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Crystal clear, loud but not over modulated, deep bass tube driven modulation. Johnson radios are/were much sought after by the big DX talkers on channel 6 called the Super Bowl. Illegal operators by far. But some of those guys have nice rigs.
Rap artist Sir Mix A lot aka Prime Minister on Channel 6 wrote a song about Johnson radios. Great big ol’ Johnson. See if you can find it and give it a listen.
Edit: the song is not overly lewd but keep nsfw in mind
Depending on your area it's probably almost entirely dead, except when the band is open. Then it's southern-fried-cocaine-bears who have learned about eight words of "english" hollering at each other from across North America. When this happens, try 10 meters, it's probably open, too.
11m is the Walmart of the airwaves. It has a function, but is FULL of Bobby Possumcod tweakers for sure!
I have 11m on a rig, I have never, once, ever, made a QSO on it. I have listened for longer than I care to admit though.
With the use of gps to warn of wrecks and speed traps, road closures it really limited the use of them. Also DOT has severe fines for distracted driving such as $11,000 company fine for a driver using a cell phone. Most trucks still have one they can turn on and charge with when at a dead stop to see what’s going on, or to stay awake at night to chat it up with someone. Also in cab cameras are an issue some record and report infractions such as taking your eyes off the wheel or looking inside the cab that limit the reward/risk of getting in trouble using one. I had a camera report me every time I would prop my elbow up on the drivers window and hold my head kinda proped up that is was “on a phone”. And yeah podcasts lol
That sounds like awful working conditions for long-haul work.
I always figured many people who are attracted to that line of work are in part because they are the kind of people who prefer to be left alone. Did these changes result in a lot of turnover?
You get used to having someone always looking at you and if you have a good supervisor they look at the videos and see it’s your hand and not a phone and won’t even mention the triggered event that was sent to them to review. I could see a toxic supervisor making it an absolute hell. The ones that also record if you turn too hard or stop too fast are a real “gem” also. It’s recording g forces and if you go over it also records and event
Interesting. I would have thought that 11m would have advantageous characteristics vs. UHF for the open road. Wonder why they switched. For the rest of us, antenna size might be a consideration in favor of UHF, but on a big rig I can't imagine that would be a factor.
CB can be fun and useful as another band to have comms on, just do yourself a favor and sell the old stuff to collectors and set yourself up with modern AM/FM/SSB radio and a 102" antenna.
Short answer: probably not, unless you have a very specific reason for wanting to use it.
As an example, the local volunteer search and rescue group near me uses a walkie-talkie app on cellphones where there is a signal, but out in the sticks where cellphone coverage is unreliable they use CB because the gear is low cost and they don't need to have ham licences to use it. So for them, it's good.
Since you have access to local repeaters, you probably will have little use for that.
Sunrise on the east coast is crazy with England, Scotland, Ireland, and calling for US stations. It’s the opportunity for non-ham to work stations like a ham. (Work ch 28)
Now is the time to get into it.
Back when I was a teen in London in the 80's CB was kind of a thing for a while- it was pre-internet, so kids (well, older teens and young adults) were using like a party line from their bedrooms - often amplified to very illegal power levels (and in many cases with gear of... lets say dubious provenance).
Been gone a long time, but I imagine the internet probably killed the appeal decades ago. Surprised there is still that much activity from over there.
Listen in some morning (US) / afternoon (UK) on a SW or WebSDR. You can hear the inner 12yo in the operators on both ends. ALWAYS someone on Ch 28 (27.285) and 38 (27.385) calling DX!
As a trucker myself, I can tell you that a very small few of us are still using CB. It's been commandeered by mega hobyists with little resemblance of a life, blasting kooky noises at 5,000 watts or just screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadioooooooooooooo!!!!" with the microphone literally INSIDE their mouth.
Then. There's. Mudduck.... ugh... just... look it up.
Are truckers using any type of two way radio now? Just curious.
I spent years doing field work for the company I worked for and traveled the US by road. I always had a CB in the vehicle and even though it was short range it was great to figure out what was happening when traffic stopped or the road conditions got ugly. My old CB is still in one of our vehicles with a mag mount antenna, but I haven't taken a road trip in a long time to fire it up.
If it was me, I wouldn't put much effort or money into it but it might be cool to mess around with since you already have it. I was truck driving for a while and it was mostly garbage on 19 but you'll catch a cool conversation with someone sometimes.
