A few days ago, I ordered another CB Radio and received it yesterday. I put the radio on the plastic hump mount last night and took it out for a test this afternoon. A Pile Up is what ham radio and CB (citizens band) users call a frequency with multiple stations all calling for a contact at the same time as the video shows.
The sounds you hear are not music to everyone’s ears but they are to me after being on the radio since 1979-1980 which was the end of my high school days..
I made several calls for contacts but made none which can be attributed to the many stations calling, and the fact that my little radio is stock and puts out just 12 watts on SSB (single sideband) and a tiny 4 watts in the AM mode. Back in the day, I would have a 500-watt linear amplifier which is completely illegal by the way, to get my signal way out there and easily heard.
I had fun using this new radio and will leave it in the truck for a while. The ability to talk to distant stations all around the country which is what I heard today, is referred to as Skip.
By this, we mean that the Ionosphere, one of Earth’s atmospheric layers high above is able to reflect the radio signals coming from the CB transmitters. You get the same effect while listening to the AM Radio frequencies after dark every night.
So there you have it. a very brief explanation of shooting skip with CB radios. Fun! Photos and video are from iPhone 12.