My amateur radio does both ham and cb because the 11 meter band was part of the amateur band when they were made . Radios are Collins 32v1 transmitter and Collins KWS-1 transmitter both have 11 meters on the band selection . Good video .
"My amateur radio does both ham and cb" MANY amateur radios do both ham and CB. The topic is doing it *legally* and no, a Collins is not a type-certified CB radio.
@@thomasmaughan4798 It seems if you are an amateur radio operator, you would have no grief using the citizen's band frequencies with little chance of troubles. However, if one picks up an amateur radio and starts using it with no license, you are on borrowed time before there will be an unfriendly knock at the door. There may be equally unfriendly papers being served for an unfriendly date to keep. I knew an amateur radio operator that had used his radio equipment for decades for citizen's band as well. He used to give us CB walkie talkies for Christmas. I still have one. I miss Jim. He is what is referred to as, "silent key," or, "hushed key," now. Amazing old guys like that simply do not exist any more. He had quite the laugh when my father got me in very big trouble for making a homemade spark gap transmitter, that ripped through television, telephone, CB, HiFi, reception in the neighbourhood. In short, if you do not have an amateur radio license, I will give you a new Canadian dollar to go ahead and use it. But, if you have an amateur radio license, I will give you only and old Mexican Peso to use it.
I recently bought an Icom IC-728 used. It has the MARS mod. It works on the full 11 meter band SSB, at as much as 100 watts. Also makes a great shortwave radio, and it has continuous receive on AM from 0.5MHz-30MHz.
I have an anytone at 778uv that works HAM bands and CB, AND a xiegu G90 that works both HAM bands and CB. Both radios have undergone modifications to open transmit on CB bands, but both radios will transmit on HAM and CB frequencies.
@@furonwarrior yes. It is only the operator that prevents use in out-of-band or out-of-license, there is no other check on the radios ability to transmit. They are older radios, not computerized or SDR. Where they can hear, they can transmit.
The anytone 778UV does NOT, i repeat, DOES NOT do 27mhz CB band. This person must live in a country where CB uses uhf frequencies. The AT778UV is a bit of a free-bander radio but will go nowhere near 27mhz lol. Lowest I can go is like 120mhz
@@anonyninja7737 - The chinese have a habit of selling radios with the same model number that are completely different in various markets. There is an anytone with the same model number as a UHF radio sold in the western hemisphere but I ran across it for sale online where it will operate 66 to 88 mhz continuous FM and a couple digital modes. Trust me, he may not be wrong about what he said. They have been known to recycle model numbers for radios that are completely different and even look different. Yes crazy.
Video summary: "Because laws" There is no legitimate reason that a licensed ham - who knows the rules, power limits, transmisssion modes, etc - should be locked out of 11m on their regular rigs.
@@notsure7874 The Federal government has issues with anything that involves money because they want to be a part of it. Also, the CB/Ham radio could never be FCC Part 15 compliant for it to be operated as a unlicensed CB radio which is what that is. For hams to operate with CB as a ham radio would void Part 95 compliance, even if it’s “locked out” as a 4/12 watt radio. Basically, CB radio can’t be CB radio without Part 15 and the amateur radio combo would void this as they would need to be separate devices. It would be the same as illegally operating within CB frequencies with a modded 10 meter radio regardless of the watt and bandwidth was at the legal limit.
Growing up I knew an advanced amateur radio operator. He did use his amateur radio for Citizen's Band also. He had a mark on a power knob he would put the knob on it and switched to the CB band. He would use the amateur radio for CB and nobody knew. However, he also told me it was a no-no but nobody cared. He would let us talk many times. The kids loved that guy. He would give us CB radio walkie talkies, which he told us they were, "handie talkies," because walkie talkies were backpack type radios. He was a great guy. I still have a CB walkie talkie he gave me. He used to tell me using an amateur radio on CB was like speed limit 55 on the highway. You could go 60 miles per hour and nobody cares.