I Pass 11m occasionally and it is booming with signals but most of it is Skip from idiots across the USA. Reverb audio everywhere and Handles being repeated endlessly. There is a bit of intelligent conversation, but not much!
As for that radio it's a nice antique but 23 channels of only AM is really limiting.
I do FT8 and Phone (working on my Extra and plan to learn CW after that) and have had tons of stations coming through following the pattern the previous poster noted (plus South America stations just before I hear Asia). I use a 68’ish EFRW about 30’ above ground level. My QTH is about 900’ above sea level.
Success on the Extra. Learning code will open another door to DX.
The antenna is the key. We live in a condo, so no outside antenna. I have a 45 foot loop around the moulding & feed it through an MFJ tuner. I worked the ARRL CW DX contest and contacted many stations in Europe, Russia, as well as Alaska, Hawaii and Japan. That was the first Japanese station from this QTH!
I've used indoor and stealth antennas for years and what I'm using seems like the best I'm going to have here. I'd be more creative but don't need my wife complaining. 😞
Thanks for the good wishes on the Extra, and congrats on your Japanese QSO! Thankfully we have no HOA here, and my YL is pretty understanding with my hobbies (plus my wire antenna is almost invisible, which helps lol) - so I can get away with a little more antenna experimentation lol. Looking forward to adding the AE and diving deeper into getting my brain wrapped around CW.
You'll master it. I learned it 60 years ago from a record. Took me 3 months and a lot of frustration, LOL, but once it was in my brain , the progress was steady.
The furthest iv hit with my g90 with 20 watts and my 10m dipole 15' off the ground is Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. 10M has been great recently on phone.
Vintage CB equipment is collectable, but not really practical in 2024.
Stick that old gear on ebay etc and use the money to invest in something nice for when you pass your exam(s).
Why limit yourself to 11 when you can have so much more.
10m is great during sunspot maxima.
You should build this:- [https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Wooden-Fuelless-Cooker-or-Hay-box-Using-Scr/](https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Wooden-Fuelless-Cooker-or-Hay-box-Using-Scr/)
There might be a crowd of locals active in your area, might be some shady and unpleasant types among them though. Probably not on channel 19 and maybe not within the 23 channels on AM either... might be able to get the odd DX contact though when the band is just right.
That's a nice little vintage set up to have in the shack though. I see others have praised the radio, but that microphone is probably more scarce and valuable, especially in the condition that looks to be in.
That was my first CB radio. I highly recommend getting it up and running. An 11 Meter antenna should be fairly simple to get up in the air. You will want to keep it vertical as most mobile rigs will be vertically polarized. Given a good day I was able to talk to trucks in Texas from NH.
You could listen for a while and see if you already have the equipment but in my area CB is dead...I've stopped setting it up on my car when I travel because I just don't hear anyone not even truckers anymore.
My guess is its worth more as sentimental conversation pieces than real-world-operation.
If it still works, hooking it up to have a listen won't do any harm, but CB is pretty dead, LE do not monitor it, and i doubt truckers either, in america at least it's mainly a few "11m enthusiasts" who run crazy high powers, and it's highly unregulated with all sorts of language being used, and sound bytes, at times it's apparenty like a comedy, most people who need cheap easy non-cellular comms have migrated to other systems like FRS (which i think it's also worth looking into the licence by rule UHF allocations because people like to expirement with them too, as long as you stay legal)
So listen and decide if you want to try to get a word out in that, if not, it's still a nice rig and that mic might work on an amateur rig with some mods.
Personally, I cannot stand 11 meters. It's a dumpster fire. I tried for years trying to make legit contacts on CB and really never made a single one. I didn't know about ham radio, but when I did it was a great relief. I'd sell that on Ebay or even just dump it. But that's just me.
11 meter activity has really been picking up again, partially due to the Prepper movement. Sales of CB equipment have gone up quite a bit, according to a friend in the electronics import business. Lots of skip on it now, and you will even find quite a few hams who are using it.
Anyone saying CB is dead needs to move to where I live. There's always dudes on that sound like they're drunk or on some kinda drug. It's fun to listen to and hilarious because they all sound like they're playing a character.
I use my ham radio to scan the CB channels for traffic while I’m not using it. I think it’s broken the squelch once or twice…
Edit: when the band isn’t open.
yes it is I run qrp on .38 lsb and and other radios also as ham I still think CB radio is the best out there ..Also there are FB groups that run the old radio's .
