GMRS has mostly replaced CB now. Cheap and works better than CB at short range. Adoption has been slow, however.
Comment on Why don't cars have a way to contact nearby cars like fictional spaceships do?
Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
CB radio was briefly very popular in the US in the 1970s. But the fad quickly died out among passenger car drivers, and now with cell phones, few truck drivers use it anymore. It’s mainly used to harass people.
Similarly, for a short time Airdropping on iPhones was always-on. It was mainly used to harass people.
Demonmariner@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Fondots@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I keep a CB radio in my car, and have a few friends with them
It is actually really handy when you’re road tripping together in different cars to be able to just grab the mic and say something to the other vehicle when you need to stop for a bathroom break or you’re having an issue with your car or want to give them a heads-up about whatever.
If you’re fairly close together a set of cheap FRS walkie-talkies from Walmart does the job just as well. Probably worth stepping up to CB if you expect to lose sight of the other vehicle though, range is usually a bit better.
It’s especially handy if, like me, you go camping and such in rural areas with unreliable cell coverage.
You do occasionally also get helpful heads-ups from truckers if you’re listening to channel 19 about road conditions, police activity, traffic, etc. but mostly it’s just idiots babbling about conspiracy theories and immature bullshit.
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Why is everyone so quick to recommend Walmart? Corpo advertising shouldn’t have a place on lemmy , intentional or not
Fondots@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Because they’re fucking everywhere, something like 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of one.
It’s basically shorthand for “this is a common and readily available thing that you can acquire anywhere in the country for cheap even if megacorps have driven all of the local specialty retailers out of business in your areas”
As opposed to something like a HF ham radio which is a specialty item that no big retailers like walmart, to the best of my knowledge, carry, and so you’re probably not going to be able to find it locally.
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
I get that it’s short hand for that --but I still don’t think it’s good to push people forward to stores with so many moral and economic issues like walmart as the first suggestion.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
But I can buy that thing on eBay for 3X more plus shipping!
mika_mika@lemmy.world 1 day ago
As evil as Walmart is it’s undeniable they do have everything you could think of under one roof. The idea isn’t awful if it wasn’t so harmful.
0ops@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Well, not always. Mine apparently doesn’t have any vanilla extract right now. I can only assume that it’s tariff related
Steve@startrek.website 1 day ago
Name another place to but a radio besides amazon
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Would’ve looked a lot better if you commented that when I hadn’t already