Speaking Of Chicken Band..

Along with my Yaesu FTM-400 Amateur radio, I also have a Cobra CB used mainly for my long cross country drives. I sometimes listen to what the Truckers are talking about in traffic delays, border crossings, or toll plazas. What I struggle with, and nobody seems to have an answer for; why is it do some CB users have stupid reverb (echo) on their audio? It's bad enough trying to understand the weird southern/bayou/inarticulate/distorted-audio persona and accent that some CB operators use, but with the echo I can't make out what the Hell they're saying.

They've been using that reverb for years, just like some ham AMers on 75 meters used to back in the '70s and '80s, but not quite to the extent that CBers do. Source of pride, I guess.

They think it sounds cool, I guess. I always hated hearing that on CB. Still do whenever I tune aorund the CB band on my SW radios.... I don't hear it quite so much on the sideband frequencies, though.

The roger beep never bothered me, if it was a single beep. Used to hear that when DXing SSB.

The simple answer is they do it because they think it sounds cool, and sometimes is does sound kind of cool. The problem is that if you don't have talkback, you can't adjust your echo to a level where people can understand you. I have an export 10 meter/CB radio in my car, and it has echo and a roger beep. I generally have a faint hint of a hallway echo in the background... but again, I tuned it to where I thought it sounded good. Is it legal? No, but it gives me a unique sound which is what I want.