+New England n00b Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I remember (barely) when CB radio was a huge craze in the 70's. Everyone had to have one, and talked in CB code all the time. The craze literally exploded onto the scene with the advent of cheap CB technology. Nowadays, CB's are rarely used by anyone outside the trucking industry, and I'm not even sure THEY use it all that much anymore. My question: is gecocaching subject to the same fate? I hear that the hobby is exploding (indeed, I have just recently begun it myself) and it's followers number in the hundreds of thousands. When the CB craze died, it died FAST. Manufacturers were left with warehouses full of radios that became very hard to sell. They had built up stock to meet projected needs, then *poof* the market dried up. I certainly hope this does not happen to GPS mfgrs, but they say history repeats itself. Personally, I'm in it for the outdoors. The geocache is an incentive to find new trails and have a community with whom I can express my fondness for nature (that'd be youz). I know I'm doing it for the long haul, as I have certain hiking goals I intend to meet, some of which involve the Appalachian Trail (not in a GC capacity). But I still love having access to information about local trails that I had been oblivious to. Thoughts? --------------------- Don't hurt me. I'm new here. Quote Link to comment
+Bilder Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 There is more variety to geocaching than CB. I think it will be around for awhile. Geocaching has more going for it than sitting in a car and talking like a trucker. CB is not totally dead. Turn one on and listen to channels 14-17. They are pretty active still in many areas of the country. The fad wore off, but CB is still used. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have never been lost. Been awful confused for a few days, but never lost! N61.12.041 W149.43.734 Quote Link to comment
+Greenback Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I certainly considered it a fad when I started. Actually I figured that virtual caches were the future as I did and still do expect more and more government imposed rules and regulations to prevent us from hiding caches in parks and preserves. Are the GMRS radio channels 14-17 the same as the CB channels? I've run my GMRS on scan and rarely hear anyone at all. I've had it on frequently in and around Chicago IL. where I'd expect there to be more chatter. Quote Link to comment
+New England n00b Posted September 17, 2003 Author Share Posted September 17, 2003 quote: did and still do expect more and more government imposed rules and regulations to prevent us from hiding caches in parks and preserves That's a sad thought for a poor n00b like me. As far as GMRS vs CB: GMRS uses 462.xxxx MHz (source) CB uses 26.xxx to 27.xxx MHz (source) So nope, not the same. --------------------- Don't hurt me. I'm new here. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I don't see geocaching catching on like CB's did. There were hundreds of thousands, if not millions of CB's sold. The growth of this sport has been dramatic. My last cache submission had a number in the 97,000's I think. I doubt any of the pioneers in this sport ever dreamed it would catch on like that. But the growth will level out when most people who would be interested in it already know about it...and that is a relatively small number of people. I think we've all found that for every 1 person we describe this sport to who thinks its a fascinating idea, 10 will give you this glazed look. Geocaching may go more the way of tennis. Anybody who played tennis in the 70's and very early 80's remembers long waits, or reservations required for courts and you had exactly 1 hour. If you went 1 minute over you'd hear about it from those who were waiting. Today, though many people still play, you see empty courts all over the place. "You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm Quote Link to comment
+Sissy-n-CR Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Maybe, it's the region I live in but I see CB's all over the place. Truckers still use it regularly, too. The craze back then might have been a result of the movies like Smoke and the Bandit and songs of C.W. McCall's Convoy. Unlike FRS, you can't get on a CB today and not hear somebody somewhere around. So I don't think caching has grabbed the attention of enough people or seen the growth like CBing did to be the next big craze. One thing about fads, it's a way to show off to your friends and garner status. Caching is more of a hidden sport, I don't think it's the same. CR Quote Link to comment
+Doc-Dean Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 CB's were around before the CB craze and they are still around long after the craze... If the same happens with Geocaching, it will still survive... --------------------------------------------------- Free your mind and the rest will follow Quote Link to comment
OuttaHand Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I think another big difference between the CB craze and geocaching is the physical activity. CB caught on big & fast because all you had to do was buy & set up a radio. From that point you just had to sit, listen, and talk. It was EASY. And because it was so easy, it got just as boring. Geocaching is not easy. It takes som brains, some commitment, and some physical exertion. Once you get into it, you are far less likely to get bored as with CB. I think Geocaching will level off and maintain a pretty healthy following. Quote Link to comment
