Weak solar cycles = another big decline of the 11 meter local & DX population

[Big Kahuna]

I know the decline of the 11 meter hobby is always discussed and I've heard all the arguments since the early 90's but I'm feeling like things have changed a bit.

There's a couple of points that have me worried about the future of the CB hobby -

• I can't remember the last time 11meter DX was this dead - even in a bad cycle. And it's forecast to be bad for a number of years and the next cycle is also predicted to be weak. https://www.vencoreweather.com/blog...entury-now-heading-towards-next-solar-minimum
• The locals who were on for years seem to be fading out. I've noticed a big decline in local talking in most areas I travel through. In the two larger cities I pass through 500K plus population ( there are maybe 10-20 CB operators who are regularly on the radio and even 10 years ago that number was probably double. You'll hear dump trucks or drivers during the day in the city but at night it's a ghost town of channels.
• Much of the hobby population is older and starting to fade out
• There seem to be less and less truckers on the radio or that even have radios
• Current technology means youth aren't as interested in CB radio - actual knowledge of the existence of current radios/hobby seems to be lost on youth. Most people under 20 don't even know what a CB radio is / or if they do they didn't know you can still buy them or use them without a license. Nor do they have any incentive or drive to learn aside from a small group of 4x4 users.
• The radio market is showing signs of the contraction - 10 years ago we'd have multiple radio launches each year with unique designs and competition even with the clones. The number of new radios/products has slowed drastically in the last 2-3 years.
• Interference - we've seen more electrical interference from BPL and other technology and in many city areas the interference is getting ridiculous.

Now I'm not saying that this means that in 10 years no one will be on the radio - I'm sure all the hardcore users and DXer's who have always been on there will continue to be - however if you go through 2 terrible cycles the likes of which we haven't seen in 100 years and even in the "peak years" the DX sucks will we see more people start to shelve their radios?

I'm also wondering if the FCC is considering killing the CB band and reallocating it to another use.

In my area I would expect that in another 20 years most of the CB hobbyists will be gone and that overall the national CB DX population will be reduced by 1/2 or more.

I know that there have been numerous times where we have seen declines - but this time around seems a little different combination of factors. I know the ham crowd will say there is still plenty of action on the ham bands which I also enjoy however I'm lamenting the loss of a particular band/style/crowd that I always found enjoyable.

On the plus side we won't see as many pileups during DX and for now I basically have my own radio service - 40 local channels of nothing.

Anyway - just a depressing topic to ponder while we wait for the DX to return (hopefully it will)

 

[undertaker]

I talked to Jamacia just the other day.... 38 lsb

 

[Robb]

I talked to Jamacia just the other day.... 38 lsb

Niiice.
Talked to Texas and IL just yesterday.

BK; It comes and goes, but the next peak is around the corner. In the mean time, a new beam is going to be installed. Just put up a new Sirio Vector 4000 and retired the old Imax 2000. Before the next peak cycle comes along, Lord willing I will have a better antenna system for all bands. Including a 80m loop!

 

[undertaker]

 

[wavrider]

BK made contact to the big islands Wednesday, not bad contact on ch 28 am considering I am in Florida.

Between peaks of the cycle is the time to experiment and grow the antenna farm.
God willing I may have a few cycles left and I am taking this time to install new towers and antennas.

 

[Klondike Mike]

 

[222DBFL]

How you like the Sirio vector 4000 Robb?? I am about to put mine back up at about 35-40 feet or so. A bit higher than I have ever had it. And it talked consistently out to 65 miles daily. And yes, these arestraight shot miles! Hoping to have it back up soon. Mast is already up again. A 40ft push up pole. I am slowly but surely getting it back up. Not in a rush anyhow. Running LDF4-50A this time as well. And yes I know I don't need it!! But it is just laying around my garage, so why not use it. Has brass and silver PL259's on the ends. This time I am leaving the Sirio up for a while pending any hurricanes!!! Anyhow. Yes, DX is pretty well dead to most. If you happen to live close to the ocean or a large body of water, you might have a little better chance of hearing DX. But it's been pretty dead. Have heard a little activity. But nothing like some of the other amateur bands. 3.5, 7, 14MHz were all jamming the other night as well.
Anyhow. Maybe I'll catch you on the air Robb if we ever get the conditions!!
222 Daytona Beach, FL

 

[Robb]

