What would be the reaction if Hams used 11m legally using their calls.

[BC Coyote]

I don't like what happened to CB when the craze hit. It went down hill fast.
KEY-6323

That was in 1975 ! That was almost a half century ago. There's no going back now that's for sure.........

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

I was 3 years old. My priorities were a lot different back then........

 

[Florida Starduster]

That was in 1975 ! That was almost a half century ago. There's no going back now that's for sure.........

The only way would be for the FCC to get lots of money and gonads. Bring back the same license and enforce it's use. I would love it!

 

[BC Coyote]

The only way would be for the FCC to get lots of money and gonads. Bring back the same license and enforce it's use. I would love it!

That will never happen. The FCC gave up on CB and nearby frequencies way back in the early 1980's and there has been very little enforcement since then, and pretty much none at all since around 2000. The FCC (and their equivalents in other nations) have a small budget, not enough agents, and much bigger fish to fry than overzealous CB'ers.

The thing is, the 11 meter band has pretty much zero commercial value. That's the only reason CB still exists today ! If the band could be auctioned off and used for cellular or wifi or business radios or whatever, the FCC would have done that years ago and CB would no longer be with us. It only continues to exist because nobody else wants these frequencies. And that is the case worldwide..........

The CB craze came and went 50 years ago and CB in 2024 is pretty much an anachronism that only a very tiny percentage of the public is even aware exists. We live in the age of 5G, widespread internet, and satellite communication.
CB is fun, but us folks that use it are pretty much like the holdouts who were still riding horses in 1930, when everybody else was in a car !

 

[wildchild455]

That will never happen. The FCC gave up on CB and nearby frequencies way back in the early 1980's and there has been very little enforcement since then, and pretty much none at all since around 2000. The FCC (and their equivalents in other nations) have a small budget, not enough agents, and much bigger fish to fry than overzealous CB'ers.

The thing is, the 11 meter band has pretty much zero commercial value. That's the only reason CB still exists today ! If the band could be auctioned off and used for cellular or wifi or business radios or whatever, the FCC would have done that years ago and CB would no longer be with us. It only continues to exist because nobody else wants these frequencies. And that is the case worldwide..........

The CB craze came and went 50 years ago and CB in 2024 is pretty much an anachronism that only a very tiny percentage of the public is even aware exists. We live in the age of 5G, widespread internet, and satellite communication.
CB is fun, but us folks that use it are pretty much like the holdouts who were still riding horses in 1930, when everybody else was in a car !

Didnt under Reagan cut a lot of funding and man power for the FCC during that time was one of the reasons that turned CB loose ?

 

[BC Coyote]

Didnt under Reagan cut a lot of funding and man power for the FCC during that time was one of the reasons that turned CB loose ?

That was part of it was federal budget cuts at the time. But the bigger issue is that the FCC was overwhelmed by the sheer number of CB license applications that were pouring in starting around 1975 or 1976. It rapidly got to the point where the fees collected came nowhere near the costs associated with processing tens of thousands of applications. So the CB license went away and it's pretty much been a free-for-all ever since.
Similar situations occured in many other countries around the same time. Today, in most of the many many countries that use the band, CB is license-free, and in most of the rest it's just a simple 'license for a fee' arrangement.