@@rickmckee6698 - That was 40 years ago and trust me nobody cares. And certainly not the FCC. 11meters is a lost cause and you are even more lost in the past than that. They DO NOT CARE anymore. Unless you are interfering with something that makes money or jeopardizes life or limb or property, NOTHING WILL COME OF IT. The last case of the FCC doing anything about a CB'er (and their headquarters is not far from here) was in the very early 80's. All the circular phased array listening stations around the country are gone. Disassembled and abandoned. If its under 60 MHZ they simply do not care. Promise. The FAA regulates the airwaves in HF and VHF for aircraft. You will get in trouble there.
@@rickmckee6698He did it for decades. He taught me Morse Code, which later got me in trouble with a homemade spark gap transmitter I made. He is now what he referred to as, "Silent Key," or, "hushed key." (dead unfortunately) He used the speed limit comparison a lot. He used to say speeding has been proven to kill far more than doing the posted speed limit. But people delight in doing it all the time. A ham radio used on CB frequencies has killed no one nor hurt anybody. He would tune to a CB frequency he called, "Super Boom." I found it to be channel 6AM after that. The characters there were taring up the frequency with radios he said were transmitting thousands of watts of power! He said the FCC had far bigger antennas to pull down. The strange thing is, I still hear those same characters today, 30 years later! They must be in their upper 70s by now! They are still pumping out thousands of watts. I hear the same on 80 metres as well. Regardless, I just have an old Cobra 148 GTL in old Jeep, and a communications receiver. I installed the Cobra in the Jeep in 1996. Only the, "Boom Masters," on channel 6AM can be heard today. But now, I am in Saskatchewan, Canada. I still hear the same, "boom masters," and, "wratchet Jaws." Every once in awhile, 35USB and 38LSB can be heard. I very rarely hear 40FM, also. But that is it. It is empty. The Cobra 148GTL does not transmit thousands of watts. It transmits 5 watts AM and 12 SSB.The FM modification does 4 watts. I have had this radio in all my vehicles since my first one and it was given to me when I was 11 I have found out that antenna is far more important than power, unless you have thousands of watts like Super Boom channel. I do not know why CRCT nor FCC do not do anything about it.
CB has been effectively unregulated since 1980. We had to give up the 11M band to create their service, then we got slapped by the FCC because CBers were using our linears illegally when we didn' t have control over who those linears got sold to, so WE were punished because the FCC removed the 10M band from our linears. Then they punished us again by changing the way output power was determined from 1500 watts out at the transmitter to 1500 watts "effective radiated power" at the antenna, then they slapped us again by levying a $35 charge just to get to see our callsigns past April 22 this year. How far will they go next year - or will they wait that long before the next slap? Up until recently, the FCC played "fair", because they could use our abilities in times of war, and probably still will. But now they want to eliminate us by charging us to use the equipment we bought or built ourselves at absolutely no cost to them at all. I am ashamed of the Government telling the FCC its okay to price us out of a very valuable service to them because they think they do not need us anymore. One day soon, the FCC will find out they made a very bad mistake by casting us aside when the power grid, internet, and cellphone system fails because their cybersecurity failed and they are back to "smoke signals" once again because we might not be there to help them out "once again".
Honestly FRS/GMRS does just fine and it works better with buildings, alongside that we have MURS which could be used for truckers, so I don't entirely grasp why CB is still around.
In belgium they dikslap you with 60 euro a year almost 70 usd. Fcc must have taken note of that. I freezed my licence since there is no way I give them 70 euro for s licence to talk at home. I can go on field days and to other stations and do that
The FCC has no power in most places. However, the 11 meter band was like the 6 meter band today. Nobody cared when it disappeared. 6 meters is likely going to be the next amateur band deletion. 8 meter band is likely going to disappear, as well, for amateurs. It was a failed experiment. It was ridiculous to even try to make an 8 meter band for amateurs when 6 meters is nothing but a desert band. 33 centimeter band is also likely to be deleted from amateur radio usage. It is already being populated with devices that require no license. 4 meter band is also a failed experiment for most nations.