+Criminal Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 When geocaching dies, it will not be from without, but from within. It will not die completely, but geocaching as we know it will be truly dead. It will be reincarnated as an overregulated vanilla version of what we now know as Virtual or Locationless geocaching. Many of us who chose to support the site for no other reason than that we believed in it will, as I will next renewal, chose not to support it. Some, who have centered their entire lives on geocaching, will weep and gnash their teeth. Jeremy will scratch his head in wonderment until he figures out how to put the word “customer” and “service” into the same sentence. It may very well be too late by then though. Just MHO! http://fp1.centurytel.net/Criminal_Page/ Quote Link to comment
TheMCP Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 CB could actually be a lot of fun, and it wasn't all truckers, not by a longshot. When I was 13 my father gave me his CB radio because he couldn't figure out where the heck to mount it in his new car. So, I got a power adapter for it and stuck the antenna out my window, and poof, I was on the air. I discovered a whole local community of radio people I had never imagined, and made many friends... including the husband of a teacher from school, a couple in their 80's, a few kids from the community college, an old high school friend of my father who turned out to be a distant cousin by marriage, and even a kid from my school that I didn't actually know. On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog, and on CB nobody knows you're 13 until they meet you. I met everyone, and my social life became rich and interesting. I'm still friends with some of these people. Others have, sadly, passed away, but my life is better for having known them. But then, the sunspot cycle changed and the radio waves became overcrowded with noise. Also, powerful (and illegal) transmission power amplifiers became widespread and the idiots using them ruined the airwaves for hundreds of miles around them. The noise level from it all was so high, in order to not have constant noise coming out of the radio on every channel, I had to turn the squelch up so high that it would never receive *anything*. I found out the hard way that the FCC was totally uninterested in enforcing the law and keeping the frequencies useable... they basically told me "too bad kid, it's CB, we don't have time to do anything about that, what did you expect?" And *that's* when serious community interest in CB died off, as the people who really cared about it all finally gave up, went and got our amateur radio licenses, and moved off of CB to the 2 meter ham radio band. Quote Link to comment
+Confucius' Cat Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I got into CB, as a kid, a few years before the CB craze of the 70's. I was truly fascinated that a person could talk a few miles without wires. That fascination quickly died when I tried to use CB to actually communicate and found the discourtesy and blatent lawbreaking made it worthless. Many dropped CB for those reasons. I was one of them, but I discovered ham and commercial radio. As much as I detest CB, I have to admit that it got me started on the road to my present carreer in two-way radio with the #1 land mobile manufacturer in the world. It is easy to get over the amazement that a box can be hidden and (potentially) millions of people told where to find it and it might still be there for a long time. That was what the preliminary draw of the sport was for me. But then it became more than that and I truly enjoy exploring and the new excuse geocaching gives me to go "take a hike". The "new" will wear off geocaching for many, but for many others it will lead to more fulfilling activities in related endeavours and even if they do not actually cache any longer, they will owe their new found activity to the geocaching experience. "Freedom is a two-way street." GDAE, Dave Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Geocaching fits well with a lot of lifestyles. The height of passion may come and go but the hobby will remain for most of us at some level for a long time. It's here to stay. Maybe I should make a cache for all my pet rocks. Quote Link to comment
Swagger Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 10-9? I'm 10-1. -- Pehmva! Random quote: Quote Link to comment
+Etrex Pirate Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 "But then, the sunspot cycle changed and the radio waves became overcrowded with noise. Also, powerful (and illegal) transmission power amplifiers became widespread and the idiots using them ruined the airwaves for hundreds of miles around them. The noise level from it all was so high, in order to not have constant noise coming out of the radio on every channel, I had to turn the squelch up so high that it would never receive *anything*. " 1st post here and I topped using a CB when this occurred. I actively perused a game called “T Hunting” about 10 years ago which was very much like geocaching and consisted of finding another CB’er through triangulation. The Cache was a CB with the mike locked down usually somewhere off road within 20 miles or so and we would use the strength meters of the signal on our CB and triangulate the signal to find the person that was hiding. It was not as sophisticated as a geocache but the same principal. I read about geocaching about 2 years ago and the cost of a GPS unit was high and there weren’t very many caches. I’m glad I looked it up a few weeks ago and saw how much it’s grown. I had bought a basic Etrex and had a lot of fun but it died. I returned it and bought an Etrex Vista, which I received today. I hope to have fun finding caches for quite a while and place my own soon. Quote Link to comment
