Who/what is on 27 MHz CB radio these days?

[GK]

I thought 27 MHz has gone the way of the dodo, but at least someone is still making base station and mobile 27 MHz antennas:

http://shockwaveantennas.com.au/

Or is the demand just from HAMs on 11m? Has anyone here bought from them/him/her? I'm kinda contemplating the Station Master. 

[DeanCording]

HF AM CB radio is still very popular out west on big properties due to better range and less interference.

[Electro Detective]

When the Zombie Apocalypse comes again, 27 Mhz is a must have for survivors   

[janoc]

Here in Europe 27MHz narrow band FM CB is the domain of truckers mostly. Almost every truck has a radio in the cab and the name/handle displayed behind the windshield. AM and SSB are illegal in most places but at least SSB use is quite frequent.

There are other more recent radios (PMR, etc) but those don't work as well in the middle of the nowhere on a motorway. Moreover those are mostly portable walkie-talkies so not a good form factor to use in a cab neither. Handling a walkie-talkie while driving is illegal, the same as a cell phone. Even hand-held microphones could be a problem if caught with it in hand.

Also you don't get kilowatt amplifiers and similar gear (of course illegal but widespread) for PMR.

[bob225]

Its very quite in the uk, even the 2m repeaters are quite these days

Base aerials are easy to come by over here most of them are tuned from 11m like the Sirio vector and the Solarcon Antron A99

[janoc]

Its very quite in the uk, even the 2m repeaters are quite these days

Base aerials are easy to come by over here most of them are tuned from 11m like the Sirio vector and the Solarcon Antron A99

2m repeaters require more expensive gear and HAM radio license. Most HAMs have moved to other modes for chit-chatting (including digital radio), so 2m FM repeaters have been dead for quite a few years by now.

So I wouldn't correlate that with CB use - it is not the same groups of people using those things.

[OE2WHP]

Here in Austria CB had its best times in the late 70ies and 80ies, when there were no mobile phones and "Convoy" ran on TV.
Today CB has more to offer than 40 channel only 1W AM/4W FM voice. There is 12W SSB, 80 channels, there are digimodes like PSK, packet radio, even PACTOR, repeaters and internet links.
However it's quite silent on the band. Some russian, polish or turkish truckers can be heard, thats basically it.

And there are some prepper groups that seem to do drills and sort of field days 2-4 times the year.

[CJay]

We have legal 11M AM, FM and SSB in Europe, 40 channels of it on the original FCC frequencies (26.965-27.405) for most of Europe and another 40 channels on the oddball UK frequencies (27.60125 to 27.99125)

I'm told CB is still used by a lot of people but I never seem to be able to hear anyone on FM but the same four or five idiots comparing notes on how drunk/stoned they are and which weed they've been smoking or playing music at each other.

There's plenty of 11M SSB activity but the propagation isn't great right now so there's not as much as there has been.

2M and 70CM can be pretty lively here in the evenings, can always find someone to talk to but usually simplex, the repeaters aren't as lively as they once were perhaps because of DMR/DStar etc. so unless you've got the kit, explore, get away from the repeaters, build yourself a dipole and stick it outside.

For licensed users, the Baofeng handies are pretty damn good with an external antenna or even one of the cheap Nagoya/Diamond copies.

[Dielectric]

Here in the US of A, it's pretty much trucker land.  I ran a CB in my car for years (decades?) to use for long boring trips and as an early-warning system for speed traps when I was trying to make time.  My range was about 10 miles on a stock Cobra 19 with a tuned antenna on the roof.

When I was a kid, I had a CB base station that I hooked up to the TV antenna on the house with some crappy balun.  From right around the shores of Lake Erie, I could get "skip" from Canada in the winter, otherwise it was just an education in filthy trucker slang.

[vk6zgo]

I thought 27 MHz has gone the way of the dodo, but at least someone is still making base station and mobile 27 MHz antennas:

http://.com.au/

Or is the demand just from HAMs on 11m? Has anyone here bought from them/him/her? I'm kinda contemplating the Station Master.

