‘Changing channels…’ revisiting the citizens’ band

My “Exit Only” column in ema href=”http://truckersnews.com/”Truckers News/a /emOctober edition profiled ham radio operator/truck driver Abed Melek Selase, Delaware-based long-haul driver for Metropolitan Trucking, who’s been on something of a mission to rescue the CB from what many are calling its growing obsolescence, at best, in the age of cell phones and internet. At worst, detractors fault not the technology itself but the people using it, calling CB channel 19 an overcrowded, expletives-laden cesspool not worth usingem./embr /br /Is the CB becoming obsolete? “No way!” says Selase, who still views it as the absolute best tool a trucker can have in a roadway emergency. Selase’s gone to great lengths to research and designate in an elaborate system various, lesser-used channels for Ch19 alternates. You can read the rest of my story about him in the emTruckers News/em digital version a href=”http://digitalmagazinetechnology.com/a/?KEY=truckersnews-09-10october#page=93″here/a. And for the particulars of what he’s talking about, Selase was kind enough to forward me the following chart, which breaks down his system for helping truckers speaking foreign languages and other CB users find their best channel for information and safety. If you’re having trouble reading the image scan below, click the image for larger text or email me and I’ll send you a copy: tdills at rrpub dot com.br /a href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ez6JTnOl_tQ/SuG4D0eOOdI/AAAAAAAAAcs/C2cbTzDsYuQ/s1600-h/Int%27l+Cb+Channels+U+S+A.jpg”img style=”MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 382px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 488px; CURSOR: hand” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395796204331088338″ border=”0″ alt=”” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ez6JTnOl_tQ/SuG4D0eOOdI/AAAAAAAAAcs/C2cbTzDsYuQ/s400/Int%27l+Cb+Channels+U+S+A.jpg” //abr /emshare:/embr /a onclick=”window.open(‘http://digg.com/submit?phase=2amp;url=’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+’amp;title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title), ‘digg’); return false;” href=”http://digg.com/submit”Digg/abr /a onclick=”window.open(‘http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=’+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+’amp;title=’+encodeURIComponent(document.title),’facebook’); return false;” href=”http://www.facebook.com/share.php”facebook/adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”Channel 19 is the blog version of the column of the same name featured in Overdrive: The Voice of the American Trucker. Todd Dills ([email protected]) is its author./div