WEBVTT - The Down Low on CB Radio 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.879 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot Com. Join Josh 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.319 and Chuck, the guys who bring you stuff you should know, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:17.720 as they take a trip around the world to help 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.759 you get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.440 the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.280 how stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.120 Breaker Breaker one nine this year's tech Stuff Okay, ancer, 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.559 my fame is Chris Paul Adam, an editor here at 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.200 how stuff works dot com, and with me as usual 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:43.120 and looking a little disprentled senior writer Johnson Strickland ten four. 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:49.200 Smokey's on my tail. So, as you can probably guess, 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.640 we're going to talk about citizens Band radio. Yeah. Actually 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.840 we have an email from a listener that that sort 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:57.960 of feeds us into this, So if you don't mind, 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:05.959 I'd like to start off with a little listener me. Okay, 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.440 now you're punishing me, aren't you. Yes, it's all your fault. So, 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.600 Dear Chris and Jonathan, I love your podcast, although it 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.760 makes me feel like a geek sometimes joined the club. 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:22.039 There's an old communication technology called c B radio. It 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.200 used to be really popular way back then. It is 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.760 still used by truckers and bus drivers. I was wondering, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.520 how do CB radio's work. Can you still buy them 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.480 these days? Can you build a CB radio? And last, 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.720 but not least, do you need a license for a 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.920 CB radio? Thanks for your time and for the great podcast. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.360 I wish you the best of luck, Sincerely, cush Um. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.120 First of all, when you say way back then in 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.760 an old communication technology, you're making pallette and I feel 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.160 a little decrepit since I was old enough to remember 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.520 when Convoy came out, and I have used a CB 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:03.640 radio before. So yeah, okay, So moving on now that 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.480 we've gotten past that little, a little hurdle. As as 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:10.840 Chris pointed out, CB radio it stands for citizens Band Radio, 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.919 So one thing we can get all the way right 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.440 off the top. You do not need a license to 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.280 operate one. That's true, although I believe you might have 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.880 a long time ago, back when they were popular or 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.560 more popular, because one of the dinosaurs roamed the highways 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:29.679 like me and you. You know the listeners right though, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.840 because CBS actually had their genesis and then forties started 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.800 in seven when the Federal Communications Commission opened up the 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.600 uh F frequencies of four or sixty two four or 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.920 seventy Mega hurts. And uh, I didn't realize, you know, 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.320 because I was around in the seventies, and I do 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.600 remember when they were so popular. Um you know, I 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.160 I wouldn't have imagined that they were that old that 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.440 they were being used back then, but yeah, they were. Yeah. 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.600 It really does seem like something that's really fits in 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.360 the era of the seventies. I mean that's when I 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.480 think CB radio, I think traveling down the highway on 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:12.400 you know, something like that. Um So, but they're radios. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.799 They are their radios, and it's it's the Citizens Band 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.359 Radio Service. This is quoting directly from the FCC. It's 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.880 a private two way voice communications service for use in 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.800 personal and business activities of the general public. It's communications 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:31.080 range is from one to five miles and um the 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.920 band spans between twenty six point nine six five Mega 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.920 hurts and twenty seven point four zero five Mega hurts. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.600 So that's your that's your basic range of frequencies that 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.120 these radios work on. UH And, as I mentioned, a 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.720 private two way voice communication service This is one of 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:51.800 those things where you can't really you can't both talk 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.480 and listen at the same time. You're either talking or 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.280 you're listening. You can't do both at the same time. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.440 You see where I'm going here. So if you get 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.200 multiple people on a single channel, these these frequencies are 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.280 divided into channels, forty of them in fact, um, then 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.120 it gets really complicated. You you start to have people 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.080 drop out. So you know, preferably you're listening. You might 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.560 be listening in on a conversation, but you're not necessarily 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.760 interjecting because you don't want to, you know, screw up 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.240 and and accidentally cover up what someone else is trying 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.000 to say. Especially if it's something that's really important. Um. 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.719 But you don't need a license to to use these today. Uh, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:34.000 they again quoting from the SEC. Licensed documents are neither 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.200 needed nor issued, and there are no age or citizenship 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.400 requirements as long as you use only an unmodified f 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:47.080 c C certificated c B unit. So that answers another question. 