I was wondering where truckers go for the latest and greatest info on up-to-date highway conditions esp through rough terrain, like the Rockies? - Jinx
Both (commercial) truck stops and some state rest areas may have TVs tuned to The Weather Channel or a regional alternative.
The “truckers’ grapevine” – CBs and similar things, including hands-free headset cellphones – will relay that sort of information. (“I’m laid up at a rest area on I-80 about sixty miles west of… Snow’s coming down too heavy to get through at the moment. State police say the plows will be out and we can get thru by morning.”)
I have two friends who are long-distance truckers, and it was a trip a couple months back to sit here in a T-shirt in 70 degree weather listening to them complain about blowing snow in Wisconsin.
I understand Sirius and XM satellite radio are pretty popular with truckers, too. Each has a channel for traffic and weather for all major US cities, and another for trucking talk.
Most good CBs pick up the National Weather Service radio. That wouldn’t give them highway conditions, but would give them local weather and forecasts.
What channel? What keeps them (truckers) from broadcasting on that frequency?
In the U.S., there are 7 NOAA Weather Channels in the 162 Mhz range. Many transcievers will receive them, but are locked out of transmit.
And they’re completely separate from CB channels. The radio can be in CB or WX mode. You push the WX button and scan through the weather channels until a local one comes in. Clicking the transmit button doesn’t do anything.
Thank, Pitter Patter and Fubaya. I haven’t seen a CB radio since the '80s.
Some of them also have laptops with cellular cards. A friend of ours has all the bases covered when he’s driving. Between the CB, and phone and being able to pull up states’ road conditions websites and weather, he’s got a good view of what’s ahead.
Of all of these, the informal reports on the CB from other truckers are the most useful. The weather band may say it’s snowing, and the 511 service may say that 80 is closed due to a multi-vehicle wreck, but the other truckers in the area can say “Looks like it’s gonna take a while. Cut over to 50 if you can.”
Cbs only have a pratical range of a few miles. So they’re great for asking how far ahead the blockage is when you’re stuck in a jam, or asking about nearby cops or fuel/chow stops.
CBs are pretty useless for asking about conditions far ahead. If you ask somebody going by the other way about the conditions 70 miles ahead of you/behind them, his/her firsthand knowledge will 2 hours out of date by the time you get there.
What about a chain of information. Like I’ll ask two friends, and they ask two friends and so on and so on and so on…
Back in the '80s a lot of people bragged about how they’re putting out far more than the mandated maximum five watts.
People still do that, and the alternator on a big rig can easily drive a 5->500 watt amp for [del]jamming[/del] ragchewing