CB dead or alive

chri

hi all



I have been a bit of a two way radio fan for many years I enjoy listening to my scanner and have recently got myself two CB Radios.


what is the best time to be listening to the cb

what channel is most active



or is CB radio dead am I wasting my time



thanks

SCOL

I was into them years ago, I still have it in the garage I'd also be interested to know is there anyone still using them.

will27

I also have CB handheld radios and in the Summer I go out to Tramore and I am able to pick up a few stations when the conditions are right. Sometimes on the same frequency you pick up services from some Churches which seem to tramnsmit on the same wave length.
Hope CB's come back as they are great entertainment.
May be a new club could be started all depending where peole live as the range for CB is limited.
CB is alive and active in the UK especially in Liverpool, St. Helens, Manchester and many of the towns in the North of England. There are also videos on You Tube.

chri

will27 wrote: »

I also have CB handheld radios and in the Summer I go out to Tramore and I am able to pick up a few stations when the conditions are right. Sometimes on the same frequency you pick up services from some Churches which seem to tramnsmit on the same wave length.
Hope CB's come back as they are great entertainment.
May be a new club could be started all depending where peole live as the range for CB is limited.
CB is alive and active in the UK especially in Liverpool, St. Helens, Manchester and many of the towns in the North of England. There are also videos on You Tube.

Let's bring it back we could start a new thread see who's interested and set a day once a month everyone turns on there CB and talk about anything

will27

I would give it a go.
Of course there are other alternatives like PMR and Zello.
Persoanl Mobile Radio (PMR) these radios are very popular among different groups from people directing traffic and building-site operators.
Zello is an app you can down load on to a mobile phone and talk to people all over the wordl using wify no big antennas or power boxes. You can also buy radios(net work radios) with the app on it and these have a button to talk as you would a CB radio.
I have both of the above and from time to time I check them out and someone is always on especially Zello.
Check out network radios you may be surprised and there are plenty of great groups that you can join once you register and open up an account with Zello which is easy to do.
Good Luck.

bassy

hi guys where are you located ?

theres still a few on the cb,but the use sidebands aka usb/lsb.theres no one really using am/fm anymore.
most are using usb (upper side bands) these days,so any where around 27.500 to 27.600 usb you will here a few chit chatting most nites.a popular or busy one would be 27.535 usb most nites of the week from 9.30 to 11.30 theres a few on chatting.
im based in co.laois and theres a good few stations on from kilkenny,some in carlow etc

theres a few in kildare offaly mayo etc.so there is still some life on the cb but as I said on usb.

SCOL

Drogheda, Co. Louth

chri

bassy wrote: »

hi guys where are you located ?

theres still a few on the cb,but the use sidebands aka usb/lsb.theres no one really using am/fm anymore.
most are using usb (upper side bands) these days,so any where around 27.500 to 27.600 usb you will here a few chit chatting most nites.a popular or busy one would be 27.535 usb most nites of the week from 9.30 to 11.30 theres a few on chatting.
im based in co.laois and theres a good few stations on from kilkenny,some in carlow etc

theres a few in kildare offaly mayo etc.so there is still some life on the cb but as I said on usb.

I'm in Dublin,
Right beside IKEA

chri

To answer my own question there is a few people still on CB
I have been talking to people form south county Dublin and North County Dublin

I have been chatting to them on the upper side bands most nights

if you would to chat with us call us on 27.555mhz I'll be on around 22:00 tonight

Please note
27.555 is a calling channel once you start talking to someone move to a different move to a different freq

(I found that out the hard way lol)

Timfy

I think you mean 27.555MHz USB rather than 127.555MHz as that is in the airband frequency range and will get you into hot water pretty quickly!!!

chri wrote: »

To answer my own question there is a few people still on CB
I have been talking to people form south county Dublin and North County Dublin

I have been chatting to them on the upper side bands most nights

if you would to chat with us call us on 127.555mhz I'll be on around 22:00 tonight

Please note
127.555 is a calling channel once you start talking to someone move to a different move to a different freq

(I found that out the hard way lol)

Turbohymac

Yes..CBS is still alive but gone very quiet..I'm down east cork and have a base kenwood..mainly talk outside Ireland in usb..
But rarely ever go down to am or fm.
And use a 29 division call sign as opposed to a handle

SCOL

I just have the standard 40 channel CB, so probably won't be able to talk to you, are there many trucks on the M50 with CB's ?

chri

I made a mistake its 27.555Mhz

Thanks Timfy for noticing


Turbohymac
Ill be down in cork in a few weeks Ill bring my radio with me
Ill try calling you

Turbohymac

Hi all.
And yes I had a PM with bassy but unfortunately only picked up on the other posters just now..so hopefully I'll crank up the kenwood 570d tomorrow night (tuesday) between 2100 and 2300 and see who's around..I'll be alternating between the truckers calling frequency 27.1850 on AM
And the main long distance DX calling frequency 27.555 on USB..
I've a fairly ok radio and a good anton 99.
So 25 watt am
100 usb
And I'll keep an ear open from my house
On an elevated spot near youghal in east cork..
Thanks all

ReneeCali

I used to love cb radio in the 1980s


Is it still used

Can u listen on the internet?

