New rig, nobody on a single channel....where is everybody?

Just had my new President McKinley (export) delivered. Read the manual quickly as you do and connected it to a Sirio 4000 Mag mount. Rushed up to a local high spot at 450’ above sea level. Turned on UK FM nobody on! AM nobody on, USB from 25mhz to 30mhz zip nothing and same on LSB....am I going mad?

Surprised you didnt hear anyone on 27.555 mhz as its been buzzing today with Italy,Spain,France all very strong.
Infact from 27.425 to 27.610 mhz there was someone very loud,Mid band had some FM/AM too..


Not sure if you have any locals your way but here in South east ch 19 ukfm always has some activity..

Soundmod wrote:

Just had my new President McKinley (export) delivered. Read the manual quickly as you do and connected it to a Sirio 4000 Mag mount. Rushed up to a local high spot at 450’ above sea level. Turned on UK FM nobody on! AM nobody on, USB from 25mhz to 30mhz zip nothing and same on LSB....am I going mad?

Its the same where I live.....I can leave it on the UK channels all day and not hear a single person (AM is even worse). Most people these days use SSB now that its legal so if you tune to 27.555 USB you're almost guaranteed to hear someone on most days. In the last few days I've heard many French, Italian and Spanish stations and yesterday there were stations from Sweden and Switzerland as well. As stated in the post above, Mid-Band is usually quite busy too (FM & USB) now that we're beginning to get some "sporadic E" and this should improve over the next few months.

few uk ssb stations skipping over to Finland yesterday, very week s1/2, just could not get back to them.

South Finland, near Helsinki airport

Hi Stuart,

You're not going mad, so don't worry

27MHz CB is definitely not the same today as it was back in the day. There's no calling out "One-Nine for a Roger" and getting calls of "Roger" or an array of roger-beeps coming back at ya!
Some parts of the country are quite active on the CB bands and others less so but it's definitely not the number of 'breakers' from the past.

If you're DX chasing it's a case of being at the party at the right time. We've had quite a few openings on the CB band, last December, a couple since and the last week has popped on and off with Europe fading in and out on the mid-band and triple 555s. Bugger if you miss it but exciting as hell if you catch it even if you don't get a response
It'll only get better as the summer months roll on and we are progressing up the new sunspot.

If you want more local contacts my best suggestion is to give a shout out on frequency....too many people "listen" for activity so you could have loads of people listening and none will know anyone else is there because no-one is transmitting!?!
I'll bet you that happens loads

There's people joining this Charlie Tangos in their droves during lockdown and a fair amount of shiny new CBs being purchased so the odds of contact must be getting better.

Have a search through the 'nets' and see if there's any near you and give that a go or even see if you can get a group of like minded CBers on social media or even here and start your own net.

Either way, enjoy. You might get a heap of nothing to start with but it's a thrill when you do get somewhere

All the best,
Victor

Victor,
Many thanks for your enlightenment! Where does one find local/national net info? Your right CB of the 1970’s when I started bringing a rig back from a trip to Texas is hugely reduced but that might have benefits as the number of idiots about was huge! I hope to catch you soon on channel. Where do you and when do you fire up or listen? The hills down here and around Warminster/Shaftesbury are high enough to make a trip up to Bedford! Speak soon and take care
Regards
Stuart

No worries Stuart.

Believe it or not, there are still some idiots out there
(Been told to f*** off on more than one occasion trying to QSK on a CB signal!?!?!)

We have a Nets and Skeds section right here on Charlie Tangos:- Charlie Tango Nets and Skeds

Delboy has a link to Google Maps with national nets:- CB Radio Network Map

Thunderpole CB have a map of registered Cb users here:- Thunderpole CB Radio User Map

Might be worth a look-see

As for me, busy as a SWL, (short wave listener), but do fire up at the hint of any propogation so a bit random on times...nature dictates!
(Only just came back to CB fairly recently after a 30 year absence!)
Thing is, I'm at the end of the Bedford Level, (not much above sea level), so most of my prop comes from East Anglia and at times across the North Sea so get to hear Swedes, Fins and Norwegians!

I still sit patiently waiting for the big propagation

But you never know, back in the day the Solent Breakers used to come blasting through on SSB!


All the best mate and above all, enjoy yourself.
Victor

Same here in manchester Stuart been out a few days on tops nothing only a few EU stations not readable on USB but ill keep trying, any advice off anyone would be greatly accepted cheers and keep on going 73s