I think CB sales might have been driven by the prepper crowd for awhile, but now it seems a little more widespread for whatever reasons. I have noted some of the popular CB shops no longer are even taking in radios for service due to existing service backlogs. o.0
Oh yeah. reminds me, my Radio Shack clone of an A99 is in storage. Need to check it, as I am thinking about using it for portable or stationary mobile ops.
Yep, that's certainly part of it. I'm encouraging everyone I know with a truck, van or SUV to install a CB. I actually was able to get one guy into freebanding and DXing in the process. He bought a AnyTone AT-6666 all-mode AM/FM/SSB mobile transceiver and a Hustler IC-20 through-hole roof-mount antenna. After a couple weeks of use, he decided that he wanted something that would "talk further". I told him the next step would be to get the "real thing" (a 102" stainless steel antenna with a 6" stainless steel spring). He did that, and then bought an amplifier (RM Italy KL503HD to be exact). Now he's pushing 250-300 watts into a true 1/4 wave antenna, which, as you can imagine, means significant (local) range improvement.
The Hustler IC-20 antenna was donated to one of his friends (it's now installed on the roof of another pickup truck) and I donated a Luiton LT-298 40-channel AM only mobile CB (a Chinese knockoff of the Uniden PRO510XL / PRO520XL series) to the cause. There are several other folks who I've convinced that installing even a bare bones CB in their truck is worth the cost.
Local CB here can be split into three categories:
-Local CB operators that talk on the radio on a regular basis and have home channel(s)
-Local business users, including job sites, trucking terminals and distribution warehouses, logging companies, quarries/crushed stone facilities with a coordination channel, hunt clubs, etc.
-Truckers using channel 19 and similar users, including flag car, chase car companies based in my area that use CB for car-to-car comms.
The logging companies, truckers working for the same company and hunt clubs are big fans of the "extra channels" - for obvious reasons.