Comments By Paul J.

Funny story:

A couple weeks back I was crossing into Canada. They did an inspection of my truck. While I was sitting in the office waiting, 2 border agents came in, pulled me into a small windowless room and proceeded to pat me down and search my jacket. They asked where my firearm was and I said it was at home in my safe.

Turns out I had inadvertently packed my holster in my luggage and they found it. I can only imagine what they must have been thinking: "Empty holster... Middle eastern guy with a full beard and thick, heavy jacket inside the building..."

So at first they didn't believe me, but after a much more thorough search and questioning, they finally let me go.

Moral of the story? Even having an empty holster in a truck is a bad idea, let alone an actual firearm!

Reminds me back many moons ago when I was in the Air Force at a small Guard Base outside of Lowry AFB, (you'll know it if you've ever seen the giant golf balls to the East of Denver) and we were on the Air National Guard base and inside a more secure fenced in area that required active duty security to monitor it.

Anywho, truck with sleep pulls up with trailer, they ask a few questions and decide to search his cab. In a 5 gallon bucket full of rags they found a double barrel 12ga shotgun. Then they heard a womans voice from the sleeper say "What's going on? I was sleeping good."

They called the local ANG Cops, told them what they found (He'd already gone through their gate) and then called the fed cops to haul him away. Last I heard he has a room in the SuperMax for a nice long stay.

We had another trucker that couldn't get into the secure area so he parks his rig on the perimeter road, gets out of his cab and walks over to the fence and starts hitting it and hollering for someone to let him in. Fence had sensors in the ground on both side and before he could hit the fence more than 3 times, a cute female AF Guard had him face down in the Prairie Dog holes telling him "DO NOT MOVE!" He didn't move.. Probably the only smart thing he did that day.

Words of advice, if you don't see a way in to a secure area, take your truck away from that area and call your dispatcher. Those AG Guards are guarding nuclear weapons, cruise missiles, and lots of other things that leave big holes.

Don't pull up to the gate and demand they let you in.. It won't happen.

I was just thinking that guy in the passenger seat looked familiar, then Errol replied and that nailed it..

Just did a quick check over at the TSA.GOV website, and it states that eligibility is for Naturalized Citizens, U.S. Citizens, and Lawful Permenant Resident (I-551, commonly known as a green card).

So you're better off running for the president of the United States than trying to get a Hazmat Endorsement??

I don't think the current president we have now ever did show his birth certificate..

Rainy, you did give me a good chuckle. I remember having days very similar to that when I was going through my rookie year. It keeps life interesting anyway, and it's always a good thing when we can laugh at ourselves. Your doing a great job!

Picturing Old School with his arm all twisted up in his bra strap.. Now that's funny.... in a sick kind of way but hey, to each their own.

What happens in your sleeper, stays in your sleeper.

I'm not a recruiter or anything but, have you thought about joining the Army and being a truck driver for 4 years? Then when you get out, you get your school benefits that would put you through a trucking school, and quite possibly you'd already have your cdl from your Army career. My sone is in the Air Force and they needed someone to driver a tractor trailer from Florida to California and back a few times, so they send him off to truck driver school. He's in Contracting for the Air Force!! He'll probably never have a need to use the license again but, what the heck, your taxes sent him to school for it.

Just make sure if you do go in a service, they GUARANTEE you a position as a truck driver. Not too much need for tank drivers on the Interstate Highways... yet.

You could always go with a ham radio after you get a ham license and work the world and the whole US of A on it. No gutter mouth talk or anything like that. Back in the days before cellaphones, my Dad had a friend whose son was an OTR trucker and he could contact him every day when he'd pull over for a break or park for his rest period.

The 2 meter band is the one primarily used by local folks and just about anywhere you travel there's a repeater or a network of repeaters. Some in the Mid West are all linked together so you could be in Arizona and talk to someone in Oregon to get an accurate weather report. When you're on your mandatory break period, you can switch to other bands once you learn which one is working best that time of the day or year and talk to people all over the world. They'll send you QSL postcards with their call signs, and other things on it, hoping you'll send one back so they can log you as a contact.

