Whatever Happened to 27MHz Citizens Band Radio

[jonovid]

is there a future for AM SSB Citizen Band radio in 2023? or will the 27MHz band be eventually re-allocated?
I hear little to no activity in this part of Australia.

[coppercone2]

I thought I read here that CB in australia was popping. Maybe it was Italy that had alot of traffic?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/whowhat-is-on-27-mhz-cb-radio-these-days/

[PartialDischarge]

Recently I bought a Randy 3 portable, and its mostly all noise out there. One day I heard a radio from Miami (across atlantic) at 3PM...

[AndyBeez]

In the UK, the CB radio scene of the 1980s was one of the reasons I got into electronics. In school science club, we built and SWaRed a few [not so legal] helical whips made with broom handles - our science teacher was cool. And then by the 90s, Nokia popularised the SMS phone. So suddenly apart from a few diehard breakers, everyone was communicating by txt msg. Eventually I disposed of my beloved plastic Amstrad CB27/81 transceiver preferring instead, this new thing called the internet. I still occasionally tune the SDR through the 27MHz band on the off chance some pimped car on the nearby seafront is kitted out with a Harvard, Midland or President Lincon. But since the golden days of the late 80's, it's been like listening out for SETI.

On the subject of those presidential range of CB transceivers, I wonder what features a President Trump CB transceiver would have? Garish knobs and a squelch that doesn't work? I don't know.

[james_s]

It's still around, but it's pretty much dead. I still see CB antennas on 4WD rigs now and then, and I think a lot of semi trucks still have them. I have the frequencies in one of my scanners and have monitored it occasionally, I think I've heard people talking once or twice. FRS has a lot more traffic these days.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

I repair CB radios as a hobby, since the only remaining radio shop is mostly CB with maybe 20% HAM thrown in.CB radios are still used by local truckers including dump trucks to contact their source and their delivery spots. Over the road CB is still there but the major trucking firms so not want anybody messing with the wiring for good reason. The antenna on the new rigs are not very good also.The spot that the radios go into is small and hard to access.The  bodies on the trucks are not metal making antenna performance poor.All this leads to less enthusiasm for the CB band and making FRS quite popular.
However the "Big Guns" are still there breaking all sorts of kilowatt records.We do not repair the big amps these guys use.

[vk6zgo]

In Oz, HF CB pretty much died out, except amongst the real addicts, when UHF CB on 477 MHz took off, & especially when CB repeaters were approved for that band.
Even UHF rapidly lost adherents with the advent of the Internet, as a lot of the CB stuff wasn't mobile, but point to point, in any case.
With the more widespread use of cellphones, even the business users shifted away, whilst the "Yoofs" went all in for "texting".

Now, legitimate users of UHF CB are limited to long distance trucks, & people with campervans---usually "Grey Nomads" doing the iconic "round Australia" trip.

In the cities, there are still a small number of "swearing bears" occupying a similar ecological niche as the vast majority of AM CBers of the 1970s.

A few 27 MHz "diehards" are still around--- a few weeks back, when I was working on my Icom IC 575A which will receive on that band, there were a bunch up, mostly just chatting, though there were a couple of "swearing bears" on one channel.

[A.Z.]

I was curious, so started looking around, while the usual (in 70/80) traffic disappeared, except for truckers, which moved outside the standard channels and up to around ch 45, there's quite some SSB DX ferment

https://dxcb.crx.cloud/

although, as I found, nowadays CBers willing to DX call around 27.400...27.600 (the call freq should be 27.555) and then QSY to other frequencies to carry on the DX QSO

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

A.Z.  Yes, you are correct. The SSB traffic on CB Band is more like the HAM bands. More like DX.
Most of these CBers use modified HAM rigs. A popular antique rig still in demand is the Yaesu 101 series, which was initially designed with an 11 meter band when it was still a HAM Band.

Then of course there are the big stations trying to "step on" each other, these are Big AM stations with commercial level power.
10 KW plus. Some of them have three phase electrical lines to their houses.

[A.Z.]

yes, sounds like "local" AM/FM traffic on the regular 40 channels dropped dramatically, while SSB traffic (mostly) on upper frequencies still exists, the CBers even organized themselves in "divisions"

https://ukspec.tripod.com/rf/cb/divs.html

go figure...

[KE5FX]

On the subject of those presidential range of CB transceivers, I wonder what features a President Trump CB transceiver would have? Garish knobs and a squelch that doesn't work? I don't know.

GPT4 sez (bullets and emoticon mine):

As an AI language model, I do not have any political bias and I strive to remain neutral on political matters. However, I can provide some suggestions for what features a CB radio with a "President Trump" theme might have based on common symbols and slogans associated with him:

• A bold, distinctive design: The CB radio might have a gold-plated exterior or display the Trump family crest, reflecting Trump's preference for opulence and branding.
• A microphone with a red "Make America Great Again" hat or "Keep America Great" hat on it
• A radio faceplate with a picture of Donald Trump or his signature
• An audio clip of Trump's voice saying a famous catchphrase like "You're fired!" or "Make America Great Again"
• A red, white, and blue color scheme
• A channel selector labeled with popular slogans from his campaign, such as "Drain the Swamp," "Build the Wall," or "America First."
• A power meter with a scale labeled "Winning" or "Losing"
• An adjustable talkback feature that allows the user to hear their own voice through the speaker.   
• A built-in sound equalizer with settings for "Patriot," "Freedom," and "America First"
• A digital display that shows the time, channel, and a picture of the American flag.
• A channel selector labeled with numbers that correspond to the year of his presidency, such as "16," "20," or "24."
• Pre-programmed channels: The CB radio could come pre-programmed with popular conservative talk radio channels, as well as frequencies for news networks like Fox News or Newsmax.

