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More CBers than Hams
- Thread starter oldgeezer
- Start date
MUF stops before 10 meters many times.... June and July both bands were doing well tho....
mechanic
mechanic
Like mechanic said many times propagation will support 11m while barely if at all supporting 10m. There is not much of a frequency difference but the MUF approaches a critical frequency above which RF is no longer returned to earth. Also remember that ALL the CB'ers you hear are crammed into one band while hams are spread out over many bands. 12m 15m 17m and 20m are all great daytime bands.
Have a listen between 28.2 and 28.3 for CW beacon stations. We have a local beacon on 28.245.5, K4JEE.
Used to hear one in Africa in the afternoon around '90 or '91.
If you can hear beacons, the conditions are there. How many hams will be is another question.
73
Used to hear one in Africa in the afternoon around '90 or '91.
If you can hear beacons, the conditions are there. How many hams will be is another question.
73
One thing in comparing 10 meter activity to CB activity is that CB (at least Cb'ers who are not hams anyway) only has the one band to hang out on. We as hams have several so could be most anywhere if on the radio at all.
Hams don't usually fight all that hard to make contacts on a band that is not likely to be open all that much and will migrate to a different band that is easy to find activity on rather than stay around a quiet band hoping for an opening. You miss a lot of pretty neat openings on higher frequency bands that way though.
I would guess that there are more CB'ers than hams in general but I suppose there is no way to verify the actual number of CB'ers. There are certainly more Cb'ers listening around the CB channels than hams hanging around 10 meters though, no doubt!
Hams don't usually fight all that hard to make contacts on a band that is not likely to be open all that much and will migrate to a different band that is easy to find activity on rather than stay around a quiet band hoping for an opening. You miss a lot of pretty neat openings on higher frequency bands that way though.
I would guess that there are more CB'ers than hams in general but I suppose there is no way to verify the actual number of CB'ers. There are certainly more Cb'ers listening around the CB channels than hams hanging around 10 meters though, no doubt!
Since becoming a ham I've come to realize, as has been said, that the single CB band does cram 11 meter operators into a tighter space, and that hams, having multiple bands, are spread out over several bands... spread waaaay out. Sometimes spread so far out it's like a single jar of mayonaise at the annual church picnic, you're never quite sure whether any of it made to your sandwich. You just have to take the Parson's word for it.
Of course there are more CB'ers than ham operators. Always has been when cb's became available. To become a CB'er all you have to do is walk into a store put your money down and walk out as a CB'er.
We saw a mass exodus from CB/upper channels to the ham bands when the code requirement was eliminated in 2005. For a few years, we got a lot of requests to put 10-meter coverage back into HF transceivers that had been moved to 11 meters.
Just a little comical, since we had done the 11-meter conversion to some of the ham HF radios that were coming in for that. Sunspot activity was on the upswing, and the HF channels above 40 seemed to lose population as the SSB operators went to the ham bands.
Once they found out that the ham bands were now filling up with 11-meter refugees with code-free licenses we saw what I called "slosh".
Disillusioned hams going back to 11 meters.
But not that many, really.
I don't know quite how you could do any kind of "census" count. No contest weekends on CB to boost the head count.
What I'm waiting for is the day that the very last ham who was NEVER on 11 meters finally becomes a silent key. When I was a young whippersnapper on the radio 50 years ago, the old guys had no respect for CB operators, and still held a grudge over losing the 11-meter band. But at the time it had only been ten years, so plenty of hams were still sore about it.
Sooner or later the last one of those will be gone, and EVERY SINGLE licensed ham will have either started out on CB, or had one in a family car at some time.
Not sure attitudes will change when that happens, but I'd still like to know when that very, last ham who never touched a CB mike finally snuffs it.
The "old guys" on the ham radio 50 years ago are all pretty well gone now. Many of my "radio hoodlum" buddies from the 60s and 70s are still active hams.
Now we're the "old guys" on the radio. Kinda hard to get us aggravated though. We know all the tricks.
We still call ourselves the "Rotten Radio Club". And yes, we have a club call sign W4MRF.
And yeah, every one of us was on CB when we were young. Sure could cause some hate and discontent with a ham radio on the CB back then.
73
Just a little comical, since we had done the 11-meter conversion to some of the ham HF radios that were coming in for that. Sunspot activity was on the upswing, and the HF channels above 40 seemed to lose population as the SSB operators went to the ham bands.
Once they found out that the ham bands were now filling up with 11-meter refugees with code-free licenses we saw what I called "slosh".
Disillusioned hams going back to 11 meters.
But not that many, really.
I don't know quite how you could do any kind of "census" count. No contest weekends on CB to boost the head count.
What I'm waiting for is the day that the very last ham who was NEVER on 11 meters finally becomes a silent key. When I was a young whippersnapper on the radio 50 years ago, the old guys had no respect for CB operators, and still held a grudge over losing the 11-meter band. But at the time it had only been ten years, so plenty of hams were still sore about it.
Sooner or later the last one of those will be gone, and EVERY SINGLE licensed ham will have either started out on CB, or had one in a family car at some time.
Not sure attitudes will change when that happens, but I'd still like to know when that very, last ham who never touched a CB mike finally snuffs it.
The "old guys" on the ham radio 50 years ago are all pretty well gone now. Many of my "radio hoodlum" buddies from the 60s and 70s are still active hams.
Now we're the "old guys" on the radio. Kinda hard to get us aggravated though. We know all the tricks.
We still call ourselves the "Rotten Radio Club". And yes, we have a club call sign W4MRF.
And yeah, every one of us was on CB when we were young. Sure could cause some hate and discontent with a ham radio on the CB back then.
73
A lot of cbers went to 75 meters. The general portion of the band half the size of the 11 meter band and the coverage is much greater. It gets interesting sometimes.
I have been a CBer since 1968 and still am. When I go on road trips I have at least one of many CB radios I own with me at least one ham radio. Do I look down my nose at CBer's, not at all, well maybe the ones you look down on. Some of the alleged ham radio operators are worse than some of the CBer's I have heard. I have been a ham since 5-13-2013, I just finally slowed down enough to study and take the test.
You're absolutely right. I'm a evening and weekend guy so 75m is usually where I find activity on the hambone bands. When things are out of hand I go back to 11 meters and have civilized conversation with old friends.
Well said. Lots of CB operators bumped to General or Extra tickets around here and many Hams in our area are re-discovering 11 meters. I always give respectful CB operators a nudge towards Amateur radio. It's all good
The grumpy old guys that hate Cbers are one reason I tend to have lost interest in ham radio.
BJ radionut
Supporting Member and 6m addict
Dallas: Better check your facts again...Cb Band (Legal) is not even 50kc wide...
General Class 75m Band is .2 MHz wide (200 kc) 3.8-4.0 MHz...and that is only the phone band...add the CW/Digital section and it's even larger.
All the Best
Gary
Yes had to edit (I am really getting old)
Living on pain killers and nerve blockers till surgery next month is getting even older
PS: My QTH: Central Indiana
This morning I was chatting with friends from
60 miles away...
another 200m NE of Ottawa, Ontario Canada
another Norfolk, Va.
another Bushnell, Fla.
All at the SAME time...
We are ALL Civilized!
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