Who Uses CB Radios?

[sdef]

I bet you mean an antenna analyzer. The MFJ ones work, and certainly have their following, but the ones from Rig Expert are quite a bit better. Not to mention much easier on your pocketbook for batteries.

RigExpert Antenna Analyzers AA-35ZOOM - Free Shipping on Most Orders Over $99 at DX Engineering

I am a proponent of good analyzers and they are a requirement for my broadband needs (and my OCD .)
I have an AA-600 which is an excellent piece of test equipment that has taught me much about practical application of coax, antennas and connector types. It even located a poor installation of a TMS "N" connector I installed that worked- just not very well. I have a shelf with various name brand, good quality, mobile 2m/70cm antennas that just do not work well for my purposes for various VSWR reasons, usually identified by the analyzer. I have decided to standardize on the Comet CA-2x4SRNMO and have it on each of my two trucks. Using the analyzer, one antenna works great on either truck nearly identically and the other antenna works well (VSWR) on one specific truck only. Go figure. But one would never know had one not checked the install(s) with a good analyzer.

And on my UTV, an inexpensive, short, Tram happens to work out wonderfully on 2m/70cm beaten only by a Laird for UHF specific. Again, lots of testing with the analyzer.

 

[k0ua]

I just wish that I had one of the RigExpert ones. I sam still working on my HF mobile install and it could come in handy. Maybe someday I can justify springing for one.

 

[plowhog]

Will you be using a screwdriver antenna for the mobile install?

 

[k0ua]

Here are some pix of my pulling the coax and control cable in my 2010 Silverado yesterday.

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The cables are now in the cab and ready for termination. The black cable is RG8x coax and the grey cable is 4 conductor control cable for the screwdriver antenna. The mount for the Yaesu 891 is home made in my shop. Making the bends was teidous, but accomplished in my woodworking vise. Precise hole drilling for the radio mounting screws was a PITA. The top radio has been there for years, it is a Yaesu FT-90 VHF/UHF. The yellow "sticks" are wire pulling sticks from Harbor Freight. Hat is by Kioti. (This is a tractor forum after all)

 

[k0ua]

Will you be using a screwdriver antenna for the mobile install?

It is on order. Little Tarheel II

 

[dmccarty]

Traffic jams: Did you know that real time traffic is available on Google maps? And what is really impressive is the way they use the ping function that all cell phones use.
...

Yep. I check my local TV news web site each day before leaving work to check out the traffic. Tis amazing, and scary, the information given by the cell phone. What ticks me off is when the traffic is clear, but then I get going and bam, bumper to bumper time. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[RalphVa]

We've 2. Just took them down from storage. Plan to take them to our local recycling place for electronics.

My experience is they don't have much range. You're also tied to having to plug into an automotive "power point". So, not too practical for house and woods communication. We had a couple walky talkies that we used for that for a while.

Now have cell phones. Many GPSs have a traffic option on them that I've never used.

Ralph

 

[aczlan]

IIRC there is some type of additional coupler and or coil behind the glove box...the antenna is something like a 40" steel whip think it might have in the windshield wire too...

We had a 1980s conversion van that had a CB mounting point in the roof. As I recall there was a box that would filter out the frequencies for the AM FM radio and for the CB. I assume it was a band pass filter? Not sure, I was 10 or so when it burned in the fire (barns caught on fire and it was close enough that the fiberglass high top roof caught on fire and burned the van down).

Aaron Z

 

[k0ua]

We had a 1980s conversion van that had a CB mounting point in the roof. As I recall there was a box that would filter out the frequencies for the AM FM radio and for the CB. I assume it was a band pass filter? Not sure, I was 10 or so when it burned in the fire (barns caught on fire and it was close enough that the fiberglass high top roof caught on fire and burned the van down).

Aaron Z

They have a lot of names but sometimes called splitter/combiners. Or sometimes called Duplexers. Many different types are made with multiple ports, with each frequency "band" split out on each port . Often used to take multiple transceivers into one antenna, or in your case one transceiver and one receiver into a single antenna.

 

[JK22]

Quite a few of the truck drivers nowadays might have the antennas, but the radio in the cab is either shut off or they can't speak English and wont answer you anyway.

This is what I’ve heard too. Basically that the CB airwaves are dead. I’ve had one on my amazon list forever, but heard that truckers don’t use them anymore.

 

[JK22]

Here are some pix of my pulling the coax and control cable in my 2010 Silverado yesterday.


The cables are now in the cab and ready for termination. The black cable is RG8x coax and the grey cable is 4 conductor control cable for the screwdriver antenna. The mount for the Yaesu 891 is home made in my shop. Making the bends was teidous, but accomplished in my woodworking vise. Precise hole drilling for the radio mounting screws was a PITA. The top radio has been there for years, it is a Yaesu FT-90 VHF/UHF. The yellow "sticks" are wire pulling sticks from Harbor Freight. Hat is by Kioti. (This is a tractor forum after all)

Are you mounting to your truck bed rail? The guys at the HAM store informed me that’s a terrible location due to lack of ground plane...

