Should I "bin it"?

The language here in Brisbane can often be a bit over the top, which has caused me to have it turned off when my wife is with me in the Patrol. She is a broad minded as the next person but some people just have to go over the top with both language and attitude problems.

Saying that, it seems to be quite the opposite when out on the country roads where most people are quite sivel to one another. The only problem recently was when a couple of women wanted to talk about some new recipies they had discoved on channel 40. Not a good idea, but if that's the worst of it, it's better than the City.

I suppose that while the frequencies are un goverened then it full on for all types.

Cheers, Patrick

Keep and use out of the smoke.

very good for vehicle convoys, or for alerting another driver to a problem or someone alerting you. Also possible you might need in emergency where phone doesnt work.

ignore the d*&^heads, keep for your use on tour

Ron

G'Day John,
IMHO UHF CB has gone the same way 27meg went in the suburbs.. frequented by lot of foul mouthed yobos. Unfortunatly I think that "SOME" of the truckers are the worst offenders. I sometimes wonder if they speak to their families the same way they speak with their mates. I got sick of it all a long time ago and now only use the radio when needed, either in convoy or going bush. I do'nt need my kids exposed to that crap.
Regards,
Capt.

obviously, throw away your $300 and the time spent installing it.

To get repeaters on other channels (available ch 1 thru 8) press the DUP (Duplex) button.
Check out your users manual- Chances are you have a group scan and open scan function on it- On open scan (OS) it will scan all channels. On Group Scan (GS) you will only scan the channels you select, so just turn off the ones you dont want- like Ch3.
You wont know its real value until you head bush. Not having to stop the convoy each time you want to tell someone something is invaluable, and its a great help overtaking trucks on dirt where you cant see past your bonnet.

same here on NSW Central Coast (Gosford / Wyong) where a fewe 'morons' take up the available channels and just dribble garbage

that said, its great for keeping in touch on convoys and trips - I have just bought two cheap Dick Smith handhelds which came in very useful when in / out of vehicles negotiating steep hills / hazards on a recent trip

Mine is off 95% of the time. Driving through perth, u get a lot of foul stuff, and some of them seem to be sitting at home.

when in convoy, its worth its weight in gold. and remote roads are excellent for hailing the truck up ahead and having a yarn or seeing if its clear to pass.

Regards
Rev

Just about any man and his dog can afford a UHF CB capable of getting into a repeater. As a result the UHF channels and repeaters in populated areas are very busy and have a high proportion of foul language frustrating seroius users.

Meanwhile 27MHz Cb has lost popularity with the young ones who use colourful language - are not so cheap to buy transcievers for and the frequencies are not used very much anymore.

Seems to me we should all leave the idiots on UHF - and start using 27Mhz again.

No idiots using language here as yet. Generally people are good in the bush as a lot of farms use them for 2 way comms. Also a lot of emergency people use them as a tool as well. eg: channel 15 in the Falls Creek area is monitored by the local SES as most hang gliders use uhf and can call for assistance if needed.

cheers

Useless in the city - good in the bush.

Mike Harding

Hi John, you can't get away from this in the country either. The Latrobe Valley is just as bad and I think has resulted in the Ch 2 repeater being turned off most of the time. As far as truckies go, Ch 8 at the Pinnacles is quite often unusable due to ignorant/ unknowing/uncaring truckies using Ch 38 as a convoy channel on the Princes Hwy. As Ch 8 covers the Princes Hwy from just east of Traralgon to past Lakes Entrance they jam it with foul language for up to 2 hrs each. There has been some success by some of the people who operate the repeaters as some of the trucks have been identified as to who the company's that operate them and a request using the company name has seen them move channels, although some reappear the next day. Slow learners I suspect.
There also seem to be a lack of understanding among many UHF users about how repeaters operate as the more people on air see's them looking for quiet channels which are more often the repeater inputs/outputs which might be okay in one area but moving around puts them in conflict with repeater users.
Don't give up on the UHF as its worth its weight in gold if you are travelling with other people and can get you out of trouble, if has for me more than once.
Cheers Darryn

I find the problem is at it's worst around major populated areas during working hours. A lot of smaller companies (excavators, local transport, etc) use UHF for their business. I find some of these the worst.

Out in the country we don't have much of a problem.

As a result, we only have the UHF on when travelling or when on 4WD Club trips. For that purpose it is great.