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.760 Can you build your own No, not legally. Uh, you 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.760 could probably figure out how to do it. I mean, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.080 we even have an article on the side about how 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:00.520 CB Antenna's work, and you can see how the antenna, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:02.280 you know, how how long you would need to make 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.800 the antenna in order to capture these frequencies at the 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.320 most efficient rate possible. UM. And you know what it 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.039 is the antenna does in relation to the radio, and 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:12.800 we'll probably get into a little bit of that later. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.840 But you can't legally make one of these and use 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.800 it as a as a citizens band radio, well not 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.520 in uh, not to avoid prosecution if you get caught 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.320 using it, right, and you know there are different reasons 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.159 for that. For one thing, you might end up broadcasting 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.640 outside of the approved range and that's a bad thing. Yeah, 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.080 that's the thing about CB radios to UM. There's a 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.040 lot more information on the FCC's website about it. Uh. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.560 You can use them essentially anywhere, but they point out 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.680 that if you take it outside the United States and 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.680 use it, if the government of whatever country you're in 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.280 restricts those frequencies, you can get yourself in trouble. Um. 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.920 And the reason that that CB radios uh, you know 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.159 work so well doing what they do, UM, you know, 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.000 used for business and personal communications, that's because those frequencies 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.719 are specifically set open for that purpose. Nobody can own 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.960 any of those frequencies. They are for the public all 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.359 except well sort of channel nine. Yeah, well we can 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.240 get to that in a minute too. But yeah, now, 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.320 the f CC will say that you can technically use 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.479 the CB radio anywhere in the world. You just have 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.880 to be aware of the local laws because, as Pletts said, 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.839 if if they they set aside those frequencies for something else, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.840 obviously you would be interfering with that operation if you 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:33.960 were to try and use your CB radio tuned to 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.200 that frequency. So, you know, just one of those things 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.200 like if you're traveling around the world with your CB 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.680 radio uh and twenty foot antenna, then you might want 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.120 to look into the local laws before you fire that 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.880 puppy up. You also can't amplify the signal. No, that's true, 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.159 you definitely cannot do that. That that one to five 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.039 to eight kilometers. Thank you. I'm so sorry that I 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.240 had left off the kilometer conversion one point six to 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.080 eight kilometers. And it might it might seem like a 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:08.440 fairly short range, especially if you think about the quintessential 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:13.600 nineteen seventies trucker on the highway thing like the documentary 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.760 film Smokey and the Bandit exactly. Uh, and Smokey and 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.120 the bandit to Smokey is the bandit? Yeah, yeah, I'm 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.360 starting to think that maybe the range of those communications 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:29.040 may have been exaggerated somewhat. Um, you know, just going 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.680 on my memory of that, or my pretend memory, I 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.400 never saw any of those. Um, you are missing out, Poulette. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.600 We are having a movie night. You need to catch 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.280 up on your documentaries. Yes, my documentaries. Um. But yeah, 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.960 if you, if you, if you amplify the signal to 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.800 extend the range, you are you're violating the certification of 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.880 your your CB radio. And there you know there are 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.760 still CB radios. Yes you can buy them, Yes you can. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.000 And I know some people who use them as a 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.960 form of entertainment. Whenever they're going on a long road trip, 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.560 they like to turn on the CB radio and just 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:08.840 hear what the chatter is up and down the highway. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.160 You you may have heard some of the interesting little 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:18.320 idiosyncratic things that about CB radio people who use them. Uh, 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.640 people tend to adopt a nickname, which you know, it's 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.840 more commonly referred to as a handle. Um. So you 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.720 know you might have a handle specific to you that 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:30.920 that has some meaning to you, or maybe it's a 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.360 little you know, joke on your name or just a 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.360 reference to something you like. Uh. And you know, that's 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.360 what you go by when you're on the radio, and 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.679 eventually you could build up a reputation. People would know 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:43.679 you by your handle. So when you got on the 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.719 radio and said, hey, this here is blah blah blah, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.240 people say, hey, I know that guy, even though they 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.280 don't even know your real name. It's kind of an 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.560 interesting thing. It's very similar to the way that you know, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.880 chat lines started up on the Internet. I was going 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.440 to say, it kind of reminds me of IRC back 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.520 in see I can you're telling that chat room days 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.720 or bitnet relay, which is were the one I'm more 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.120 familiar with, right, and and there are plenty of message 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:08.880 boards out there now where people still you, I mean, 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.160 peop'll use handles on our on our blogs to comment. