skip conditions

[niceguy71]

what a crazy month with these conditions!
I try to do a range review of a different handheld CB every Sunday... I used to go out 4 miles from my base station with a different handheld CB on Sunday afternoons... but the conditions were generally poor.
so I learned to start going out at 7AM and the conditions at 7 AM are always great... not a sole up yet and I can easily make the 4 mile mark with a handheld on low power at one watt.... been great for a year.
last month I went out at 7AM like normal and had nothing but skip from thousands of people on every channel??? so that test was a bust
I went out the next weekend at 6AM and the same thing??? people from all over the world on every channel skipping in on me????

so I thought I would do my mobile testing and my mobile antenna testing... I normally go out after 9PM as the conditions are great then.... only problem all the locals using scan hear me and want to talk... and I'm trying to record a video....
so I started going closer to 11PM as most people are in bed.

I went out last week with my Tram 3500 and a Stryker SR-A10... I was going to park at my 9 mile location and give them some tests..... well there was skip at 11PM from all over???? on every channel??? I could skip from California and Oregon, Georgia, Canada the UK all to my state of Massachusetts on my QT-60 at 11PM? on AM????
so I gave up and tried the next night at midnight... SAME THING!!!!
tried again the next night at 1AM..... who the heck is up at 1AM.... but every single channel had people from all other the world playing with skip.. so I gave up again.

well thanks to these crazy conditions I just went out at 4:50AM this morning and watched the sunrise... as it got light enough to film i did my handheld test and it worked... no one on at 4:50AM and no skip... I got home and everything worked great

thanks crazy conditions for making me watch the sunrise!

it's going to be a long summer trying to do tests in these conditions.

 

[merlin]

Probably best skip free times are like midnight to 3:00 AM. Doing my non skip DX, that is when I would mointain top, sometimes reaching 100+ miles.
Quiet zone

 

[merlin]

what a crazy month with these conditions!
I try to do a range review of a different handheld CB every Sunday... I used to go out 4 miles from my base station with a different handheld CB on Sunday afternoons... but the conditions were generally poor.
so I learned to start going out at 7AM and the conditions at 7 AM are always great... not a sole up yet and I can easily make the 4 mile mark with a handheld on low power at one watt.... been great for a year.
last month I went out at 7AM like normal and had nothing but skip from thousands of people on every channel??? so that test was a bust
I went out the next weekend at 6AM and the same thing??? people from all over the world on every channel skipping in on me????

so I thought I would do my mobile testing and my mobile antenna testing... I normally go out after 9PM as the conditions are great then.... only problem all the locals using scan hear me and want to talk... and I'm trying to record a video....
so I started going closer to 11PM as most people are in bed.

I went out last week with my Tram 3500 and a Stryker SR-A10... I was going to park at my 9 mile location and give them some tests..... well there was skip at 11PM from all over???? on every channel??? I could skip from California and Oregon, Georgia, Canada the UK all to my state of Massachusetts on my QT-60 at 11PM? on AM????
so I gave up and tried the next night at midnight... SAME THING!!!!
tried again the next night at 1AM..... who the heck is up at 1AM.... but every single channel had people from all other the world playing with skip.. so I gave up again.

well thanks to these crazy conditions I just went out at 4:50AM this morning and watched the sunrise... as it got light enough to film i did my handheld test and it worked... no one on at 4:50AM and no skip... I got home and everything worked great

thanks crazy conditions for making me watch the sunrise!

it's going to be a long summer trying to do tests in these conditions.

Not very often do you get skip at 27 MHz 24 hours, but with the solar cycle peaking it can happen.

 

[niceguy71]

Not very often do you get skip at 27 MHz 24 hours, but with the solar cycle peaking it can happen.

I'm a newbie on this solar cycle thing.... back in the 80's I would use my cb on my way to work ... and after work to find where my friends were fishing or shooting... ... latest i might of used it after getting out of the drive -in movie....I never needed a non skip time... and for the last few years I've never heard skip before 8am or after 8 pm... very strange tines

 

[W8KIC]

I'm a newbie on this solar cycle thing.... back in the 80's I would use my cb on my way to work ... and after work to find where my friends were fishing or shooting... ... latest i might of used it after getting out of the drive -in movie....I never needed a non skip time... and for the last few years I've never heard skip before 8am or after 8 pm... very strange tines

