CB Anyone?

[truetone36]

I was just wondering if anyone here still uses a CB at all. I used to use a Realistic base station for casual listening (heard some really strange stuff on there a few years back). Now after a few years I've had 3 old base stations (Citi-Phone SS, Teaberry Model T, Realistic TRC-55) come my way. I was wondering if CB is still used for any purpose at all these days with e-mail and cellphones taking over everywhere. Anyone still use one?

[Jon A.]

I dumped mine, not hard to do better than that Taiwanese junker. The mic was permanently attached and it seems that the knobs were glued on. Only 23 channels.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I pretty much put away all of my CB equipment when I got my ham radio license in 1991. I put one in my motorhome when I am traveling, but even then I don't turn it on very often.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

I pretty much put away all of my CB equipment when I got my ham radio license in 1991. I put one in my motorhome when I am traveling, but even then I don't turn it on very often.

You just gave me a GREAT idea. I'm going to Warren OH and Cleveland in the morning. Think I'll bring along the GE "HELP" CB a friend just gave me, just for grins

[Boobtubeman]

Still have my COBRA and my UNIDEN PRESIDENT.. Sitting in the closet

SR

[soundman2]

Still have a CB as part of the setup. Also for those in the USA - who don't know - we have just had AM & SSB legalized (26.965-27.405 mhz) on June 27th here in the UK. It took them long enough to do it!!!

[ChrisW6ATV]

Soundman2, that is amazing that it would be done at this date, since you already have the PMR446 service, which is probably much better as a real-world personal/local communications service than 27 MHz ever was. What was the status of 26.965-27.405 all of these years in the UK before now?

[soundman2]

Chris. We only had FM on what we call the mid block of 40 channels and we also have FM on 27.60125-27.99125 mhz. This is a real game changer as we are now harmonised with Europe and many other places! We are allowed 4 watts AM/FM and 12 watts (PEP) on SSB

I have been told that you guys in the USA cannot use FM on CB. Is this true?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by soundman2

I have been told that you guys in the USA cannot use FM on CB. Is this true?

We have a UHF-FM service in the 462 MHz range that was once called a class of "CB" (now partly similar to your PMR446 service), but the 27 MHz CB band has always only allowed AM and SSB signals here. That entire band has been basically an unregulated "sewer" since the mid-1970s, though, so it would not surprise me that people use FM-mode equipment here in the USA. (I do not see the point of doing so, though. FM voice signals do not travel as far as AM or SSB with the same RF power for DX-type operating, and anyone in the USA who wants local radio communication should pick almost anything other than CB radios (legal or otherwise) as a method of doing so.)

[Jeffhs]

I have absolutely no use for CB these days. I had one years ago, along with my amateur radio gear, but I didn't use the CB transceiver much and I certainly didn't broadcast the fact that I had such a radio in my ham shack.

I got rid of my CB gear some time ago, and do not own any such gear now. I did listen to CB a bit on my Icom ham rig about ten years ago, and was amazed at how the service had changed. As one other person stated here, there were many people on the band screaming, yelling, using 1kW linear power amplifiers....you name it. I live 30+ miles outside Cleveland and even heard a CB operator from Tennessee, as I would expect on the amateur bands, but not, for crying out loud, on 27 MHz. I didn't have that great an antenna on my Icom rig either, just an indoor 40-10-meter loaded vertical.

CB has become such a wasteland these days the FCC no longer issues CB licenses, monitors, or even cares what goes on there anymore. I don't think even truckers use CB any longer. I also believe many people these days, who do not feel they have the qualifications or the "smarts" to get an amateur radio license, feel CB is a cheap alternative to amateur radio, although I don't know if new CB radios are even being sold anymore. I think Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee was selling CB radios as late as the early 1990s, buit I don't know if they are still doing so; I haven't been getting their catalog for years, though I still have an account with them, and haven't looked at their website for some time.

[smokey]

That's not true at all. For I have a CB repair shop here in NH and we use it a lot. On 26.00.0 flat up to 27.98.5 AM, FM, USB, LSB. We are also on 442.00.0

[Bill R]

A lot of people use FM on 11 meters, but not legally. Unless the FCC changed the rules for CB it is just AM and SSB on the 40 channels. If they changed it I would like to know where the rules specify it. I will have to research it.

[soundman2]

Interesting posts guys. So you can use FM but not officially. Am I right?

[Kamakiri]

I wonder if anything is ever enforced on the CB bands. When we went on our trip, we brought the GE "Help", and heard screaming people from five states away talking really fast using thousand watt linears and Sadelta Echo Master Plus mics.

Same old crap from 20 years ago....

[soundman2]

I always say that if you have to use high power on CB to get anywhere there is something very wrong! 4 watts gets me to where I want to go

I know folks who run high output over here. Crazy.