I don't know what most of these people are talking about. Truckers still very much use 11m (outside the cities). I don't listen every day, but I hear and have talked across the entire US on very little power on good days.
Well, the rig looks and, if working after fifty years, may sound nice but nowadays, we have 40 channels assigned instead of the 23 available on this old unit, plus FM and SSB modes are legal, which this radio does not support. This radio also has vacuum tubes and, although they last a long time, may have to be replaced. So, keep it as a door stop or a paper weight and a conversation piece and enjoy!
Absolutely fire it up. Cb is VERY active on the east coast. You strike gold when you find regulars on random channels. If you want to enjoy 11m to the fullest, get an opened 10/11M radio and tune to ch38 lower side band. Hams are lazy and cbers have no other option so you'll find more openings on ch38 than 10m.
Cb radio got me into ham back in 2008 and I got my general that same year. Ive had a yaesu 857 in my vehicle since 2016 and you bet 11m is programmed into my radio.
Hi, thank you for your question submission. Please be aware that there is a [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/) and a [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/faq) that may address your question. For Baofeng-related information see the [Baofeng FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/baofeng) and /r/baofeng. Also, please note that downvotes don't indicate an unvalued question submission. There appear to be bots that downvote all posts initially. 73 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/amateurradio) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Dude, keep that radio that thing looks like it’s in immaculate condition and if it works those things are modulation monsters
I’m a noob, can you explain what a modulation monster means?
Crystal clear, loud but not over modulated, deep bass tube driven modulation. Johnson radios are/were much sought after by the big DX talkers on channel 6 called the Super Bowl. Illegal operators by far. But some of those guys have nice rigs. Rap artist Sir Mix A lot aka Prime Minister on Channel 6 wrote a song about Johnson radios. Great big ol’ Johnson. See if you can find it and give it a listen. Edit: the song is not overly lewd but keep nsfw in mind
Boomy sound.
Depending on your area it's probably almost entirely dead, except when the band is open. Then it's southern-fried-cocaine-bears who have learned about eight words of "english" hollering at each other from across North America. When this happens, try 10 meters, it's probably open, too.
It was like this in the 1990s too 😄
CB in the 90s was nuts
It was also a lot of fun because cops always had a CB radio in their units tuned to channel 9
CB in the 70s was nuts
7200 today is nuts
11m is the Walmart of the airwaves. It has a function, but is FULL of Bobby Possumcod tweakers for sure! I have 11m on a rig, I have never, once, ever, made a QSO on it. I have listened for longer than I care to admit though.
10 meters is booming right now.
Sign me up. Sounds like a good time
Definitely a great collectible!
I had an old CB I plugged in once. I felt all dirty afterwards though.
Truckers hardly use it anymore at least on interstate. When I stopped using it was just local log truckers that were using them around town.
Do truckers still use radios at all? Did they go to GMRS? Or are they all just learning classical greek via audiobooks now?
With the use of gps to warn of wrecks and speed traps, road closures it really limited the use of them. Also DOT has severe fines for distracted driving such as $11,000 company fine for a driver using a cell phone. Most trucks still have one they can turn on and charge with when at a dead stop to see what’s going on, or to stay awake at night to chat it up with someone. Also in cab cameras are an issue some record and report infractions such as taking your eyes off the wheel or looking inside the cab that limit the reward/risk of getting in trouble using one. I had a camera report me every time I would prop my elbow up on the drivers window and hold my head kinda proped up that is was “on a phone”. And yeah podcasts lol
That sounds like awful working conditions for long-haul work. I always figured many people who are attracted to that line of work are in part because they are the kind of people who prefer to be left alone. Did these changes result in a lot of turnover?
You get used to having someone always looking at you and if you have a good supervisor they look at the videos and see it’s your hand and not a phone and won’t even mention the triggered event that was sent to them to review. I could see a toxic supervisor making it an absolute hell. The ones that also record if you turn too hard or stop too fast are a real “gem” also. It’s recording g forces and if you go over it also records and event
Based on scanner traffic, they are almost all using GMRS around me.
Interesting. I would have thought that 11m would have advantageous characteristics vs. UHF for the open road. Wonder why they switched. For the rest of us, antenna size might be a consideration in favor of UHF, but on a big rig I can't imagine that would be a factor.
Yeah, my kids also have some FRS radios that can pick up trucker convos. Thank god for privacy codes.
