IS CB REALLY DYING OUT ???

[unit_399]

In another thread, Psycho, a member whose opinions I respect, posted the following:

Is this a serious question? With CB popularity dying out, who are you gonna harm???????

I'm not being facetious here, but do a lot of you guys feel this way? Living outside the US puts me out of the cb mainstream, and I would really hate to see it die a slow death, as it's my link with people in the states.

Any opinions ???
Thanks & 73s.

- 399

 

[kor b]

I'm 58 years old..so I lived through the CB boom of the seventys. I have been a truck driver for most of my adult life. I estemate one third of truck drivers at best have and use their CB. the numbers don't look good but a hand full of people will keep it alive.

 

[2RT307]

When conditions are good here in the US, you wouldn't think CB was dying. Tons of people on the air. No, it's not like the old days of the 70's when every channel had a club that had people on the air almost 24/7, but there's still a lot of activity out there.

73,
RT307

 

[fnkycoldmedina]

in my part of Pennsylvania its been dead for years .i hung in there shooting skip for awhile but when the price of gas forced me to buy a 4cyl car i pretty much stopped driving my skip shooting truck .
it sat,and sat ,and only got used on occasion ,so i sold my amp ,my base station was sold years prior along with all my d104`s ,extra radios,ect,ect....
to this day its hard to even get a response on ch19 anymore .
and your lucky if there is 3 or 4 english speaking cb users on the air on bases in my area .
down in the city there are quite a few spanish users on the air but i cant understand them .

now i hear in new jersey cb is still pretty much alive .so its a state by state thing .i rarely use my cb anymore .

 

[Carl]

no local activity around here in years. if i want to talk i would have to shoot skip and thats going away in a few years like normal. some of us moved in ham radio so we keep touch that way.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

It's definantly not like it was in the early eighties when I discovered cb radio. There's a smattering of CB'ers in my area spread out over a 50 mile radius. To me they're sandbagging/sitting in the bushes but remind me of my surf fishing days at cape hatteras. They're out there waiting for the next big DX wave to hit and then throw in their lines for a catch. On Christmas Eve CB'ers came out of the woodwork wishing others a merry Christmas. I got to talk to people 35 miles away. I've only got back into cb'ing a year ago so I'm still finding out who's all out there in cb land. Cb's good if you have friends to talk to and keep in touch with and to make friends. I think the cb'ing has made a resurgiance recently if but a little bit.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Definitely dying but it will never die completely. Using DX to determine activity is misleading as there will always be hundreds or thousands of operators on at any given time.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

A lot of CB'ers on my area run power and utilize omni verticals with flat side beams specifically set up for dxing. A lot of them live for DX. I've been working on cultivating local contacts because I deem that more important than DX contacts. But of course I don't run power so dxing on my part is very limited.

 

[w9cll]

It all depends on where you live, I have read on here that CB is alive and well in parts of the world and dead in others. As for here in Chicago I cant really say its active. I don't listen all that much but when I have it's dead unless the bands are open then it's only one of two freq's that are active. There are a couple of freq's that always seem to have someone on but that's about it.

 

[medic18d]

alive after 5

to the op for the man with concerns of cb dying .

Every place i have lived here in the states has had atleast one local channel
with a small group of men who love the hobby .

In the mobile ,,, thats a different story . there are so few vehicles with cb radio antenna on them (mostly off road type vehicles ) . or Big trucker rigs
none of the vehicles have their radio on ever, only the big rigs

And they are very helpful on the highway. but will not answer you if you are not respectful or sound like you are not a trucker .

But if you know the (driver lingo ) they will answer you as well as give you great info on the road conditions . I bring this up because my buddy couldnt
get the truckers to respond to him EVER , until i tought him the LINGO
of the road .

tips for someone with a base station / scan in the evening ,,you may be surprised .

hope this helps

 

[2RT307]

to the op for the man with concerns of cb dying .

Every place i have lived here in the states has had atleast one local channel
with a small group of men who love the hobby .

In the mobile ,,, thats a different story . there are so few vehicles with cb radio antenna on them (mostly off road type vehicles ) . or Big trucker rigs
none of the vehicles have their radio on ever, only the big rigs

And they are very helpful on the highway. but will not answer you if you are not respectful or sound like you are not a trucker .

But if you know the (driver lingo ) they will answer you as well as give you great info on the road conditions . I bring this up because my buddy couldnt
get the truckers to respond to him EVER , until i tought him the LINGO
of the road .

tips for someone with a base station / scan in the evening ,,you may be surprised .

hope this helps

Definitely true. I have heard many calls go unanswered from guys on obviously stock (sounding) radios not using the right "lingo".

The upside to the downswing in use of CB? I am able to easily find my pickup when I park at the airport. It's the only one with a 5 foot white Firestick on it. :laugh: I sometimes point out cars that have CB antennas to my wife, and say... "See? I'm not the only one"!

Finding locals in the area can be tricky in my area. During the day, a lot of them hang out on 19. Others hang below channel one on 26.915 AM, and some play on 27.425 LSB, unless the AM-speed-talking-roger-beepin' Mexico skip is too bad, they move up one or two. I have found some other ESSB guys on 27.440. As you mention, scanning is the best way to find people, and once you talk to them, you find out what times they are on, and what frequency/mode. And sometimes it is just a matter of keying the mic and seeing if anyone is on. As mentioned by Lil' Yeshua, lots of lurkers... just not as many as there used to be.

73,
RT307

 

[Unit 194]

The most active channels in my area are Channel 19 and the "Super Bowl": Channel 6. Other than those two channels the rest of the 40 have been pretty quiet lately except when "skip" starts rolling in.

For whatever the reason a lot of my locals who were on the air several years ago (Channels 20 and 27) have either sold their equipment and/or they just don't come on the air anymore.

 

[GnG8d]

CB is dead here where there used to be 3 or more local channels plus 19. This is just within the last several years as I never had a radio until 5 years ago or so.

The funny thing is, our local trash channel where guys were drunk, fighting and cutting coax all went HAM, lol. The rest sold out and moved on I presume.

 

[w9cll]

The funny thing is, our local trash channel where guys were drunk, fighting and cutting coax all went HAM, lol.

They are probably on 14.313 living it up

 

[KD4UPL]

I had a CB in my vehicle from the day I turned 16 until about 2 years ago. (Not quite 20 years.) I was a trucker for a while but often turned the CB off because all I heard was cussing, fighting, and non-sense.
In the last couple of years I've quit speeding and mostly just run the speed limit so I don't care where the cops are anymore.
I certainly don't want my 2 young children exposed to the language on CB either. I doubt I'll ever own a set again.
Most of the local hunters have gone from using CB to using 2 meter ham radio equipment illegally. Just about every pick-up has a 2 meter rig in it tuned to a frequency they think isn't used much but is really in the week signal or satellite portion of the band. Why these guys can't operate on a legit frequency without breaking the law is beyond me.
I've been an amateur radio operator for over 20 years. My wife is licensed now too. I can regularly have intelligent conversations with many people over great distances. All my equipment is legal. I really don't see the attraction of running illegal amplifiers to cuss at someone you don't know.
With all the cell phones, internet, FRS, GMRS, amateur radio, etc. I suspect CB doesn't have many followers anymore.
My Dad is a trucker, has been for over 40 years. He leaves his CB off most of the time now too.