#1 Just stay in band , stay out of trouble and have fun . Beware of people that go around citing fcc rules to you when no harm has or will be done by you. Run a clean station . Be kind . Share knowledge with thirsty minds . Most of all LISTEN . 73s thanks for posting
Its fairly safe to use any of the frequencies between 26.155 and 27.955 with little or no repercussions. None of that spectrum is used for anything and is simply a guard band around CB. And as you said about being kind and considerate, remember the 11th commandment. Thou Shalt Not Get Caught and The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease. Don't get greased ha ha
i have on this date No ham radio that works on the cb freqs. no real interest there. mostly as to get a 10m radio to work on 11m you lose both ways with a antenna that “can” do both but does it very poorly. i am setting up my truck ( personal pu) with a simple 2m and 440 ham radio. and a cb radio. might even hook up a gmrs. antenna to a walkiy gmrs radio. not a radio nerd. just some ares, needs require deferent things. .
we are in a digital age now cb doesn't interfere like it used to alot of the time its cb's that get interference now from cheap switch mode power supplies or in my case neighbours pond pump! or powerline technology wifi boosters etc.
Actually Ria you can work DX leagally now on 11 meters. The FCC recently dropped the range limit. Am is still 4 watts unmodulated and ssb Is 12 watts PEP.
That depends on you call, "DX." Before and after the range limit, it has always been illegal to use sky waves to communicate, even when it was less than 155 miles and even now. The only thing that has changed is there is now no limit on ground wave communication. I live more than 155 miles from a mountain range and below it. Some radio friends will drive to those mountains and we can talk ground wave any time, day or night. They are on the mountains looking down on me and I'm looking up at the mountains. That's now legal. Sometimes sky waves will travel where I can hear a city only 100 miles away, fading in and out. Talking with them is still illegal. A 4 watt AM carrier 100 percent modulated has a PEP of 16 watts. What they did was subtract the 4 watt carrier and allow the 12 watts of sideband for the single sideband power limit.
Mars Mod involves removing a FCC required diode designed to block tx on 11m . In antique equipment 11m was an amateur band and is not blocked. Thousands of hams use mars modded equipment every day on 11m they just don't use there amateur callsigns on CB .
Years ago when I was young, I spent over a week modifying, retuning, and programming a nice old Motorola biz band mobile rig to cover 2 meters, police, fire, sheriff, weather, and a couple of other radio services, (and added a low and high power switch to switch between 30 W and 160 W,) for a higher-up in FEMA who said that they just couldn't handle having 8 different radios in their emergency service SUV. I built it up, expanded channel memory to add banked channel groups, further ruggedized it, and tricked it out every way I could think of to ensure that it was the best damn 2-way that I could make it. I added a key lock to the control-head, and handed the FEMA manager the rig and the keys - no charge. I provided both the rig and the work for free, as there was no possible way to get something like that through all of the governmental red tape. It was a totally illegal radio as far as the FCC was concerned, but utterly necessary for the intended purpose, for FEMA to save lives. The manager sent me a nice thank-you card and some FEMA decals. That was plenty of pay for the job.
