CB Anyone?
 

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?

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.

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.

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

SR

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 :)

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!!!

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?

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?

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

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.

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

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....

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.:nono:

Something JBL GUY posted over on Tuners reminded me of this. A couple of sunspot peaks ago, very early 1990's, "11 meters" was hot with all this Spanish traffic, and we didn't have a lot of Hispanics in Michigan. This ham buddy said it was immigrants Lord knows where using the CB for "phone patches" back home. That's what he said anyway. Seems like congestion would close that loophole.

I wonder if my Uniden Bearcat scanning radio will pick up CB traffic. With its little antenna all it's getting is the weather network on 162.550.

Most scanners don't go below 30 MHz. Some do though.

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.)

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.

"there were many people on the band screaming, yelling, using 1kW linear power amplifiers....you name it."

That's pretty much the story now, from the little bit of listening I've been doing over the past few days.

You can get so called "10 Meter ham" radios that have features like Echo, Voice Changer, and roger beep. And if you're so inclined, you can open the radio up and remove or add a diode, or a jumper, wire, resistor or something as simple to make it an illegal CB and "freeband" radio... Actually, the FCC says any such radio easily changed like this is already illegal...

I am not advocating this and no disrespect intended.

1000 watts is just a starting point for some CB radio operators.

CB amplifier.


The FCC does try to enforce the rules, but budget and man power limitations come into play.

FCC citation PDF.

The FCC does seem to respond to interference complaints, such as in this recent case:
http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNo...-327956A1.html

jr

Too little CB knowledge and an episode of Married With Children made me think that setup was actually able to drop birds when I saw the video title. Quote from episode 503:

My blonde moment for the day, ha.

Sadly, we still have idiots in the UK who use stupid power to get out. I run LEGAL power only and stay within the law.

FM CB is not officially allowed. AM and SSB is. 5 watts/AM, 12 watts/SSB legal limits. Truck drivers still use it mainly and some other activities.

Just to be pedantic...:D:D:D

It used to be 5 watts DC input power to the plate of the final RF power amplifier in the USA. It was not easy for the average CBer to perform this measurement, so the rule was changed to carrier output power. This was set at 4 watts unmodulated carrier and of course 12 watts peak envelope power.

This applies to Class D CB radio.

There are other radio bands available for license free two-way radio.

MURS (multi use radio system) a series of VHF frequencies in the 151 MHz range.

The FCC defines MURS as a private, two-way, short-distance voice or data communications service for personal or business activities of the general public. They are allowed 2 watts of RF output and the highest point of any MURS antenna must not be more than 18.3 meters (60 feet) above the ground or 6.10 meters (20.0 feet) above the highest point of the structure to which it is mounted, whichever is higher.

That is external antennas may be used. The radios are sometimes called color dot radios, because each frequency or channel is represented by a color.

Then there is the FRS (family radio service) in the UHF band. These are the small handheld radios we see for sale and advertised.

These are handheld radios that are limited to a maximum output power of 500 milliwatts or half a watt. The antennas are fixed and not removable. External antennas are not allowed.


Then there are the UHF GMRS radios. Handheld, mobile and base stations are allowed. The last time I checked the maximum power output was 5 watts ERP (effective radiated power). That is the output of the transmitter times the gain of the antenna, minus any losses. The last time I checked these required a license and the payment of a fee. The license term was 5 years.



Some of the small hand held UHF radios that we see for sale are both FRS and GMRS capable and although there may be instructions that a license is needed to use the GMRS channels, very few if any people apply for this license.

These radios are capable of running higher power than the FRS only radios on the GMRS frequencies.

Aye roger D 10-4 good buddy. I am east bound and down, Keep the shiny side up, look out for the chicken coops and do not feed the bears. I'll catch you on the flip flop, I'm gone! :D:D:D

:thmbsp: Well , with all this talk of CB radios , I guess we oughta have at least one pictured . Here , in all it's 23 channel glory , is my "Citi-Fone SS" and a good ol D104 . It's got 10 tubes crammed into that little box and a vibrator power supply for 12 Volt as well as a "normal" supply for 115 . It's been recapped and works as well as any old tube CB could , meaning it sits on a shelf with some other bygone relics and collects dust :D

CB is the only radio system I actively use and experiment on. Screw the regulations. It's so dead out here now that you can do whatever you want on a channel other than 19 and 9 (every once and a while you get chatter from trucks going down the highway so it's best to keep those channels clear) and nobody will ever notice or care. I run a Realistic base station here in the house but as of yet I have been unable to find a way to build the 20' supporting column for the 3/4 wave antenna so my range is limited to two or three kilometers from the house with a craptacular car antenna fitted. I'm sure when the 3/4 wave is up I can get coverage over the entire valley.

On the car there's another Realistic built into the center console and a 12' whip on the back.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/P1033604.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/P3143819.jpg

I've tried a number of things that technically you shouldn't be doing like RTTY, SSTV and low baud packet. It's all basically useless out here unless your base station has a proper antenna.
Just don't tell anyone I'm doing this, 'kay? http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/imag...iles2/shhh.gif

Back when I lived in Vancouver when the weather was just right you could park at the top of the hill in Queen Elizabeth Park and you could got skip from as far away as Alabama. Never understood their love for using channels 6 and 11. It was always a mess of overlapping conversations.

That brings back memories.

My first two CB radios were a Hallicrafters CB-3A with the optional adjustable noise blanker and S meter. And a Lafayette HE-20c.

This was in the early 1960s. I got these because some of the farmers had CB radios in there trucks and pickups. I was more interested in amateur radio.

I found out that I could move a receive frequency crystal to the transmitter side and the Lafayette HE-20c would transmit on the 10 meter amateur radio band. I used this with a Lafayette HA-350 receiver on 10 meters with great fun.

I still have the Lafayette HA-350 receiver but the CB radios are long gone after many moves. And I do have a amplified version of the D-104 microphone.

I also had at one time a 23 channel Pace Plus 23. It was rather unusual in that IIRC it had a 30 watt TO-3 case RF output transistor. It was either this radio or their 6 channel radio that looked similar and maybe both of them.

Anyway more CB radio pictures and a stowaway :D:D amateur radio receiver.

Think we have one of those lying around here along with an old johnson with no meter just 2 lights and a couple knobs... :D

SR

I have a Citi-Phone SS here, but I don't have a mic for it. I've been using my Teaberry Model T out in the shop.

I have one buddy but my antenna got knocked off during a wind event.. (Branches) -- I dont have any whip up there now!!


I didnt really use it much anyway......... I value radio and hearing the type of people that are on 11m really was discouraging! (Most dont care what they sound like,etc)

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.:yes: