Suppose I want to holler back at these people on CB 😂 [Iowa City/Johnson Co.]

[sempai]

There's always been some jabber jaws on AM CB in Iowa City but I'm hearing more voices than the omnipresent and omnitalking man that goes by the name of, ahem, Black Rooster.

So I'm considering getting a CB base unit for the house that can do FM and SSB in addition to 20-40 channels of amplitude modulated glory days. Are there any especially weird characteristics of Iowa City or Eastern Iowa that I should be aware of? I don't really want to put a big whip on the roof and something tells me Rooster isn't operating a Stryker on a mountain top, so I don't know what I would need to have sufficient reach to hit the highway and interstate from over near P&G/Amazon's warehouse facility off the highway, ideally.

I have no idea if my prolific prophet of from-the-hip wisdom is even in Johnson County, but he's got all the swag of a BPP operator in the 70s and I want to talk to this guy 😆 I also have a hackRF and gmrs/uhf and 2m gear but nothing to transmit on AM in that band or anything near it (no 10m happening for me), I'm surprised how expensive some CB gear is getting! Glad to see President still shipping products, but Stryker i guess is all 10m now unless you buy vintage. I haven't checked Artifacts, there's often some interesting radio gear on the shelf there and they hate when I call so I gotta go in lol

 

[sempai]

fyi last time i was at Aritfacts there were four new in box yaesu HTs but nothing i was looking for (i.e. no quad-bander VX it was a lot of VHF and dual band analog stuff) usually when i roll in it's to look at lenses they've got (always looking for german glass) and their radio gear (lots of estate sale elmer shacks end up there, they had a *****en SDR console rig that retails for more than my last workstation, a programmable HF setup i wasn't familiar with!) Wouldn't mind any tips on other consignment/treasure traps other locals have struck gold too.

 

[slowmover]

Just bursting with helpful advice, aren’t they?
Right over the target

Friendliest States 2025

www.datapandas.org

 

[K9KLC]

Just bursting with helpful advice, aren’t they?
Right over the target

Friendliest States 2025

www.datapandas.org

I'm not from that area and, honestly, I didn't see a question to even answer in his post. He lost me at...

I don't really want to put a big whip on the roof

While in the 70s, we talked across a gymnasium coordinating VTR recording at our high school basket ball games with a small back of transceiver antenna, from home we all used various outside antennas to talk to each other on CB. Even now when I get a hankering to talk on CB (which is semi frequently) I use an iMax 2000 which also doubles as a 10-12-15 meter antenna for ham. That antenna likely qualifies as a "big whip on the roof"... Not sure I have any advice to give him.

 

[slowmover]

Everyone has a daunting moment or two when it comes to Radio.

Look at the ones put up an aerial without a clue or a care about electrical grounding.



For someone new — wondering aloud — I’d suggest a 102” whip on a triple mag on the car roof and running the coax inside. Disconnect when not in use and with storm potentials.

While it’s no where near as good as a 19’ aerial mounted preferably with feedpoint 33’ in air . . . it’s a start. And with some gear ever useful in the future.

“Iowa” might learn some manners, huh?
Any reply suffices for politeness sake.

#19 when even Ohio ranks better and Minnesota #1 means not a true Midwestern state. Poseurs. Makes Illinois reading scores look good didn’t comprehend nature of post.
(Not you, @K9KLC)

.

 

[K9KLC]

@slowmover shhh. Don't being up the Illinois reading scores. 🤪

 

[slowmover]

@slowmover shhh. Don't being up the Illinois reading scores. 🤪

IOWA: On the road to somewhere else.

(I’ve had family up there more than a century and a half. But they’re nice, right?).

IH80 is a bear thru that state for traffic volume. As a truck driver I’d wake up at 0230 in a rest area to get ready and both road & radio were busy.

— Walcott Radio across from can be seen from space Iowa-80 Truckstop is a great retail stock location.

Plenty of good radio rigs in evidence on that road and the US/State routes.



.

 

[K9KLC]

IOWA: On the road to somewhere else.

(I’ve had family up there more than a century and a half. But they’re nice, right?).

IH80 is a bear thru that state for traffic volume. As a truck driver I’d wake up at 0230 in a rest area to get ready and both road & radio were busy.

— Walcott Radio across from can be seen from space Iowa-80 Truckstop is a great retail stock location.

Plenty of good radio rigs in evidence on that road and the US/State routes.



.

Had to leave trucking due to health reasons in 92, but 80 was never one of my favorite roads in any state to be honest.