From personal experience, I have found that in Perth, the best thing you can do is switch the darn thing off and listen to you car radio/tapes/or Cds. My UHF is only used when going on a club outing on Ch10 and have never had any problems when in a group. I also have reverted back to using the old 27 Mhz on upper side band with better results than the UHF. Most of our club members are reverting back to 27 Mhz as we get beter coverage when we are spread out doing a recce for new palces to go to. UHF just doesn not have the range. So having both is a plus, but you will always get morons that will abuse any system, hence the reason why 90% of Mundaring has now been closed.

Hi John

No one has so far mentioned that depending on your usage there is a solution.

We use UHF CB constantly in Melbourne suburbs and don't wish to put up
with that rubbish.

The solution between is to get a model with CTCSS. You need to talk to
a unit which also has CTCSS though. These units transmit a tone along with your voice and only a radio which is set to the same tone will unmute and hear the transmission.

Has made UHF CB really useful for us in the city.

One issue with it though is that as you can't here other radio's you can accidently
transmit when someone else is using the channel. Not much of an issue though if you glance at the received signal meter before you talk.

P.S. Some radios implement this featurew better than others. The TX4400 is a dog is this respect .

Robin Miller

Mine has two uses:

1) Club convoy work where everyone is in close range.

2) Channel 40 on the freeway IF there is a traffic problem - it's useful to hear what the truckies have to report to each other.

"Civil" use by most others in the city areas is becoming a rare thing indeed. Language is usually made up of 80% profanity and 20% English. We even have a bloke in southern Sydney who hogs channel 1 24/7 and won't allow anyone else to use it.

Yep - same in Adelaide - not much point in having it on - pity about the truckies channel 40 - that is infested with unspeakable low-lifes now. Conversely, you will find the radio of great use in he regional and bush areas - convoy work, talking to trucks or caravanners, or just monitoring the locals on scan.

Here in the country language is not usually a problem (except on Ch40)

Whenever I get within Coo-ee of Brisbane I turn it off- too many foul mouthed wankers.

Dave O

Foul language can be a problem everywhere but I find it more common in the city from the sheer volume of traffic.
Invariably the language gets worse when you point out that their vulgarity may be offensive to other radio users and that their use of such language is unnecessary. My next offensive on such people will involve a rubber band on the mic and sit it next to something really noisy, maybe some german heavy metal, maybe with a directional aerial as I know where it comes from.
NickR

As a regular user of UHF as part of the job i do I have to thoroughly agree with all the answers posted, actually a good subject because i love Radio,and of course Capt. Wrongway is totally correct in his reply about truckies, I was one and still work with them although in the heavy Haulage it's not as bad as The big cities or Sesame St [Hume Hwy] I wrote to the Minister for Communications,Helen Coonan, they are NOT interested, in her reply she stated it is not illegal to swear on CB , that's a fantastic response from Canberra eh, State Governments require Pilot/Escort drivers MUST be able to have contact with the truck Driver ,Police if they are working with us, and other Pilots if more than one, It is damn hopeless to try and do our work as required ,And for some reason betond me they have to use Ch 40, got me buggered ???, and it's not just the big cities either we have major problems here in Mt Isa...Ch 40 again,Hey just keep it and use it and wind the squelch right back when in cities,

Doug

Boy , seems i need a new job , being a truckie and being on here just doesn't seem to go to gether ,, how ever , i do agree with you about the foul mouthed peoples on these things ,, i have 2 uhf's in my truck , one stays on our privit Ch , the other i use to talk to the different pits and qurries i go to through the day ,, generally most truckies will use Ch 40 or close to it , once you get away from there you never know who you are listening too ,, maybe truckies ,, maybe some of your mates or even some of your own kids ( sorry if that offends , but ) , truckies arn't always to blame here some afternoons i will go to 40 to see whats happening , through the heap of crap you do get a bit of useful info , so don't bin it , use it when you need to and when travelling , very handy things !!

Neil ..

>>> So should I bin the CB now or just keep it turned off untill I'm ouside of the big city?

Give up I would say and bin it if your offended by the words bleep bleep bleep or bleep in bleep

ATROPOS

Depends on what you bought it for ie city use or ex city use.

City only - forget it if it offends you or others and sell it.

Convoy, no problems - just use a channel other than 1-8,12 , & 40 (I think that covers it)

Bush - excellent for comms with other vehicles and most repeaters.