26 mhz CB band for South America?

[De_Wildfire]

Does anyone know if South America has an official CB band on 26 MHz? I don't understand Spanish. When I listen down there, there is one frequency that sounds like our channel 19 with everyone keying up on each other. Is this free band or CB band for South America?

[Windwalker]

In Latin America, the lower frequencies in the 25 MHz and 26 MHz bands are popular for taxi cab companies, trucking companies, delivery services etc. During serious band openings you can often hear signals every 10 kHz from 25.615 MHz all the way up to 26.965 MHz (CB channel 1).

[De_Wildfire]

Very interesting. Thanks

[MDYoungblood]

You can listen but be careful if you transmit as portions of the 24, 25, 26mhz along with a few in the 27mhz range and above the ham 10m band are allocated for military use in the USA, granted you probably won't here them but they could be monitoring those bands when playing games.

I rarely go below 26.915 or above 27.555.

3's

Greg

[Windwalker]

I do travel between 24.5 up to 30.1 but it is not common for me. I generally stay just below CBRS frequencies and go to 30.1. There are a few reasons why but the main one is my antenna being for 10 - 11 meters. The SWR just goes too high in the other areas. Further the space between CBRS and 10 meters is illegal so I just listen. In effect my antenna is a 1/4 wave whip. The old tried and true...

[De_Wildfire]

I stretched my Imax 2000 down to 21 MHz with a tuner and it works well for getting out of the country. There is another guy a mile from me and he is doing the same on his A99. With this solar cycle up, it helps. Yes, a tuner is a compromise but if it gets a signal across the pond, why not if you have a ticket for it? On the iMAX 2000, I didn't think it was going to work on 21 mhz but I I got an unexpected surprise. I just like tinkering around with stuff like this just to go against the grain. Lol.

[Windwalker]

Tuners are an excellent tool for multiband use. One could almost justify the use of one just to go from freeband in the 11 meters up to 10 meters. The swr changes drastically even with multiband antennas.

[De_Wildfire]

Yes, true even with multi band wire antennas. I enjoy the hex beam though, I can plug right into the radio and have a flat SWR from 20 to two meters with a short run of feedline. It's great in a contest switching bands fast. Now back to the iMax 2000, I left it tuned to 11 meters where it is supposed to be and run the tuner on 10 meters to talk to all the locals and any skip that comes in there too.