Hams will repurpose CB "base station" antennas for 10m, but I doubt if anyone would buy one new just for that.

There are a (very) few CBers  still on HF CB in Perth, mostly old timers---I used to hear them a few years ago when I was active on 10m ,as the Icom IC575 I use has receive capabilities on 27MHz, which I used to check propagation.
I was going to "bodge" up an antenna for 27MHz, & have a chat with some of them, but I must have chucked the old Electrophone CB rig out.

There are a few more in Melbourne who would come through when propagation was good to there.
( I used to talk to Hams on the Melbourne 10m FM repeater, but if there was nobody on that, I would tune around)

Even UHF CB (477MHz FM) has fallen away,except for a few foul mouths.

[Alex Eisenhut]

I have a handheld one, CB is still used by people in the backwoods, and truckers. You can listen to some fascinating Quebecois gossip when you're in the right part of the province...

[bob225]

Its very quite in the uk, even the 2m repeaters are quite these days

Base aerials are easy to come by over here most of them are tuned from 11m like the Sirio vector and the Solarcon Antron A99

2m repeaters require more expensive gear and HAM radio license. Most HAMs have moved to other modes for chit-chatting (including digital radio), so 2m FM repeaters have been dead for quite a few years by now.

So I wouldn't correlate that with CB use - it is not the same groups of people using those things.

Radio is a dying hobby and has been for many years 2m rigs can be had for around the same price as a decent CB - digi modes are not a problem for me

I wasn't comparing 2m and CB just stating there both very quite

95% of the time I'm just a SWL these days with the odd bit of vhf/uhf listening

[bd139]

Not much going on around me in London. Occasionally, literally once a week I hear someone on 2m and that’s monitoring most of the day. There’s a regular net on sunday evening as well from the local club.

To back up what CJay said; it appears CB is used by local stoners here too. Also the local pirate FM operators use it as a side channel. I dumped my CB kit a couple of years though.

HF and FT8 / CW is where all the action is. Also SSB at the weekends but that’s mainly contests. Problem is HF propagation is crap at the moment. If it picks up it’ll be good again.

I don’t want to do DMR or any of that stuff myself if I’m honest.

[CJay]

Not much going on around me in London. Occasionally, literally once a week I hear someone on 2m and that’s monitoring most of the day. There’s a regular net on sunday evening as well from the local club.

To back up what CJay said; it appears CB is used by local stoners here too. Also the local pirate FM operators use it as a side channel. I dumped my CB kit a couple of years though.

HF and FT8 / CW is where all the action is. Also SSB at the weekends but that’s mainly contests. Problem is HF propagation is crap at the moment. If it picks up it’ll be good again.

I don’t want to do DMR or any of that stuff myself if I’m honest.

Have a scan about, I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of locals using simplex on 2M after being told quite emphatically that 2M was dead. Same with 70CM, there's plenty of activity where I am once you get off the repeaters, YMMV of course but have a go, if only to get into it.

I've made the point this morning on the RSGB Technical list, yes, the HF bands are quiet but get on them and call CQ, maybe nobody will reply but if nobody calls then nobody will answer.  FT8 very definitely shows there are good contacts to be made on HF despite the 'lack of propagation'.

DMR does not interest me either, doesn't seem much of a technical challenge or point to linking a repeater to the 'net, that seems analogous to using Skype with a radio mike but it's popular and I accept it's just my personal taste that makes it unattractive to me.

But what would I know, apparently my M0 is inferior because I've never sent flawless 97WPM Morse from the radio operator's seat of a burning Lancaster whilst nose diving into the Atlantic or modified the bearings of a WW1 battle tank to act as a rotary converter to power a transmitter made with valves salvaged from Edison's mum's radiogram...

[bob225]

I use to listen to GB3EL, GB3NL and GB3KN as well as a handful of others, The EL morning and Tea time shows where good - I wonder what happened to some of them

You think M0's have it bad what about the poor novice and foundation licence holders

[bd139]

Not much going on around me in London. Occasionally, literally once a week I hear someone on 2m and that’s monitoring most of the day. There’s a regular net on sunday evening as well from the local club.

