I gave up on the Chicken Band when there was a serious accident west of Laramie, Wyoming, in the late 1970's. This was before the cell phone. A lady was frantically calling for help. She could not get through be cause there was some "A" hole alligator running his illegal "heater" calling Skip-land, Skip-land, Skip-land from some where in Alabama bleeding over several channels. One of the locals in Laramie turned on his power to tell this turkey to shut up but being a Alligator with all mouth and no ears he would not hear him. Finally the Wyoming Highway Patrol pickup on the problem and ambulances and such where deployed.
I took the time back in the 90's to set up a 40 channel Motorola base station I have at the ham station to monitor local road conditions. Got it all hooked up, felt like an idiot calling for a good buddy radio check and I was told I doing real good making it 10 whole miles; WOW! Instead of road and weather reports all I was hearing where truck drivers discussing who had the best "Road Dope", or the Best "Smok'n Dope" Lot Lizards looking for "Big Macho truck drivers" GD, SOB. FU's etc Then the echo boxes made with screen door springs. finally I got in on a very intelligent conversion about breaking in antennas, something about the RF energy aligning the crystalline structure of the antenna. I unhooked the Motorola put it away and I have not touched it since. If I want stupid I have the internet for that.
