Non Standard

Are you confusing modes with frequency? Must know to properly answer your question. I often hear drivers do just this. Quite often they refer to their extra bands as 'sidebands'. Uppers and lowers are frequencies. You can look at modes as types of modulation on a given frequency. When you are on say channel 37 you are still on 37 whether you are talking AM (amplitude modulation), USB (upper sideband), or LSB (lower sideband). Not legal on CB are FM (frequency modulation), or CW (continuous wave). Uppers are channels above the legal 40, lowers are channels below the legal 40. So no, extra channels are not legal. However talking sideband on the legal 40 is legal.

 

Yes AM USB and LSB are legal.

 

As long as you stay on the allotted 40 channels for CB use, then yes you can use sideband legally.

Sideband as mentioned is just a "mode" of operation on a CB radio.

Sideband should not be confused with freebanding, or the use of channels not authorized on CB radio.

An example is a Cobra 148 GTL. It's a 40 channel CB radio that has upper and lower sidebands. You can use this legally out of the box. In stock form it transmits between 26.965 MHz (channel 1) and 27.405 MHz (channel 40). However some people modify the radio so it can also transmit on 27.555 which is what freebanding is.

I know this is probably more info than you care to know or care to hear, but it's the best way I know of to explain. But hopefully it helps you some.

 

Okay, thanks for the info. Another question... When someone is talking about a radio with SSB, am I correct to assume that is single side band? And if so, when a radio only offers SSB, is that upper or lower?

 

Any of the sideband CB's you are ever likely to see have three modes, AM, USB, and LSB. This is true from back in the 23 channel days all the way to modern CB's. Export models may also offer FM and CW but technically these are not CB radios.

 

Yes. SSB is the acronym for "single side band". As AB7IF pointed out, all single side band radios come with upper side band, lower side band, and of course, AM.

An example of a SSB CB radio would be a Cobra 148 GTL, a Uniden Grant, a Galaxy 959 or a Galaxy 979. There's others, but I thought I'd list the most popular ones.

 

His boss ain't talking about no SSB radio. Buy a Connex or Galaxy (not a legal 40 channel CB Galaxy, but an "export" type) and you'll have the channel you need. Stay with in 40 channels above and below the legal CB band (antenna probably won't tune much better than that anyway) and you won't have to worry about the boogie man coming to get you...........unless you run a whole bunch of power and interfere with airports and stuff.

 

Or you can go outside the legal CB band, as long as you stay out of the ham bands, and double your pleasure and double your fun!

 

Okay, maybe I'm not understanding something correctly... SSB is actually two sidebands, both the upper and the lower? I'm not looking at a radio right now, but I've seen a few in other guys trucks that have a knob with a selection for SSB... and no other indicators of whether it's upper or lower. Granted, I think I'm also looking at radios that aren't certified...

 

OK to keep it simple .....

AM is made of a carrer and 2 side bands ....

In a SSB radio you notch out the carrer and pick either the UPPER or LOWER sidband.

Thats the story .....

On most CB radios all you have is a switch for AM/USB/LSB some fancy ones have a display....

Now this is what you would see on a midlevel ham radio display USB on the main receiver ...Thiis radio has a 2nd receiver in this case it is on FM ...