Florida - What city are you in; what are the active local channels

[Rick330man]

I've seen many posts discussing how little radio traffic some of us have around us.

Here in the lower Florida Keys, CB is pretty much dead quiet. A few boaters - myself included - use CB to communicate from house to boat. Other than that, not much else. We get a fair amount of channel 19 traffic - mostly trucks making deliveries and tourists asking for directions.

There is one other station on LSB38. That makes for 2 of us. He's in Big Pine Key.

AM channel 40 in Miami is a mess. Thankfully, they are too far away to be a problem to us down here.

I'm also aware of an SSB group out of West Palm Beach that is on LSB38.

How about the rest of you operating in Florida? Is there much activity in your area? What channel is active?

Thanks.

 

[222DBFL]

Same channel here 38lsb. Right around Daytona Beach. North of me to around St Augustine, south I hear West Palm every so often, mostly Titusville, and west to Ocala. The I-4 corridor has quite a few, from Daytona through Deltona, through Orlando, Lakeland and then Tampa, south of Tampa I know there are a few as well, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Naples. I travel for work so tin is how I know there are some using ssb 38lsb at least. Just most guys don't give their true locations these days. Paranoid I guess. I have made many contacts all through the areas I listed, some places have more than others. AM still has it's following here, mostly on 6, 11, 26, or 28. There is a local group within 35 miles of me that is on am as well. They use a couple different channels though. Don't speak with them much at all. Have a good group where I am. But it's all ssb. Have a good one and stay cool down there, it's been a hot one up here around central Florida that's for sure. God bless.

 

[Radioman1]

Florida

Tallahassee area (NIL), most often you can go for hours on end and hear nothing less some nearby truck chatter from the local truckstop near I-10 on 19, at times early in the AM some distant chit chat near the coast (boaters) on ch-36. Other than that almost nothing, like dead.........

 

[midnight special]

tampa to lakeland area, channel 19 is the busiest with truckers and locals, channels 32 34 some of the older cbers, some are on 38 lsb when skip is going and the same goes for channel 28,,,, i am here in the strawberry/tomatoe feilds so 19 is used because of all the warehouses around here,,, winndixie,gordon foods, savalot, publix,and so many smaller places,,,and now building a amazon warehouse/shipping center,,,,have sat a mnay a night and helped truckers find their way in..because their dispatchers gave them wrong address.. and of course last but not least all the bleedover from channel 6, its on every channel

 

[Rick330man]

Years ago, I used to drive to Tampa pretty regularly. On the east side of Tampa, in Brandon, there was an SSB group that was active nightly. I also remember an SSB group in Manatee County. They'd come booming in across the 275 stretch from northern Sarasota, across the Skyway and through St. Pete. I've heard no signs of either group last few times I've been in that neck of the woods. Both groups had top notch operators.

I'd hit Orlando the months I wasn't in Tampa. I tried to pick up some Orlando traffic but never had any luck outside of channel 19. Ironically, during E layer skip caused by the typical Florida afternoon thunderstorms, there was a station in Apopka that would come in down here regularly. No recent apparitions of him.

I've been in Miami quite a bit recently. Lots of linears, distortion, splatter, foul language and keying over each other on AM40. What a complete mess!

There's the usual channel 19 traffic along with a local group in the Homestead/Florida City area using it as their home base. I always pick these guys up when I'm driving the "18 mile stretch" into or out of the Keys. There are a few other pockets of Miami activity, but they are very small. Growing up, I remember when every other channel in Miami had a dedicated group.

I'd like to be able to set up a thread where those of us here in the Sunshine State could look up an area and see who is on the radio there, but I'm not sure the idea is viable. An idea born too late?

Too bad we didn't have internet in the late 70s and early 80s.

 

[midnight special]

rick, you probably remember the charlie michiel group i was member of them,, most moved on or went off the radio,,, the fellow that started it passed away about 10 years ago and the group roster got lost.... so as far as i know it kinda stopped there........ 73s midnight special

 

[CamoRedneck]

St. Lucie county here. Quite a few locals talk on 26.905. When the DX is rolling I'm on 28 and 38lsb.

 

[Rick330man]

rick, you probably remember the charlie michiel group i was member of them,, most moved on or went off the radio,,, the fellow that started it passed away about 10 years ago and the group roster got lost.... so as far as i know it kinda stopped there........ 73s midnight special

That makes sense. It was 13 years ago that I left the job that had me regularly traveling to Tampa and Orlando.

It is disappointing that, as large a state as we are, we don't have more pockets of good operators. We'll have to work on that.

 

[Rick330man]

Palm Beach County

St. Lucie county here. Quite a few locals talk on 26.905. When the DX is rolling I'm on 28 and 38lsb.

I know there is a Palm Beach County crew that is on LSB38. While in Miami, I've picked them up. Are you familiar with them? Do you have any contact with that group?

 

[Rick330man]

Tallahassee area (NIL), most often you can go for hours on end and hear nothing less some nearby truck chatter from the local truckstop near I-10 on 19, at times early in the AM some distant chit chat near the coast (boaters) on ch-36. Other than that almost nothing, like dead.........

Thanks for chiming in, Radioman1.

I was in your neck of the woods at F.S.U. in the mid 80s. My Realistic TRC 490 Navaho base (which I still use) stayed at my parents' house for those years, but my Radio Shack/Archer magnetic mount (which I still have) went to Tallahassee with me.

I went to Radio Shack in the Tallahassee mall one day and they were clearing out inventory of an older CB walkie talkie. The salesman then offered me the then new TRC 216, 40 channel walkie talkie (which you guessed it: I still have) at the sale price. I snagged the TRC 216 and the Motorola plug needed to run an external antenna (my magnetic mount).

Miami to Tallahassee was a 500 mile road trip, and this was when the speed limit was 55! My little rig got lots of use on those trips. But locally, we'd hit Saint George Island every chance we got. The TRC 216 and the magnetic mount made just about every trip. From Apalachicola to Carrabelle and onto St. George, we'd pick up a fair amount boats - mostly commercial fishermen. Once back in Tallahassee, there was no one I had regular radio contact with.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

I travel through Florida often on business. I usually find quite a bit of activity around the Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville areas on both AM and SSB. Also, there are quite a few old timers using CB radios in the senior communities and retirement areas!

 

[Craig]

Greater Orlando area Clermont & Apopka, - Apopka channels 1 and 30 AM .. 30 is generally very busy early mornings beginning around 5:00 AM up until around 9:00 AM. Other times channel 1 is frequently used, in the Clermont area late evenings channel 19 AM always a few bases out there and regulars in the mobile going back and forth to work. Sideband some local traffic on 37 LSB .. fairly regular around a dozen regular stations from Cape Canaveral to residential areas around Tampa and in-between tend to use the frequency.

 

[Rick330man]

SpaceMann & Craig:

Thank for offering your respective 2 cents each. I'm going to put together a chart or cheat sheet laying this information out with two things in mind. First, it would be nice when traveling to know where to go to pick up QSOs in an area. Second, with F layer Dx nosediving, our typical Florida afternoon thunderstorms (not so much in the Keys) provide for interesting short hop, E layer skip opportunities. Any other specifics you all could offer would be great.

Thanks again, gentlemen.

 

[Rick330man]

Here's a bump to try to bring some additional life to this thread. Since the last entry, we had almost 100 visits. I'd like to encourage folks to chime in and offer their local knowledge of active CB channels across the Sunshine State.

 

[Rick330man]

Here's a bump to try to bring some additional life to this thread. Since the last entry, we had almost 100 visits. I'd like to encourage folks to chime in and offer their local knowledge of active CB channels across the Sunshine State.