CB benefits

[5_19]

 ....Yesterday on my way home I had my cb turned to channel 19. 1 And 22 are useless (I am flipping cb channels as boredom kicks in) when it's 42 and dark outside( didn't see any bikes/bikers out on the road for 250 miles)  It's about 7pm and I am on I20 going west on the south side of the Metromess. I am listening to truckers and canadians. Sometimes I am wondering why I even turn my cb on especially when I am traveling without my buddies.
Tonight it paid-off twice. First I was told where the speed trap was, second even better, I was told about an accident 10 miles up ahead with the 2 left lane blocked in the west bound lane by a trucker going east. He told everybody that was listening that the far right lane was moving the best. I moved from the far left to the far right and never slowed  below 25 mph.
I was amazed at the amount of truck drivers that don't use CB's anymore. It is obvious that 75% or better have it turned of or don't use it.

[laserpat]

10-4 

[Rocketman]

Yeah, I leave mine on usually when I'm on the freeway, with friends or not.  Same reasons.

[MP]

I am one of those truckers who used to have the CB on all the time.  Now, I just turn it on when needed, at dock, bad weather, or looks like a problem ahead.  I do miss some info, but I do not miss all the cr=p put on the air by non-truckers and some truckers.

MP

[Rocketman]

I do turn mine off periodically, but frequently regret it.  However, it's turned off for the reasons MP puts out.  There are idiots out there who obviously like to hear their own voice, or start pissing contests, complete with threats against people they'll never actually see.  Lots of fun.
It's mostly good on the open road.  When drivers get bored in a traffic jam, though, the radio gets turned off.

[Stormrider65]

Thats one of the first things I wanted on my Valk.  I've been driving rigs for 15 years and have mine on 90% of the time.  Granted, I have the RF gain up till someone has a strong enough signal to break it.  Since my truck doesn't go above 63.5 mph, (64 off a cliff with a tailwind loaded) I do get bored at times.  I also have an XM radio, 2 IPODS,(one with all my tunes and the other with audiobooks)CD and regular AM/FM.  But I have had a few things done to my radio(peaked, tuned, talkback, echo, bigger finals and a few other things)so it will reach out and touch someone.  I sometimes talk to other people I run with or just listen to conversations.  With my last scooter, I also had a CB.  Its great for keeping with other riders and finding out info.  I can't really do without it on long trips.

Walt

[Quicksilver]

Lesson learned many years ago. Traveling east on Highway 401(now 402) passing London Ontario headed for Windsor, I had a small cb radio I'd just installed with nothing more than a coat hanger for an antenna. It was a company Van loaded with a Tv system for pipe inspection and a 3 man crew. It was a very foggy morning, but being young and foolish I had the hammer down anyway. As you can imagine the cb was able to pick up sgnals for maybe 1000 yards with the setup I had. Suddenly I heard a very loud voice coming over the CB saying there was a major accident on the 401 just past London. I hit the brakes hard. 3 secounds later looming out of the fog was a brown Van sideways across my lane. I drove around him through the fog and sort of drove through an obstacle course of vehicles until I was finally clear. We saw tractor trailers flipped and in the ditch, people standing around the vehicles and between them as we drove by. The 401 was a divided highway with 2 lanes in each direction. The fog was clear enough that we could see all the piled-up vehicles on the other side. Tractors had t-boned others that had jack-Knifed, cars had run into the mess. I shook my head then seeing all those people standing around the vehicles, knowing that others comeing down the highway would not be aware of the accident because of the fog. I stayed on my little cb then for the next 20 minutes as I drove west trying to alert anyone I could reach about the accidents. I heard on the news later that 7 people had died at that accident. It has always bothered me that I knew those standing around were at serious risk but there was nothing to be done except get the heck out of the way. I do keep my cb on when the weather or traffic is bad and when running at night. That accident years ago stays in my mind.