Do truckers use the CB anymore?

Left the road 12 years ago for a local gig, but couldn't imagine hitting the road without my tweaked Cobra 29. It was my second set of eyes, my co-driver, it was for mines and your safety. It was for stand-by and docking instructions. It was for listening to old timers tales to keep us awake on that dark stretch. It was for alerting drivers to "back it down" when that four wheeler rolls over in front of us. For the exit number to get some fatback with cornbread and nanner nanner puddin. You could even "kick it up for Big Country" down in West Memphis for that green smoke, white smoke, purple smoke and High speed Chicken Feed Kaa-moan! In my opinion, a CB is a truckers lifeline for countless reasons and I'm shocked to learn nobody is using them much anymore. I'm thinking about returning to the road soon, and if I do you can bet I'll have it on. Be safe.

 

You're going to be very disappointed with what's driving these trucks nowadays.

 

That's for sure. My son who's in his mid thirties got his cdl over a year ago, and just recently went over the road. I gave him a Cobra 25lx radio that I had installed a loud mouth board in it. The board wasn't really that loud, but it does use an electret mic which sounds great compared to the stock dynamic mics. I told him 40 years ago people on the CB radio were very polite and fun to talk to. When I was talking to him on the phone last night, during our conversation he mentioned about how rude people on the CB were. I said yes it's a different world today, unfortunately, even on the radio.

 

Really?

you were not around in the 80's were you?

I find them just as bad as they were in the 80's and 90's, not a bit of difference.

When they dropped the license requirement and stopped enforcing the regs, the morons and scum came out in force.

 

One can't help but to wonder where this path is leading to. It's very sad regardless. I avoid the interstates as much as possible these days in a vain effort to minimize my exposure to them.

 

I was going down I-476 Monday. Came up behind a bulk tanker, something didn't look quite right. When he tapped the brakes I could see one of the maxi brake cans was moving. Called on the radio, no response. Pulled up beside him tapped the horn and waved the mike at him. Tried again, no response. He did slow down a bit but didn't pull off to check anything. Was hoping to save him issues with either law enforcement or a breakdown if airline pulled loose.

 

No I really wasn't around, at least not the whole 80's decade. I remember if someone cussed on the radio, two or three people would rebuke them. Of course there were kids listening. I joined the army in 1985, and met a ham operator who helped me get my ham license. I never used my cb radios for over 20 something years. I had a job for many years with IBM. Then after they practically worked us to death replacing servers and cash registers (most had to be done during the night after working all day) due to the Y2K, the new computers didnt break down as often. So eventually I lost my job. So I decided to drive truck again. Wiped the dust off my old Johnson 123a and hit the road. I was really surprised how rude people were at first. It didn't take long to learn my new handle was driver. Yes you are correct, things did start to go down hill after they dropped the license requirement. Like most people CB radio was a great hobby that I enjoyed, and I still do.

 

Well if you watched live PD you would probably Agree

 

Still remember good old days when it was against truck stop company policy to disclose fuel prices over a CB.

 

The "good old days" fuel up, go inside to pay and the person at the fuel desk ask you what date you want printed on the fuel receipt. Just because you were there, the final rendition of your logs might not have you showing up for two days