"CB" on 10M.

[TNFrank]

Has anyone else noticed that there's some folks on 10M around 28.385MHz that sound like they're Rag Chewin' on a CB radio? Not sure who they are or if they're even licensed but it sounds odd on a HAM Band to here stuff like that.  

[Davichko5650]

2 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Has anyone else noticed that there's some folks on 10M around 28.385MHz that sound like they're Rag Chewin' on a CB radio? Not sure who they are or if they're even licensed but it sounds odd on a HAM Band to here stuff like that.  

Haven't heard that up here in the TC area of MN.  Most groundwave ragchew  stuff up hereabouts is on 28.310 or 28.350.  Lots of local ops on 38 lower and 40 lower on CB also.

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Has anyone else noticed that there's some folks on 10M around 28.385MHz that sound like they're Rag Chewin' on a CB radio? Not sure who they are or if they're even licensed but it sounds odd on a HAM Band to here stuff like that.  

Hang out on the CW portion of 10M and hear the truckers BS'ing. Funny how every CW op on the band seems to be on that exact frequency too.

[TNFrank]

I swear it sounds like a couple truck drivers talking. I don't want to be a "Sad Ham" but I do expect a bit of professionalism on the HAM Bands.

[Lscott]

5 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I swear it sounds like a couple truck drivers talking. I don't want to be a "Sad Ham" but I do expect a bit of professionalism on the HAM Bands.

The truckers that buy those "export" radios don't consider the legal aspect. As long as they find a quite spot to talk they really don't care where it's at. I remember many years ago my brother was on 10M talking. He had two local CB'ers talking on the Ham band, who had the balls, to tell him to get off "their frequency". Yeah, they were CB'ers, they NEVER ID'd with a legit call-sign and used stupid sounding handles instead. Really?

[dosw]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

I swear it sounds like a couple truck drivers talking. I don't want to be a "Sad Ham" but I do expect a bit of professionalism on the HAM Bands.

Professionalism on the Amateur Radio bands; got it.

 

Anyway, what modulation are they using? FM? AM? SSB? If SSB, are they using USB or LSB? All the SSB I hear in 11m/CB is always LSB, where the conventional Amateur practice would be to use USB above 10MHz. So that could be an indication that you're hearing some CB people freebanding. Of course AM would be another indicator. 

A long time ago 29.0-29.2 were considered the AM sub-band within 10m, because there was an abundance of repurposed equipment that favored that usage pattern. 

28.385 is within the technician class license range. You would expect to hear SSB/USB (not LSB). So if you're hearing USB in that range, and they're being casual about their usage (not identifying, for example), you've probably just found some hams that aren't following the rules very well.

If you're hearing a mode that isn't USB in that range, it's likely just some people who have radios and don't know anything about (or care about) the ARRL band plan. Possibly freebanding CBers, though putting a label on them doesn't really impact their behavior in any way. Curiosity may be plenty of motivation to know more, but at some point you have to make peace with the notion that there are people who have radios and use them in noncompliant ways.

[WSHL413]

I know what you mean. There are places on the HF bands where certain people congregate and may not necessarily follow the rules for courteous operation.

[SteveShannon]

30 minutes ago, WSHL413 said:

I know what you mean. There are places on the HF bands where certain people congregate and may not necessarily follow the rules for courteous operation.

There is absolutely no group of people that doesn’t have its scofflaws. It’s inevitable. Everyone has a level of compliance that they set for themselves based on whether they think specific rules are necessary.  For some compliance is very unimportant, for others it’s very important. Most of us occupy a spot along the spectrum between those two endpoints. 

[TNFrank]

Tell me this isn't CB.

 

[dosw]

14 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Tell me this isn't CB.

 

Well, it's not; it's 10m misuse. But it sounds like CB-ers misuse of 10m. Here's what's weird about it, though:

• Not exactly freebanding; they didn't just pick a frequency on either side of CB and start hollering, they specifically went into the Tech-class section of 10m.
• They're using USB. Every time I hear SSB on CB/11m band it's always been LSB, which is "wrong" from an amateur radio perspective, but not precluded from proper CB use. However, here we are in the 10m band and they're talking like CBers, but on USB. However, I wonder this; if you shift down a few KHz and switch to LSB, or if you switch to AM mode instead, do you still hear them? If you shift a few KHz down do you hear the carrier tone? In other words, are they transmitting in AM?

Since this is largely an exercise in curiosity, do you have access to a SDR? (software defined radio.) If you do, set it up with your 10m antenna and show us the spectrum around 28.385. USB, LSB, and AM have very distinctive appearances on an SDR's waterfall. If you have a TinySA you might also be able to hook it up to your 10m antenna and show us the waterfall in this vicinity, as well. But my TinySA isn't as sensitive as my SDR, so I would expect that you'll have better luck displaying a waterfall from an SDR.

If you don't have your own SDR, is there an open SDR in your area? Check http://websdr.org/ . You might get lucky and be able to hear these people on a WebSDR in your area, which would also allow you to see the waterfall.

Either way, you're not likely to be able to do anything about it. It's entirely possible they've got such bad equipment that you're just catching a harmonic.

[WRYS709]

49 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Tell me this isn't CB.