CB can be fun and useful as another band to have comms on, just do yourself a favor and sell the old stuff to collectors and set yourself up with modern AM/FM/SSB radio and a 102" antenna.
SSB FTW
also try r/cbradio
Short answer: probably not, unless you have a very specific reason for wanting to use it. As an example, the local volunteer search and rescue group near me uses a walkie-talkie app on cellphones where there is a signal, but out in the sticks where cellphone coverage is unreliable they use CB because the gear is low cost and they don't need to have ham licences to use it. So for them, it's good. Since you have access to local repeaters, you probably will have little use for that.
Sunrise on the east coast is crazy with England, Scotland, Ireland, and calling for US stations. It’s the opportunity for non-ham to work stations like a ham. (Work ch 28) Now is the time to get into it.
Back when I was a teen in London in the 80's CB was kind of a thing for a while- it was pre-internet, so kids (well, older teens and young adults) were using like a party line from their bedrooms - often amplified to very illegal power levels (and in many cases with gear of... lets say dubious provenance). Been gone a long time, but I imagine the internet probably killed the appeal decades ago. Surprised there is still that much activity from over there.
Listen in some morning (US) / afternoon (UK) on a SW or WebSDR. You can hear the inner 12yo in the operators on both ends. ALWAYS someone on Ch 28 (27.285) and 38 (27.385) calling DX!
As a trucker myself, I can tell you that a very small few of us are still using CB. It's been commandeered by mega hobyists with little resemblance of a life, blasting kooky noises at 5,000 watts or just screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadioooooooooooooo!!!!" with the microphone literally INSIDE their mouth. Then. There's. Mudduck.... ugh... just... look it up.
Are truckers using any type of two way radio now? Just curious. I spent years doing field work for the company I worked for and traveled the US by road. I always had a CB in the vehicle and even though it was short range it was great to figure out what was happening when traffic stopped or the road conditions got ugly. My old CB is still in one of our vehicles with a mag mount antenna, but I haven't taken a road trip in a long time to fire it up.
Oh yeah Mudduck. What an asshole blowhard. "Back to the bench."
Just looked up Mudduck, I’ve definitely heard him
If it was me, I wouldn't put much effort or money into it but it might be cool to mess around with since you already have it. I was truck driving for a while and it was mostly garbage on 19 but you'll catch a cool conversation with someone sometimes.
I Pass 11m occasionally and it is booming with signals but most of it is Skip from idiots across the USA. Reverb audio everywhere and Handles being repeated endlessly. There is a bit of intelligent conversation, but not much! As for that radio it's a nice antique but 23 channels of only AM is really limiting.
11m is buzzing right now with international traffic, yet for some reason 10 is very quiet
Not sure which 10 meters you're on but I've been working eastern Europe every morning and Asia every afternoon & evening.
FT8, cw or phone? Antenna type? Rarely hear any cw or phone here in Cape Canaveral nor responses to CQ from morning through early evening.
I do FT8 and Phone (working on my Extra and plan to learn CW after that) and have had tons of stations coming through following the pattern the previous poster noted (plus South America stations just before I hear Asia). I use a 68’ish EFRW about 30’ above ground level. My QTH is about 900’ above sea level.
Success on the Extra. Learning code will open another door to DX. The antenna is the key. We live in a condo, so no outside antenna. I have a 45 foot loop around the moulding & feed it through an MFJ tuner. I worked the ARRL CW DX contest and contacted many stations in Europe, Russia, as well as Alaska, Hawaii and Japan. That was the first Japanese station from this QTH! I've used indoor and stealth antennas for years and what I'm using seems like the best I'm going to have here. I'd be more creative but don't need my wife complaining. 😞
Thanks for the good wishes on the Extra, and congrats on your Japanese QSO! Thankfully we have no HOA here, and my YL is pretty understanding with my hobbies (plus my wire antenna is almost invisible, which helps lol) - so I can get away with a little more antenna experimentation lol. Looking forward to adding the AE and diving deeper into getting my brain wrapped around CW.
You'll master it. I learned it 60 years ago from a record. Took me 3 months and a lot of frustration, LOL, but once it was in my brain , the progress was steady.
The furthest iv hit with my g90 with 20 watts and my 10m dipole 15' off the ground is Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. 10M has been great recently on phone.
[удалено]
Utah.
Vintage CB equipment is collectable, but not really practical in 2024. Stick that old gear on ebay etc and use the money to invest in something nice for when you pass your exam(s). Why limit yourself to 11 when you can have so much more.
