Any of you use CB radio ?

I’ve heard quite a few hams locally mention that they were chatting to someone on CB radio as I have a number of radios from my trucking days ( they were one of the best tools for anyone on the move) I had thought about getting a cheap antenna for the car and throwing one of them in along side my 2 meter radio. Do you ever use one and what do you think ?

Brad

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When I was running outdoor development training I used small(ish) Midland hand held radios to supervise groups of trainees whilst they on overnight ‘expeditions’ on the North York Moors or other places I had to keep relatively near them but well out of sight and they’d radio me every half hour with a grid reference.

This was in the 1980s. I no longer have a need top use CB radio now. And in any case I only use CW.

Given they were the only available radios to the general public then, they were extremely useful.

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An interesting use , I used a Harvard Handheld in the 1980’s and from a very local high spot did very well although the thing that really impressed me once at the age of about 14 my parents dropped me and a friend ( with a Realistic handheld ) off in on the Hobby drive just above Clovely with the intention of us walking the Coast path back to Westward Ho we both had a contact with a guy on a light ship just off the Swansea Coast at 50 miles both with rubber ducks. We also maintained contact for most of the walk with my parents. It seems funny to think of a world now with no mobile phones ! Using CB along side VHF ham stuff for fun as a HGV driver later CB proved to be a massive time saver and a Great tool.

I thought this a great way of combating loneliness in the UK
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0354pn5pjeo

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When CB first became legal here I bought a licence and sampled it for a year or so, it was good fun until the loonies took over! More recently when I bought my second-hand FT857D someone had programmed the FM channels in it. By then the CB craze was long over and there was very little activity compared with the uproar in the early days. CB as a means of communication is effective but is only as good as the people you find to talk to. I would say give it a try but be prepared to find a lot of empty channels - unless things have changed recently.

As a teenager I was working towards getting an amateur radio licence. Then in November 1981 they legalised CB and I got a set. It really wasn’t what I was interested in. CBers weren’t technical but I am, so half the appeal of radio was missing. It was only short range and I ended up talking to the same people who I didn’t have much in common with. A year later I passed my RAE to get my B licence and then in 1983 I passed the morse test to get on HF which is what I had really wanted.

If you have access to 2m or 70cm I don’t know what CB gives you that they don’t. And of course 10m is very close in frequency but we can use more power and bigger aerials.

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I used CB as a teen in the early 90s - it was quite busy back then as I remember. We often had nets on “mid band” FM (EU CEPT frequencies) - I had a Uniden Uniace 200 (which I loved) that had been butchered to add in these frequencies by pushing in the PA button - I thought this was pretty cool. One guy in particular (I bought the Uniden off him) was pretty active on local high spots in his car - he would regularly drive out and sit on local “perches” in the evenings chatting and running nets. Wasted a lot of time doing this when I probably should have been studying. My best contact from home in Shropshire (4W through a half wave “silver rod” on the chimney purchased from the CB Center shop in Bridgnorth) was to Winter Hill - I remember being quite chuffed with that. “Skip” in the summer months was quite cool too, especially on the CEPT frequencies.

Sadly the Uniden is no longer, but I have a 40 channel FM Binatone 5 Star in my box of bits and the original mag mount. I tried it recently and while the rig still worked fine the bands were totally dead - such a contrast to my teens. You can listen to see what’s about in the Cheshire area (not much) here: http://g0xbuwebsdr1.ddns.net/

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I have one in the Landy and use it sometimes while out on circuits to talk to other crews (not MSUK recovery units) and also have a listen while heading around the local area/up/down motorways

Also have my dusty but needs fixing Rotel 240 at home that I really should get sorted and plugged in just for the lols…

ta

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Brad,

A year ago I set up on the common UHF trucking frequency prior to a long drive thinking it might be handy given the number of big trucks on the road.

For the first 25 km from Melbourne all I heard was a cussing contest. Then silence for hundreds of km. Around Mt Gambier I heard some innocuous chattering between trucks in a yard. Another 400 km on near Adelaide there was some despatch messaging.

I haven’t bothered since. There are usually dual lane passing opportunities every 10 km so making requests about whether its safe to pass is pointless. Also it’s my responsibility not another drivers to decide if it is safe.

