Who Uses CB Radios?

[charlton289]

I still do I was a truck driver for 26+ yrs. And my last job a local dump truck driver we needed one because loading and dumping at job sites and we hauled shredded steel to the Mills so we had to talk to the scale house and loader operator for both locations in the mill site plus being able to catch up with other drivers who we haven't seen in while too. I'm retired but I still have one in my pickup because I still have friends who I keep up with when I go to town it's easier to holler on the radio then call on the phone because some won't answer the phone but will talk on the radio.

 

[stuckmotor]

Looking back, I can't believe I lived through the 70's and never even talked on a CB radio.
10-4

 

[TractorGuy]

Ugh! Yeah, RED RYDER
This is the COTTON MOUTH
In the PSYCHO-BILLY CADILLAC Come on
Huh, This is the COTTON MOUTH
And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there RED RYDER
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up, it's cheaper that way
Ugh!, what model is it?
Well, It's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56
'57, '58' 59' automobile
It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67
'68, '69, '70 automobile.

 

[Jstpssng]

I still have to sing along with that last line when it comes on the radio.

 

[mark02tj]

Hard to beat CW McCall for CB songs! Convoy for the win! :laughing:


My first CB when I was a kid was a 3 channel walkie talkie. It came with crystals for one channel (channel 11, I think) and I had to buy the crystals for the other two channels. A few years later I ended up with a 40 channel Robyn with SSB. It was modified so you could talk on the "regular 40" and then flip a switch to go to the "high 40" which were right above the regular 27 Mhz freqs. Thanks to sunspots, I talked all over the country on about 6 or 8 watts of power and a homemade directional antenna. I thought I was something when I was able to buy a real antenna!

 

[Looking4new]

My first license for the CB was XM 42810. A Johnson messenger 123. 23 channels and you weren't allowed to use CH. 1,2,3 or 23. 9 was emergency and 11 was the call channel in the Oshawa, Ontario area. I got a second license and that one was XM 43 3363.
I still have two CBs. A Uniden and a Cobra night watch.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lots of Model A Club members have them and they work real well when touring as a group...

 

[Industrial Toys]

JD 855. I love that song. The end reminds me of an old auctioneer I bought my first two (Police) cars from, now deceased.

I googled my Radio. The cheapest 40 channel, rig that RS built at $59.00. One guy on Youtube did a review, describing the Audio in and out as particulary poor.

I took it on the road and was pleasantly surprised. I heard some local jibber-jabber and learned of a Bear hiding in the Bushes! I may make a cord wired into the audio that I can plug into my stereo.

I would say, having it is worthwhile while travelling the highways.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I threw all mine in the garbage decades ago. The CB-holes, power stations, guys with foot warmers and echo boxes ruined what started off as a good service entirely, in my opinion. Even when I drove over the road and heavy wreckers through the 80's and into the 90's, I left mine turned off nearly 100% of the time. Just garbage and racket most of the time. If the feds had been able to keep up on the enforcement (impossible task, I know), maybe most of the CB-holes would not have sprouted out of the ground. Prelude to the whole Myspace-Twitter-Facebook generations spewing random anonymous gibberish into the interwebs (or air waves as it used to be) I guess. Everyone wanted to be "A Star".

I wouldn't take one for free now.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You need to spend $3.98 to get a good one!

Once I became Ham, I guess I certainly wanted to distance myself from the CB crowd. Not that at times, the Ham crowd was any better.

But I still say, CB radio seems to fill a need that nothing else can. That you can pick up a mic and there is a good chance you can talk to the truck that just passed you.

A friend and I had an argument. He works on brand new Utility trucks and commented that there is no longer a cubby hole for a two way radio in some new trucks. This makes it difficult to install the various trunking radios. But he said, few truckers in the city have CB radios anymore. He is very observant, but I disagreed. The next time I went to the city, I still saw twin truckers on MOST rigs that I saw.