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.520 So you know, this is something that kind of grew 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.880 out of the same sort of uh stuff you'd see 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.319 on the CB radio frequencies. What's fun And the government 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.480 doesn't regulate that either, So you can call yourself whatever 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.079 you like, whatever you want. Yeah, as long as you 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.800 I mean, if you if you pick a name that 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.720 someone else already has that's usually considered bad form. Um. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.920 The best story about CB radio handles I've ever heard 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.840 was James Earl Jones. You know he got a CB radio. Um, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.360 And I don't know. You know, James Earl Jones, he 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.800 used to have a speech impediment and he he um 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.560 would he took speech classes and practice very hard to 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.800 get rid of the speech impediment. And he found the 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.320 CB radio to be a good tool to communicate with people. 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.240 And you know, there was no stress or pressure because 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.800 there was no face to face. So guess what handle 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:09.520 he adopted. I have no idea. Darth Vader serious, yes, yes, yes, 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.240 I saw the interview and he would say, like you 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.640 get on the the CVS like this is Darth Vader 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.800 and like everything we go quiet. And someone was like, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:25.680 cheez man, that sounds just like him. So uh yeah, yeah, 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.720 this is an hour simba I am your father. Um. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.160 But no, they can't believe it. It was a really 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.439 cool interview. I wish I could remember. It was on 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.680 some day daytime talk show while I was you know, 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:41.160 playing hook while I was really really sick. But anyway, yeah, 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.120 so they don't regulate the handles, you can pick whatever 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.160 you like. They also you may have heard a lot 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:46.880 of the you know, I said ten for at the 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.400 beginning of the podcast, which essentially means I have heard 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:55.280 and understood what you have just said. Yeah, yeah, But 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.319 the the ten codes, you know, there's lots and lots 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.199 of them. There's not it's not just ten full are 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.240 But those also are not regulated by the FCC. So 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.800 although they are, they are generally sort of standardized the 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.800 agencies that use them, Otherwise they wouldn't mean anything to anybody. Yeah, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.400 there there are a ton of them. I've only got 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.040 you know, like ten four would be message received. Ten 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:20.199 forty three is traffic congestion. Ten ten is is transmission complete, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.880 as an I am done talking to you. That's also 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.120 an important one because the FCC regulates how long you 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.360 should speak on these to any particular person. Yeah, no, 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.960 more than five minutes, right, because they don't want you 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:36.080 to hold up that entire channel, you know, for for 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.840 more than five minutes. And uh, I guess they could 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.120 also just you know, irritate the heck out of someone 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.080 who wants to really chat with somebody else, and all 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.319 the other channels are taken so no filibustering. No filibustering 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:49.920 over the CB radio, and you have to once you're done, 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.640 you have to wait one minute before you start talking again. Right, Yeah, yeah, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.320 you're not supposed to become a chatterbox. So well, let's 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:58.679 see what else. So I guess we could talk a 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.040 little bit about the the antenna's that I mentioned before. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.520 So I just wondered why they were so long. It's, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:07.920 you know, up until the point where we were researching 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:12.480 the boadcast because I didn't I honestly didn't know ginormous antenna's. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.800 Apparently it doesn't actually even matter how tall they are 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.760 on your car or if you have a portable CB, 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:19.920 although it does matter if you haven't mounted on the 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.920 side of a house. Um. Yeah, they're actually from from 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.040 what I understand from reading our article on the website. Um, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.160 it has to do with the frequencies on which CB 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.080 radio is transmit. Yes, they're they're they're to sort of 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:39.040 optimize standing on particular frequencies, and of course each frequency 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.680 transmits it a slightly different size wavelength. Um. Now, somebody's 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.640 gonna call in or right in and correct me on that. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:51.120 I'm sure. Okay, good, because the wavelength does. But but 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.240 that and that's the thing is that the antenna UM 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.680 is sort of an approximation, so it's going to have 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.000 sort of a sweet spot on you know, a channel 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.160 or two, and then sort of do reasonably well for 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.920 the other channels. UM. So it's usually you aim for 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.160 the middle of the band and you get the outliers 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.400 as well, so you're getting what one and then everything else. 