Quote Originally Posted by N8YX View Post
Expounding a bit on my comments above:


From a social interaction/party line standpoint the entire CB scene isn't as popular as it once was (thank you Compuserve and the Internet in general) but it still has a core group of users. Of which U.S. truckers are a dwindling quantity, having become disgusted at the outlandish and at times vulgar scene which they helped to create.


Let's just say few new legal (Class D certificated) sets are out there. Go to eBay and you'll find a ton of decent used equipment being sold...and not to the same buyer.

Receiver-wise, select older gear is capable of performance which exceeds that of any new models issuing forth from the likes of Connex, Ranger and Magnum. The Cobra 148/2000GTL, its Uniden Madison counterpart, the Stoner Pro-40 and the CPI rigs still fetch premium prices - even though none of them offer such niceties as echo, talkback and FM/CW modes.

I currently use a CP2000 and BC2000 base console for any 11M transmission work alongside a collection of general coverage receivers for monitoring that part of the HF spectrum. The CPI's receiver is just as hot and just as selective as any of my higher-end amateur equipment. I'll guarantee it's a lot better in terms of adjacent channel rejection than any current legal CB or "export model 10M radio" on the market.

Speaking of ham gear: That's probably why you don't see more new models of CB equipment, especially base rigs. SSB 'enthusiasts' are simply buying and converting amateur transceivers for use in the Class D allocation as well as the so-called freeband areas.

(As an example - For SSB-only 11M use, an FT-726R with an HF module installed makes a darn nice setup. You get a great receiver, 10W PEP output, 15M-12M-26-30MHz coverage...plus any two ranges from 6M-4M-2M-430Mhz-440MHz. The CB manufacturers only wish they could build something this good at a similar price point.)

With regards to activity, I'm listening to 38LSB at the moment and there's a ton of it. In times past, AM was the universally agreed-upon mode for anything below CH1 while SSB (usually LSB) got the nod for the gap from CH40 to the bottom edge of 10M. This structure is loosely adhered to even today but I hear an increasing amount of FM and SSB in the 25-27MHz space. Conversely, more folk are observed using USB and AM in the "10.5M gap" these days.

For nostalgia's sake try tuning CH5 (27.015) some time where there's a band opening to the SW. It's the Mexican/Latin American trucker channel and it sounds a lot like U.S. CH19 did back in the boom days.
Very interesting. Thanks for that.

When I first started listening to CB and the freeband in 1981, there was a lot of SSB activity on channel 32-40 and of course, the freeband. The English speakers almost always used LSB. USB was reserved for channels 15 and 16.

I lost interest because they wouldn't always identify. At least with ham radio ops, you could look them up with their callsign.