To back up what CJay said; it appears CB is used by local stoners here too. Also the local pirate FM operators use it as a side channel. I dumped my CB kit a couple of years though.

HF and FT8 / CW is where all the action is. Also SSB at the weekends but that’s mainly contests. Problem is HF propagation is crap at the moment. If it picks up it’ll be good again.

I don’t want to do DMR or any of that stuff myself if I’m honest.

Have a scan about, I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of locals using simplex on 2M after being told quite emphatically that 2M was dead. Same with 70CM, there's plenty of activity where I am once you get off the repeaters, YMMV of course but have a go, if only to get into it.

I've made the point this morning on the RSGB Technical list, yes, the HF bands are quiet but get on them and call CQ, maybe nobody will reply but if nobody calls then nobody will answer.  FT8 very definitely shows there are good contacts to be made on HF despite the 'lack of propagation'.

DMR does not interest me either, doesn't seem much of a technical challenge or point to linking a repeater to the 'net, that seems analogous to using Skype with a radio mike but it's popular and I accept it's just my personal taste that makes it unattractive to me.

But what would I know, apparently my M0 is inferior because I've never sent flawless 97WPM Morse from the radio operator's seat of a burning Lancaster whilst nose diving into the Atlantic or modified the bearings of a WW1 battle tank to act as a rotary converter to power a transmitter made with valves salvaged from Edison's mum's radiogram...

Will persist some more with 2m then. I only have a lowly Baofeng UV-5R which doesn't help as the only two QSO's I've had after monitoring for weeks ended up with someone inevitably saying "buy a proper radio" (a G0 of course). So I'll tell them it's an FT-60R now 

Good point with calling CQ. Works pretty well on HF. Nothing exciting like a VK turning up though (yet).

I've heard the attitude to new full licensees described as "M0 cancer". I think the ratio of nice to dick appears to be the same as any other aspect of the human race however.

I'm finding FT8 pretty interesting though. Got 2300 mile QSO on a nat's fart and I didn't have to listen to how many Make America Great hats the other guy had.

[Lord of nothing]

Here in Europe 27MHz narrow band FM CB is the domain of truckers mostly. Almost every truck has a radio in the cab and the name/handle displayed behind the windshield. AM and SSB are illegal in most places but at least SSB use is quite frequent.

There are other more recent radios (PMR, etc) but those don't work as well in the middle of the nowhere on a motorway. Moreover those are mostly portable walkie-talkies so not a good form factor to use in a cab neither. Handling a walkie-talkie while driving is illegal, the same as a cell phone. Even hand-held microphones could be a problem if caught with it in hand.

Also you don't get kilowatt amplifiers and similar gear (of course illegal but widespread) for PMR.

do to the CEPT AM + FM = 4W and SSB 12W here in Europe!
Many People use illegally Baofeng and other Radios on PMR446 with 4W or so. 
Maybe in France its illegal but here in Austria use an Radio is legal a Cellphone not... 

Today CB has more to offer than 40 channel only 1W AM/4W FM voice.

Nope see above.

80 channels

40Ch in AT, 80Ch in DE 

there are digimodes like PSK, packet radio, even PACTOR, repeaters and internet links.

Digital? The sound very analogue. There are more sound things who are much more common like: ROS

However it's quite silent on the band.

Here in Vienna are an Hand full People. Even near the Boarder CZ, SK, HU are many People who use CB.

And there are some prepper groups

there vision of Communication during a disaster is cute. I have some Emergency Ration at home and can stay relaxed when the next invasion come. 

about 10 miles

use the Metric System. 

The main Problem is on the CB Channels are Power Line Adapter for Internet over the Home Power Cable. 

[Dielectric]

about 10 miles

use the Metric System. 

Sorry buddy, the highways are marked in miles here.  If I use KM, the truckers will call me a communist and run me into a ditch.    

