Truckers construction traffic on 25835 AM 1030 UTC 10 July 2018

[R4002]

Tuning the 11 meter rig on the way to work this morning and I heard two OMs chatting about loads and moving around the "yard" - possibly dump trucks operating around one of the freight terminals or construction sites in my area, or maybe some Sporadic E skip (hard to say - early morning yields some interesting propagation sometimes). 

Both operators had southern accents on 25.835 MHz AM 25835 kHz AM. 

Note that 25835 AM is Channel 19 down three bands (!!) - in other words on a "standard" export radio where the CB band (26965-27405) is Band D, the low band (26515-26955) is Band C, low-low band (26065-26505) is band B the lowest band or "super-low" - 25615-26055 is Band A.  So these guys flipped their band switches from D to A but kept their radios on channel 19. 

I'm sure their antennas are giving them a great VSWR right now...with 25.835 MHz being only 1.35 MHz away from CB band center at 27.185 MHz - yes, I know, most high-end CB antennas are "rated" at 26-28 MHz...but they still have to be tuned for SWR at desired operating frequency, which truckstops will tune for best SWR on channel 19 - 27.185 MHz or channel 20 - 27.205 MHz, even though channel 19 is the center frequency of the legal CB band.

I have heard lots and lots of trucker chatter on 26735 kHz / 26.735 MHz (channel 19 on band C or down one band) and 27635 kHz / 27.635 MHz (channel 19 on band E or up one band) but it's been a long time since I've heard truckers this far down...past 26 MHz and into the 25 MHz channels.  In fact, during band openings, I've heard more truckers chatting on 28085 kHz / 28.085 MHz (channel 19 on band F, or up two bands) than on 25.835 MHz or 26.285 MHz (26285 being channel 19 down two bands). 

Makes sense to me though.  Leave the channel selector on 19...just flip the band switch until you find a clear frequency.

See:

http://www.bellscb.com/cb_radio_hobby/6-band_frequency_chart.htm

[dave524]

That chart looks like the one I had for my old silver faced President Jackson in the eighties except mine had the "A"  frequencies  that you got to with the plus 10kc button.