Central IL - Champaign/Vermilion County

[Highlander_821]

Back in 2018 a tornado hit my house and took out all my antennas. At the time, here in the Champaign/Vermilion County Illinois area, there were quite a few base stations active on CB. I think it was Channel 24 where most of them hung out. Then there were quite a few SSB operators on 27.645 LSB, usually mostly active at night. Now that I have a 10/11 meter radio (Radioddity QT-80) in the RV with a Wilson Trucker 2000 antenna mounted on the ladder in the back, I hear NOBODY. Not even truckers on Interstate 74 just like 3 miles north of me.

Did everyone just fade away, or is my setup just not very good? I can get pretty decent skip sometimes, like out to the west coast and up into Canada, and I have worked a couple of European stations on 10 meters. Not busting any pileups, but I'm just a portable with a whip competing with base antennas and arrays.

So what's up? Anybody still around? Have truckers just gotten away from CB entirely?

 

[AudioShockwav]

It's nothing like it was 20 years ago, I still hear a few drivers on 17 or 19 down the 99 or I5 corridor but it's not the chatter of the old days.
Basically if you call out you can usually get a driver to come back but not always.
There's still a few long running 11m nets here on Friday and Saturday nights but there's not small local groups like there used to be.
Propagation has been dismal lately out here except occasionally in the evening.


73
Jeff

 

[Eldorado828]

Back in 2018 a tornado hit my house and took out all my antennas. At the time, here in the Champaign/Vermilion County Illinois area, there were quite a few base stations active on CB. I think it was Channel 24 where most of them hung out. Then there were quite a few SSB operators on 27.645 LSB, usually mostly active at night. Now that I have a 10/11 meter radio (Radioddity QT-80) in the RV with a Wilson Trucker 2000 antenna mounted on the ladder in the back, I hear NOBODY. Not even truckers on Interstate 74 just like 3 miles north of me.

Did everyone just fade away, or is my setup just not very good? I can get pretty decent skip sometimes, like out to the west coast and up into Canada, and I have worked a couple of European stations on 10 meters. Not busting any pileups, but I'm just a portable with a whip competing with base antennas and arrays.

So what's up? Anybody still around? Have truckers just gotten away from CB entirely?

Like @AudioShockwav said, it's nowhere like it was 20 years ago.

I'm a truck driver and probably of the last generation truck driver that keeps a radio on and listening. I started driving in the late 90's with my first radio being a galaxy 44v, and man cb was alive on the US highways then. Up until around 2010 +/- or so you could still call for a check, report a bear or an accident and several would come back to you quick. These days unless the skip is rolling, it could be hours before you hear a conversation.

I blame the smartphone for the decline of cb radio. Cb is out there but it's a dying breed just like us truck drivers that still know how to shift an 18 speed Eaton fuller transmission.

Ssb, is pretty alive though but we're at the mercy of mother nature there.

So.....I don't think there's anything wrong with your radio.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Unfortunately there aren't as many drivers that have a CB as there used to be. My wife's sister, her son, and her boyfriend all drive over the road and have CBs in their rigs, but they will tell you that most trucks don't even have a CB in it.

I took my wife to Niagra Falls for valentines day. We drove from Delaware to upstate New York and never heard a peep on ch19. The traffic was manageable, and there were no backups going either way.

For spring break, we drove from Delaware to Florida and there was a lot of traffic. Multiple backups, stop and go, and accidents, all brought people asking what lane to be in, what mile marker, etc. I enjoyed relaying information and giving information to the traffic going the other way. My Anytone AT-5000 with 25w peak output made this a fun trip.

My conclusion is that if people have a CB in their rig, it's probably turned off until something happens. People don't use it to socialize as much because the internet does that job for most. But if something is going on, you need one.


Chris