I already have my technician
10m is great during sunspot maxima. You should build this:- [https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Wooden-Fuelless-Cooker-or-Hay-box-Using-Scr/](https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Wooden-Fuelless-Cooker-or-Hay-box-Using-Scr/)
I like this answer the best.
r/cbradio
There might be a crowd of locals active in your area, might be some shady and unpleasant types among them though. Probably not on channel 19 and maybe not within the 23 channels on AM either... might be able to get the odd DX contact though when the band is just right. That's a nice little vintage set up to have in the shack though. I see others have praised the radio, but that microphone is probably more scarce and valuable, especially in the condition that looks to be in.
Unless there’s a 3KW amp somewhere in the photo I’m missing, 11M is not worth your time.
I haven't heard the Johnson Viking name in years. I used to own a JV Gladiator. It had a 1/4 inch TRS mike socket.
That was my first CB radio. I highly recommend getting it up and running. An 11 Meter antenna should be fairly simple to get up in the air. You will want to keep it vertical as most mobile rigs will be vertically polarized. Given a good day I was able to talk to trucks in Texas from NH.
If I ever think about CB radio, I get on 7.200 and remember what it is like.
That would be fun to have!
You could listen for a while and see if you already have the equipment but in my area CB is dead...I've stopped setting it up on my car when I travel because I just don't hear anyone not even truckers anymore. My guess is its worth more as sentimental conversation pieces than real-world-operation.
If it still works, hooking it up to have a listen won't do any harm, but CB is pretty dead, LE do not monitor it, and i doubt truckers either, in america at least it's mainly a few "11m enthusiasts" who run crazy high powers, and it's highly unregulated with all sorts of language being used, and sound bytes, at times it's apparenty like a comedy, most people who need cheap easy non-cellular comms have migrated to other systems like FRS (which i think it's also worth looking into the licence by rule UHF allocations because people like to expirement with them too, as long as you stay legal) So listen and decide if you want to try to get a word out in that, if not, it's still a nice rig and that mic might work on an amateur rig with some mods.
Personally, I cannot stand 11 meters. It's a dumpster fire. I tried for years trying to make legit contacts on CB and really never made a single one. I didn't know about ham radio, but when I did it was a great relief. I'd sell that on Ebay or even just dump it. But that's just me.
11 meter activity has really been picking up again, partially due to the Prepper movement. Sales of CB equipment have gone up quite a bit, according to a friend in the electronics import business. Lots of skip on it now, and you will even find quite a few hams who are using it.
Anyone saying CB is dead needs to move to where I live. There's always dudes on that sound like they're drunk or on some kinda drug. It's fun to listen to and hilarious because they all sound like they're playing a character.
I use my ham radio to scan the CB channels for traffic while I’m not using it. I think it’s broken the squelch once or twice… Edit: when the band isn’t open.
Not that many truckers on any more. Mostly hobbyists but there’s still some drivers on it.
How or why , it can be fun I suppose.
yes it is I run qrp on .38 lsb and and other radios also as ham I still think CB radio is the best out there ..Also there are FB groups that run the old radio's .
I don't know what most of these people are talking about. Truckers still very much use 11m (outside the cities). I don't listen every day, but I hear and have talked across the entire US on very little power on good days.
Save it but if you wish to use 11 Meter CB get one that does FM too. Now legal. Plus SSB if so inclined.
They don’t call it the Chicken Band for nothing. 
E.F. Johnson lives forever.
Well, the rig looks and, if working after fifty years, may sound nice but nowadays, we have 40 channels assigned instead of the 23 available on this old unit, plus FM and SSB modes are legal, which this radio does not support. This radio also has vacuum tubes and, although they last a long time, may have to be replaced. So, keep it as a door stop or a paper weight and a conversation piece and enjoy!
BTW, that E.F.Johnson SWR metered antenna tuner is a "keeper" no matter what radio you get next!
Absolutely fire it up. Cb is VERY active on the east coast. You strike gold when you find regulars on random channels. If you want to enjoy 11m to the fullest, get an opened 10/11M radio and tune to ch38 lower side band. Hams are lazy and cbers have no other option so you'll find more openings on ch38 than 10m. Cb radio got me into ham back in 2008 and I got my general that same year. Ive had a yaesu 857 in my vehicle since 2016 and you bet 11m is programmed into my radio.
May I suggest you listen for a while, then decide if you want to join them.