+Searching_ut Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Hmmm, I don’t really see a correlation between CB’s and geocaching, other than maybe the Forums. I’m not sure the craze of anonymous chat using handles really died out, it just changed venues a little. As I recall, the computer BBS’s and up starting Usenet sort of took over, followed many years latter by the good old Web forums, and assorted internet chat methods. Whatever the means, the chat does seem to kill itself off periodically due to stupidity, obnoxiousness etc., which seems to take over fairly quickly in any of the un-moderated types of forum. It seems to find a place to move on too fairly quickly however. As for geocaching itself, it’s hard to say if it will last or not. For many, it seems to be something fun for a while; at least until they get reasonably good at it to where it starts loosing it’s challenge. For others it’s seems to be an almost obsession, or way of life that only seems to get more fun with time. If as others have suggested, geocaching turns into primarily a virtual thing, then I’d say it’s run its course and will die. There are already numerous other outlets for POI type data, or guides of scenic areas. I personally can’t see where all that many would care to “log” that they’ve been to specific parks, or monuments etc. I guess only time will tell….. [This message was edited by Searching_ut on September 19, 2003 at 01:00 AM.] Quote Link to comment
+bigredmed Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Greenback:I certainly considered it a fad when I started. Actually I figured that virtual caches were the future as I did and still do expect more and more government imposed rules and regulations to prevent us from hiding caches in parks and preserves. Are the GMRS radio channels 14-17 the same as the CB channels? I've run my GMRS on scan and rarely hear anyone at all. I've had it on frequently in and around Chicago IL. where I'd expect there to be more chatter. Virts may be what we are limited to in certain areas. That would be a bad thing. CB's and GMRS are different frequencies. _____________ "Half this game is ninety percent mental." Danny Ozark Quote Link to comment
Zaphod Beeblebrox Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Is Geocaching the CB of the 00's? Nope. CB radio, though neglected, is still with us. But in 25 years, geocaching will have been outlawed everywhere because the problem of abandoned caches/geolitter was ignored by the proponents of the game. Quote Link to comment
+Team Og Rof A Klaw Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Tell ya what... let's stay below the radar. The last thing we need is some pinstriped beltway bandit concocting 500 pages of addlepated regulations on us. ____________________________ - Team Og Rof A Klaw All who wander are not lost. Quote Link to comment
ju66l3r Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by ChurchCampDave: found the discourtesy and blatent lawbreaking made it worthless. WhatWhatWHAT?? The discourtesy and blatent lawbreaking is the #1 and #2 (irrespectively) reasons I still use the CB today! But seriously, my dad had one in his car when I was growing up. Pre-cell phones, this was the way my parents could organize dinner, kids' sports, daycare, etc in the car before getting all the way home and not wanting to get back up and go out again. My dad still carries one, because it's amazing how helpful most truckers are when you're all hundreds of miles from home and looking for a little info (food, hotel, exit #, detour around traffic, etc). Its use as an emergency device (you used to be able to contact every cop in a 5 mile radius on Channel 9) is useless now. There are few if ANY "reacts" (people monitoring Ch 9 with CB base stations in their homes and a land-line phone to call the police for you). But the CB lives on as a way for me to: -Slow down in time for speed traps on my way down the highway -Help trucks get around slower moving vehicles and merge in construction -Pass the 8 hours between Boston and Baltimore when I'm heading home solo -Get around traffic jams by alternate routes The CB is still WIDELY used in trucking (not every cabin comes with a built-in computer these days) and I occasionally see an antenna on a truck or SUV (but there's a definite gradient that intensifies the further SE you go). It's funny too, because it makes my little Celica look like an R/C car when I put the whip antenna up on my trunk. Quote Link to comment
+graewulf Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 i think geocaching, like CBs will continue to be very popular... I see CBs on quite a few vehicles here in NJ... and any serious off-roader has a CB in their rig... we use them on every trail ride we do, and are getting more & more people interested in them at the same time.. sure, geocaching will explode then slump, then it will level out and be more like it was in the beginning - once th fad wears off, the serious people will still enjoy it. Quote Link to comment
Zaphod Beeblebrox Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Graewulf and Bug:i think geocaching, like CBs will continue to be very popular...sure, geocaching will explode then slump, then it will level out and be more like it was in the beginning - once th fad wears off, the serious people will still enjoy it. I think if you research how many of the "serious people" of one, two, and close to three years ago who remain active you will be struck at the number of "diehard cachers" who get disgusted and walk away every time there's a new wave of people joining or major change to the game. Original "diehards" are very few. Quote Link to comment
Cholo Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 I see similarities between the old CB community and the forums. We even seem to have a new breed of 'coax cutters' running around here now. Quote Link to comment
+Brian - Team A.I. Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Cruzin!:10-9? I'm 10-1. -- Pehmva! Random quote: http://sthomas.net/sigimage.php Why should I repeat because you're unreadable? Isn't that a conflict of sorts if I'm replying to your message? Brian Team A.I. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.