I'm late to this party, but your video was well put together and explained your points well. As I watched it I was thinking of the question you asked. "Why can't I have a radio with two services, ie CB and gmrs? It seems the FCC is firm, so okay. A radio manufacturer could sell a backplane, similar to how individual servers now plug into one big box servicing many such servers inside data centers. This backplane would house common services for any radio plugged into the backplane. The backplane would provide power, connections to the vehicle's sound system, a system to connect multiple antennas, a microphone, and a speaker. And a priority system to decide who gets listened to and who will hear your response. Perhaps even amplifiers in compliance with law and only one heatsink and fan! And a display so most of this goes in the trunk. A complete offering of all the different radios with each radio certified to all the rules for each. I might purchase a CB, police/fire/rescue scanner and a gmrs. You likely would purchase others. But we both would plug it into the same backplane. Hm I wonder if it could have a shortwave receiver too? Everyone would get most of what they want. The FCC would have certified radios running on a certified backplane. connected to certified antenna running certified software. The user would technically lose one radio that does everything, but I wonder if the question isn't really "one radio?" It is really about space. "Really? Must my front seat, or my desk overlooking the pond, be cluttered with equipment and lock like the front seat of a cop car?" As a bonus users could monitor more than one radio as they conserve space. There are some interesting arguments against this idea but I think I could answer them. Thanks for an opportunity to think.
So, if I understand this: As a licensed amateur in the USA I can build a radio from the ground up or modify an existing radio (military for example) to work in the amateur radio bands. BUT, once I modify the radio it will no longer meet type acceptance for the service it was originally built for. So, I can modify a CB to work on 10 meters, but I can't then use it on CB. Do I have that correct?
Yes... legally... But there is no one to enforce it. Don't squeak and you will not get greased. Just have fun quietly with your gear and don't be a pain in the butt and you will be fine.
@@KlodFather For those who do make a PITA out of themselves, they will eventually irritate someone enough to go find them and the FCC will eventually issue them a fine or other enforcement. But, you are correct, if you use your Baofeng on an FRS frequency or get a GMRS license and use the Baofeng there, so long as you don't interfere with other users no one will really care.
@@BryanTorok - Its like on CB no one cares... when I became a new ham, I had a killer 11 meter setup in my truck and I worked 10 meters with it for field day, easily outperforming the HF rigs due to raw power and optimization. I was a radio tech and engineer for years who ran on the edgy side of things and was not afraid to push the limits a little. 10 was up that year and in the pileup like on CB, I beat my own hole in the ozone layer and made those contacts for the club. While both shocked and amazed at its performance, that setup which I have since sold really did the trick... But I was never hassled for it because I was never a PITA with it. And that unit was hot enough to give you a decent RF burn if you were dumb around the antenna while transmitting. On AM one time near the city back in 92 or so, I keyed it up and a guys very new Toyota car started to miss and stalled. IT would not restart in traffic. I knew the techs at the Toyota garage. The RF had burned out the PCM which was under the seat. Toyota in those years issued warnings to not install a transmitter more than 5 watts in their cars because it could damage the car electronics... Well It was not hard to do some real damage in those days. Present day electronics in cars is much harder but the last couple of years have been shaky and I would not want to bet on any of that junk they are pedaling.
@@BryanTorok - Some of the PITAs I was referring to were two idiots that I got a call about in my area... The FAA wanted help tracking down some agitators on the Aviation band. I hooked them up with some young guys who did a fox hunt on them and the morons were found and punished. They were dumb and deserve to go. Hassling planes taking off and landing at a major airport is no Joke.
@@KlodFather I seem to recall a buddy who was traveling on business and had to return two rental cars after he hooked up his 50 watt ham radio and tried transmitting. After that, he gave up.
@Ria. I do not have a Ham ticket at least not yet but I have been on CB since 1969. Back then there was only 23 channels not including the "A" channels that were used for RC car, planes and boats. The channels above channel 23-40 were reserved for Business Band Radio. Back then they were used for towing companies, Taxi dispatch and other commercial businesses. Ch 23 prior to the expansion actually had a power limit of 25 watts AM. All those businesses were given time to move to another service. This was prior to 1977. For as long as I have been on CB there has always been Skip. Was someone calling you from Nevada and you're in NY. Are you supposed to ignore it because "Skip" is illegal? People are going to key the mic and say hello. You can also tell that the FCC doesn't give a flying you know what about people on 11 meters running power. If they did Channel 6 aka Superbowl would be a ghost town. As far as i know CB radios in Canada use the same 4 watt output but as far as i know they are not restricted when it comes to using a linear. I personally use a converted 10 meter radio on CB simply because they are built better and receive better. My President has better channel rejection than a Cobra or Midland. Most newer CB radios are built cheaper than the ones made 20 or more years ago. I hooked up a Cobra 29 in my car and purposely went to Ch 6. Then I did the same with my Lincoln II+. With the Cobra it was getting splashed to Ch 1 and up as far as Ch15. When i did the same with the Lincoln it rejected the signals 2 channels to either side. the noise level on Ch 3 and 7 was quiet. BTW my Cobra 148 GTL goes 80 over 40 and 80 below 1. I got the radio in the late 80's.
