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I did a walk-up amateur radio workshop with the Girl Scouts at a STEM festival a few months ago. I likewise was very surprised by two things: the younger kids h

I did a walk-up amateur radio workshop with the Girl Scouts at a STEM festival a few months ago. I likewise was very surprised by two things: the younger kids had _no idea_ what they were looking at (isn't the radio in the phones? Spotify?), and they were also completely enamored with the gear. Some of the older kids (14-ish if I had to guess?) spent a lot of time with it. For the younger (7-10 year old) kids who came to our table, we actually didn't do anything terribly technical - we just asked them, "What's your favorite type of music?", showed them how to tune to an appropriate local FM station, and let them see the waterfall plot of the station, put the big headphones on, and that sort of thing. If any of them showed an interest, I'd hand them a hand-held CB radio, one of the big clunky 80s ones from Stranger Things, and let them make "their own radio station", then showed them how to pick it up like the FM station. We got a lot of younger visitors this way!

themodelplumber 3y ago
That's awesome, seems like a great contribution to the community. CB radio, too, that's not so common these days. I scan for it sometimes but never find any local traffic.
- zhengyi13 3y ago
  I get the sense that there are some folk still actively using CB, but I also have the sense that for most people, their needs are better met nowadays by GMRS radios (which are in the UHF/~70cm bands, rather than 11m CB), which provide for legally higher power transmissions, at the cost of a nearly completely unenforced license. Part two of course is location: I'd expect CB to be more prominent on big cross-country highways; GMRS in wide-open country where folks might be overlanding. If you're hanging out in a city and expecting to hear either, I think you're liable to be disappointed.
  - jstarfish 3y ago
    CB is line-of-sight, isn't it? It's mostly used by freeway truckers for very short-range comms that you don't need to broadcast across the entire state (accident/speed trap ahead/nearby Hooters fails health code inspections).
    - ddingus 3y ago
      Not quite. It has a long wavelength. 11 meters, and that means it will propagate like "Short Wave" and HF (high frequency) commercial broadcasts tend to do. The line of sight signals happen at much higher frequencies. VHF and higher. (GHZ)
    - themodelplumber 3y ago
      Quite a few interesting trans-Atlantic CB contacts on YouTube these days. They are all using SSB though I think. Not super common in handhelds.

themodelplumber 3y ago

That's awesome, seems like a great contribution to the community. CB radio, too, that's not so common these days. I scan for it sometimes but never find any local traffic.

zhengyi13 3y ago
I get the sense that there are some folk still actively using CB, but I also have the sense that for most people, their needs are better met nowadays by GMRS radios (which are in the UHF/~70cm bands, rather than 11m CB), which provide for legally higher power transmissions, at the cost of a nearly completely unenforced license. Part two of course is location: I'd expect CB to be more prominent on big cross-country highways; GMRS in wide-open country where folks might be overlanding. If you're hanging out in a city and expecting to hear either, I think you're liable to be disappointed.
- jstarfish 3y ago
  CB is line-of-sight, isn't it? It's mostly used by freeway truckers for very short-range comms that you don't need to broadcast across the entire state (accident/speed trap ahead/nearby Hooters fails health code inspections).
  - ddingus 3y ago
    Not quite. It has a long wavelength. 11 meters, and that means it will propagate like "Short Wave" and HF (high frequency) commercial broadcasts tend to do. The line of sight signals happen at much higher frequencies. VHF and higher. (GHZ)
  - themodelplumber 3y ago
    Quite a few interesting trans-Atlantic CB contacts on YouTube these days. They are all using SSB though I think. Not super common in handhelds.