Where's All The (Radio) Traffic?

I heard this guy a few cities over on my way home from work this morning.

If you turn your squelch knob to the left and your RF gain knob to the Right you might hear something.

 

You will probably find most radio traffic on Channel 19

 

You get near any major city like Chicago,Atlanta, or St. louis to name a few and you will hear all kinds of cb traffic, be it truckers and/or the locals on their base stations or in their mobiles, as far as companies not allowing their drivers to have and use cb radios I doubt that is true, they may prohibit use of 10 meter radios, but it does seem that the newer breed of drivers, whether young or middle age, dont use the cb as much as trucking generations before them. When your friend mentioned those other channels he might of been referring to popular channels during times of skip, I know 6,11,21 and 28 are used quite a bit for cbers dxing.

 

As rabbi mentioned, make sure the rf gain is at max level which is 5 for the BC 980. I have the same radio and to adjust my rf gain I hold in the rf gain button until the scale shows in the display then turn channel selector knob to the right to increase level. I believe in the owners manual it says to push rf gain button to activate, then key mic, then use channel selector knob to adjust, that is how I adjust the mic gain but not the rf gain.

 

These days the radio traffic is nothing like when you and I were teenagers. Early-mid 70's you couldnt get a word in edgewise. Its a shame folks dont help one another as much as they did in those days, at least on the radio

 

Not much cb traffic on the interstates, until you hit a large city, or major interchange...or a backup.
I guess it depends on where you are, and the industry in that area, but there are alot of local drivers around here. Log, lumber and chip trucks, dump buckets, dump trucks, trash trucks etc etc...the radio is always talkin.

 

So basically you left CB when it was at its peak, in 1975. Well in those 42 years, CB noise makers, echo boards, amps that surpass more than 1000 watts and the FCC's throwing in the towel, plus the invention of cell phone and the internet, sent CB packing. Many got tired of hearing the kid stuff and the other trash on the air.

Now if you listen you will find folks on the CB, but it's a ghost town compared to what it once was. That is until DX rolls, then it'll sound like the world is.on.

 

It has died down a good bit but there's still a decent amount of traffic around the north east here. Both on 19 and other "local" channels.

 

The radio has been pretty dead where I have been running the last few weeks too..
I thought my radio was acting up but talked to a buddy about 7 miles away yesterday.....mmmm...

Hardly no driver tells you where the bears are anymore.
DOT was hot and heavy in OH and IN the other day.....not one truck mentioned them sitting on ramps and in the middle...brain dead drivers I guess!