Breaker breaker 19 for anyone who can explain why the CB-in-private-cars fad was so brief. Come back.
I can’t compare cell phones cause the audience is different and besides they end up costing alot more than a CB over the long run.
I don’t have any good answer to your question, but there has been a CB in every vehicle I’ve ever had, except for the current one, and that’s just because I haven’t gotten around to it yet. They’re handy if you spend a lot of time in the sticks, because of log trucks. Many of the roads I drive are very narrow, so if you meet a truck without any notice, you could be in trouble, especially if there’s ice or snow. So, trucks generally announce where they are, whether they are loaded, and which direction they’re going to give folks time to get out of the way. This practice does seem to be a little less regular the last few years, and I wish it weren’t. If you expect trucks to announce their presence, and one doesn’t, it’s worse than having no idea at all.
Was it any more brief than the 8-track player or the Betamax vcr?
I have had a CB in my cars for the last 25 years and I have only seen a slight reduction in folks talking. I drive in New York on the Palisades Parkway that uses channel 15 and 13. If you listen to more than channel 19 you will hear much more than just the channel 19 chatter. Over and out.
I have one.
I wonder if truckers still use them, or do they have cell phones now? I remember that CB’s could be pretty useful…once during my college years, late 1970’s, we were
driving to a desert camping spot for a fraternity event, and the road we had planned to take was flooded out. One of the guys had a CB in his car and got an alternate route from some trucker.
The CB fad died because the people that bought them simply because of the fad had no use for them. Before the fad, CB’s were heavily used by Truckers, Farmers, and other people who had a need to communicate while on the road or plowing the fields.
But what does your average commuter need a CB for? The classic marketing photo showed the wife at home by the CB base station, and her husband radioing in saying he’ll be home in 20 minutes for supper. Well, that only works if you’re maybe no more than a couple of miles from the base station, which means you’ll be home in a few minutes anyway. And then your wife had to have the base station blaring radio traffic in her ear for an hour waiting for your call. It was basically a stupid use of radio.
Then the popular culture shifted, and people started making fun of the CB ‘lifestyle’. Suddenly it wasn’t cool to say, “10-4 good buddy”. It was nerdy. At that point, people started realizing that they rarely used the things, and they died away.
Sunspots played a part here as well. The CB craze hit during a low in the 11-year sunspot cycle. 27mhz is heavily affected by sunspot activity. During the craze, communication was relatively clear. As sunspot activity increased, the quality of communication diminished.
The final nail in the coffin was the cell phone, which does everything a CB did (other than broadcast stuff, like the logging trucks mentioned above).
As the other poster mentioned, CB’s are still alive and well, and back in use among people who always used them (truckers, farmers, etc). And those people are mighty glad that all the wannabes have gone away and stopped clogging the airwaves.
The ‘new’ CB radios are the FRS (Family Radio Service) units, which are much smaller than CB’s, have much more range, and are much clearer. These would actually be useful. For instance, they are small enough that you can stick one on your kid’s belt when they go outside, and use it to call them in for supper or have them check in with you periodically. I think these radios have a future, but there will never be a craze for them like CB, simply because there are too many alternatives today.
Good explanation SAM. But CB’s were as close to buck rogers technology as we could get for our personal autos and it’s disappointing that we haven’t improved on them so that they are pratical and would reach anywhere. But I suppose the telephone companies would like that eh?
I feel obligated to mention that when I started working as an interstate dispatcher, I made the mistake of uttering the phrase, “10-4 Good Buddy” whilst on the phone with a driver. I was quickly reprimanded and told that “Good Buddy” has become trucker lingo for a homosexual.
Perhaps I was speaking with a homophobic trucker but I always refrained from using this phrase while on the phone with my fleet. Rest assured, I called this particular employee “Good Buddy” every time I hung up the phone 
no, it is now a term for homesexuals - not just for the homophobic - better not to use it at all.
Also the FRS radios do not have a greater range, they only have a range of 2 mi line of sight. The sound quality is much better then cb’s
haven’t improved? depends on who you ask. My cb when I lived in Albuquerque could reach from the tramway all the way to the South Valley (which for all you who don’t know New Mexico is about 25+ miles). Granted the communication wasn’t as clear as a phone and I could only talk to people who had similar ‘improvements’ (hehe) but it worked well.
I think anybody who travels far or often should think about getting one. You’re more likely to get help quickly with a CB than a cell phone if you’re stranded on I-10 or I-70 in the middle of Texas or Missouri. After all, every Truck has a CB, but how many of their cell phone numbers do you know?
Also, many police departments monitor channel 9 (emergency).