US CB to get FM

[ChrisSmolinski]

Who's on CB anymore?

The CB band is full of activity. I hear a lot of local traffic, including quite a bit of business use (primarily trucking companies), and note that I live in a fairly rural area.  Those in urban areas report considerable business use.   Plus the general chat by hobbyists.

Then when the band is open, it's wall to wall signals.

I am hearing a fair amount of FM, mostly from Latin America, but also domestic. And of course the UK CB band when DX is rolling in, which has always been FM.

[Rob.]

There is quite a bit of daily activity at the moment. 

[RobRich]

There are lots of 11m DX operators on the air. Even just 12w SSB into a basic vertical often can deliver contacts at several hundred to even thousands of miles when 11m propagation cooperates.

That said, I still have yet to work anyone via 11m FM, though I am not really working actively to achieve 11m FM contacts either. Maybe if there was a agreed FM calling frequency.

[Rob.]

The only FM calling channel recommendation I saw was Ch 28. Since all of this is unofficial, it might vary between regions, phase of the moon, time of day, etc.

[RobRich]

Exactly. Ch28 is usually AM mode DX here.

I could be entirely wrong, but I get the feeling most replies to FM CQs right now are going to be more like "you're garbled, "you're off frequency", etc.

[Rob.]

Yes, Ch 28 is a lousy choice as it is the mini-superbowl much like Ch 6. There may be some movement eventually to establish a loose standard once it becomes more wide spread.

[ThaDood]

There seems to be a buzz on the West Coast to use NBFM CH 31, 27.315MHz. Sounds like a good place to start to me.

[BoomboxDX]

Who's on CB anymore?

The CB band is full of activity. I hear a lot of local traffic, including quite a bit of business use (primarily trucking companies), and note that I live in a fairly rural area.  Those in urban areas report considerable business use.   Plus the general chat by hobbyists.

Then when the band is open, it's wall to wall signals.

I am hearing a fair amount of FM, mostly from Latin America, but also domestic. And of course the UK CB band when DX is rolling in, which has always been FM.

You're farther south than I am, so that probably makes a difference. I haven't tuned the CB spectrum in probably a month, but last time I did it was el-deado. The time before that also. No outbanders, no Latin Americans above channel 40 -- nothing, really.