It was the government's mistake to begin with, putting the CBRS between two amateur bands. That was asking for trouble. They could'a/should'a put it in the VHF spectrum to begin with instead.
So, the only reason CB and ham radio can't be in one radio is FCC rules that limits it. It is 100% technically feasible, but since you are the property of the government, you must follow its rules or be fined or jailed.
A modified cb produces lots of harmonics and that brings you in problems. About amplifiers. If you want to spew out 1000 to 1500 watt buy a 2000 watt amp instead of 1500 watt so it will not send harmonics.
The same type of basic usage rules that apply to CB, also apply to FRS. The frequencies must be channelized, the power must be fixed at some predetermined level, repeaters are not allowed and amplifiers are not allowed. FRS also requires non removable antennas (and 1/2 watt power limitations) whereas CB you're allowed to have different antennas but there are restrictions on height. Both services allow usage without a license, but only under the conditions that they (the FCC) specify. This may come as a surprise to some, but in the UK. They allow for FM in addition to AM and SSB. In parts of Europe, they are also allowed to use packet radio on the CB bands. And 60 years ago, there were actually CB radio kits. The way around the FCC type acceptance rule was the RF section was already assembled and tested but everything else could be assembled. For some of us, CB radio was one of the ways we kept in touch with friends and meet new people in an era before cellphones, computers, the internet and social media.
I loved the topic. I just purchased a 40 channel CB for my truck (which also has UHF/VHF (FTM-400DR) and an HF rigs (FT-891) mainly for EmComm use. Back in the 1970s I was a licensed CB'er (KJB8124) long before I got into ham radio, which I am an Extra class license holder (W9HJ).
Caution, I killed my CB when I was using my 2 meter FT-2800 but had my CB on at the same time. I'm quite sure it was because the antenna were not terribly far apart from each other and I think I fried the receive circuitry. The CB would still transmit but was deaf. It was a new enough CB that I returned it before coming to the conclusion it was from transmitting on the 2m radio, I chose to only have one radio on at a time from now on.
I was the youngest operator in the area, KBX-1339. I had a tremendous amount of fun with an antenna I cut from threaded rod I cut to 259 centimeters (102 inches back then) I installed it on the chimney. The power supply was an old car battery on a charger. I could talk to northern Mexico from north Michigan! On sideband, I was contacting England! It was incredible! When I got my license, I installed the radio in my first vehicle. It has been in my other 5 more vehicles as well. Even in the current vehicle I bought in 1996, the radio is installed in it. However, things have changed. Besides the Boom Masters on channel 6 AM sporadic, 35USB, 38LSB and very rare 40FM, that is all I hear now. The old radio does not transmit as far though the power is exactly the same and I have an antenna the same length as the old threaded rod. Nobody uses Citizen's Band any more except the Boom Masters and wratchet jaws. I would remove the old Cobra 148GTL. But I had poor foresight. When I bought the Jeep new, in 1996, I carefully cut a rectangular hole into the dashboard an a round hole for the microphone jack. There is no way to find a dashboard for a vehicle this old now. Thus, the old CB stays. It looks great installed. It is just so empty on the band. 73 de KBX-1339 The Grinder
yes back then it was good. but i stoped have a radio in my work trucks cause of so many fools out there messing it up for everybody else. but also as some company's do not want you having such in there trucks. damage? ( hard mounting) or just they say is is a distraction. and the makers do not want there product to be the same as makers. so no mounting to the mirror mounts.
