geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: volvo244t on Sun, 21 August 2016, 22:20:31
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Being a trucker by trade, I use CB radios, and aside from them being tools, I have an obsession with them, just like with keyboards.
My most recent acquisition is this 1970s-tastic Motorola 4022, seen with a couple slightly more modern friends.
(http://i.imgur.com/hDZpIJqh.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/bOIVv7ah.jpg)
As you can see it suffers the same yellowing we're all too familiar with, so a retrobrite treatment for it is in order.
Oh, I have 16 more CBs, in addition to the ones pictured. Like I said, obsession...
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Get to the good stuff, tell us about the Lot-Lizards you solicit on the radio..
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Lot lizards? ****, I've only seen one, in Memphis, and she was getting arrested in a sting operation.
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Actually, I might have seen a second, in Hagerstown, MD. My guess is based on attire. When you've got on a short skirt and high heels and you're walking around the truck stop parking lot...
...yeeeeeeeeeah.
I dunno, man. Supposedly Indianapolis has a lot of lot-lizard activity at the Exit-4 truckstops off 465... I drove for Crete until May, and any time I needed to park in Indy, I headed straight for our terminal there. All I did at the Indy south side truck stops was occasionally get fuel.
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What's the range on these CB radios designed for Trucks.
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There isn't a good answer for that question. Range is dependent upon a multitude of variables, from whether or not the radio is properly tuned, to quality of coax, to ambient terrestrial noise level, to solar/ionospheric conditions.
With my big Stryker, tuned more or less properly, with a high quality coax and a 7-foot Firestik antenna, I achieved a 26 mile truck-to-truck contact once - on I-80 in Illinois, I was at mile 105 and guy I was talking to was at mile 79 at the start of the contact. When solar and ionospheric conditions are correct, the 11-meter (CB) band is subject to propagation, during which I talked to Virginia and Maine from central Wyoming using a plain-jane Cobra 29, and an antenna which I modified to work better on my truck, seen here:
(http://i.imgur.com/DotbWUth.jpg)
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What's a common conversation over the radio.. what abouts, with whom, Any Chicks?
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Often times it's just static, anymore. Most of the new drivers coming into the industry don't bother. I'm technically a new one, but have a more old school approach... plus I was mentored by my uncle, who has done it for nearly 40 years.
Yesterday on I-57 in Illinois there were a lot of "bear reports" - something extremely rare today with all the speed-governed trucks of the mega fleets (crete, swift, werner, cr england, etc.) but there were a lot of cops out yesterday.
All kinds of conversations can happen in truck stops, generally they quickly devolve into hostile political discussions and name calling, with the occasional whisper of "I ain't got no panties on" though I don't hear that much anymore.
I get a good chuckle out of most of it, an occasional belly-laugh out of some of it, and some of it annoys me to the point of turning the radio down (but never off) but not much. I guess I have thick skin or something.
Every once in awhile I'll end up heading the same direction as another guy and after some random conversation starter we'll end up shooting the **** for 100+ miles.
When the band is subject to propagation, I'll leave channel 19 and go to 28, or 38 LSB (lower side band) and try to make contacts, I can usually talk all over the country.
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http://hackaday.com/2016/08/25/fine-business-good-buddy-amateur-radio-for-truckers/