On May 16, 7:43 am, bpnjensen wrote:
On May 16, 12:48 am, Whatever wrote:

IR wrote:
Cellphones involve lotsa money and lotsa infrastructure and all you get out of it is a nice radiation
tumor, which will be treated with yet more radiation...

If it turns out that cell phone communications are the primary cause of
the recent loss (disorientation) of honey bees, some hard decisions will
have to be made. Do we want the convenience of mobile communications
badly enough to trade it for food?

It appears that the announcement of the cell-phone-honeybee connection
may have been premature. Since that time, another researcher has
discovered a probable link between the beehive die-offs and more
conventional agent of bee destruction, a disease known as nosema, in
this case a particularly virulent strain that has not routinely
affected bees in developed nations. This is not firm yet, mind you,
but this explanation makes more sense at this time.

More as this line of research develops.

Bruce Jensen

A link here on the Nosema issue:

http://tinyurl.com/26dz6v

BJ

bpnjensen wrote:
On May 13, 10:18 pm, RHF wrote:

Yes "CB" a Thousand Beacons of Blight ! ~ RHF
- - - Don't get me wrong "CB" still has it's uses
-but- a Celfone works better for the same uses
99.7% of the time in the real world.

Yeah, but the CB is 99.7% more fun!

:-)

Bruce



Several years ago, on a road trip through central Missouri and into
Arkansas, I brought my 148GTL Sideband along, mostly to get road
forecasts. And it paid off...a truck hitting a bridge abutment 45 miles
ahead had closed the highway I was on. And at the particular location of
the crash, the detour around it would have been more than 50 miles out
of my way. I had been chatting with a trucker for about 35 minutes
(everything from Music to Politics) when we heard the call, and he took
me off the highway, through a rather scenic detour that only added a few
miles and about 15 minutes to my trip, chatting and chewing all the way,
he in his 18 wheeler and me following in my Caravan.

We split at Hot Springs, but it was one of the most enjoyable
conversations I'd had on the road (and on the radio) in some time.

Later that week, I picked up another conversation that lasted for
more than 100 miles. And several more 'head's up' notifications about
traffic conditions and construction before me on the Arkansas roads.

Now, not everyone gets the same kind of mileage out of a CB radio.
Any decent HF radio will get you some pretty hefty crap, right now, if
you care to try. But for a short range AM rig, I got quite a lot of
useful information, sufficiently far enough out to divert around the
problems, and far more entertainment than broadcast radio alone.

Not all truckers are friendly out on the road. And they're not all
Jerry Reed from 'Smoky and the Bandit.' But, by far the lion's share of
them find more benefit in disseminating useful information and engaging
in conversation, than not.

Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:

Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen

bpnjensen wrote:
On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:
Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen



I don't have a base set. Mobiles and HT's, here. Mostly Unidens and
Cobras. I have a 148GTL Sideband that I like. Lots of features,
including a built in SWL meter for tweaking the antenna when I move it
from car to car. This is the classic Cobra, and can be tweaked within
an inch of its life, with the right technician's license. It came out
before the FCC mandated redesign that precluded certain types of over
power tweaks. Upper and lower sideband are good. The clarifier has a
pretty narrow range, but if the far end rig is in compliance, it's never
a problem.

Sounds good, intelligiblity is quite good, and it works.

Most of the rigs I've seen, today, have more features that don't
matter than performance. So, it's kind of a crap shoot there.

Nothing I've seen in a mobile is worth giving up my 148GTL for.

Of the base stations I've seen recently, I've not seen much that
strikes my fanny. A couple of Galaxy rigs are pretty tasty, if wholly
illegal.

Like most rigs, the real performance will be in the antenna. HyGains
are excellent, as you've noted, a good beam will do wonders, but is
overkill for the service. I had a buddy, decades ago in St Louis...this
was junior high school before the huge CB boom... with a cubical quad
that he let me load my Arvin 100mw ht into one afternoon. I wound up
jawing with a trucker in North Carolina. The trucker admitted to working
a 100w linear into a collinear pair, but I was only working 100mw into
that cubical quad.

Fun days. If I'd known what that kind of experience would have led
to down the road, I would have burned that HT and started playing with
my little brother's Barbie Dolls.

A few years ago,one night I heard an 18 wheeler truck driver on I-20 in
Jackson,Mississippi say on his CB Radio he had just got through talking
to a CB Radio guy in New Zealand.
cuhulin

On 17 May 2007 07:44:43 -0700, bpnjensen wrote:

On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:

Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen

The 102'' whip is 5/8 wave.

On May 18, 5:57 am, David wrote:
On 17 May 2007 07:44:43 -0700, bpnjensen wrote:





On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:

Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen

The 102'' whip is 5/8 wave.-

David - check your math.

CB is 11 meters = ~ 433 inches. Take that whip, mount it on a 6" ball
& spring, and you get 1/4 wavelength.

(5/8 wave is up around 22' 4" - check out a typical 5/8 wave ground
plane, like a Penetrator or one of the old Avanti Sigma 5/8 (another
great antenna)).

Now, what the vehicle, acting as a ground plane, gives you, is
anyone's guess - but the radiator is 0.25 wave. I would not want a
22' whip swinging off my rear bumper!

Bruce Jensen

On 18 May 2007 07:32:42 -0700, bpnjensen wrote:

I would not want a
22' whip swinging off my rear bumper!

Bruce Jensen

Just another weird incorrect fact from the back of my addled brain.
Thanks.

On May 18, 7:32 am, bpnjensen wrote:
On May 18, 5:57 am, David wrote:





On 17 May 2007 07:44:43 -0700, bpnjensen wrote:

On May 16, 4:35 pm, D Peter Maus wrote:

Get a decent converation going, and you'll be surprised at how many
will participate.

Yeah :-)

Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you know how to apply it, a
decent CB rig can indeed be a lot of fun.

Peter, in your opinion, what would constitute a decent rig? I don't
have on just now, but In the old days, I always used off-the-shelf
Cobras and Pearce-Simpsons, usually with a (TUG8) D104 mike attached,
even while I lusted after Trams and Brownings. They always worked
well for me, but then what did I know? Base antennas were, variously,
1/4 wave GPs, a HyGain Penetrator (super antenna!) and a Wilson 6-
element beam (amazing antenna). Mobile antennas were either 1/4-wave
whips or HyGain "rabbit ears" on the gutters - also great antennas.

Bruce Jensen

The 102'' whip is 5/8 wave.-

David - check your math.

CB is 11 meters = ~ 433 inches. Take that whip, mount it on a 6" ball
& spring, and you get 1/4 wavelength.

(5/8 wave is up around 22' 4" - check out a typical 5/8 wave ground
plane, like a Penetrator or one of the old Avanti Sigma 5/8 (another
great antenna)).

Now, what the vehicle, acting as a ground plane, gives you, is
anyone's guess - but the radiator is 0.25 wave. I would not want a
22' whip swinging off my rear bumper!

Bruce Jensen- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

BpnJ - "CB is 11 meters = ~ 433 inches.
Take that whip, mount it on a 6" ball
& spring, and you get 1/4 wavelength."

Wow ! - Very Logical and Understandable ~ RHF
-wrt- The 102'' CB Whip Antenna