There's no more requirement for morse code on any of the bands these days. There's still the Tech class which is pretty much all 2 meter or 70cm stuff, then General which opens you up to HF and Extra which opens you up to all the available bands and frequencies available to the ham radio operator.

No fancy 'handles', your FCC license is what you use to talk with.

The tests are all on the internet. The way I passed them was to read only the correct answers, then take the test and if I saw that answer, I knew it was right no matter what the question was about. You could use the same principle for taking your CDL written part. Why try to memorize 4 different answers for braking distance when only one is correct. Memorize the correct one and move on to the next question in the pool.

There are vhf/hf radio that will cover all the bands, just need a couple of different whip antennas. If you want to work 20 meters, switch your whip to that antenna and off you go.

If you have a few other truckers you know that are ham radio operators, get them all on your own frequency and talk away the miles. There's also 146.52 which is monitors like Channel 9 is that'll get help when you need it or just allow you to make a contact before moving on to another frequency to carry on your chat.

There's a LOT of old folks out there that have ham radio shacks that are always looking for someone to talk to and share stories. They're also pretty good "Elmers" which are guys that will help you with antenna or radio problems, some of them will even get you a decent deal on a VHF/HF rig.

The mobile radio I use is an ICOM 706. Not the mk II version but one of the originals. It has a detachable faceplate so you can mount the main part of the radio in a cabinet in your rig and just mount the faceplace on your dash somewhere.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the replies....once I get my rig I will have a shop match and tune my set up to the truck....again thanks y'all

As an Amateur Extra Class radio operator, I'll throw in my two cents..

It's all about the antenna. If you want to spend money, buy a better antenna. I've got a radio that's home built (80 meters band) that is used by several amateurs on a network talking between Fairbanks and Anchorage, AK.. That's just a tad over 300 road miles. They use a long wire antenna. Their "power" comes from a 9 volt battery and it's all morse code but still, they're reaching out and touching 30x farther than the "Updated" CB will reach. Everything except your morse key and the wire will fit inside a Sucrets Tin..

As an Extra Class, I can put up a 200' tower in my yard and run up to 1500 watts. Money would be better spent on a "Yagi" antenna. Think old timey Home TV antenna only the with different sized crossing rods tuned to the frequency.

As someone else said, definitely make sure you have the SWR's as good as you can get them.

That is a worry of mine, that I will have that much trouble backing.

Everyone does. You'll have one day where you'll nail it all day long. The next day people will think Helen Keller is behind the wheel. As some here know, I drive in NYC all the time, it'll force you to have your head on a swivel and give you challenges you really don't want. The key is to be safe and never give up.

That'd be a real hoot to see a female driver with her own truck and the name Helen Keller painted on the drivers door..

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there..

Thanks for the replies. I will leave my spring assist at home then. I have a cheap one from Walmart I will take instead

If you need something you can more or less depend on when you need to use it, get yourself a Leatherman. I carry a Leatherman Wave that was given to me 15 years ago, still use it everyday. I also have a keyring size Leatherman Squirt with one of the best wire strippers I've ever used on it. Then there another Leatherman Keyring tool with no moving parts, kind of like a nice credit card tool, it's called a Leatherman 5. Take a look online at the Leatherman site and then check Amazon.com to see how much you can find it for on there and how much shipping is, should be free..

Leatherman Website

If I'm out hiking or riding my bike, I have a Camelbak backpack with a large water bladder inside and I made a pouch out of leather (Old baseball glove leather, nice and soft) and sewed it to the lower part that rides against my back. That way I can just reach behind my back and pull it right out.

The Army is issuing Mut's to most of their troops.

Friends don't let friends use Gerbers.

On the subject of Sleep Apnea and CPAP's, what if I bring my own machine? I've been using one for about 10 years now, got the mask and everything.

If I walk in telling them I have this, will they still require me to do the whole study? Trying to sleep with more wires in your head than R2D2 ain't easy even if you don't have sleep apnea..