You can clip or solder any ham radio to use on cb .. I love it when people are using a ham radio on cb channels no splatter boxs and get lots of people into ham radio .PS QRP is so much fun
i had a galaxy 99 in my truck converted over with 350 watt texas star kicker peacked and tuned i talked all over the u.s and talked across the world never had a problem from aug 1985 to oct 2016 was my trucking year
That is a righeous setup. Brother uses his 99V and amp in his work truck. He is a class A driver for a major company in the city. Other brother passed away in his truck. He was OTR for Landstar and a silent key. RIP
@@KlodFather sorry for your loss When I drove I love talking on cb radio I love talking skip I forgot to mention that I had a Texas star 350 to drive it
@@KlodFather sorry for your loss When I drove I love talking on cb radio I love talking skip I forgot to mention that I had a Texas star 350 to drive it
@@geraldnulischjr - THos old Texas Star 4 transistor final amps were strong and got the job done. THey needed good wiring to work correctly also... and using a cheap antenna could be a problem as they frequently burned up crappy antennas LOL Thank you for your well wishes. Shooting skip is cool. I have my ham ticket now but still love and reminisce about skip and international communications on 11 meters. I even now tease the ham guys and ask at the meetings who is going to run 11 meters for Field Day LOL. Most laugh any more. In the past a few would get mad but they won't give me the pleasure of their indignance ha ha. I had a BigAss Palamar amp that had 2 drivers and 6 finals in it back in the day and it would do 375 dead key on setting 3 of 4 power levels. Audio was between 500 and 600 and swinging. It would flicker the fluorescent lights in the Burger King where I was running it when transmitting HA HA. Especially on Side Band. But the AM side of that rig with the power on was BRUTAL and would get into PA systems and all sorts of things and screw them up. I had to harden my truck agains the RF because it would make it idle rough or stall when I keyed it up and the gages would go crazy. Like I said in another post, I keyed it up at the intersection near the airport and a mans toyota car stalled and would not restart. It burned up his ECM.
SURVIVAL gear ⚠️ ALERT tip: All of the LED flashlights will be fried, destroyed when an EMP hits them 🔦 You should ALWAYS carry an incandescent type of flashlight as a backup to your LED flashlights and carry a mechanical wrist-watch as a backup to your digital watch ! *Please also research which two-way communication handheld radios cannot be destroyed by an EMP. I recommend solid state radios.
Emp is kind of a toss up. In all the nuclear test detonations , only a very few produced emps. Same for the Carrington event everyone worries about. If you are really worried , toss some radios in a garbage can and bury it. You can find plenty of older radios cheap at a hamfest or just buy a handful of Chinese radios. Radios may be useful afterwards but if there is an EMP and it is like the doomsayers claim, there will be other more important things to worry over
I may have misunderstood but I have a 10meter radio with both. I own a 10 meter radio Galaxy dx99v. Of course all I did was open up the radio and there's two wires that are taped to the electronics but not connected to anything until I brought the two pieces together and fit perfectly. Now I have the cb channels along with Side band. I would talk for over 150 miles in any direction. And with hundreds of channels to go thru .all.i need is a break to go get whatever it .
My Yaesu 857d does 11 meters. My Yaesu screwdriver antenna will tune it too. I've had people tell me that my radio "sounds so good!" on 11 meters. I bought it brand new and have never had it apart.
C.B .started with 19 channels and slowly increased to 40 .my last radio has built in ham and is legal to use but technically you must have your ham license to use it .