 

[k0ua]

Are you mounting to your truck bed rail? The guys at the HAM store informed me that’s a terrible location due to lack of ground plane...

It is a lot more complicated than that. There is no such a thing as a ground plane at HF frequencies. Your entire vehicle needs to be bonded together and forms a capacitance to the actual earth under it. We can talk about ground planes at higher VHF and UHF frequencies, but NOT at HF.

If you would like to know more about HF mobile radio you can go to the K0BG website: There is a lot to learn.

KOEBG.COM

 

[JK22]

It is a lot more complicated than that. There is no such a thing as a ground plane at HF frequencies. Your entire vehicle needs to be bonded together and forms a capacitance to the actual earth under it. We can talk about ground planes at higher VHF and UHF frequencies, but NOT at HF.

If you would like to know more about HF mobile radio you can go to the K0BG website: There is a lot to learn.

KOEBG.COM

Thanks. That’s interesting and obviously a good point.

 

[radios1]

you are better off getting an amateur radio license, there are many repeaters that can be used in an emergency, and I'd say most of them even have an autopatch, which a member of the club would use to call for help if he's mobile..

 

[MossRoad]

you are better off getting an amateur radio license, there are many repeaters that can be used in an emergency, and I'd say most of them even have an autopatch, which a member of the club would use to call for help if he's mobile..

If your goal is to find highway info in your immediate area, amateur radio isn't going to do much for you at all compared to CBs and truck drivers. Even if most don't participate in CB anymore, many still do, and it's way more than amatuer radio operators.

 

[k0ua]

If you are interested here are some install pix of the Yaesu FT891 HF rig and the Little Tarheel II screwdriver antenna for 80 thru 6 meter bands. The other rig in the cab the Yaesu Ft90 for VHF/UHF has been there for years. Also shown in the bed are the ferrite chokes to decouple the power cable and the coax going to antenna and splice for the power cable.

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You can see on the left side of the HF radio the manual up/down button to activate the screwdriver motor and adjust the coil connection up and down. BUT I can tell you already there is going to be an automatic controller in my future. In fact the Ameritron SC-104Y is already on order. It takes a lot of button pushing to go from 80 to 6 meters and find the point of resonance. The controller will keep track of the number of turns the motor makes and can return to any of 8 presets per band. It receives band data from the radio itself and tracks the radio as you change frequency.

 

[k0ua]

If your goal is to find highway info in your immediate area, amateur radio isn't going to do much for you at all compared to CBs and truck drivers. Even if most don't participate in CB anymore, many still do, and it's way more than amatuer radio operators.

Yes, and no. There are many repeaters that have fairly active road information during times of severe weather. It just depends. Yes there are more people on any given stretch of road with CB vs. Amateur vhf/uhf rigs in their vehicles, BUT repeaters can cover a wide area, and during severe weather they are often linked together and nets are called to provide information. Now as far a warning you about a wreck up ahead, the CB will likely be more help. Also keep in mind, with the relaxing of the Amateur Radio licensing requirements, more and more truck drivers are licensed amateurs and many do have Amateur rigs in their trucks. Some both vhf/uhf and even HF. I am not saying even every 1/10 truck has an licensed amateur aboard, but they are a fair number of them.

 

[DK35vince]

This is what I’ve heard too. Basically that the CB airwaves are dead. I’ve had one on my amazon list forever, but heard that truckers don’t use them anymore.

News to me.
Nearly every truck around here still has them.

 

[k0ua]

Also keep in mind with the current state of of the sunspot cycle (cycle 24) which is near rock bottom, the 11 meter CB band is hardly open for skywave propagation (F2 layer) at all. There is still some E layer at times but you can only really count on ground wave propagation, and depending on antenna system etc, would rarely be much over 20 miles. As truck-drivers had installed CB radio's partly as a tool to relieve the boredom of long distance cross country driving and have someone to talk to, now with the sorry state of propagation, that function is not so attractive. Of course the Amateur upper bands are suffering too, but we have many bands and can always go lower in frequency where there is still propagation to accomplish long range continental or even inter-continental communications. Not to mention our VHF/UHF repeater systems to cover regional areas. This is likely the reason that so many truck drivers have joined our ranks. We can use 20 meters during the day, and 40 and 80 meters in the night. Even 160 meters at night can be used if you have enough real estate on your vehicle to support the Plus sized antenna.

 

[k0ua]

News to me.
Nearly every truck around here still has them.

Oh, I think they all have them installed, but the apparent usage is down because of the lack of skywave propagation. Ground wave still works fine for shorter distances though. The end result is if you just casually flip through the channels you won't hear as much usage as in years past.