Turbohymac

Hi renee cali
Not sure about listening on the internet.
I got hooked in the late 90s through a friend and after spending a few years messing around with president Lincoln and Jackson radios and trying to use a linear amplifier to boost my power from 20watts up to about 80 ..but it usually ended badly for the radio
.so in 2002 invested in a new kenwood 570d and moved from mobile cb.. to a good base aerial and no problems ever since.. but yes unfortunately it's gone quite on the base 40 channels am
.for me it's long distance to other countries when the skip is good..
But I never bothered going on to become a licensed ham radio operator.. I had a few friends that took up the license but then wouldn't bother speaking to non licensed operators which was a pity.. they seemed to be in a higher league..but for me that wasn't what radio was about..
My local handle is same as username here.. and for the other countries..
29ec001
Hopefully there might be a slight revival of the CB or maybe it'll be like our petrol and diesel cars in another 20years time
Well be reminiscing about those great 2 litre TDI engines that powered our cars while we all wait for hours for our electric vehicles to hopefully charge up enough to get us home 😀

chri

Turbohymac wrote: »

Hi all.
And yes I had a PM with bassy but unfortunately only picked up on the other posters just now..so hopefully I'll crank up the kenwood 570d tomorrow night (tuesday) between 2100 and 2300 and see who's around..I'll be alternating between the truckers calling frequency 27.1850 on AM
And the main long distance DX calling frequency 27.555 on USB..
I've a fairly ok radio and a good anton 99.
So 25 watt am
100 usb
And I'll keep an ear open from my house
On an elevated spot near youghal in east cork..
Thanks all

I'll be on tomorrow at about 22:00hrs
I'll await your call on 27.555
Im beside IKEA Dublin where about are you located

Turbohymac

Just north of youghal town.

bassy

Lots of skip on 11m now,lots calling on 27.555 usb

orm0nd

Is 26 Mhz still active.?
I used to work a lot of USA stations around 26.200. Quite a few of them were licensed hams.

Was a couple of good dx nets each weekend also.

endacl

That’s a big 10/4 rubber duckie.

bassy

some breakers on 27.535 usb now

Doctors room ghost

What price for a middle of the road cb these days.
I had a president one years ago

bassy

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

What price for a middle of the road cb these days.
I had a president one years ago

150 euros get you a good lsb/usb cb

Doctors room ghost

bassy wrote: »

150 euros get you a good lsb/usb cb

Where are you buying that.long communication I got last one.that was in a car.

bassy

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

Where are you buying that.long communication I got last one.that was in a car.

quoting 2nd hand price.

TheW1zard

How many candles ya burnin?

bassy

TheW1zard wrote: »

How many candles ya burnin?

a kw come on...…………………….

Better off getting a Ham rig with at least 100 Watts that is opened up for 11 meters, propagation for this band has been brutal the last numbers of years due to the sun in a big sleep, if it wakens up much over the next few years it should hopefully greatly improve things.

As far as I am aware leagal CB in Ireland is only 4 watts and FM ? that wouldn't get you far anyway.

SSB is where it's at, even on my SDRs I don't hear a lot of action on CB but there are occasional openings and it's buzzing for quite some distance.

Get on ebay, there are plenty of old radios that should be suitable.

A Yaesu FT-450 without tuner or the FT-450D with tuner should be good.

Or get the HAM radio license, we need more hams, in Ireland, it's not that hard, bit of study and you can apply for the May exam, it opens up a whole new world + you get on bands that are pretty active and getting contacts in the U.S, Canada, South and Central America isn't difficult, with a good antenna and the right time of day you can get Aisia and Austrailia.

I remember CB in the 90's, never talked on it could only listen on a scanner, there was tonnes of activity, all around the Carlow area, plenty of teens into 20's, girls too it was fun. Then the internet destroyed it.

It's all apps today and social media.

Talking to people though is much more fun.

installer

I know it’s a year since the last post on this thread but I just wanted to say that I too am a licensed ham and I decided to buy a cb recently as that is where I started back in the 80’s. I bought a superstar SS6900 radio and Sirio gain master base antenna and set it up yesterday but haven’t heard anyone on it yet, S7 noise level isn’t helping much either. I’m in Galway and would be great to get the hobby back in action again.

installer

installer wrote: »

I know it’s a year since the last post on this thread but I just wanted to say that I too am a licensed ham and I decided to buy a cb recently as that is where I started back in the 80’s. I bought a superstar SS6900 radio and Sirio gain master base antenna and set it up yesterday but haven’t heard anyone on it yet, S7 noise level isn’t helping much either. I’m in Galway and would be great to get the hobby back in action again.

If you're a licensed ham why don't you just listen with your Ham radio rather than buy a CB ?

If you listen around 27.555 USB you'll hear Irish CB'ers now and again, you see the Sun is still in it's big sleep but the band does open from time to time, we're supposed to be in the next sun cycle but the sun is still pretty much asleep.

A lot of People use vertical antennas for CB which is fine for Dx but maybe try a dipole or something which might be better for more local coverage ?