How you like the Sirio vector 4000 Robb?? I am about to put mine back up at about 35-40 feet or so. A bit higher than I have ever had it. And it talked consistently out to 65 miles daily. And yes, these arestraight shot miles! Hoping to have it back up soon. Mast is already up again. A 40ft push up pole. I am slowly but surely getting it back up. Not in a rush anyhow. Running LDF4-50A this time as well. And yes I know I don't need it!! But it is just laying around my garage, so why not use it. Has brass and silver PL259's on the ends. This time I am leaving the Sirio up for a while pending any hurricanes!!! Anyhow. Yes, DX is pretty well dead to most. If you happen to live close to the ocean or a large body of water, you might have a little better chance of hearing DX. But it's been pretty dead. Have heard a little activity. But nothing like some of the other amateur bands. 3.5, 7, 14MHz were all jamming the other night as well.
Anyhow. Maybe I'll catch you on the air Robb if we ever get the conditions!!
222 Daytona Beach, FL

I think the receive is better, since I compared it to a local operator's signal with the Imax 2K. Must understand that this op is over a couple of mtn tops about some 18 miles away. He was a weak S-3/signal with the Imax. He is coming in much clearer now and is no longer a weak signal; more like medium S-6/signal..

So, I am quite pleased. Another thing I did before I put it up, was I mounted it on a 6 ft mast on the back patio deck after assembly. From that position, it was pretty easy to adjust the gamma match and the length with the MFJ-259 analyzer. I think that it is also well constructed. But very light weight, which makes it easy to mount on a 20ft mast and not worry about wind. Instructions were done just fine, as I had no problem with them. Bought it from DNJ and the box it came in was very sturdy - to boot.

It is currently on a 20ft mast; but I have a 40ft push-up pole that I used to have my beam on. Going to put it at 36ft and guy rope it for safety. But as it is right now at 20ft - mind you - I am quite pleased with those results. But what it lacks is what the Imax could do; I could use it on all of 10m and all of the way to 17m. But I'll get over that.

Thanks for asking.

AS far as skip yesterday goes, if more had known skip conditions were present, I'm quite sure it would have been a mess. The stations that I did talk to had outstanding signal integrity; no nasty sounding radios that I can recall.

I also can still drive down the interstate and call out to a truck driver and get several callbacks. I don't think that drivers will lose their CB because for a lack of skip. They need it still to talk to other drivers for road conditions ahead of where they are going. Smokey reports, and so on.

I think CB is still getting better and better informed.
That is what I see and hear . . .

 

[Sarasota Slim]

Most truck drivers seem to run without a radio, or only turn it on for traffic jams, anymore.

In my company, it seems that the regional solo guys have radios, and the teams don't. Also, it seems that the newer drivers tend to not have them.

Most drivers work for large companies, now. They are 2nd or 3rd career drivers, who are driving because they couldn't find any other form of gainful employment. They couldn't care less about radio communication, most of the time. More than once, I've heard "everybody on the radio is so mean! I can't stand it. ", or words to that effect.

I've always had a radio in my truck, it is irresponsible to run without one. My wife hates the radio, but I've heard her use it.

As to the youth/young adults; it's going to be tough to recruit them to the hobby. (Though, not impossible ) I've read studies that show that, in general, they can't even be bothered to learn how to drive. (Of course, if that's true, who are these baby faced a-holes that keep trying to drive under my truck?)

Also, today's youth are heavily delayed in entering the work force, and are spending their allowances on all the latest video games, so they can't afford the CB hobby, anyway, and much less, getting into HAM activities.

There has been an increase in modern diversions and distractions, over the past couple of decades, too. In the 80's, most households that I entered had 1 tv, video games and cable were for the rich kids, and Internet wasn't a thing. When I was installing satellite TV, about 12 years ago, maybe a little longer, most of my work was in sect. 8 apartments. Multiple TVs and gaming consoles, the adults had cellphones, and I usually saw at least one computer. Now, even homeless people have smartphones.

People are just not starved for entertainment, anymore. When people had less to do, it was fun to mess with antennas, and tinker with radios. Now, press a few buttons on a black box, while sitting on your favorite chair, and bingewatch "Real Gold-Digging Cougars of Platinum County " all weekend. No energy or work or effort required.

It's a sad state of affairs.

