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Is CB Radio Dead In Your Area? Maybe Not. Try This!

It's dead here for 100 miles. Flipping through the channels isn't going to help. Maybe another station here and there but you have to be on the radio 24/7 to catch them. Only 1-2 people in the area worth talking to anyway.

I put my 11 meter gear in storage until skip picks up. It will get busy again but just need to be patient.
 
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The preferred method for finding locals in a dead area is to use a radio with a scan feature. I now know of a couple local farmers in my area. One uses 10 and the other is on 22. Their transmissions are usually short and business related. Without scan mode, I would have totally missed those guys. Manual searching is like watching grass grow, plus it wears out your channel selector.
 
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Some thoughts . . .

This situation - a 'dead band' - happens every 6 years - without fail. You can expect that the next three years will b\getting progressively stronger with skip. Don't think so? The experienced radio operator has seen this many, many times.

You've heard it said that 'a watched point never boils' To the person that said that: Doesn't really take long at all; do you have any patience?

Recruit others? Sure; why not? How many radios and and antennas do you have? How many are enough? How many can you afford to lend to willing participants and then help them get on the air? You can be the Big Kahuna to someone that lives out in the sticks that needs an alternative means to contact people

Case in point: Today I talked to a guy at a convenience store that had a CB antenna on his truck. CB works; but the antenna needs some real help. He also needs someone to make sure his system is 100% of what it can be. So I gave him my number and will check out his radio on my bench and then test his antenna with an analyzer.

How many trucks do you see in a day that have a CB antenna on it? Great way to strike up a conversation. You can ask if he needs help to get it working.

When the skip cycle returns in a few years, this thread will be long forgotten and replaced with questions of: How can I improve my antenna system? What is a good deal on a SSB radio? And such . . .
 
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there is a little skip going some days . I recently talked to shortdog in the byu from central Indiana. it didn't last long but hey when your cb is on all the time like mine do to job you never know who you might get to talk to and how far. friend of mine talked to Hawaii last week Friday from his base station. also central Indiana..i could hear them coming from Hawaii but i couldn't make the contact. i was in the mud.
 
Robb said:
Some thoughts . . .

This situation - a 'dead band' - happens every 6 years - without fail. You can expect that the next three years will b\getting progressively stronger with skip. Don't think so? The experienced radio operator has seen this many, many times.

You've heard it said that 'a watched point never boils' To the person that said that: Doesn't really take long at all; do you have any patience?

Recruit others? Sure; why not? How many radios and and antennas do you have? How many are enough? How many can you afford to lend to willing participants and then help them get on the air? You can be the Big Kahuna to someone that lives out in the sticks that needs an alternative means to contact people

Case in point: Today I talked to a guy at a convenience store that had a CB antenna on his truck. CB works; but the antenna needs some real help. He also needs someone to make sure his system is 100% of what it can be. So I gave him my number and will check out his radio on my bench and then test his antenna with an analyzer.

How many trucks do you see in a day that have a CB antenna on it? Great way to strike up a conversation. You can ask if he needs help to get it working.

When the skip cycle returns in a few years, this thread will be long forgotten and replaced with questions of: How can I improve my antenna system? What is a good deal on a SSB radio? And such . . .
Click to expand...
Skip is fun to work when it's there to work, but the focus of this video is about making local contacts.
 
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@Robb
Your method is one I've been using.
In my area there are numerous homebrew 1/2^ end fed or vertical dipoles I've put into operation just to help keep the air waves active.
This Tuesday I carried a radio to an old friend who had sold out his equipment for needed cash, built and raised an EFHW for him to "keep him from turning into a hermit" and staying in touch with his CB friends.
The band isn't always active, but there are at least three local channel groups who talk.
 
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sunbulls said:
I think it’s great that he is encouraging the use of CB, but as far as that video is concerned, it represents wishful thinking on his part. None of that was local. In reality, it’s your typical weak level skip as it fades in and out. Recently, it’s been happening around the noon hour in this neck of the woods. Not to say that skip is bad. I love those conditions on SSB, especially since I also live in a so called "dead area" except for the truckers passing through.
Click to expand...
I noticed immediately that most if not everyone of those stations coming into his Shack we're not locals. They were all skip stations. 73 s
 
Unit 194 said:
He's definitely trying to promote the hobby but his method of trying to find local stations hardly ever works in my neck of the woods.
Click to expand...
So many people are sandbagging.
If everyone's turning the channel selector listening for another station no one's ever going to hear anybody.
I'm lucky enough to live in a part of New Jersey that has lots of locals. And close enough to Philadelphia and its surrounding areas which has even more 11 meter operators then there are in my area.
I'm not shy. When I flip the channel selector I know which channels to stop at and give a quick break or Shout knowing that there's a good chance someone is sandbagging.
That's probably the best way to find out if anyone's on a particular Channel. I think I watched a YouTube clip about the same thing happening on the ham bands. People turn their vfo's and if they don't hear anybody immediately assume nobody's there, and move on to the next frequency or band without throwing their call sign out. As I mentioned above if everyone does that without keying up the microphone and breaking even of no one's there no body will ever know whether there's another person sitting in their shack waiting for someone else to key the microphone and let themselves be known. 73
 
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