Truck Drivin' Man

[W1IA]

Hope everyone is well. I have been BZ with a commercial truck driving school for the past month and have my CDL test on Wednesday. If things go well I am starting another school for heavy equipment in Brentwood, NH the following Monday. If I don't pass the test on the first shot, I have to wait 10 days for a retest; I will have to postpone the next school till Jan. 19th.

My radio time has been limited to a few contacts in the past month between school and hunting season.  Deer hunting season is over for me, but It was an excellent season. I tagged a 10 point buck a few weeks ago. It was especially exciting as it was my first deer and it weighed in at 173 pounds. It meant a lot to me, as I took the deer behind the house I grew up in on the family farm in Lee, NH. Mark KA2QFX got a couple of deer and we were able to make about 30 lbs. of sausage. WOW was it delicious! I have another 75 lbs. of steaks, back straps, tip roasts and stew meat in the freezer.

The school in Brentwood, N.H. ought to be challenging. I have three phases of heavy equipment (three months) followed by a month of training to get my federal crane certification. Between the CDL and the big hydraulic toys I hope to find a job in the spring. Yup, its time to rejoin he workforce after 5 years of retirement. If I can't find a job operating a crane I plan on doing some over the road trucking. Hmmm..looks like I will have to get a mobile AM station going in the tractor if that happens. If I like it my wife may ride shotgun as I travel coast to coast.

I hope to get on the air soon!

73 Brent(TruckinTina) W1IA

p.s. Link to deer pic
http://steved.smugmug.com/gallery/6629141_7Teej#422704231_tdVBX

[WA1GFZ]

Brent, my cousin and one of my best friends do long haul. Their biggest issue is finding drivers who are not drunks or druggies. There seems to be real demand for good people. Hope your back can take it.

[W1IA]

Brent, my cousin and one of my best friends do long haul. Their biggest issue is finding drivers who are not drunks or druggies. There seems to be real demand for good people. Hope your back can take it.

I have lost about 70 lbs, so the back problem has been minimal compared to previous weight. Feeling great Frank. Its not easy on long hauls, but driving has never been a problem for me. Almost all big rigs have pneumatic seats which take care of rough rides. A loaded tractor rides much smoother than an empty one. Much safer too...wheel hop can cause loss of control.

Would be nice to have the YL riding with me.  Keep me awake on the long mesmerizing straight highways. Would be fun to visit my buds while I cover coast to coast 

Brent

[W1IA]

Hope everyone is well. I have been BZ with a commercial truck driving school for the past month and have my CDL test on Wednesday. If things go well I am starting another school for heavy equipment in Brentwood, NH the following Monday. If I don't pass the test on the first shot, I have to wait 10 days for a retest; I will have to postpone the next school till Jan. 19th.

My radio time has been limited to a few contacts in the past month between school and hunting season.  Deer hunting season is over for me, but It was an excellent season. I tagged a 10 point buck a few weeks ago. It was especially exciting as it was my first deer and it weighed in at 173 pounds. It meant a lot to me, as I took the deer behind the house I grew up in on the family farm in Lee, NH. Mark KA2QFX got a couple of deer and we were able to make about 30 lbs. of sausage. WOW was it delicious! I have another 75 lbs. of steaks, back straps, tip roasts and stew meat in the freezer.

The school in Brentwood, N.H. ought to be challenging. I have three phases of heavy equipment (three months) followed by a month of training to get my federal crane certification. Between the CDL and the big hydraulic toys I hope to find a job in the spring. Yup, its time to rejoin he workforce after 5 years of retirement. If I can't find a job operating a crane I plan on doing some over the road trucking. Hmmm..looks like I will have to get a mobile AM station going in the tractor if that happens. If I like it my wife may ride shotgun as I travel coast to coast.

I hope to get on the air soon!

73 Brent(TruckinTina) W1IA

p.s. Link to deer pic
http://steved.smugmug.com/gallery/6629141_7Teej#422704231_tdVBX

YAY! With driving rain and a beat up old International truck, I managed to pull it off. I got the CDL this morning. The trooper was a chatter box and seemed less interested in my driving than making conversation. I knew this to be true as I exited the ramp at 50 in a 25mph zone? Pulling into a Home Depot parking lot I missed a shift and free-wheeled the tranny for 10 seconds till I found a gear. He smiled and said sometimes that happens? (law gives me 3 seconds)

Phew! Well off to he Advanced Training School in Brentwood, NH on Monday. Heavy equipment fun.

Brent W1IA

[WA1GFZ]

Very Good Brent! I bet the cop was happy you could speak English and smart enough to hold a real converstaion.
No you need to build a mobile class E rig.

[W1IA]

Very Good Brent! I bet the cop was happy you could speak English and smart enough to hold a real converstaion.
No you need to build a mobile class E rig.

