I think I'll start driving 18 wheelers just because i feel no one should require me to have a license to do that .....
That is one of the strange things about CB radio---AND why it should never have been de-licensed (if there's such a word). It is STILL "licensed" in the sense of it is still regulated by FCC and its rules STILL apply (Part 95). What percentage of CBers ever actually READ those rules? Is it as much as 1% of the users? I doubt it. While the CB people chafe under the rules that they think are "unfair" and too restrictive, there ARE good reasons for them. They were placed there to prevent interference. Mainly, the Feds realize that CB is treated like an APPLIANCE & it is used by a segment of the population that has NO training in the science of radio. They unwittingly create their OWN problems simply because they don't KNOW better. Without that training, how could they? It is also true that, out of ALL the radio services in the USA, CB causes more problems to itself AND to other services than all the other licensed services combined! Most problems reported to FCC seem to be of a TECHNICAL nature, disputes over licensing rather than by operational issues. On the other hand, CB complaints are more often caused by INTENTIONAL OPERATION of non-certified equipment, equipment that has been tampered with, modified or changed, and equipment that exceeds the power allowed for Part 95, US Code. In the case of the trucking industry, a pointed example of unnecessary and unwanted interference is the use of amplifiers to talk to the next truck ahead. I mean, 50 feet ahead this guy is jabbering on 19 to the next truck using 500 watts of illegal power. A nearby truck at a terminal or an industry is trying to find out which dock he needs to back into, but he CAN'T because of Billy BigRigger with a huge ego yapping to the next truck about his Preparation H not working like it used to. So HE goes out and buys HIMSELF a "beeeg leenyar" which multiplies the problem TENFOLD! Thousands of untrained CBers who only THINK they know what they are doing bow down to BIG POWER because it makes "him" a "big" man, but it only makes up for psychological (or perceived physical "short"-comings that even VIAGRA can't fix! ). Only in his own mind! CB was never meant to be a "hobby". When people feel a "need" to talk 40 or 50 miles away, or work "skip", then it is not a tool, but a hobby, tho an illegal one in the sense that it creates interference to other users because of the use of power/equipment that is illegal for CB. The REAL hobby service in which one can talk around the world to stations that CB ops can only DREAM about IS Amateur Radio. It was created for experimenters and creating international goodwill among nations. It, too, however, has RULES for its use. But in exchange for OBEYING these rules, following some basic operation techniques, one can have FAR more pleasure chatting with people from your truck than by using an outdated CB radio. (and from a techno standpoint, CB IS outdated). It is also why the hams get upset when they find outlaw CBers on their bands! If it were NOT protected by the users themselves, it would become just another CB mess! GF
Yeap, that is the best cure. I wonder what he is saying now? Must be bleeding again. Get the man a box of tampax. 10s of thousands of people using exports and less then 1% of them are getting nabbed for doing it.
So RAT you don't mind if i drive a 18 wheeler because I dont beleve in the rules ? I work at the JAIL and thisa is what I hear the inmates say ..... rules don't apply to me ..... Yes he goes overboard however agree or not he is correct enforced or not....
There is a cure for the whining from the hams about exports. Remove the limits that keep CBs down to 4 watts and old tech. Simple as that. We don't need any more channels. We have 40 channels with upper and lower sidebands etc. This gives us more then enough channels to keep off of the ten meter band. We just want more then 4 watts to use and to beable to do it without a mile of wiring etc to run linears. Give me a 40 channel CB with sidebands and capable of over 100 clean watts legally and I am fine. There is very little enforcment of output power being used on the CB frequencies, so lets just get the rules pertainign to power output dropped. Drop the rules and CB tech would get much better with higher powered radios that operate clean with no splatter. With the digital age upon us, there is no real reason to keep CBs at lower power levels anymore. Also remove the rules saying that we can not legally try to comunicate with another station more then 150 miles away. Either that or up the power limits to say 200 watts or 500 watts and highly enforce this to bring down the stations that are operating at more then 500 watts. I want to beable to comunicate with other mobils that are 20 miles away. This is very hard to do with a 4 watt radio in a mobile truck with perfectly tuned antennas etc. See, I run a pretty regular route with many other trucks in our fleet. We are usually spread out about 20 to 30 mins apart. We run in an area with little to no cell phone service so our only real means of comunication is via CB. We are always in manitoba and it costs too much to use a Cell phone up there. On a clean day the best setups can only get out about 8 miles max and you can hardly hear them with the volume cranked all the way up and the sq turned all the way down. Add the higher power of an export and the distance extend to 20 plus miles on a slightly dirty day. It is nice to beable to have this type of longer distance comunication. It helps us especially in the winter because road conditions in the north can drastically change in 20 miles. It also helps us because we know before hand what is going on at the plant or the loading site sooner and we can make slight changes in our plans, such as stop and get lunch etc rather then get to the plant or loading site and have to sit there and wait for hours and skip out on lunch etc. Once at the plant you are stuck there until you are unloaded. NO leaving the yard. It would not be a big deal but most of our trucks are not setup with fridges etc and or microwaves so we can prepair proper meals other then room temperature meat sandwiches. It is much better to know ahead of time and stop and wait in town.
RAT ..... There will be no increase in CB watts or anything else ......just not going to happen .... CB was never set up to be a long range radio system or to work skip with 27mhz is at best a poor spot to place high power radios . IF ...... I was to redue CB it would go to VHF FM and 100 watts ...... a very high power MURS which right now is limited to 2 watts ..... you would have very clean 20-30 miles of range. I agree the FCC REALLY needs to think about MURS which is already under CB rules and up the power to industry levels. 45 years ago I outgrew CB and while in electronic school went and got my license nothing stops anyone who feels CB is not good enough from doing the same ..... You cannot redue something as flawed as placing a short range system on a prime DX band .... HAMS really don't care what CBers due well most don't .... as long as they keep it on CB. I'm on ch 21 about 5 am weekdays ..... all 4 watts of me ......
I don't care what mode of transmission we get to use as long as we can get the equipment without having to take out a loan and as long as I don't have to take some stupid test to use it and as long as the equipment has the capability to cover longer distances.
RAT ...... I just happen to have a new bank I'm starting nice rates for my trucking friends on radio loans ..... All kidding aside with the lack of wide use on low band VHF its too bad the shortsighted FCC has not even given thought to a road radio service .....
VHF? That would be Marine band wouldn't it? I used to have marine band in my boats. Could easily talk 30 miles on a stock marine band radio. They were not that expensive either. Only thing was the antenna length. They were 12 feet long. They worked great on fiberglass boats though. I know the tech is out there to get CBs to have the same performance without the need to add an "extra heater" to the cab of a truck. It is the FCC that is holding them back. The thing is that if they unoutlaw big power on the CB bands then the liscensed 10 meter users would not have to worry about exports any more. The majority of the drivers that purchase or use Exports is for the extra power they put out.
