50 years ago my father's CB did become remarkably clear for a while. Then he noticed he was replacing a lot of bulbs on his car. Luckily he caught it before the battery was cooked, the voltage regulator (old mechanical type) had gone up to about 18 volts.
You are correct, the signal doesn't travel any farther. It is the inverse, an FM receiver will reject a stronger signal until it is strong enough to "lock on".
Theoretically yes, but in practice the opposite has often proven to be the result. What happened was that FM dropped out at essentially the same distance that AM became unintelligible. AM broke squelch farther away, but was completely unreadable at max distance. If I recall FM was full readable where AM was 50/50.
You can probably find videos on YouTube. Pickup trucks with 50 and 80 kw generators in the back and antenna arrays that require another truck to haul. Lots of stuff to make Randy smile.
Nothing on FM. The only traffic on AM was during traffic jams. Seems like many truckers still have CB's but are only using them to communicate the location of a jam and which lanes are open. 4 times during my trip.
I've experienced the same kind of thing. The extra steps for this kind of thing sometimes makes it worthwhile to just keep a real Microsoft junker around
Just traveled thru 5 states in 4 days and heard 4 conversations on 19 along the way. One was 2 guys headed to the boat ramp, one was a traffic info request (info was abundant on CB 19) A truckload of frozen chickens was spread across the highway about 40 miles east of Memphis.
I actually use my ham knowledge working on HVAC controls. Sometimes a sensor with a particular value needs to be simulated or corrected. I carry a signal generator, a decade box and a box of assorted resistors on my service truck. A megger that can read a gig and a Fluke 87 (which can also read nanosiemens if you know how to do the conversion). Guess who gets sent to the freak jobs.
I use it as a derogatory pejorative and mean it. I think most hams now are appliance operators that DO NOT know how radios and antennas work. Those who really know are a shrinking minority.