CB has its place but I don’t seem to be a good fit with it.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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Australian 477 MHz CB is quite different from 27 MHz CB though, with the former far more effective in terms of range for a given antenna length on a vehicle. (One can actually achieve some decent antenna gain when using a 1-2 m whip, as opposed to 27 MHz). During our VK6 roadtrip a few years ago, we also had CH40 standby on my IC-T70 (it manages to throw out a whopping 1W of RF there), and it was convenient at times. However also had some occasions of listening to lengthy chats full of foul language.

I put a piece of paper on the rear window of our 4WD saying “UHF40” . This did raise some calls from people driving behind us and led to some nice conversations while traversing the emptiness of the outback hi.

73,

Wouter Jan PE4WJ

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I was big into CB as a youngster, mainly because we are farmers, and it was the only way to keep in touch at that age. We had a good community around this area, with quite a few friends the same age, who had a CB in different local villages, and spoke to one another in the evenings - good times!

From 2018 until 2021, I ran the Mid-Wales DX Group Net on 27.365 USB, weekly. I always managed to get over 50 in my log each week, and we all passed the microphone around for a good 3 hours - it was great fun. I used the President Lincoln mk 1, and still have it, cracking radio for 10/11m.

When I used to monitor the USB portion of the CB band from home in mid-wales (1000ft ASL), it was always full of people chatting, in a very polite way, working stations all around the globe. FM was ok, but you did get some silly conversations on channel 19. That was only a couple of years ago, but I’m sure it’s still pretty active when your in the right place and conditions allow, quite a few friends still use CB, who are all fully licensed amateurs.

Anyway, enough waffling about CB, but I did and still have a CB in the good old Landy :grinning:

73, Ben
GW4BML

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The Cb shop still has it’s antenna up but has become a hair Salon ( at least that’s what I think it is) are you still local to Bridgnorth , I live fairly local to it ?

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I just had a look on street view and gosh, so it does!! That’s lasted well! I remember going in there as a teenager when I first passed my driving test (was living near Church Stretton) and having saved up to buy a PSU (which i still have on a shelf here!), antenna and cable!

I’m now in Dorrington, between Shrewsbury and Church Stretton, so not a million miles away. I did live in Underhill St. in Bridgnorth for a time in between 2003 and 2005 but I don’t remember the shop being there then - it must have gone before that. :frowning_face:

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I’m in Highley just South of Bridgnorth, A memory just came back to me I had my first 2 meter radio from The Cb centre a 3 watt CTE hand held in 1993 when I was a G7 as I didn’t have the cash on me I had to travel back to Wolverhampton and then back again with the money, It’s quite shocking to think that as it felt like only a few years ago it was there !

I will see if I can lash up a wire Dipole over the weekend and have a listen on UK FM and have a listen On the legal SSB channels using my old Realistic RX !

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We certainly use PRS for work, which must be called UHF CB elsewhere, given what it says on the boxes the radios come in! There is quite a bit of traffic around - 4WD clubs, farms, road crews, rural contractors - gets a lot of use, maybe 30:70 recreational vs commercial.

I note that there is also an overlap between the VHF 26/27MHz CB band and the amateur 11m allocation in NZ. Presumably the CBers are allowed to talk to amateurs under their license conditions, but given our license rules, apart from ‘short communications of a personal nature’, amateurs are not allowed to respond!

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:slight_smile: It’s amazing how many expletives that they can fit in a sentence.

A year or so ago I was on the junction of Carter’s Gap Rd and the Acheron Way en route to Mt. Vinegar where there was a sign, logging in progress channel XX UHF CB. So I did a quick google of channel vs frequency, and did a call on the Yaesu to announce myself.
To my surprise, I had a answer from a logging truck that said they were currently loading and it was #@!!$% safe to enter for the next half hour.

Glenn VK3YY

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I have a UHF CB mounted in my car and I’ll turn it on when I leave the main road and start heading into the bush.
Normally it is on channel 40 but when logging is nearby I’ll change to the sign posted channel and listen for any movements.
Curiously, I don’t have any amateur radios mounted in the car. I was always concerned that leaving shinny radios in the car was an invitation to have a window smashed and the radio stolen.
Unfortunately the current trend in these parts is to open cars using key-less entry repeaters and steal the car instead.

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