Getting caught illegal...

Well Grumpy, I know a guy who knows a guy who claims that is late brother-in-law knew a guy who. . .

I think your question is a legitimate one, and I sure don't know the answer. I know the FCC does have some enforcement folks around, and my GUESS is that they are busy enough with commercial stuff, that they really don't have a lot of time to worry about CB. But that is just a guess, brought on by the huge amount of illegal crap that goes on.

 

Nobody enforces anything on the CB until it interferes with non-CB frequencies operated by people important enough to justify an FCC investigation & response. When the offending party is located & identified, they are fined heavily.

As long as you ONLY operate on CB channels, though, and you don't bleed over into non-CB frequencies, and you aren't blanking out every TV in the neighborhood every time you key up, then the chances of you getting caught running a little extra power are somewhere between slim and none.

 

Pretty much what Bulldog said, but what you need to think about (and thinking does not seem to be a strong point for many folks) is that many of the mods done to a radio or aftermarket stuff is not very concerned about the quality of your transmission as far as bleed over and harmonics on other frequencies. And those are concerns and areas that can get you noticed and in trouble.

And the other thing to keep in mind is knowledge of where the frequencies for the CB band is and staying within it. In the past drivers have modified 10 meter radios for CB, but then ended up going to a nice quiet channel that was actually out of the CB band and into the CW (Morse code) section of the 10 meter band, and got lots of Ham attention and then from the FCC too.

 

Even if your knocking out your neighbors CATV services and interfering with land line phones for a block radius or more it's next to impossible to get the FCC to do anything. Unless maybe it's an election year in your county.

 

well.....ive never heard of anyone getting busted w/a modified c.b.but my neighbor(long time ago) had a set up in his house(base station)with a beam of some sorts that when he keyed the mike it came through every cordless phone,t.v.& home setup stereo system.wasn't me,some one called on this guy and they came out and removed his equiptment.not sure about any fines but he was PISSED. personally i ran a 10meter converted,70watts for over 10 years(with a 180watt kicker).it bit the dust again and im tired of fixin it so i sold it for labor trade on a 29ltd that grandpa left me.its got a connex brd,talk back,big finals.around 30watts i think.all i know is if your antenna is sh-t,you sound like sh-t.and a 8watt radio out of the box may sound ok in the store but on the road you wont be heard.

 

I had a neighbor in my teen years that got in trouble along with my step dad. They used to talk to each other with Antron antennas and were called on after a good six months of complaints of bleeding on TV channels. Neighbors asked for a long time. I remember these dudes showed up, handed my mom a document, walked in and cut the radio and linear with cutters then took both with them. My dad had to go to a hearing and was fined a few hundred dollars. He set another radio up a week after and was never bothered again. This was in late 80's during the CB wars in town. Now you can go through and the radio is really quiet.

Around this same time people were doing drug deals and such on the CB so all the cops had them. I haven't heard of anyone since getting into trouble. Never heard of anyone in a vehicle getting fined. Those stories of truckers getting fines and radios confiscated at scales are just that, stories.

 

Just scroll down the CB forum...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...dio-forum/185061-uh-oh-man-gets-12-500-a.html