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.320 The idea here is that um that ideally your antenna 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.199 would be the same length as the wavelength of the 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:28.680 you're using, but that would be problematic because these wavelengths 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:32.520 are pretty long. So most antenna's end up being a 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.680 fraction of that wavelength, and it's a fraction that's easy 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.440 to deal with, like one half or one quarter or 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.960 even one eighth. Again, the reason for that is not 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.599 just because you know, the antennas are detecting signals, but 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.959 because they're also having to radiate signals. I mean, this 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.559 is this is a two way radio, so you're it's 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.520 both it's got both a receiver and a transmitter. It's 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.439 a transceiver, it's a transceiver exactly. So in this case, 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.200 your antenna has to be able to emit the these 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.600 radio frequencies, and it can't be any taller than twenty 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:05.720 feet over the top of your house or the tree 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.280 that has mounted to unless you're nearer an airport, less 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:09.920 than two miles from an airport. It has to be 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.040 even shorter than that. Yeah, I think I would be 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.600 irritated to see a tall like not not twenty ft tall, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.360 but a a tower that was twenty taller than the 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.800 house next to it. That would that would I would 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.000 find a little bit of an isore, I think. Um, 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.920 and I let a lot slide maybe yeah, but uh yeah, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.200 So so what do these antenna do is you know, 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.360 if if you're receiving a signal, it receives the signal, 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.000 it converts that to electricity since it to the receiver, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.640 and then the processes were reversed when you're transmitting. The 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.360 transmitter sends electric an electric signal to the UM to 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.040 the antenna, which is then converted into the radio frequency 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.640 and then that's emitted out into the ether and uh 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.440 goes the one to five miles away. There you go. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.360 So I guess that pretty much covers the mechanics behind 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.160 CB radio use. UM. I was gonna talk a little 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.640 bit about some of the CB radio lingo that we 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.200 talked to. You know, we we kind of got into 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.960 there a little bit. Um. So yeah, if you ever 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.200 listen in on a CB radio conversation, it could be 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.280 very entertaining and it can also be very cryptic because 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.720 there are a lot of a lot of slang terms 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.320 that are thrown around that if you're not familiar with them, 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.080 you eventually are going to say, what the heck does 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.080 this mean? But it's it's just like any other, you know, 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.360 culture that has its own kind of slang. So for example, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.680 the carne culture, if you're with it and for it, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.760 then you know what I'm talking about. Um if or 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.000 even diners. You know, if you want to eighty six 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.000 the catchup on your burger, you know that that means 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:44.840 one thing in a diner and may not mean anything 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.440 to you. The same thing with the CB radio. So 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.960 here's some of the stuff that uh that you might hear. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.960 If you hear any talk about bears, they're probably not 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.960 talking about the large mammal that could eat you and 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:02.760 frighten Stephen Colbert that that is a grizzly thought. Nah, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:08.080 I think you just polarized our audience. So, um, bears 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:12.480 are police. Yes, that's that would be the the cops, 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:18.200 the cop. Um smoky also police. Uh so you know 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.520 Smokey the bear has a hat that's very similar to 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.280 state patrol hats. So that would be kind of where 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.640 that came from. Um in the bear in the air, 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.600 that would be like a helicopter. You might also hear astronaut. 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.440 That is often another term for that kind of thing. Um. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.160 Bear in the bushes would be, you know, a cop 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.360 that's kind of laying in wait with a speed trap. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.000 Um bear baiting. That would be someone who is driving erratically. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.240 You know, it's they're just they're just asking to get 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.520 pulled over, you know. Um, if you were to uh, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.240 if you were to say that you were checking my 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.440 eyelids for pinholes, it means you're tired. Because the idea 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.440 here is that your you know, your eyes are rooping, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.840 you're starting to nod off and oh no, no, I'm 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:04.800 not really closing my eyes. I was just checking my 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.920 eyelids for pinholes. That's a serious problem. Yeah, I know. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:09.920 If that happens, you need to pull over and get 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.800 a little sleep. If you if you drop the hammer down, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.840 that means you're putting the pell to the metal baby, 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.800 which means you're pressing the accelerator. It means you are 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:25.400 burning rubber, you're peeling out, is what if you are? 