2 things i cant find sbout cb radios ANYWHERE!

[Bigdogman]

Ok...you only got half an answer on the skip question.

Here's the other half:
Skip is technically when the radio wave broadcast from a transmitter bounces between the ground and the ionosphere (the uppermost level of our atmosphere) in a longitudinal fashion...kinda like bouncing a rubber ball on the ground to your brother at the other end of the yard. The difference is that radio waves are not affected by gravity like the ball...so a bounce here could travel for miles. Also-bear in mind that all transmissions capable of transmitting 10 miles or so escape the atmosphere completely.

NASA used a small wattage transmitter to talk to all the space flights!

It is true that solar activity can have an effect on the skip pattern and distance.

I had a 1 watt handheld when I was a kid. On a sunny Saturday in August in Alabama, I talked to a guy for about 10 minutes that claimed he was in Denver. Now I don't know if he were or weren't. But I always wondered.

I do know that with that handheld, I often listened to base stations somewhere South of the Border...

Hope this helps.

[Red Fox]

A couple of times I was talking on my base unit and got "moon bounce". Blew me away hearing myself talking many seconds later. First time I thought some joker was recording us and playing tricks on us.

[Peanut Butter]

Skip is a weird thing, there has been times i was in Utah and heard the radio tech from troudale oregon on the radio, and have heard the guy from arizona area over in different states. the one guy i hope the fcc did get was the nut case in Las Vegas who ran truckers down and had a big amp and always saying NO DOUBT what a nut case he was, does anyone here him in Vegas anymore??

[clantonman1983]

What the heck is moon bounce???

[Red Fox]

Your signal gets through the ionosphere and reflects off of the moon. You hear yourself...I forget...six or eight seconds later or something. I understand that the hammers use it on purpose.

[clantonman1983]

That's pretty cool. Why would the hamsters use it on purpose though?

[Bigdogman]

Why do hamsters use moon bounce?

Same reason we use talk back thorough a speaker in our cab...so you can hear how good you sound....

Besides, I reckon if you was real sharp on a box with a big enough beam pointed at the moon, you might, just might try to triangulate a return to somewhere else on earth...

[Red Fox]

You don't know any Hammers, do you?

[clantonman1983]

Who me? nope, I don't know any ham folks...

bigdogman: I guess your right, I would probably try to bounce a signal off the moon if I was able to do so, just so I could say that I did...

[Bigdogman]

And the next time I ran into you, you'd start off (after the coffee had got there) with "Y'all ain't gonna believe this s_it!"

Huh, clantonman1983?

ROFL