. anyway, i was living in an eastern suburb of cleveland and i had numerous qso's with some good ole boys and girls who lived on the near west side of cleveland. i guess about 15-18 miles of my location. many of these folks ran power and had beam antennas and used d-104 mics. but is was nice to know i could be heard. i also had a 23ch. am/ssb rig in my car and would talk to my dad as i went to work in downtown cleveland, but we talked on lower sideband. no more than 12 miles. but it was a lotta fun. my dad and the radio are long gone. good memories though.
 

cpsTN

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back in the mid to late 70's i had a pace 23ch. am/ssb rig. on the roof of my house i had a tripod with guy wires and a 10ft. mast. i used a hygain super something or other. i believe it was 5/8 di-pole. anyway, i was living in an eastern suburb of cleveland and i had numerous qso's with some good ole boys and girls who lived on the near west side of cleveland. i guess about 15-18 miles of my location. many of these folks ran power and had beam antennas and used d-104 mics. but is was nice to know i could be heard. i also had a 23ch. am/ssb rig in my car and would talk to my dad as i went to work in downtown cleveland, but we talked on lower sideband. no more than 12 miles. but it was a lotta fun. my dad and the radio are long gone. good memories though.

I was born in Cleveland and lived for the first 8 years in Lorain, OH. In May of '10, my father will have been gone for 25 years. I am sure 1985 can't REALLY be that long ago! I remember the 23ch radios, and even before they had 7-seg LEDs, just dial knobs like the old TVs used to have. I used to meet a lot of people on the CB in this local area (Rutherford Co. TN). One man I knew for 15 years, the one I consider my best friend. He has also passed away, dying at only 53 in 2006. I always remember him when I see or use a CB. Your right, many older memories DO seem to be the good ones.
 
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stilaR8dr

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It is all about the skip!

Like someone said. It is all about the atmospheric skip conditions.
I am in California and back in the day I used to have no problems talking to Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, and so on.
When skip was rolling hard.... a better question would be.....
Has anyone been able to talk to someone from your own town?

"""Breaker... Go ahead breaker.... This is so and so and hows the traffic out there?..... Its good here on the 45 in Dallas..... But I am in California.... Oh, so how traffic there in California?"""
 
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