 

Your receiver is off by +1.260 MHz!!

[dosw]

This is in Surprise AZ, which is as close as I can find to where your profile says you're from. There are people talking on 28.385 but in very typical "amateur protocol" types of rag chewing. Identifying, talking about the weather, calm talk (not shouting over each other). Notable that I only hear half the conversation, but that could be all the SDR antenna is picking up. Anyway, 28.385MHz, normal conversation, within, probably, a 90 minute drive of you.

 

Here's a link to that web SDR: http://38.18.68.3:8073/

And I found it on this site: https://rx-tx.info/map-sdr-points

 

Now they're talking about a trip to Vegas. Super exciting! (just kidding)

[WRYS709]

10 minutes ago, dosw said:

Here's a link to that web SDR: http://38.18.68.3:8073/

And I found it on this site: https://rx-tx.info/map-sdr-points

Oh, no: now there’s no excuse to be able to not hear Darryl OTA!!!

[Davichko5650]

5 hours ago, TNFrank said:

t I do expect a bit of professionalism on the HAM Bands.

Nice oxymoron there! Professionals on the Amateur bands.  hihi  The only station I need to worry about operating within regulations is my own. No plans to police the airwaves.  Maybe after I retire and "need something to do"; until then I'll just keep plugging away on PSK31, RTTY and VarAC modes where my fingers do the talking.

[RoadApple]

 

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

There is absolutely no group of people that doesn’t have its scofflaws. It’s inevitable. Everyone has a level of compliance that they set for themselves based on whether they think specific rules are necessary.  For some compliance is very unimportant, for others it’s very important. Most of us occupy a spot along the spectrum between those two endpoints. 

Truer words were never spoken!

[TNFrank]

It's got to be truck drivers illegally using 10M.

[Davichko5650]

16 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

It's got to be truck drivers illegally using 10M.

Semantics of course, or my bent towards smartassery - Not operating illegally, just against regulations!

[AdmiralCochrane]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

It's got to be truck drivers illegally using 10M.

Things don't need to be complicated. Freebanders using import radios. 

[Davichko5650]

6 minutes ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

Things don't need to be complicated. Freebanders using import radios. 

I watch for SSTV down on 27.770 - they send some pretty interesting pix at times!

[TNFrank]

I just keep waiting to hear "Break 1-9 for the Rubber Duck." LOL. 

[Davichko5650]

3 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I just keep waiting to hear "Break 1-9 for the Rubber Duck." LOL. 

Keep an eye out for the Bear in the Air and the Kojak with the Kodak takin' pictures in the plain brown wrapper over there in the weeds on the superslab...

[TNFrank]

5 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Keep an eye out for the Bear in the Air and the Kojak with the Kodak takin' pictures in the plain brown wrapper over there in the weeds on the superslab...

Keep the shinny side up and the rubber side down good buddy. 40 Roger, Over and Out. 

P.S.

I used to play CB when I was in High School WAY BACK WHEN, LOL.

[Davichko5650]

4 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Keep the shinny side up and the rubber side down good buddy. 40 Roger, Over and Out. 

P.S.

I used to play CB when I was in High School WAY BACK WHEN, LOL.

Funny thing is; when i was in the Army in the mid 70's and used CB when running around KY/TN  and running back home, I don't ever recall people actually talking like this on the radio for the most part. Very occasionally and usually like we've done here, making fun of the lingo!

[WRYZ926]

5 hours ago, WSHL413 said:

I know what you mean. There are places on the HF bands where certain people congregate and may not necessarily follow the rules for courteous operation.

The ID10T's on 7.200 MHz is a prime example. I jokingly call 7.200 the official tune up frequency for the 40m band.

19 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Funny thing is; when i was in the Army in the mid 70's and used CB when running around KY/TN  and running back home, I don't ever recall people actually talking like this on the radio for the most part. Very occasionally and usually like we've done here, making fun of the lingo!

Same here when I was in the Army from 1989 to 1996. having a CB in your POV came in handy when traveling. I stopped using CB around 2007-2008 when it went to hell and was full of cussing and crude conversations. I didn't want my kids to hear any of that.

48 minutes ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

Things don't need to be complicated. Freebanders using import radios. 

The import radios are way too easy to open up no matter if they are sold as a CB radio or an amateur radio. The XIegu G90 actually has a screen printed arrow on the main board pointing at the diode that needs to be removed to open the radio to transmit outside of the amateur HF bands. Even Yaesu HF radios are easy to mod, all you have to do is remove the top cover and then solder bridge two pads.

[beerftw]

I am not a ham expert but it sounds like freebanding cb users, as 10m and 11m are close enough, that poorly amped cb radios can bleed through, and many cb users not just juice their stuff up but also mod their radio to be out of band into either hf band for ham or some of the old hf police frequencies.

 

  It does get bad enough with cb where channel 19 for me is flooded with people from across the country running crazy wattage and smack talking eachother and flooding over local signals, sometimes they are so overjuiced that they bleed across half the channels on cb. Ham frequencies are neighbors to cb frequencies. Heck recently I had ham frequencies bleed onto gmrs channels with some ham users playing with morse code. Not sure how they manages to bleed that bad short of being unlicensed with a poorly made home made setup but it does happen.