When it comes to propagation, Mother Nature doesn’t give a rip about whatever timing works best for us mere humans. Lol! It’s a natural phenomenon and if you’ve never taken the time to read up on radio wave propagation, you owe it to yourself to delve into the witchcraft that helps explain this mysterious process. When I became a ham operator back in the late 70’s, I started out on the amateur 40 meter band and as a Novice Class Licensee, our “privileges“ (frequency limitations)) weren’t anywhere near as generous as those accorded to General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class Licensees. It’s was an incentive process in the truest sense of the word and of course, we were limited to CW only as far as emissions go. The first few QSO’s I made were on 40 and it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Here I am in the Great Lakes region making contact with stations out in the Southwestern U.S. in the early evening and don’t get me wrong, it was fun but DX communication was what I was really after. A few days later, I got up at around 6:00 a.m. local time and hopped onto 15 meters and quickly discovered a whole new world right in front of my Kenwood TS-520S low band transceiver. I began listening to call sign prefixes that seemed kind of, well…weird. Lol! By the end of that morning, I’d “worked” and logged numerous fellow ham stations on the European continent and by the time propagation shifted in the early afternoon, I’d already worked and logged several stations down in the Caribbean Islands. By early evening, the fluttering sound of “JA’s” (Japanese hams) and the occasional UA9/UA0’s (Asiatic Russian hams) had been worked and added to my logs and of course, the rest was history. No doubt about it: I’d been bitten by the DX bug and along with it, a MUCH better understanding of radio wave propagation, along with where and when I could utilize it to my advantage (i.e. band openings, short and long path propagation, backscatter propagation, etc.) And the icing on the cake? Experimenting with various antenna designs, discovering their advantages and disadvantages, along with which types of transmission feed lines are best suited to a particular antenna design and in relatively short order, you’ll have discovered just how important it is to having more than just a rudimentary understanding of propagation. It’s all part of the fun and goes so much further than just flipping on the radio in true consumer fashion with everything spoon fed to you, minus the fundamentals. Lol! Again, Mother Nature won’t work around your schedule when it comes to radio wave propagation. You really have to jump right in and become an active participant and learn some things that will increase your interest and understanding of low band propagation. It’s worth it. Good luck!

 

[niceguy71]

When it comes to propagation, Mother Nature doesn’t give a rip about whatever timing works best for us mere humans. Lol! It’s a natural phenomenon and if you’ve never taken the time to read up on radio wave propagation, you owe it to yourself to delve into the witchcraft that helps explain this mysterious process. When I became a ham operator back in the late 70’s, I started out on the amateur 40 meter band and as a Novice Class Licensee, our “privileges“ (frequency limitations)) weren’t anywhere near as generous as those accorded to General, Advanced and Amateur Extra Class Licensees. It’s was an incentive process in the truest sense of the word and of course, we were limited to CW only as far as emissions go. The first few QSO’s I made were on 40 and it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Here I am in the Great Lakes region making contact with stations out in the Southwestern U.S. in the early evening and don’t get me wrong, it was fun but DX communication was what I was really after. A few days later, I got up at around 6:00 a.m. local time and hopped onto 15 meters and quickly discovered a whole new world right in front of my Kenwood TS-520S low band transceiver. I began listening to call sign prefixes that seemed kind of, well…weird. Lol! By the end of that morning, I’d “worked” and logged numerous fellow ham stations on the European continent and by the time propagation shifted in the early afternoon, I’d already worked and logged several stations down in the Caribbean Islands. By early evening, the fluttering sound of “JA’s” (Japanese hams) and the occasional UA9/UA0’s (Asiatic Russian hams) had been worked and added to my logs and of course, the rest was history. No doubt about it: I’d been bitten by the DX bug and along with it, a MUCH better understanding of radio wave propagation, along with where and when I could utilize it to my advantage (i.e. band openings, short and long path propagation, backscatter propagation, etc.) And the icing on the cake? Experimenting with various antenna designs, discovering their advantages and disadvantages, along with which types of transmission feed lines are best suited to a particular antenna design and in relatively short order, you’ll have discovered just how important it is to having more than just a rudimentary understanding of propagation. It’s all part of the fun and goes so much further than just flipping on the radio in true consumer fashion with everything spoon fed to you, minus the fundamentals. Lol! Again, Mother Nature won’t work around your schedule when it comes to radio wave propagation. You really have to jump right in and become an active participant and learn some things that will increase your interest and understanding of low band propagation. It’s worth it. Good luck!

I really enjoyed reading that, thank you
You make getting a ham license sound worth it.... someday I will
I'll have to read up on that propagation thing... you make it sound like it would be interesting.... I was thinking it would put me to sleep.
Thanks again

 

[W8KIC]

I really enjoyed reading that, thank you
You make getting a ham license sound worth it.... someday I will
I'll have to read up on that propagation thing... you make it sound like it would be interesting.... I was thinking it would put me to sleep.
Thanks again

Just about anything in this day and age can put me to sleep. Lol! It’s so ridiculously easy to obtain an amateur radio license in 2026. The Morse code requirement went the way of the dragon over two decades ago. While there are some very elaborate (expensive) pieces of amateur radio equipment available to the pubic, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune in order to setup a decent station and simple wire antennas for confined spaces have provided countless hours of fun along with some very surprising results for many radio amateurs. I‘ve been a ham since the spring of 1977 and with a vertical antenna paired with a less than ideal radial system and 100 watts or less have been able to work and confirm close to 200 DXCC countries around the globe. I came from the Chicken Band era of the mid 70’s and when I finally had more than I could stand of all the garbage that took place on the air, I decided to give amateur radio a try. I’ve NEVER looked back and my gut tells me you won’t either! I’m not sure where your located up in The Bay State but in all likelihood, there’s a local amateur radio club that‘s within relatively close proximity to where you live that conducts classes to help you obtain an amateur radio license. What’s your zip code?

