by ballistic 5 Replies latest jw friends
OK, my fluff post for the week is:
Is anybody still doing CB radio??? Here in the UK we went mad on it in the 80's and every other house had either an aerial or a "dipole" going up. I got the impression that the influence came from the US but it took off big here too. What is happening on that scene? Has it died a death, has the internet replaced it?
People are buying "scanners", I understand, to listen in to mobile phone calls and the like, what is all that about???
For the most part, CB is a dying breed. Some automobile drivers still use them for keeping an eye on traffic and police, especially those with heavy feet (ahem), but otherwise CB is the domain of the truckers, and even they seem to be using it less and less as more people have cellular phones and two way radios. It's hard to find a CB sales/repair shop, except for truck stops, though there are many mail order places that still carry them.
CB's were big here in the 70's....there was a song called "Convoy" that got it rolling. It was about truckers trying to outwit cops with their radios.
My husband and I moved from Ohio to California in 1991....we used CB's as we drove in our 2 auto's. Mobile phones were for the wealthy back then.
Drivers here still use them. When I see an auto with one, I think "geek".
Ballistic: Actually, in the States, the cellular phone frequencies are locked out on all scanners. Some older models can be modified to receive cell phone frequencies, but I couldn't think of anything more boring to listen to. "Hey honey, can you pick up a gallon of milk on the way home? Thanks, Love You!!!" Scanners are great to listen to fire, police, coast guard, airports, mall security, etc. It let's me know what's actually going on in the neighborhood. For example, When we lived in an apartment, I was going to go out and walk our dog. I had the scanner on and heard that a pizza guy got robbed about a block away from where I was. Pretty cool to actually know what is really going on in your neighborhood. CB's unfortunatly, went the way of the 8-track. Started out with a bang then just fizzled out.
gcc, what does GCC stand for because it's the name of the department I work in!!!
"convoy" was a film here, possibly a song as well, but the film is re-run millions of times. Did it really have an impact in the uptake of CB? WOW.
"geek"? Well I'm interested in it now, maybe 3 decades too late!!! But someone like me can take something geeky and just make it sound "trendy" - just don't ask me how. (sorry I'm being dillusional again)
eL_K, encryption laws over here are different, I don't know the whole story but apparently, yes you can at least listen in to analogue signals here with no probs.
In the US CB's are used in small private lake boats and on jet boats that run the river rapids for finding help if a problem comes up and keeping in touch with friends on the water. Other than that it is mostly on long haul truck drivers rigs. When the sun's activity kicks up the skip waves we get so much crap from illegal CB radios in other parts of the world and here in the US that they are almost unuseable. That is unless you also have a 200 or more watt linear amp.
I still have a couple and only use one on the boat. I just bought a 10 meter ham transciever and will renew my ham license and try the ham radio thing again.
Outoftheorg
