Sunspots and CB Radio

[FarmerFixEmUp]

I've been hauling some manure from a neighboring dairy the last few days. My older 1066 has a Realistic 40 channel CB in it since forever.  Was messing with it on the road trips and noticed a lot more skip on it than I've heard in the last year or so. Almost every channel had these  high powered super CB's talking back and forth.  Sunspot activity? 

Lately ,most channels have been really quiet except 6 where the big stations go. 

 

Found this interesting article. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/11/archives/scientist-says-cb-radios-face-sunspot-interference-in-1978.html

[660 driver]

Sidebands cutting in?

[FarmerFixEmUp]

On some channels, 39 and 40. I have a sideband. Cb in the house. Skip seems too fade in and out a lot. 

[Gearclash]

I noticed a couple times  this fall I was picking up chatter from between my baler guys on my walkie from an inordinately long ways away. 2-3X normal range.

[db1486]

Interesting article.

Not cb, but last year I was mowing at work in the middle of the bush, where I would normally only get 1 fm radio station. I was cruising through the channels just for curiosity and I was picking up alot of new stations. About 9 or 10 that came in crystal clear. Lots more with some static. But of all those, not a single localish channel from Manitoba or Saskatchewan was coming in. All the ones I was picking up were from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, couple other states, I forget which ones. I found that pretty interesting. Sometimes I can get stations from North Dakota or Montana, but not too often. I wonder if there was something like sun spots causing it or what the reason was. It lasted about 3 days, and I think it was the clearest on a overcast and drizzly day. 

Dad always talks about talking to truckers from all over the US when he had cb's in all the equipment. He said there was lots of Mexican chatter on it quite often too. We're quite a ways north of the Canada/US border

[Lazy WP]

I know mine is terribly busy throughout the day. Have both the gain and squelch turned trying to shut them out. 

[Ihfan4life]

Started the truck late Saturday afternoon  to get ready for my overnight run and the cab was blazing a couple of truckers form the southern states- Alabama- Texas maybe?

I attribute it to low cloud cover and the low pressure system that was coming in