CB Radio ,anyone still use them?

[rapidtrans]

I imagine ch 19 now is much better than back in the 70s.
Back then I remember listening to “breaker one nine for a radio check” for 4 hrs. from some kid sitting in the back seat of his folks Biscayne.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

. Lot Lizards and Drug Dealers pretty much took over ch. 19 by the mid '90s, IMO

You lookin' for some commercial company?

I imagine ch 19 now is much better than back in the 70s.
Back then I remember listening to “breaker one nine for a radio check” for 4 hrs. from some kid sitting in the back seat of his folks Biscayne.

Check is in the mail go stand by your mailbox and wait.

 

[commando1]

I always had one in my truck.
Always OFF.
I turned it on only to talk to Shipping & Receiving.
I turned it off going home.

This thing was almost overkill for me.

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

You lookin' for some commercial company?

Check is in the mail go stand by your mailbox and wait.

No Dave. Back then the $ waz so good I'd run 'til I started hallucinating and then I'd find a safe place to set the brakes 'til I woke up and then I'd do it again. Was not uncommon to put together $1200 to $1500 weeks back. Crazy timez when we just milked the cow 'til she went dry, Jer

 

[Turboomni]

I had recently gotten a Single Side Band modern CB radio in Dec. by Uniden, a 980 used from a CB shop I found in Saratoga NY a few months ago. Nice older guy with a big tower at his house with a few antennas on it, and a beam antenna too he could rotate. His shop and store were in his basement. He is a retired aviation radio tech and services and modifies CB and Ham stuff now. Nice guy. Here's a pic of my new to me used radio, not actual pic but looks the same. 65 bucks and all gone through by him.

I bought a 1/2 wave dipole antenna for it and 50ft 213 coax. Then I listened,,and listened ,,,nothing. No local traffic in my area but that's not the reason I got back into CB this time. I was waiting for some skip. Skip on the 11 meter band [cb] and other bands has been very poor. What little I know it has a great deal to do with sun spot activity. I moved the antenna around etc and dead as a doornail with a few distant transmissions that I couldn't make out. Weeks went by and I thought this is most likely a dead end. Guys on CB forums were like "Yeah skip is down and has been for awhile" They showed me grafs about sunspot activity and we were at the bottom of a basically 11 cycle and the only direction it can go now is up. Ok ,,fine but at this point I don't even know if my radio works! Put it in my truck and channel 19 went by the Mass Pike ,,yup it's fine.
I would go out to my garage and check at least once a day and nothing. Would hear the Superbowl in the distance a few times [channel 6 with nut cases running thousands of watts to say nothing].
THEN last week heard some stuff on 38 lower side band from FLA, GA, NC, SC bombing in!!! Lots of guys calling out. It was brief but I made my first contact with a guy in western NC. At that point he said no known cases of Corona in his area yet and then I lost him. April 1st skip started in my area again for awhile. Long story short I was in touch with a guy in New Brunswick Canada. He sounded like he was next door! He heard me well also. I am running a small Linear amp ,a RM Italy KL203. It gives me around 100 watts I think.

Well since I don't want to stay at home all the time I ordered a supposedly very good large CB antenna for my truck so I can park on MT Greylock or something around here and see how far I can reach. Here is the antenna.
A lot of 10 meter Ham guys I guess us this too.

Anyways ,it's rainy and still rather cold to work in the garage ,high 30's low 40's so I have time to type this in. Low key day. Hope some will find this a little interesting. Stay safe guys!

 

[stubs300]

I
Anyways ,it's rainy and still rather cold to work in the garage ,high 30's low 40's so I have time to type this in. Low key day. Hope some will find this a little interesting. Stay safe guys!

Now's the time when a space heater would come in handy to help take the edge off.

 

[Joseph James]

I had recently gotten a Single Side Band modern CB radio in Dec. by Uniden, a 980 used from a CB shop I found in Saratoga NY a few months ago. Nice older guy with a big tower at his house with a few antennas on it, and a beam antenna too he could rotate. His shop and store were in his basement. He is a retired aviation radio tech and services and modifies CB and Ham stuff now. Nice guy. Here's a pic of my new to me used radio, not actual pic but looks the same. 65 bucks and all gone through by him.

View attachment 365699

I bought a 1/2 wave dipole antenna for it and 50ft 213 coax. Then I listened,,and listened ,,,nothing. No local traffic in my area but that's not the reason I got back into CB this time. I was waiting for some skip. Skip on the 11 meter band [cb] and other bands has been very poor. What little I know it has a great deal to do with sun spot activity. I moved the antenna around etc and dead as a doornail with a few distant transmissions that I couldn't make out. Weeks went by and I thought this is most likely a dead end. Guys on CB forums were like "Yeah skip is down and has been for awhile" They showed me grafs about sunspot activity and we were at the bottom of a basically 11 cycle and the only direction it can go now is up. Ok ,,fine but at this point I don't even know if my radio works! Put it in my truck and channel 19 went by the Mass Pike ,,yup it's fine.
I would go out to my garage and check at least once a day and nothing. Would hear the Superbowl in the distance a few times [channel 6 with nut cases running thousands of watts to say nothing].
THEN last week heard some stuff on 38 lower side band from FLA, GA, NC, SC bombing in!!! Lots of guys calling out. It was brief but I made my first contact with a guy in western NC. At that point he said no known cases of Corona in his area yet and then I lost him. April 1st skip started in my area again for awhile. Long story short I was in touch with a guy in New Brunswick Canada. He sounded like he was next door! He heard me well also. I am running a small Linear amp ,a RM Italy KL203. It gives me around 100 watts I think.

