[Scan-DC] Compact CB Radios

[Chris Smolinski]

From my QTH (due north of Westminster near the PA line) I hear a lot of local CB activity.  There's a group in the Hanover PA area that is very active on channel 32 in AM mode. I also hear a fair number of locals on Ch 19, including a number of truckers on US-15 as well as MD-140, and probably elsewhere. Plus some other channels now and then. There's also some commercial users, I heard some gravel/road trucks down on Ch 1 recently. 

I have a fairly good antenna for the band, a dedicated dipole up about 50 ft.  I can hear locals out to Frederick and down to the Baltimore and northern DC metro area. I'm sure many of them are not exactly running the legal 4/12W of course :)  My KiwiSDR with the 58 ft nearly vertical T2FD antenna also does pretty well receiving on 11 meters: http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8075/

Chris Smolinski, W3HFU
Black Cat Systems
Westminster, MD USA
https://www.blackcatsystems.com

> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net <scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Dewey <dewey3 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 8, 2021 2:45 PM
> To: 'Scan DC' <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Compact CB Radios
> 
> As a radio hobbyist who frequently travels, I still like to run a CB when on
> the road.  Problem is, CB is pretty much dead now, even on the highways.
> Sure, you *may* hear a conversation once in a while, but even at crash and
> other event scenes, there is extremely little reporting going on... at least
> on this side of the Mississippi (smokey reports are almost non-existent).  I
> find more local chatter, such as, dump trucks on their talking to their
> co-workers than anything else.  When stopping at truck stops, all of the
> truck drivers I see are wearing single-sided Bluetooth headphones to their
> cellphones.  I've actually scanned the complete CB band when on the road
> with nothing but miles and miles of silence.  This is just an opinion, but
> my belief is that in addition to cellphones killing CB (I'm sure most of us
> remember good ol' REACT), the proliferation of GPS tracking has also slowed
> a number (not all) of truckers down, thus eliminating the need for CB and
> its most famous... smokey reports.
> 
> Dewey
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net <scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
> Behalf Of Alan Henney
> Sent: Saturday, March 6, 2021 01:33
> To: Scan DC <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [Scan-DC] Compact CB Radios
> 
> With less and less to monitor on VHF and UHF, I was thinking about trying
> the old CB radio band again.
> 
> I noticed that the inexpensive radio manufacturers have some new offerings,
> small and petite.  These could easily fit in almost any auto.
> 
> Has anybody tried something similar to one of these?  What do you think?
> What about any interesting modifications?  How well do they scan?