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Radio check ? A thing of the past ????

MadVeteran

Active Member
Sep 8, 2021
101
196
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OK, it has been a lifetime or two since I was into CBs but,, I seem to recall that people USED to reply to radio check requests.
I swear people could be next door but they will NOT reply to requests of radio check.
I am sure some of you might want to say its me but, not a chance. nobody replies any more.

Is it not cool to be a radio check guy ?
Am I like the old guy on the radio annoying younger people with has been expressions like radio check ?
Do I have koodies ?
 

MV, you are assuming the person next door speak English. He may speak Arabic, Indian, Spanish, or Russian. I answer a lot of radio checks at home, I think I am one of the few base station guys and in the area. about 13-14 years ago there were about 8 around Washington, PA. People moved away and so on. Most base stations in SW PA now are guard shacks from gas wells, tracking the water bottles. I really believe most drivers do not turn the radio on unless they are in a traffic jam. Its nice to have the base station on when I am home and hear the traffic from I-70 & I-79. Occasionally I hear. someone asking for directions or a report on construction. It like someone turned on the time machine when I hear a bear report. Its not uncool to be that radio check answer guy.
 
Hear them all the time — everyday — and often reply. The reply is a location given and a request for theirs. This tends to get the ball rolling.

Some air checks cause a pile-up due to road confluences. Try one in Atlanta or Knoxville. Hagerstown or Casa Grande. Effingham, Breezewood or Baytown. Kenly, or Joplin.
Chicagoland.
.
 
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When someone asks for a radio check, my usual reply is:
"I got mine". . . . .

But seriously?
I always chat them up, and this helps to create a better radio environment. Everybody playing in the same sandbox and getting along proves to provide benefits in both the long and short run. Promotes the hobby in general - too. So to help others with a simple radio check may lead them helping you with taking down and installing your antenna in the future, and vice versus.

A win/win situation for all - if done properly . . .
 
Around N/E PA. you hear and get radio checks but most of the time it's short and sweet. ( It's Working ) But once in a while you get more of a response. I try to answer everyone I hear and Compliment their radio. Be polite and pass it on so our hobby doesn't die.
 
OK here's the straight dope when it comes to radio checks.

if you have a radio without a meter, or can't see that meter because you are driving, then you might require a radio check every once in a great while.

The problem is that CBers who don't know how to just key up and talk keep asking for radio checks as a way of starting a conversation.

NOTHING makes a CBer feel more duped into talking to someone than responding "it's working" only to have the other operator come back with, "so what kind of radio are you talking on?"

that's conversational assault people!!!
stop doing that!

If you have something to say, then key up your mic and say it.

If you want to know if there is anyone else on the channel, then key up and say "is there anyone on the channel?"

or, like most CBers, you key up and say "awful quiet out there", or "where'd everybody go?"

or maybe this old chestnut, "ahhh, just like i like my channel, nice and quiet." LOL

but NEVER just key up and say "break one nine break one nine, can i get a radio check?" and expect anyone to have anything more to say to you than "it's working driver".

the reason this happens is because you have just alerted the whole channel to the fact that you are probably a very boring person with nothing original to say.

if you did have something original to say, you'd just key your mic and say it.

so, do that instead.
LC
 

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