Please note that these are just suggestions, and any actual "President Trump" CB radio would need to comply with FCC regulations and standards for CB radio equipment.

[David Hess]

or will the 27MHz band be eventually re-allocated?

The 11 meter band will never be re-allocated for the same reason it was dedicated to CB - nobody wants a band full of skip.  The same reasoning applies to the 10 meter HAM band.

[KE5FX]

Nobody wants a band full of spurned CBers with illegal 10 kW amplifiers, you mean...

[CircuitChaos]

In Poland it's still being used. It's not what it used to be 20 years ago, but you can still hear someone on #19 from time to time, and in bigger cities there are some local channels for ragchewers.

[Nusa]

Many US truckers still have them. They're useful for local information. What's stopping the traffic ahead. Where's the truck entrance for a delivery address. Stuff like that.

[CaptDon]

In the U.S. where I have been living and including a 5 year stint driving Class-A tractor trailer, C.B. has really changed. Mostly on channel 19, the truckers channel all I hear is 'skipland assholes' who have 39 other channels to use but wipe out folks looking for 'local information'. I take a particular 350 mile trip often on the interstates and seldom hear any local chatter. The truckers today call their C.B.'s 'backup radios' "They only turn them on if there is a huge traffic backup"!! There are so many cellphone apps now to tell you where the cops are hiding that C.B. is nearly dead!! I thought it would be fun to mess around with paket on the C.B. frequencies or something like digipeaters or even slow-scan t.v.! Unless you are generating harmful interference or wiping out commercial services with harmonics it seems the F.C.C. couldn't give a shit what you do, especially if you do it at the licensed 'Class D' power levels and don't get stupid.

[radiolistener]

it requires large antenna which is expensive and needs a place for installation, so many peoples are moved to VHF band or switched to internet messengers.

[AndyBeez]

@KE5FX : Superb homework there (I hope you did it all yourself and did not use AI). Collect a gold star for your star book from teacher. 

On the subject of those presidential range of CB transceivers, I wonder what features a President Trump CB transceiver would have? Garish knobs and a squelch that doesn't work? I don't know.

GPT4 sez (bullets and emoticon mine):
...etc...
Please note that these are just suggestions, and any actual "President Trump" CB radio would need to comply with FCC regulations and standards for CB radio equipment.

Don't forget the SSB Mode > Stop Sleepy Biden

FCC regulations would be somewhat of a moot point as the President Trump CB Radio already complies with all of the necessary NRA standards. Which includes the rig having a rail for a hunting scope and a caribou hide carry bag. Plus, a pink cable tie so it can be lashed to a gun rack.

Where will it be manufactured? China, obviously not. Because they ran out of zinc plated PL259 sockets long ago. Mexico, Guatemala or Cuba then? Or the just the illegals from those countries working for Trumpton Electronics, in a new multi billion dollar tax payer funded factory in Utah?

First round of crowd funding for this project begins next month. Early birds receive a "MAGA+CB" hat.

10-10

[themadhippy]

I wonder what features a President Trump CB transceiver would have

it woulnt need to be a transceiver,just a transmitter as it wont bother listening to others.

[vk3yedotcom]

27 MHz SSB CB activity should pick up in the next few years as conditions improve.

But mainly the enthusiast type who don't mind the unreliability and interference and enjoy the DX.



As for AM usage is low - though the Americans use it more than we do.

There's almost zero chance that the 27 MHz band will be reallocated.

It's a very noisy part of the spectrum prone to interference. It would be almost unsaleable and there'd be no interference protection.

Even if Australia phased it out and could get people to comply, the interference would still persist with overseas skip.

Potential short range commercial uses for the band are pretty much zero as low power UHF modules etc are so cheap.

And if for some reason there was interest in the characteristics of the 27 MHz region then serious users would use the almost vacant 30 - 50 MHz slice instead due to less interference.

[CaptDon]

I can remember tons of Vietnam era military surplus transceivers of the 30Mhz to 70Mhz range hitting the hamfests here in the states. A gunsmith friend of mine bought a bunch of the stuff and was selling it to hunters!!! Laughing at that situation sort of, The PRC25 was a piece of shit as far as radios go, but a lot of veterans owe their life to that man-pack radio because they could stop a bullet!!! Seems they worked about as good with or without the bullet holes. Oh and by the way, where were the hunters going to find the oddball batteries anyway (at least in usable condition)?

[Alex Eisenhut]

About 20 years ago I would still pick up traffic once I went outside of Montreal into the countryside. Often it would be hilarious ranting about neighbors and stupid local gossip. Sometimes I'd transmit some Quebecois swearwords randomly and just listen to the replies. 
I used to have a CB because in the '90s it was the easiest way to coordinate launching model rockets. And especially retrieving them.
I haven't had a CB in a while though.

[SL4P]

On the subject of those presidential range of CB transceivers, I wonder what features a President Trump CB transceiver would have? Garish knobs and a squelch that doesn't work? I don't know.

Transmit only ?

[SL4P]

At the time of transitioning to the replacement FM band, I recall a major reason was to reduce RF interference on urban areas.