crazy valley CB radio banter

[badwithcomputer]

During the jam I was picking up some crazy CB conversations from what sounded like some truckers in Baltimore. I believe one guy went by the name triple7 and wanted to do terrible things to another fellows family. It was strange because most of the time my radio has trouble sending and receiving to a jeep 100feet away from me. What's going on here? Its very intriguing. I do believe at one point they heard me talking about them as I was explaining it over the cb to the other jeeps behind me. They (truckers from west baltimore) started going on about knowing guys in Ontario and Quebec, but they had heavy twang to their accents and said he shouldn't be giving out so much information.

Also when we got back to the camp ground, Bubba was picking up a signal that sounded Mexican!

[Aaron NN]

If I wasn't there to hear it first hand, I would have never believed it. That one guy (wicked souther accent) wanted to do some crazy stuff (stabbing/raping/killing) to the other guys mother?!

The banter that Bubba was picking up was intense as well. My cobra 18 beside his Cobra 18 on the same channel could talk back and forth without issue but then his would pickup this crazy banter from across the boarder.

Aaron

[Dugie]

The Simple Answer is

It's called Skip... or DX

Basically it's just CB radio transmissions that are being bounced off the earths atmosphere and being picked up elsewhere.

[Dugie]

Taken from Wikipedia...


Skywave is the propagation of radio waves bent (reflected) back to the Earth's surface by the ionosphere. As a result of skywave propagation, a broadcast signal from a distant AM broadcasting station at night, or from a shortwave radio station (or during sporadic E season, a low band TV station) can sometimes be heard as clearly as local stations. This is distinct from groundwave propagation, where the radio wave travels horizontally directly from transmitter to radio, which is the dominant propagation mode at lower frequencies. Most long-distance HF radio communication (between 3 and 30 MHz) is a result of skywave propagation. Since the early 1920s amateur radio operators, limited to lower transmitter power than commercial radio, have taken advantage of skywave for long distance or DX communication.
Contents


Role of the ionosphere

The ionosphere is a region of the upper atmosphere, from about 60 km to 500 km in altitude, where neutral air is ionized by solar photons and cosmic rays. When high frequency signals enter the ionosphere obliquely, they are (back-scattered) from the ionized layer as scatter waves.[1] If the midlayer ionization is strong enough compared to the signal frequency, a scatter wave can exit the bottom of the layer earthwards as if reflected from a mirror. Earth's surface (ground or water) then diffusely reflects the incoming wave back towards the ionosphere. Consequently, like a rock "skipping" across water, the signal may effectively "bounce" or "skip" between the earth and ionosphere two or more times (multihop propagation). Since at shallow incidence losses remain quite small, signals of only a few watts can sometimes be received many thousands of miles away as a result. This is what enables shortwave broadcasts to travel all over the world.

If the ionization is not great enough, the scatter wave is initially deflected downwards, and subsequently upwards (above the layer peak) such that it exits the top of the layer slightly displaced. Sky wave propagation occurs in the waveguide formed by the ground and ionosphere, each serving as reflectors. With a single "hop," path distances up to 3500 km may be reached. Transatlantic connections are mostly obtained with two or three hops.[2]

The layer of ionospheric plasma with equal ionization (the reflective surface) is not fixed, but undulates like the surface of the ocean. Varying reflection efficiency from this changing surface can cause the reflected signal strength to change, causing "fading" in shortwave broadcasts.

Depending on the transmitting antenna, signals below approximately 10 MHz during the day and 5 MHz at night, entering the ionosphere at a steep angle (near-vertical incidence) may be back-scattered down to Earth within a short range. Alternatively, signals beamed close to the horizon enter the ionosphere at a shallow angle and return to Earth over medium to long distances.
Rough plot of Earth's atmospheric transmittance (or opacity) to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves.
Other considerations

VHF signals with frequencies above about 30 MHz usually penetrate the ionosphere and are not returned to the Earth's surface. E-skip is a notable exception, where VHF signals including FM broadcast and VHF TV signals are frequently reflected to the Earth during late Spring and early Summer. E-skip rarely affects UHF frequencies, except for very rare occurrences below 500 MHz.

Frequencies below approximately 10 MHz (wavelengths longer than 30 meters), including broadcasts in the mediumwave and shortwave bands (and to some extent longwave), propagate most efficiently by skywave at night. Frequencies above 10 MHz (wavelengths shorter than 30 meters) typically propagate most efficiently during the day. Frequencies lower than 3 kHz have a wavelength longer than the distance between the Earth and the ionosphere. The maximum usable frequency for skywave propagation is strongly influenced by sunspot number.

Skywave propagation is usually degraded—sometimes seriously—during geomagnetic storms. Skywave propagation on the sunlit side of the Earth can be entirely disrupted during sudden ionospheric disturbances.

Because the lower-altitude layers (the E-layer in particular) of the ionosphere largely disappear at night, the refractive layer of the ionosphere is much higher above the surface of the Earth at night. This leads to an increase in the "skip" or "hop" distance of the skywave at night.

[Hawkes]

The radio system at work has long been replaced but years ago on the old system I used to pick up the New York water commission.

[badwithcomputer]

Wow. That is super neat.

[Good Robot]

I've noticed that too around here... On cloudy/rainy days it seems to happen more often.

[hillbilly deluxe]

More and more people are runnin amps on their cbs, regular is about 4watts, some truckers( like me ) run up to 200watt plus amps. And cloud cover thrown in and u can bounce a signal a long distance.

[Bubba]

Yeah it was pretty cool.

[00tansahara]

i hear them mostly on channel 6

[argus]

Guys in the U.S. and Mexico are running 1000 watt. linears in generator powered mobile rigs. They change their location frequently to avoid the government radio regulation authorties. So little wonder you are receiving signals that over ride that of your buddy 1/2 mile away.

[Big Willy]

This is the sort of thing we see in the Navy quite a bit. It does it with our radars as well as radios. I have seen 20 watts of power on a radio travel 200 miles with good connectivity, but on the same hand I have seen no connectivity only a couple of miles apart. When the radio / radar waves are transmitted they get trapped between atmospheric ducts in the ionosphere like Dougie stated and can travel thousands of miles. I remember once in the '90s sitting 5 miles off the coast of Iraq and tracking vessels coming out of Dubai harbour on the other end of the gulf with our navigational radar. That radar had a range of 15 miles max and we were seeing traffic over 500 miles away. Major super refraction happening there.

[HESH]

Was going to pick up a CB radio and was offered a 23 channel older style. Was wondering on the jeep runs what channel is normally used?
What antenna should I get for it and where ?

[C Monster]

We run on 16
Get the tallest Antenna you can get / put on your rig

[HESH]

Thanks , now to find a good price on the antenna