 

[nd5y]

I'll have to read up on that propagation thing...

Here is a good start.

HF Propagation - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[slowmover]

SKIP Problems in Noise Abatement.

The discourtesy of screwing up AM-19. The understood Truckers Channel. Got 39 to 119 other channels before we consider freeband. The thread is not to whine and moan, but to introduce others new to CB how to deal with Skip overwhelming local comms. The exigencies of the road. Your experience...

forums.radioreference.com

Skip is the test of a mobile rig. Trying to stay abreast of what’s not simply ahead, but what can be overtaking . . man-made or Mother Nature.

It’s where most hang it up in frustration on AM-19, but that needn’t be the case.

To the end where lessons learned the hard way it’s desirable that all men acknowledge an affordable minimum radio rig to combat this . . and that in ideal conditions can expect performance far above average:

Best Mobile 2025

A general: what should I recommend to friends who want high performance in Citizen Band? Let’s ballpark it at $500 entry. Will last longer than the time they own the automobile. Seatbelts, Concealed Carry, and CITIZEN BAND. This thread aimed at YOU, not the guy who knows even less. However...

forums.radioreference.com

The 1989 $200 radio only would today — by price inflation — be $550 (todays complete best mobile radio rig price). And unlike 1989 one can thread the needle in distinguishing Skip from the desired Local.

— The weird hours are the challenge when on the road —

One might start off his day in the dark a few hours before dawn . . but it’s genuine hazard to continue on past dusk into the night, as a rule.

Traffic volume scales during the day. The Interstates start crowding by 0830, and then are “full” by 1100. Nationwide.

Constant lane-changing in order to pass is (literally/legally) too fast for conditions.

Throw into this madness of crowds the exigencies of road construction or threatening weather as secondary to then see that Skip amelioration is powerful incentive for Best Mobile Radio Rig.

Radio Use is the learning curve. It’s possible to have a rig which can continue as the tool desired for AM-19 despite the cousins of the (illegal) left lane maroons doing their best to screw it up for everyone else on-air.

No adults in left lane. The hypocrisy of complaining about CB chatter, but “driving” in this manner is jaw dropping. Best example leads.



SSB is what we’re left with in ordinary times as what I think is the general test of a mobile rig. Whether mobile-to-mobile, or mobile-to-base, it’s more than just some extra power given fundamentals are respected. Find & Fix the S/NR problems.

Skip is where it’s all on the line in high speed travel. Take advantage of these conditions in same fashion whether it’s tech-related or the tuning of one’s ears.

— To have arrived with vehicle, passengers/payload and driver in the same shape as on departure has grown less likely every year of the past decade.

It’s not going to be a relaxing day on the road with comms made difficult. Get better at radio use as there’s nothing else like Skip to sharpen Operator skill.

The hours when the tool of CB is just another Amateur-level toy it’ll be a far better rig. On the road it’s the same rapport and camaraderie except that morale is front & center.

Skip can be seen as a boon. Reliably good SSB performance (prediction) and reading Local thru the haze is a helluva good rig with a skilled operator.

.

 

[niceguy71]

Just about anything in this day and age can put me to sleep. Lol! It’s so ridiculously easy to obtain an amateur radio license in 2026. The Morse code requirement went the way of the dragon over two decades ago. While there are some very elaborate (expensive) pieces of amateur radio equipment available to the pubic, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune in order to setup a decent station and simple wire antennas for confined spaces have provided countless hours of fun along with some very surprising results for many radio amateurs. I‘ve been a ham since the spring of 1977 and with a vertical antenna paired with a less than ideal radial system and 100 watts or less have been able to work and confirm close to 200 DXCC countries around the globe. I came from the Chicken Band era of the mid 70’s and when I finally had more than I could stand of all the garbage that took place on the air, I decided to give amateur radio a try. I’ve NEVER looked back and my gut tells me you won’t either! I’m not sure where your located up in The Bay State but in all likelihood, there’s a local amateur radio club that‘s within relatively close proximity to where you live that conducts classes to help you obtain an amateur radio license. What’s your zip code?

my zip is 02360, I'm sure there are lots of great groups around... my hobby is mostly foolish little handheld CB's that bring me back to my youth... never had much interest in the more professional radio hobby
I've told myself several times I would listen to the 10 meter on my Anytone 5555 N II radio .... to see if I might be interested???... but I've never really seemed interested enough to even turn the band to anything but the 11 meters.... I've now set up most of my friends and family with good CB radios that we can all keep in contact and have some fun with ( that was before this skip killed any hope of talking to most of them )
as with everyone I'm sure, I have too many hobbies.. more hobbies than time... most of the things I really love doing have sat for several years now waiting for me to get young again.... it doesn't seem to be happening?? so I've just got little interest in starting to use the ham bands... someday hopefully.
but when I get a chance I'll see what I can learn about that propagation.
thanks again

 

[niceguy71]

Here is a good start.

HF Propagation - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

great, thank you