You can't substitute words when quoting the law. Part 95 doesn't say "either" it says "or." Your interpretation could be right or wrong. Do you get to pick one or must you comply with both? I'm not a lawyer.
No one's going to notice and I don't really care. Normally I wouldn't bring it up, but the guy I was talking to takes pride in operating a legal station. I respect him for it but it's not my style.
I have no real problems with more power, It is just the last thing on my list. Cb is mostly line of site. I have a hills about 5 miles out around be, that really kill my signal. I still get over them for sure, but it knocks my signal way down for sure. My time , and money to m is best spent in getting some height and good antenna work. I can talk to most of the people I hear. More power won't make me hear any better I presume. Power for skip is really not needed. I get out, yes I have to work a bit, but if skip is on I get out 1500 miles fine, mother nature does the work. My battle on skip is other peoples amps, always gonna be somebody with bigger amps. So I don't need it for skip. I know a guy who runs like close to a kilowatt of amp, I asked to see his antenna, it was inside a cedar tree in the front yard, 20 feet off the ground. I am sure there will come a day when an amp will fall into my kit in one of my horse trades. I am sure I will tune one of my radios and give it a ride It just is not on my list of things to get done right now. I look at spending the money on amps, and I think, I could use that 2 set up a couple buddies, or buy another ssb radio or 2. Or get my antenna up another 20 feet. If an amp would improve my receive as much as my send I would be at the counter. I do think that power has had a negative effect on cb radio. Not because of the power, but the use of it. There on or off, most of the time the power used is not required, an extra 10 watts would do the job, or 20, but nope, it's a kilowatt thrown at the problem, and now the guy is bleeding into 2 states, one province, and 4 channels. The nice thing about legal power is if you can hear a station you can hit that station. With amps you hear an amped station, but he can't hear your stock watts. So I would prefer a world where everyone had similar power. That is a well designed idea. But not the reality. I am lucky where I live. There is not one local using an amp. None. There is one 100 miles away, he stays put on one channel, and is not on much. So if I hear a local I know I can reach out. The bigger problem is there are not many locals. So yes an amp would help me reach out, but there is nobody I can hear except the one big amp 100 miles away. I hear lots of guys when the skip is in, and I get to somebody on the skip on my stock radio. No not in an instant , I call for 20 mins sometimes. This is just part of the fun. I enjoy doing this on a stock radio, there is satisfaction in telling my contact 1500 miles away I am 12 watts on a home made antenna. So an amp does not seem to offer me much. I have no urge to cock fight on the super-bowl. The super-bowl here on 6 am, is nonsense. Truly some very disturbed people in the world. So the skip went out yesterday. all my channels are just hiss. A few trucks on 19 and 20, and then on lsb 38 I pick up a stock radio , 30 klicks out, we chat for 15 mins, the air is ours, no competition, I can just hear him well enough with the headphones on, but we get by. Would it help if I could blast him with a big signal, nope. So an amp would be good if I had lots of other amped locals 100 miles out , I just don't. So in short an amp doesn't really do much for my situation. I want to set up some buddies, and encourage local cb, and for now, I will encourage them to stick to the same power. I think in many ways I am luck to live where I live. It would be frustrating for sure to be surrounded by big amps with lots of traffic on the air. I live in the boonies, more than an hour to any small city. So for now no amp required. I guess the question I would ask is; If everybody could turn off all the amps and run stock power, would that make your radio experience better. Would you vote for a world where everybody had the same power? Well right now that is the world I live in. I like it. I would like to encourage my locals to keep that, because some nights I hear what the alternative is, rolling in on skip. I can't say it is working well. So stock right now works where I live. I ope it stays that way, ya a long post, but just might be of interest to somebody. I am lucky to live where I live. I like stock radio. I hope that doesn't change. 73's