View attachment 365700

Well since I don't want to stay at home all the time I ordered a supposedly very good large CB antenna for my truck so I can park on MT Greylock or something around here and see how far I can reach. Here is the antenna.
A lot of 10 meter Ham guys I guess us this too.
View attachment 365701

Anyways ,it's rainy and still rather cold to work in the garage ,high 30's low 40's so I have time to type this in. Low key day. Hope some will find this a little interesting. Stay safe guys!

Hope you have a blast with it!

SSB will always do a better job than AM. More efficient. I am in western btw and we do have some Coronavirus.

Sun spots have been crap for years. Ham bands have sucked and I haven’t had my stuff on in a couple of years.

If anyone is interested in a 70s era CB, I have 2. One is a 19 channel Robyn. Puts it prior to late 70s. Other is a JC Penny 40 channel, so after 78 or whenever it went 40 channel. So if you are wanting CB in your old ride that looks period let me know.

 

[Turboomni]

Hey thanks! I used CB long ago and always wanted to try SSB for long distance. Don't want to go ham unless I am really hooked. Thanks for the offer on your old CB's. I still have my old Radio Shack 40 channel I got in the late 70's. 73's to you!

 

[Turboomni]

Well I think the Skip is picking up a bit. Getting longer distance contacts lately. I am in Western MA and have now hit Texas,Louisiana, Georgia,Tennessee,North and South Carolina, Kentucky,West Virginia,Northern Florida,CT, Detroit,Ontario Canada ,Ohio,Illinois ,NH,NY State,and some I have forgotten but having a good time. More unemployed people means more folks on long distance CB! Here I am in my mobile rig atop Mt Greylock MA.

 

[cbarge]

Used them for years.
Car is gone but still have the vintage 23 channel set mounted on a Kub Kadet with the trunk lip mount hustler whip.

 

[SGT FURY]

I have a 77 Buick Park avenue with a factory GM CB. I believe it was called the bandit option.

 

[SGT FURY]

I have 2 NOS Chrysler CB mics in box $125 ea

 

[Rustyrodknocker]

It's fun to think about the cb craze. I remember pictures in magazines of custom vans with cb's
I lived in a remote region and occasionally a stranger came along and they would have a cb and wonder why we didn't !

Then when my wife moved back to our home town she told me people had cb's in their house! My father inlaw travelled for the banks. They would set him up in a town to start a branch and cover moving cost. They lived in a mobile home in a park and the mobile home parks were literally wired for sound!
Later when we moved away I drove fork truck in a mill and we depended on cb heavily. The adjacent town was wired up. Wives would call down and ask what guys wanted for dinner. And kids would radio Dad to see if they could go to a friends house.
I talked to the met life blimp one time as it went over illumenated at night and someone in a foriegn country and the guys said that was skip.

Other than that, I put a cb in my pickup once and never heard anything ever with one exception being one channel I could listen in on a house at all times. But it sounded as if they had something that was not a radio transmitting. I thought it was the TV because it seemed you could hear the family as background like you were inside a tv that was on in a room with people in it. It was weird. They had no idea.

 

[cbarge]

The CB craze is the pre-historic internet,LOL!
You can be anybody you wanted to be!!
Cell phones pretty much killed off their use by everyday people.
Truckers still use them.
I usually tap into their channels on long trips to find out any road closures/detours,or accidents.
The 400 series highways on Ontario truckers run channel 19.
From the tunnel in Montreal heading East to the Maritimes,truckers switch to channel 1

 

[Turboomni]

These days the big part of the action on CB is Single Side Band. Specifically 38 Lower Sideband. Guys have been lately talking to Europe amongst other places. Long distance skip seems to be the big thing now and is what I am interested in. I rarely use it for traffic or normal am use in my car. I have waze on my phone etc. I use it to see how far my present setup can go. Best so far is 1500 miles + for me with a modest setup.

 

[Rustyrodknocker]

Well I'm looking for one now. 70's era. Seems they are not hard to find but you never know if the function.

 

[Turboomni]

There sure were a lot of cool radios back then and built like a battleship. You may want to check out CB shops around your area or further to find what you want and one in good working order. I bought a President McKinley recently with a small amp for my truck and am very happy with it. Good luck on your search. What are you looking for?

 

[LocuMob]

Well I'm looking for one now. 70's era. Seems they are not hard to find but you never know if the function.

Here's an ad for some.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/pts/d/burleson-mopar-radios/7273513442.html

 

[LocuMob]

Here's another with the cable from the radio to the antenna, it has the suppressor, or whatever it's called.

https://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/pts/d/eastpointe-mopar-radio-stereo-cb-combo/7258329381.html

If I didn't have as many as I do, I'd have bought it already!

 

[rapidtrans]

I'm sure there is a "For CBs Only Site" somewhere in the ethernet!