 

[sempai]

damn 'mover you're a mean drunk 😂

edit: as a resident of pennsylvania *and* iowa i am reluctantly conceding that philly at least is absolutely more hospitable than 80% of this hole, but i haven't been able to convince my co-parent to move and her husband has enough kids to start a band of his own and his ex-wife is a sociopath that lives on nothing but seething hatred and wine. i'll be back in philly mid march g-d willing and the creek don't rise cuz with planes falling out the sky lately i'm considering driving with randy 😂

 

[slowmover]

damn 'mover you're a mean drunk 😂

edit: as a resident of pennsylvania *and* iowa i am reluctantly conceding that philly at least is absolutely more hospitable than 80% of this hole, but i haven't been able to convince my co-parent to move and her husband has enough kids to start a band of his own and his ex-wife is a sociopath that lives on nothing but seething hatred and wine. i'll be back in philly mid march g-d willing and the creek don't rise cuz with planes falling out the sky lately i'm considering driving with randy 😂

With that story CB will feel just like home.


I very much like Iowa. Even the states where they’re afraid of their own shadows.

It all got screwed hard in the years after WWII. All of America has suffered, but none so much as the heartland.

In the meantime,

Manners.

.

 

[slowmover]

damn 'mover you're a mean drunk 😂

edit: as a resident of pennsylvania *and* iowa i am reluctantly conceding that philly at least is absolutely more hospitable than 80% of this hole, but i haven't been able to convince my co-parent to move and her husband has enough kids to start a band of his own and his ex-wife is a sociopath that lives on nothing but seething hatred and wine. i'll be back in philly mid march g-d willing and the creek don't rise cuz with planes falling out the sky lately i'm considering driving with randy 😂

With that story CB will feel just like home.


I very much like Iowa. Even the states where they’re afraid of their own shadows.

It all got screwed hard in the years after WWII. All of America has suffered, but none so much as the heartland.

In the meantime,

Manners.

.

 

[slowmover]

1). Philadelphia a sad place this week. The equivalent of tearing down and destroying the statue of R.E. LEE.

Peak America. Peak Western Civ, also. Would’ve been less than a rounding error to have kept her like new. Politics, not economics led to her sad state.

If the Cold War hadn’t ended 11/22/1963 the need for her would never have abated.



Anyone with the least bent for things technical could see the beauty. The thought of an ocean liner — troop carrier — could keep up with IOWA Class or today’s NIMITZ made her as much a warship to preserve as others. One of one. Her propulsion and hydrodynamic secrets were classified for decades. USG part-owner.


2). I’d wander any Iowa city at night before I’d wander Philly.


— There’s you a couple of topics with which to have fun on Citizen Band.

You’ll find while on the road that most are TV owners. The group who’s last to know anything and still worst informed. Fixed-outcome sports fans of wrestling and the NFL. Lie to their face re any subject . . and they keep coming back.

But every now and then you’ll strike paydirt.

You’ll be amazed at the wake-up on-air when that happens.

The CV19 lies never had a chance on AM19.


.

 

[slowmover]

“ . . Glad to see President still shipping products.”

IMO, doesn’t get better than PRESIDENT.

See threads on GEORGE II and WASHINGTON.

The tech revolution of better circuitry plus NRC (DSP) since 2022 means obsolete experience without having had this in play.

.

 

[sempai]

You are the single greatest evangelist of NRC in the industry, I think you should be getting a royalty on all shipping radios with the feature. Every time I see it mentioned in a spec sheet I think "oh, slowmover would probably like this!" 😆

I am currently involved in a humiliating defeat at the hands of my own disorganized house, I haven't touched CB in a long time apparently. I got a couple of antennas for my scanners and rtlsdr devices but somehow am missing the right interface for my handheld antennas to run through a meter.

But in positive news, I realized that if I pop the roof I could run cable into the cabin of my car, not something I will be doing during this weather; in the last 10 school days theres been a cancellation and at least five delayed starts due to extreme cold 🥶

And @slowmover I have made it pretty clear I'm a hot mess on a good day 😆 but I don't disagree on the relative feeling of safety; I've got plenty of places I would rather avoid in Philly too. so many wonderful things there but the opioid crisis really ran aground in philly; the rail lines aren't owned by the city, so they have bulldozed encampments before ostensibly to get people into a jurisdiction that can legally enforce and help people but it never feels kind.

 

[sempai]

Well, my Saturday afternoon tinker time has come to an end with the discovery that regardless of what antenna I am using, my Randy II FCC is great at reception, but something definitely isn't right and I went back into my scanner archives and apparently the audio has never sounded good at all.

My voice is muffled, and I just spent time next to one of my SDR antennas that is suitable for CB while remoted to the console from my iPad, I don't own an oscilloscope, but the transmissions look strange to me. When I key the radio, there's a strong carrier, it just sounds like I am being smothered by a pillow. I can almost get something across on Low power if i drop the value of AM LO in the service menu, but otherwise it's like I am yelling from inside a bank vault at best.

I bought from Amazon and registered the warranty and asked President about it and they're asking me to send it in. The impulsive part of me wants to have Amazon do it, but I would imagine someone wants to actually look at this thing in case there are others behaving similarly but I can't say I have seen anyone disparaging President's product line, like, ever, so it's either something that happened after it left their warehouse because I think they say they individually adjust the configuration on each with the bundled antenna before they leave.

They probably know I will cave and buy a mobile after a few days and are rolling the dice it's a McKinley or Johnson II and not an abused Galaxy.