I haven't CB'd for a long time; how much traffic these days?

[Tambourine-Man]

I haven't been on or near a "live" CB'd for a long time. How much traffic is there these days?

I just put some fresh batteries in two old CB walky talkies (Cobra HH35's) and briefly scanned the channels and didn't hear anything. Just static if I turned the squelch down. (My 20 was on 128, west of Boston at mid-day - seems like I should have been able to pick up some chatter.)

I could only find one short coiled antenna between the two units and tried it on both. Could it be my antenna is not good? or are things much, much quieter than the old days?

[AirMoore]

Well its really hit or miss to be honest. Just last night I was on the Mobile, and EVERY CHANNEL was silent, nothing... zilch, zero. Granted it was 2AM normally there is some traffic (I don't live too far from the thruway). When other days/times I have had to adjust the squelch to near full-tilt to keep the back-noise of other convos in check.


To be honest though: There is a fair amount of traffic still out there. Its just that 25 or so years ago many, many cars had units... now its almost exclusively back to truckers. There are very, very few commuters who have a CB set-up in their own car, and even less maintain a 'base station' still.

Trust me though, on the thruway(Highway) where there is trucker traffic... there is CB traffic! They still call out the 'Bears' just as good as back-in-the-day.


Also I have a few very old units (my dads from years ago) and in your case, its most likely that the radio/antenna is also at fault. I know my dads old antenna does not work at all (and) one of the radios doesn't either... I took it on a 170Mile trip where it was silent for all but 2 (yes two) sentences it picked up. SWR was through the roof with that antenna too.



In any case, you are bound to still get old-timers with base/mobile units in nearly every city (Mine of ~25,000 has I would say 25base stations).


Again rest assured that every trucker still has a unit (also there are still a few mobile and base stations). So are the airwaves as busy?
-NO- BUT thats good in a way, because they are the true pros when it comes to using the equipment...

[Tambourine-Man]

Thanks for the come back, good buddy. I used to have a base station with a tall pole mounted antenna with three ground plane rods, plus a whip on my car, but that was up in the backwoods. I don't know if i can even find my SWR meter, but I think I know where one of my old magnetic mount antennas is. Guess I''ll have to hitch one up temporarily to see if my handheld antenna is bad, or if everyone else is dead or asleep at the switch.

I gave it up in part because of too much useless chatter and of course because of cell phones. It will be nice if the remaining users just stick to important stuff, like bears.

[Lucky225]

Originally Posted by Tambourine-Man

Thanks for the come back, good buddy. I used to have a base station with a tall pole mounted antenna with three ground plane rods, plus a whip on my car, but that was up in the backwoods. I don't know if i can even find my SWR meter, but I think I know where one of my old magnetic mount antennas is. Guess I''ll have to hitch one up temporarily to see if my handheld antenna is bad, or if everyone else is dead or asleep at the switch.

I gave it up in part because of too much useless chatter and of course because of cell phones. It will be nice if the remaining users just stick to important stuff, like bears.

Yea I had a fiberglass 25 ft anteanna for my base station, mounted on the top of my 12 foot house back in California. God I loved that setup, but it was at my parents house and when I moved I couldn't take the antenna with me. I ended up letting my friend put the CB in his car, and he got it impounded and taken as evidence and I haven't seen it since. I'd love to get back in the CB scene, hell it's where my handle comes from -- the Radioshack TRC-225 was my first handheld CB.

[bkrell]

Originally Posted by Tambourine-Man

Thanks for the come back, good buddy. I used to have a base station with a tall pole mounted antenna with three ground plane rods, plus a whip on my car, but that was up in the backwoods. I don't know if i can even find my SWR meter, but I think I know where one of my old magnetic mount antennas is. Guess I''ll have to hitch one up temporarily to see if my handheld antenna is bad, or if everyone else is dead or asleep at the switch.

I gave it up in part because of too much useless chatter and of course because of cell phones. It will be nice if the remaining users just stick to important stuff, like bears.

I've only been running one again for a few days. I've heard two good bear reports, though, even with a weak antenna. But around rush hour, I've still heard lots of funny, if useless chatter. Like one kid who was calling truckers f*gs and then a line of truckers commenting to one driver how stupid he was for selling his Kenworth for $12,500....

[Stealth Stalker]

All handheld antennae are bad, lol. A CB walkie talkie with the radio mounted antenna isn't likely to pick up mobile traffic any farther than half a mile away under normal circumstances. You can stand on a hilltop overlooking the Interstate, with truckers constantly going past you, and be able to see most of them farther than you can talk to them. Antenna is everything, and handhelds basically have none.