Anyone on CB?

Been looking for a quality CB and antenna and landed a smokin deal on a Galaxy DX-949 and K40...should be here in a couple days. Going to make it portable so it can be used in my truck and at home with a base station antenna.

Was into CB many years ago but lost interest. Maybe this will motivate me to do more with radio....this was a real cheap way to get started again.

Anyone here still on CB?

My Jeep has a CB, I still occasionally chat with others on long road trips.

Maybe we should get an NES "net" going so that there will be someone worth talking to on the other end. Might be a handy to have some known contact if the SHTF we will have someone to chat with while eating our canned bacon and freeze dried food...

CB is cheap enough so just about anyone can try it.

Originally Posted by cockpitbob

I picked up a CB at the last NEARFest, tried it for a couple weeks, then put it in storage. I couldn't find anyone out there worth talking to. The last time I was on that band was around 1980 when there was lots going on, and good people behind the mic. Now, all I heard was either illegal DXers from 1,000 miles away or...how do I put this... people I wouldn't want to bring home for dinner.

The only reason I'm keeping it is it didn't cost much and if there's a true SHTF situation it may be useful.

I tried a few months ago but no one was interested really...most guys like HAM stuff,I've sold off alot of radios and junk.

I'm down to 3 radios and one xforce amp.

I need a new Base antenna and mobile,but way at the bottom of the list.

Originally Posted by GomerPile

Maybe we should get an NES "net" going so that there will be someone worth talking to on the other end. Might be a handy to have some known contact if the SHTF we will have someone to chat with while eating our canned bacon and freeze dried food...

CB is cheap enough so just about anyone can try it.

Well, sort of. To get any decent range you really need a base antenna, and everyone needs to be running SSB- which is painful with typical CB rigs with a few exceptions. If you have the stuff you're not supposed to have its not too bad. But that gets expensive.

Straight AM is 20-40 miles base to base if you are lucky and one of you has a good location. If you have a crappy location you might not be able to get out of town. It all depends on where you live (altitude compared to average terrain) and how high your antenna is.

-Mike

Aside from Jeepers, typically I'm talking to truckers about traffic or hearing which cars the nice ladies are in. There seems to be a kook every ten miles that won't stfu about politics or religion. The most excitement I've gotten in a long while was a radio check in the Norwood area.

In other countries they are doing some neat packet radio stuff on CB frequencies. Would let people communicate without needing to be online at the same time. All seems a little silly with the internet, but its pretty cool to have internet style communications (or maybe BBS style) without wires.