It actually amazes me that somebody gets a WARNING NOTICE or Citation and declares (according to HIS interpretation) that so-called "10 Meter" radios that LOOK like a CB, have
channels like a CB, are
marketed in CB shops TO CBers are legal to sell: He will CONTINUE to sell them!
I mean, he's got a document in HAND that says he is to STOP selling the product(s), the FCC IS the regulatory authority in the US, and when one bows up his back and keeps ON committing the illegal acts he's been TOLD to stop, he is just ASKING for it!!!!:drool:
This one isn't the ONLY one, either! There's a list of dealers who have already been warned, cited, or even FINED! Yet, they keep ON in pure defiance of the law, thumbing their noses at the old Fox Candy Company.
Yes, the FCC is short-funded. Yes, CB enforcement is not the top priority now and they try to avoid devoting resources to it. But, sooner or later, these dealers WILL get noticed. If they IGNORE previous letters, they will get noticed AGAIN with a fine of 7, 10, 20---even $100,000! (Like Ramko Distributors and Pilot Travel Centers).
Finally, the dealers and builders actually have brought this on THEMSELVES. If they had designed the radios so that
when they were converted to CB, they wouldn't work on 28 MHZ (10 Meters) or vice versa.
IOW, one band or the other, but not BOTH!! Once they were converted to 11 Meters, they would not WORK on the 10 Meter band. This would have kept the hams from going into hyper-drive and "ratting" out the outlaws that were showing up on 10 Meters where they don't belong. Yet there was/is the attractive, but illegal, feature of "extra" channels that was part of the lure of these radios AND a selling feature. Then, tho, if these radios had been fixed so they could not work ON 10 Meters, the FCC would been a lot slower to react to the use of them on CB. I mean, how often do you hear of somebody getting busted over their use of a ham transceiver on CB IF that is the ONLY offense being committed? Not often. With the CB "clone" radios, the users flip their "band" switches up to what they think is a 'quiet" channel, the hams hear them up there, have a hissy fit and in a flash, they're on the phone to FCC !!!!
And the beat goes on................................................................
CWM