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.240 If you say that you that there's a cheese wagon 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.240 up ahead, you know what that is. I think I 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:32.560 did it one time, but I don't remember. It's a 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:39.440 school bus because um so if if a school bus 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.600 is a cheese wagon, what do you think an ambulance 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.840 would be. I don't know, meat wagon? That's pleasant. Also, 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.960 bone box. If you see shredded tires along the side 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.360 the road, you might you might report that you saw 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:59.000 some gator guts. Uh if um. If you receive a 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.280 driving award, that's a speeding ticket. So there are lots 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.520 of these, these cute little phrases that uh that exists 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:08.880 out there, tons and tons and tons of them. Their 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:14.359 entire websites dedicated to explaining CB slang. Slang is fun 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.600 no matter what you're doing. Yeah, Because for one thing, 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.320 it makes you feel like you're part of an exclusive group. Right. 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.520 It makes you feel like you know you are included 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.560 within this group and other people are excluded. Therefore you 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.800 are special. So that's why I happen to know a 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.000 lot about slang because special. I like to feel special. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.480 I have no pretense about being special, no, I but 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.640 I'm able to live with that because I can partition 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.200 my brain. All Right, all right, I I think I've 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.280 I think I've completely exhausted my knowledge of CB radios. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.280 But I want to say, if you have any other 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.760 technologies like this, um, things that we don't normally talk about. 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.720 I mean, there's only so many conversations we can have 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.880 about Twitter. Yes, Um, this was a lot of fun 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.000 to research because, you know, something that we were both 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.440 familiar with, but I didn't know you know, the ins 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.359 and outs of of CBS and you know, well, frankly, 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:06.919 I guess I still don't. But it was fun to 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:08.920 really get into it and look into the culture and 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.760 some of the stuff. And uh yeah, so so please 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.119 right right to us at tech Stuff at how stuff 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.480 works dot com. Yeah, that'd be great because this was 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.840 a lot of fun. It was. I agree, I totally agree. Yeah, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.480 if you guys have any other like, there's just this 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.080 this technology that everyone used to use no one does now, 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:25.639 but I kind of want to know how it works, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.920 let us know, because that we love to learn about 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:30.720 stuff like that. Yeah, or you know I can have 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.119 another Amiga podcast and talk about that for another hour 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.240 and a half. Yeah, which is cool because I don't 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.240 even have to show up that day. But you know 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:44.040 what that brings us to listener. You thought you were 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.920 going to get away with just one Yeah, No, so 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:52.040 here we go. Hey guys, I just finished listening to 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.560 your podcast regarding how nine one one technology works. Last week, 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.080 I also listened to your podcast regarding GPS games that 0:19:58.119 --> 0:19:59.960 it reminded me of a humorous story that I read 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.240 about several years ago when I was kind of getting 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:07.240 into geo cashing. There's a famous or perhaps infamous story 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.600 about a guy who was geo cashing in a swampy 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.840 area near his community when he became lost. This guy 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.359 forgot to mark his vehicle as a waypoint on his 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:17.960 GPS receiver so that he would be able to find 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.760 his car after locating his cash. This is particularly important 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.080 when you are cashing in an undeveloped area with no 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.119 discernible trails or pathways, as it can be easy to 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.159 get turned around and lose track of where you are 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.040 part anyway, after a few unsuccessful hours of trying to 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.919 find his vehicle, he resorted to his last resort of 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.000 using his cell phone to call nine one. As Geo 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.040 cashing lore would have it, he reported his emergency by 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.359 saying that he was lost, but he knew exactly where 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.479 he was. I guess the fire department came and were 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.160 able to locate him with the latitude and longitude coordinates 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.280 that he gave the nine one one operator, and he 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.320 was successfully rescued. Anyway, I thought this was a humorous 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.720 story that tied in two of your recent podcasts and 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.000 thought your other listeners might get a kick of the story. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.159 Tony from Lincoln, Nebraska, Well, thanks a lot, Tony, I 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.119 gotta kick out of that. I love it sounds like 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:12.240 something I would say on nearly a daily basis. I'm lost, 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.000 but I know exactly where I am. And it seems 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:17.600 like the kind of thing that it would be really 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.080 easy to do because you got the GPS and you figure, well, 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:22.880 i'm safe, I know exactly where I am, and then 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:28.240 you realize that you know you're lost. So it's shows 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.920 shows what happens when we rely too much on technology 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:37.120 and not enough uncommon sense or you know, a simple compass. Right. Yeah, Well, 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.000 thanks a lot, Tony. That was a great email. If 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.159 you guys want to send us, as Splet mentioned, if 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.480 you want to send us an email about old technologies 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:45.199 or new ones as well, but you want to hear 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.480 about that would be tech stuff at how stuff works 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.320