Once in a long while I will put one of my two CB radios in the truck and take a ride somewhere that is wide open to tune around the eleven-meter band, which is where the old Citizen’s Band radio frequencies are located. They are located between 26.965 and 27.405 megahertz.

This is where I became interested in radio in the late 1970s and have had radios in my life ever since. I moved to Ham Radio in the early 1980s and am still licensed.

I sometimes tune into these frequencies using a shortwave radio in the house and heard some activity on this band a few days ago which is why I put the CB radio in the truck. The band is open, I tried making a few calls for distant stations in other states back east but had no luck.

The radio puts out just five watts so it’s not easily heard among the clutter being reflected back from the Ionosphere. It’s called DXing, or shooting skip.

Every eleven years, a new solar cycle begins with the sun. Its surface has more Prominence being ejected which causes the earth’s Ionosphere to reflect radio waves back down to earth, hence we can talk great distances on very low power with the correct antenna system and coaxial cable. Radio is fun!