Too funny Frank...The class was a bizarre collection of misfits. We had a guy we called stinky. He weighed in at 500 lbs. and was unfamiliar with personal hygiene; sadly enough he had never driven a stick before and was recycled with the incoming class. We had a gang-banger from Lynn, Mass. (Lynn Lynn The City of Sin) that insisted on sharing perverted intimate stories with his wife's sister?
Lets not forget the Muslim they threw out of the class for preaching to the other students and callng them sinners. He is from Somalia and works as a taxi driver for the Manchester, NH airport...the instructors think he is going to get his CDL and head for a fertilizer plant then load up on diesel and head for the airport.
Oddly enough, only 4 out of the 14 could drive and half of the class never stayed for the whole day during training. I sought out someone who was serious about it and sadly he got stuck with the crappy truck with a bent trailer axel. Needless to say he hit a cone and has to re-test in 10 days. Too bad, cause we had planned a quick trip to Canada with his company to pick up a load and turn and burn. Would have been fun as he is good company and was looking forward to putting some time in the seat before next week.  They say team driving is a lot like a marriage; if you get stuck with someone you don't like it make for a miserable trip.

Brent

[WA1GFZ]

My cousin owns his own rig so gets jobs off the net. He sold his second truck because of driver issues. My buddy had 100 trucks at one point and said most of the time 1/2 of them were parked because he couldn't get good drivers.
Good luck on the new thing! And BTW you will love those leg shots when the WX gets warmer.

[ab3al]

yeah i  can see it know 27mhz class e  whats the handle there driver.

they call me mud duck cuamawwn

[W4EWH]

(Lynn Lynn The City of Sin)

... Ya never come out the way you went in!

[W4EWH]

YAY! With driving rain and a beat up old International truck, I managed to pull it off.

Congratulations, Brent: I might try that myself!

Bill, W1AC

[WB3JOK]

I actually have a beat-up old International truck too (1987 Eagle with 42" sleeper) but no trailer... if I can find a trailer cheap to practice with, I might just go take the CDL test too 

Those descriptions of trucking school are disheartening, to say the least. Although not terribly surprising in an industry with a 120% annual turnover! All many carriers want is "meat in the seat" and that's what they're getting.

Check out the TruckNet Round Table. A VERY active, interesting site with a collection of old buzzards that rivals this one 

Drive safe.
-Charles

[W1IA]

I actually have a beat-up old International truck too (1987 Eagle with 42" sleeper) but no trailer... if I can find a trailer cheap to practice with, I might just go take the CDL test too 

Those descriptions of trucking school are disheartening, to say the least. Although not terribly surprising in an industry with a 120% annual turnover! All many carriers want is "meat in the seat" and that's what they're getting.

Check out the TruckNet Round Table. A VERY active, interesting site with a collection of old buzzards that rivals this one 

Drive safe.
-Charles

Amazingly enough the turn over is 125% We had 3 companies recruiting when I was in school..Swift, Werner and US Express. They are seriously short on drivers. Many mom & pops went out of business when diesel prices went out of site. They picked up all the contracts. The big firms buy diesel at wholesale giving them a huge advantage. A rookie driver will start at 35k and teams will make up to 80k a year to start.
Its a rigorous schedule, with an average of 2500 miles a week for teams. I think I could do it for a short time. Typical schedule is 11 to 17 days on with 2 days off..Phew!

I hope you can pick up a trailer Charles. I am not interested in a career driving so much as operating heavy equipment. As I said before if I can't find a job with heavy equip. I may drive for 6 months to a year.

GL Brent

[Opcom]

yeah i  can see it know 27mhz class e  whats the handle there driver.

they call me mud duck cuamawwn

that is funny. Someone with a big radio kept repeating "drop the maul" over and over and woudln't shut up today on the CB as I was heading home. Full moon today so the nuts are out.. I gave him 8 pills and told him to call the doctor. He quit because after that, all the other operators out there started cat-calling him re his pw little radio, telling him he should throw that junk out the window and go on down the road, etc.. hah. I figure it was a newbie with a 2-transistor leenyar, or mybe a cranked up export model.

[k4kyv]

People still use CB?

[W1DAN]

Brent:

Good luck!!

Bring at least a SW rx.

73,
Dan
W1DAN

[n1bnc]

Hey Brent!

Congrats on the CDL-A. I got mine almost 2 years ago. I drove for Swift for a bit, but my wife was melting down with my continous absences. One thing that rang true from day one was the complete NFW!!! of being locked up in a rolling 1 room apartment with the wife. I hope Colleen will adjust accordingly.

Some amusing things happen on highways, ask me about running over laundry in PA!

Now that you are doing the heavy equipment, we will have to keep you in mind when it comes to crane use!

Congrats too on the weight loss!

Happy Happy!

[Opcom]

People still use CB?

sure.
Truckers all use it to find out how far to a truck stop, rest stop, where is smokey?, where is a good place to eat, chit chat, and directions/local information. it's a hoot in the daily rush hour traffic on I-35 in Dallas.

