That's A Big 10-4

Last nite when I was writing the previous article I had the WS1040 running a search on the CB band. I have the receiver attached to a 20” telescoping whip antenna and sitting on a windowsill. That ensures I hear either very local signals or very strong skip signals like those yahoos on Channel 6. Didn’t hear much except for one signal, someone requesting a radio check on Channel 19. I didn’t hear a reply to him, the setup was not designed for range on these frequencies, but someone did reply to him because I heard my anonymous CBer thank the more distant inaudible station.

Channel 19 is not a known local channel around here. It is a common highway channel and we’re a couple miles away from CT-8. The anonymous CBer probably picked Channel 19 because that’s the one channel most people are familiar with, and probably the one you’d most likely get a reply on if you are close to a highway.

Here is the important thing. Someone somewhere nearby set up a rig, a radio communications device. They made a test transmission to confirm that it worked, and got a reply. That anonymous dude had done more than most “preppers” by actually setting up his radio and making sure it works instead of buying it and tossing it in an ammo can for the end of the world. Dude didn’t even know what the local channel was, but he knew enough that a call on Channel 19 near a highway would get a reply from some working man in his Freightliner hauling a load that’s due on site the next morning.