 

[bassman21]

It's pretty dead in the Houston area as I pointed out in another thread not long ago. Truckers have always been hit or miss. Some are cool and have a lot to say. Others just ignore you unless you're one of their buddies and of course some of just rude in general. Here we have a lot of Spanish speakers on the other channels. 8 times out on 10 when I hear someone on another channel they are speaking Spanish. Of course Houston has a large Hispanic population so that is to be expected. It is true that fewer truckers have CB radios and there are many reasons for it.

CB is old technology and the 11 meter band is one of the worst for static and interference. I agree it has gotten much worst in the past 20 years. The static is the worst in the 26 MHz band and then gets better in the upper part of the 27 MHz band. From what I have heard ham operators back in the day told the FCC that 11 meters was their least favorite, so the band was chosen for remote control and citizen band. There are really better bands out there for local communication and with cell phones the need for it just isn't there. CB has become a hobby for high powered operators and the FCC will never be able to take it away and really have no reason to.

Conditions were actually pretty good the past few days. I too talked to Jamaica. I also talked to Oregon, Washington and California for two days. Conditions then shifted to the east coast where I talked to Florida and states just to the north, all from my mobile. My new radio got lots of good reports! Sadly the band is dead again. Don't worry, there will still be skip out there. People grow tired of it quickly so it can be a good thing if it isn't there daily. I find 19 to be annoying during skip between the CB shops and the truck wash lady auto recording. It pisses me off because I didn't hear this back in the day. Not long ago some CB shop guy was saying a prayer on the radio and then following it with a sales pitch. I swear there are more CB shops out there than radio operators sometimes! Stop acting like your business owns the channel! They run a bunch of power and drown everyone else out. I would rather be able to hear the locals for traffic updates when I'm driving.

 

[HomerBB]

Ironically, since skip conditions have cooled off the local group here in NW Arkansas seems to be increasing. It isn't big, by any means, but it is tight knit and friendly, very reminiscent of previous times. Everyone pitching together to get each other a working station from radio to antenna raising. Good times. I hope it stays awhile.

I miss the more consistent DX conditions. I like talking DX. Never gets old for me.
I am very busy nowadays and have less time for the hobby, but occasionally I have a little time and too many of those DX isn't available on 11 meters. So, I put together an occasional antenna for someone or myself, talk to the locals, and say hello when conditions and I are in the same place at the same time.

Hope to hear some of you on the air soon.

 

[Robb]

Ironically, since skip conditions have cooled off the local group here in NW Arkansas seems to be increasing. It isn't big, by any means, but it is tight knit and friendly, very reminiscent of previous times. Everyone pitching together to get each other a working station from radio to antenna raising. Good times. I hope it stays awhile.

I miss the more consistent DX conditions. I like talking DX. Never gets old for me.
I am very busy nowadays and have less time for the hobby, but occasionally I have a little time and too many of those DX isn't available on 11 meters. So, I put together an occasional antenna for someone or myself, talk to the locals, and say hello when conditions and I are in the same place at the same time.

Hope to hear some of you on the air soon.

I don't do antennas for locals, only some of the time. Throw the MFJ on it and make sure everything is OK or needs a few tweaks. I will align a radio or two that a local brings me and even do minor repairs at no charge, provided that I can undo any hack mods. In this way I attempt to keep radio alive and well where I live. Sometimes they come from a few dozen miles. But I don't recap radios; either they have to do it or send it to someone that will.

 

[StrangeBrew]

Ironically, since skip conditions have cooled off the local group here in NW Arkansas seems to be increasing. ....

This is actually quite common, a lot of people who are only interested in hanging with the locals find DX to be nothing more than interference and lay off the radio when skip is rolling.

 

[fourstringburn]

Hang in there, the next solar cycle starts in 2019.

Even us on the Amateur bands, stateside contacts are limited to mostly 1 daytime band and are fair conditions but DX ( off the US mainland in the Amateur world ) seems to be fair to good at night on the lower bands.

 

[Turbo T]

Well, on a better note, maybe.....just maybe....the over inflated pricing of used CB gear in the market place will come down. Not gonna need that big 8 pill for a while trying to talk over the heterodyning masses.

Will the FCC move CB? Never. Although had it not became the mess it is today, it would have done better on vhf. But then we wouldn't have as many DX posts.

Bassman has some good points. CB is indeed old technology and it has been surpassed by everything else. People aren't supposed to advertise their businesses on the CB, but ever since the FCC threw in the towel, it's every user for their selves. They figure using 19 is a great way to advertise. And if it's not product peddlers it's lot lizards advertising them selves.