[OE2WHP]

Today CB has more to offer than 40 channel only 1W AM/4W FM voice.

Nope see above.

This was in regards to what CB was able to offer in the 70ies compared with today. Back then there was no 12W SSB which potentially expands your range significantly and there were no repeaters and no digimodes whatsoever.

PLC as well as cheap chinese LED lights and PSUs  are a pain in the ass not only for CB but also for amateur radio. I had a neighbour from China. He produced a steady S9+35dB from 800kHz to almost 30MHz with the gadgets he brought from Shenzhen. After many discussions I gave up on solving this friendly and involved the local radio authorities.

[Harb]

Funnily enough CB is having a bit of a resurgence around the world.......old radio's are bringing quiet a bit on Ebay these days....CYbernet based stuff is actually bringing the same money as it did new, and in some cases more.....any of the classics are hard to get and you pay a high price for them......not sure why this is the case, but CB is on the up and up........

[Lord of nothing]

After many discussions I gave up on solving this friendly and involved the local radio authorities.

Thats what I also must do.

Sadly there are no innovation there. On PMR446 Digital is widely use here. Dpmr + DMR. 

[bob225]

Time to stick my boxed Harrier CBX up on ebay then, A Maxcom 4E must fetch a fortune 

I think I have a old Communicator 440 DX that's got a board that does high-highs, highs, lows, mids and muppets

[CJay]

Time to stick my boxed Harrier CBX up on ebay then, A Maxcom 4E must fetch a fortune 

I think I have a old Communicator 440 DX that's got a board that does high-highs, highs, lows, mids and muppets

Harrier CBX in a box will do well, Maxcom 4E maybe not so well but a Maxcom 30E with the crystal filters will fetch a decent wedge.

Burn the Communicator 440, I'll chip in a litre of petrol. 

[charliedelta]

From what I have heard is that they have all become hams from the "ham licence in the cornflakes box" program they have in Australia.

You can apparently hear them on 40 meters making scratching noises, causing trouble and  using CB coil loaded antennas with taps for the different bands.

I have heard some of these "10watt" stations in my location with signal  strengths  that are more  appropriate for  a station running 2kw or a very big beam, not G5RV's. I heard one of these 10 watt Tasmanian stations telling another US ham that his signal was so good because he lived in a valley, and that it acted like a parabolic dish. I even heard one telling another ham that his "signal" was connected to the excellent water table that was 20 meters below the soil and that his G5RV reflected off this. You cant take the cb'er out of some people even if they have  ham license.

You hardly hear idiots on 27mhz but the CB behaviour now is routinely heard on frequencies such as 7mhz. I thought that a SDR purchase would make  a good EMC receiver until I decided to tune around.  I dont need to watch the  comedy channel anymore. I think the land down under is vying for a new title "The Land of Miracle Antennas and miracle 10 watt ham radio stations" At least in the USA they tell everyone that they are running 10kw and dont invent new laws of physics!

I thought 27 MHz has gone the way of the dodo, but at least someone is still making base station and mobile 27 MHz antennas:

http://shockwaveantennas.com.au/

Or is the demand just from HAMs on 11m? Has anyone here bought from them/him/her? I'm kinda contemplating the Station Master.

[G0HZU]

Time to stick my boxed Harrier CBX up on ebay then, A Maxcom 4E must fetch a fortune 

I think I have a old Communicator 440 DX that's got a board that does high-highs, highs, lows, mids and muppets

I've still got a big pile of the classic old Cobra 148GTL-DX export radios in the loft. Not sure what they are worth but three of them are boxed and in original unmodified condition. The best one looks as new and still has the polythene protection over the rear of the chassis plate. Presumably this melts and shrinks once the radio gets hot. So I don't think it's been used much since new. I've never used it on air. I think I've got 8 or 9 of them in total?

I think CB died here over 25 years ago. I haven't listened for many years apart from when SSB became legalised a few years back. I had a listen a few times but didn't hear any UK stations on SSB.