It just seems this is a good question for combination CB/Ham hobbyists.....
When one gets their General ticket it opens a WHOLE new world of amateur radio.... bands.... power levels (well... legal ones!!!!) ....incredible distances.........
Surveying the crowd here.... and I hope my query makes sense.......
Has anyone ever..... when they got their general....and started working all of that HF space..... given up CB???
Where I am coming from.... is now there are all these spaces.... with legal power up to 1500 PEP..... plenty of contacts to be had........ I am wondering if the "need for a radio fix" is satiated by this to the point that you sort of put away the CB? Or do some keep it out and still have fun on it?
Just for discussion......
Acquisition of a General (for me) appeals from the need to start reading theory. Definitions, concepts, statements.
I’ve little need to be certified as a Mechanical Engineer, but it’s the same appeal.
My new daughter-in-law has a MS.Chem, and we briefly discussed the power of visualization in analyzing formulas our first meeting.
As a truck driver, CB is
more important than last year or even the last few decades. Too much stupidity has gotten traction in too many ways.
Rendering accurate assessment is central.
What you and your neighbors share is more vital than what’s far away.
The
Citizen Band.
The recent IEEE propaganda piece bemoaning the increased irrelevance of HAM Radio highlights this in the comments section:
the piss-poor leadership of ARRL. It’s not ironically-funny that HAMfests, etc, are cancelled by men who
claim they can render communication possible at any planetary distance.
It’s disgusting.
If one looks to Eleven Meter as template for what may come later, “CB Radio”, as form of insult shows only the speakers contempt (character), not the potential present. So far as I can tell, using (nearly) every tool the advanced licensees use to set up a radio rig
also applies to “the best” 11-Meter rig.
You’ll notice that they all expect groceries to magically appear, but that NO ONE has rendered a workable system to serve as model with these composite-body tractors hooked to the grocery van. Companies like RAMI — who also produce airplane antennas — use an avionics test lab turntable with a tractor installed to supply truck manufacturers with OEM . . . but with constraints so choked the result is only a laugh. (And let’s posit that it’s also confirmation-testing of rendering it ineffective with least effort).
Past citizens in big trucks, I’ll also include the millions living in mobile homes and RVs. The long-distance commuters.
Silence or ridicule on a topic is the biggest red-flag to any subject The Enemy would prefer you henceforth ignore. You’ll be uncool. Probably racist and sexist as well since merit is unambiguous.
1). 4-watts is an installed stumbling block so that the cowards can take refuge behind Big Brother.
2). Hollywood is used to make CB a laughingstock. Best that the proles bypass
their most powerful organizing tool.
A). Cold War 1956: Phones are down, newspapers gone, and big TV & Radio transmitters are damaged or captured in battles occurring HERE.
Thus,
Citizen Band Radio.
- Artillery is the province of massive-scale, single-point organization. The Citizen-Soldier Rifleman is the scale-less massively-distributed counterweight.
B). Civil War 2025: Wanna bet folks still want groceries & pharmaceuticals? Liquid fuel?
The very specific avoidance by ARRL of how to buy, sell, trade locally is coincidence?
That organization is a designed choke-point (as also exists in other venues; just look at the travesty of American churches).
Can be the opposite. (Light the Inner Flame).
Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Pray. And then put mind to work. (Flame On).
Not everyone can do this. As it is with all other specialization.
— What citizens (could) own, versus trumpeting phone apps or social media (they’ll never own or control) is why CB has precedence.
First. Never last.
(Bring along paper dunce caps for those who get this order wrong).
Ownership
Thus, back to the man:
As a statement (Handy Andy)
“giving the antenna what it needs”, is
a hook from which to hang ideas
such that
thinking is prioritized.
“What is Efficiency?”
I haven’t minded floundering around at times. This is too interesting. But there’ll come a point where that energy drain is an obstacle. Time to order this thing.
So, . .
Buzz Lightyear hopped up on the station desk:
“
To Antennas . . and Beyond!”.
.
