Back when there were only 23 channels, most truckers on the east coast ran channel 11, which was in the middle of the band. But as CB became more popular, and the REACT folks organized the use of channel 9 as an emergency channel, the bleed over from the big radio types proved to be a problem, so they moved up to 19. That's how I remember it, anyway.
Of course I didn't drive back then, but from what I read, channel 11 was the call channel. Channel 10 was the talk channel. Then like you said channel 9 ruined it all and they moved to 19. They were all on 19 by 1973. That's when it took off and all them CB/trucking movies come out. Those were the days everyone loved truckers. You hear the old timers saying it's not like it use to be are refering to that time frame. Drugs, drinking, the public loved you. Life was good!
The FCC outlawed them because they no longer met " type acceptance " under the 40 ch rules .... REAL REASON the dealers did not want 20 million used radios out there to keep the price down .......
Growing up I thought the only channels were 19 and 23. The rest were like cable channels lol you could dial it up but wouldn't get anything. Most coal buckets run both channels 19 for bear reports and 23 to say outta the way ad have a clear channel.
Thanks...that probably best explains why there used to be #### ton of CB's out there like Pearce-Simpson, Robyn, Royce, Courier, Lafayette....Time magazine did do an article called "Hy-Gain loses" on Jan 23, 1978 that talked about this. The converted 23 to 40 channel radios...that Cobra 78x I used to have must have been one of them. It had a rotary dial that was hard to see. As I recall it wasn't a US built rig. Also I believe 1978 was the last year for the rotary dial radios on Cobras.
back in the 1980's there was a cb shop owner down south. he passed away in 1988. he had a son, who was a truck driver. some of you may remember him..............................
