Notices by Logout (logout@hackers.town)

@Shufei free bands in Czech Republic are:

- CB (27 MHz) - FM/AM/SSB, max 4W (12 for SSB)
- 34 MHz - 4 channels, FM, max 1W
- 77-81 MHz - 8 channels, FM, max 1W
- 172-173 MHZ - 5 channels, FM, some 1W, some 5W
- PMR446 - 500mW, 16 channels, FM/dPMR/DMR
- 448-449 MHz, 5 channels, FM, some 1W, some 5W

Except for the 34MHz band, for which you can't find equipment these days, all of these bands have some activity. Ten days ago, I organized contest across all these bands and modulations and there were people who brought transceivers for all bands on the hill and were there almost the whole day.

@Shufei Sadly not, I'm still waiting for my 300+ contact, my personal DX is 275 km, made it a week ago. But people do 300+ time from time, i.e. http://www.cbpmr.cz/deniky/5134.htm

And regarding SOTA, since 2013 I organize a contest called Kopce (="hills") which is a modified SOTA for PMR446, there are 20-30 participants each year with around 500 activations total per year. Just on PMR446 (last year I added CB category, which is a lot weaker).

@Shufei Thanks for the info! Here in Czech Republic CB became legal in the middle of 90's, before that in the era of communism nobody could own a transceiver without being HAM. People created CB clubs with dozens and dozens of members, magazines were printed, conventions held, regular portables and contests almost every month. It was a little HAM world available for everyone. Most people however used CB just to chat and most of these are gone.
Compare log from 2001 and 2019:

https://drive.cbdx.cz/xdenik1506.ht0m

https://drive.cbdx.cz/xdenik4090.ht0m

The 2019 is from one of the biggest local CB contests, the 2001 was just an usual weekend.

Spent half of Saturday night talking on CB radio after some years. I was dead tired in the morning, but happy. CB is dying here, so actually finding someone to chat with is a success. Twenty years ago maybe half percent of Czech adult population had a CB transceiver. There was a list of call signs in a local CB magazine in 1996, which contained about 6000 names and those were just people who knew about the magazine and sent info to be published via classic snail mail. I found one of the first czech websites about CB radio and there is mentioned that just in the city of Liberec (ca 100 000 inhabitants) there were 500 people on CB. Now I hardly doubt there are more than 500 people left on CB in the whole country. The band is mostly silent during the night, as far signals fade away with sunset and nobody remains to replace them here. People from 90's are slowly dying out and younger generation has phones and internet, so they have no need to talk on such prehistoric medium. Then there is too much interference from industrial data transmissions, which nobody solves, because the group of complaining people is too small.
Some country-wide activity remains just during contests (still at least once a month), but even there figures show strong decline. An expedition portabling in 1000 m above sea level could easily contact about 300 stations during one night. Now they are happy if they do 60-70. Some smaller towns still have a local meetups on band, some even daily in specific hour, but average age of participants is way above 50. If find all of this sad, even though it's only logic.
How's CB in other countries?

Some gaming on Timex Computer 2048 #retrocomputing

ZX Spectrum +2 with an IDE interface, CF card, ZIP drive and SiF interface with WiFi. This are no 80's! #retrocomputing

It needs a new battery and the WiFi is dubious, but I really like the Sony Clié PEG-UX50/E. Especially when it cost me ten bucks on a local flea market.

It's already part of my everyday carry and phlogflow.