Every big city also has its base stations with illegal amps and big beams or just a vertical Antron A-99, all trying to key up on each other, and also there are many Mexicans here with base stations who bootleg in or out of the band on SSB to talk skip to their friends back home. Before he died, the guy across the street from me had a 3000 watt (that's "Bird watts") linear amp with three 4-400's in it running about 4500V in grounded grid which was made/slopped together in a very ugly fashion from a 'big' heathkit amp that used a separate power suppply. He used to eventually melt holes in the anodes. That was driven by a heath amp with four 811's, which was driven by a Globe Champion 300A in AM mode.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

No. CBers use CB.

People still use CB?

[WA1GFZ]

Hey Brent
It takes some real BAs to get out there and do something new. 

[Opcom]

CB is AM.
The only difference between CB and 2 meters is the frequency and type of modulation.

[WB2YGF]

CB is AM.
The only difference between CB and 2 meters is the frequency and type of modulation.

Really? I wasn't aware CB handled communications for the OEM and the Red Cross. 

[Opcom]

It doesn't. Not intended to. I hope you did not think either that 2M FM promptly handles important highway traffic for travelers 24x7 with good depth of first hand information.

The similarities between the behavior on CB and the behavior on 2M FM cannot be dismissed by comparing the types of serivce they are intended for.

Maybe the daily 2M FM traffic is exciting and interesting in your location, but it's boring and also rather devoid of technical discussion here. There are people who have been on it for years here that have no earthly idea how a radio even works. I quit listening to it several years ago because it was just boring.. I could not find anyone who wanted to talk about technical stuff. It's not challenging because of the repeaters. 2M SSB might be, but I don't care too much for it. I'd rather try 6M AM for a challenge.

I've had the 2M rig in the car out on the Texas highways for hours at a time and called every 30 minutes or so, only to hear nothing from other travelers, and I saw quite a few dual band whips go by.. Was not too interested in hitting repeaters. Not too interested in ephemeral contacts, more interested in fellow travelers. I yanked the 2M rig out and the IC-706 will probably go back in its place some day since it has more bands.

There are true similarities no one can deny:
2M has some questionably all-too-colorful characters on it, people we wish would just go away, like CB
2M has people that key the rig and curse and make noises and play bad music, like CB
2M has people that turn on the amplifier and stomp on the band (typically a mobile jamming the repeater) when they get mad, like CB.
2M has the occasional funny or tawdry stories, like CB. But the truckers on CB usually have better tales to tell.

In short, I think 2M has alot of CBers on it.

So they are alot alike, at least here.
I believe 2M FM is the most commonly used and abused ham band+mode (by numbers) but I could be wrong.

The only thing I keep 2M rigs for is the one redeeming service for which it is ubiquitous, local civil emergency use. The local clubs are strong in this respect. Unfortunately I don't get to use it much for that because during any real emergencies I am operating on military frequencies and only occasionally get the chance to talk to the amateur operators if I have traffic for the red cross or the like. Other than to the red cross and civil shelter manager and any LEOs assgned to that manager there, we usually talk direct to the civil authorities on their own nets. So about all I ever do with 2M FM is talk to the ham op in charge of comms for a shelter.

How to "improve" non-emergency 2M FM traffic quality in Dallas so that I -would- like it? To de-CB-ify it? good question. Others might not like what I like. So I kindly leave it to those whom have made it the way it is and whom greatly enjoy it in its present state, and to those that rule over them. That is reasonable.

[WB2YGF]

There are true similarities no one can deny:
2M has some questionably all-too-colorful characters on it, people we wish would just go away, like CB
2M has people that key the rig and curse and make noises and play bad music, like CB
2M has people that turn on the amplifier and stomp on the band (typically a mobile jamming the repeater) when they get mad, like CB.
2M has the occasional funny or tawdry stories, like CB. But the truckers on CB usually have better tales to tell.

In short, I think 2M has alot of CBers on it.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's I used to hear some of that kind of stuff on 2M and it depended more on the particular repeater.  Some were policed better than others and some were more attractive to jammers and jokers for whatever reason.

Lately, I don't hear much of anything on 2M.  There is a dearth of activity, even during the commute.  (I guess even the jammers are bored.)  Ironically, I have heard more bad behavior lately on 20M and 75M than on 2M.  I actually heard about 5 minutes of a Chicken Man radio episode intentionally broadcast on 75 AM last Sunday - not by a jammer, but by an ID'ing HAM. I have NEVER heard anything like that on 2M except for jammers.  There is more rudeness in pile-ups on 20 M than I have ever heard on 2M.

Yes, some of the chatter on 2M is boring to me, and some of the jargon hints of CB days past, but that is different than unprofessional or illegal.  I don't hold it against people if they want to talk about things that don't interest me.  OTOH, some of the newcomers have far more technical ability and enthusiasm than some of the "old timer" hams.

[Opcom]

I think it all balances out in the end. I didn't want to even open up the other can of worms of HF behavior. The coolest thing to listen to on 2M for me is the stormwatch guys. We get alot of tornados here. I'm working on getting tree limbs removed so I can put up a small tower and dipole. Up top on spars will go a couple of military discones, one for VHF-high band (108-169) and one for UHF(200-500), and also the Antron A-99 10/11M vertical- for the friday and saturday night entertainment value, being close to 4 truck stops one of which is of very ill repute.