Ten-Four, Over!

October 4th marks National CB Radio Day (10th month/4th day, 10-4… get it?) and here at Nova Communications, our inner voices are screaming Dukes of Hazard. For everyone who grew up watching Bo and Luke race around in their Dodge Charger, you will recall the boys constantly using their CB radio to evade the corrupt commissioner, Boss Hogg. You will also recall picking up your own CB radio and pretending you’re the one putting a stop to Boss Hogg’s crooked schemes (or was that just me?). Regardless of who you were pretending to be when handling your CB radio, we can all admit that it feels cool to say “10-4”. While Nova’s extensive product lines don’t offer CB radios today, we still have an immense appreciation for the 1970’s fad that started it all.

Considering some of you didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing the inception of the Duke boys, you may not even know what a CB radio is, so let us provide some insights. The CB radio is a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of about 40 channels. Like many other two way radio services, CB channels are shared by multiple users and only one station can transmit at a time. This is why it’s customary to use the term “break” to signal the end of a conversation by one user so another user can occupy the channel.

This national day was brought to us by the former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, in 1978 to recognize Citizens Band (CB) radio for their growing use as an emergency communications system. The FCC officially issued channel 9 for emergency services to monitor community alerts of emergency situations, making the CB radio the original first-response technology. Today these radios still provide faster team communication for notifications of highway accidents, vehicle breakdowns, and lost motorists.

In the land of 21st-century communication, we’ve moved our devices from the dashboard to our pockets but CB radios will always beat out cellphones when it comes to one thing – service. We’ve all done the network dance, you know the one where you’re walking around in circles holding your phone in the air trying to get a connection. A cellphone quickly becomes useless without a network to connect to, and in the case of an emergency, a cellphone without service can have disastrous consequences. We’re not implying cellphones aren’t useful in a crisis but we are pointing out some serious technological limitations. This is why CB radios will always have a place in emergency services, giving them a reliable resource that enables them to act quickly no matter how weak the network connection is.

We feel to truly appreciate National CB Radio Day we needed to brush up on our codes beyond “10-4” so here is a list of some great CB slang we uncovered:

10-4                                                Message received

All locked up                            The weigh station is closed

What’s your 20?                      What’s your location?

Cash register                              A tollbooth

Convoy                                           A group of trucks traveling together

Feeding the bears                   Paying a ticket

Good neighbour                       Showing appreciation to another driver

Got my nightgown on            In the sleeper

Got your ears on?                     Are you listening?

Mash your motor                      Go fast

Radios have been continuously progressing since the CB, check out our online radio selector below to discover what two way communication can do for your business.

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