@@williamdaniels6943 and the chidren's band has shown us for many years what the lack of regulation is like in the real world BREEEEAAAKKKKKK SUPER BOWLERS WITH MY ILLEGAL 3500 WATT LINEAR AAAAAAAMMMMMMMP
@@williamdaniels6943 If most adults would act responsible rather than like adolescent children we wouldn't need government regulations. Case in point. Look how long we've been fighting Covid-19? We could have been done with this months ago had it not been for (mostly red state) adults acting like children. Put your "big boy" pants on, William, and we wouldn't need so much regulation to protect the majority from the "Idiocracy" minority.
@@phillipzx3754 You REALLY ! Believe We Would Be Done With C19 if Everyone Would Just Fall in Line..... LOL !!! There Gonna Play This Plandemic as Long as People Like You Continue to Be Un-Educated ! Follow The Science They Say .......Well Follow The Science Basic Math Will Show You All You Need To Know. Go To The CDC's Covid Tracker and Get There Number's and Take The Number of Death's and Divide By The The Number of Cases Move Your Decimal Point 2 Places To The Right and See For Yourself The Current Death Rate From C19 Spoiler Alert it's Been That For Well Over a Year. It Has Only Fluctuated .1% Minus or Plus in That Time. Prove Me Wrong !!!
@@kellydardeen6308 You're right. Screw everyone else. Let's drag this out for as long as we can. If you can't be considerate enough towards other peoples health because "big brother" told you to wear a simple mask..FUCK YOU! I'm out of fucks to give.
The FCC gave up policing the citizens band airwaves in the mid to late 90s. I’ve had a CB radio since 1978, I also have my amateur radio license. And I can tell you it was a blast back in the late 70s. as for using amateur radios on the 11 m band, I bought a used Yaesu 1000 MP several years ago and when you flipped it to 10 m the first channel that popped up was 27.185
@@TexasScout it was fm legalised in 1981 27.605 to 27.905...hi band but a few years later we got another 40 channels mid band below that...4 watts only on both and fm only...934mhz 20 channels got released for some time around then too very expensive radios but it flopped
The 934mhz radios were £300 to buy and didnt do anymore than 30km...for the other 80 channels we were only allowed an antenna with a height of 1.5 metres then it went to 1.65m...i used this size in the beginning but then went on to a 18 and 21ft aluminium antenna...a silvet rod...which were a half wave and five eightths wave...then i went better and got a sigma 4 which was seven eighths...for 11 metres...look one up...theyre huge...the bottom of it sat above my house
FM is coming to North American CB. It is going to be used for shorter range communication where someone does not want to hear skip and wants a clear signal. The rule is eminent. Cobra electronics petition the rule and the FCC and CRCT are going to allow it. FM will be much clearer, will not hear the AM skip coming in, save a few muffled transmissions, and will add more versatility to the CB radios. Some nations already have AM/FM/SSB modes allowed for their CB radio band
I remember back in the 70's seeing vans cruising around town with their twirling direction finding rigs... 😂 Eventually those guys disappeared. I do both ham and cb. Ham for me is basically video transmission for fpv flights and a little uh fun the hills here. CB is going on my jeep and for comms with friends who have no license.
I have been a ham for over 20 years but still do CB. Someone gave me a 10 meter radio once converted for CB. Screwed the radio up period. Channel 3 came.up twice. Modulation was off.
The reason is simple. CB has always been very limited in legal power. With a ham transceiver you want a lot of power. Combine them and you either have to limit Ham to basically QRP levels or allow CB to transmit on illegal levels of power. There ya go. You'd think a ham radio person like her would figure this out.
That was one of the things that is very helpful to CB to allow FM and to remove the skip restriction... because when the band is up, its easy to just have a casual conversation with someone 1500 or more miles away with your 5 watts on the air... or especially with SSB. Its amazing how open the band can be sometimes. Especially when the skip is up and there are not many stations on... then someone says hello and you find out they are thousands of miles away and sound like just down the street. Lovely piece of RF spectrum. 6 meters is the grab bag band because it will not only skip when CB is really hot with skip but 6 meters will do tropospheric ducting and other inversion DX very well during storms and solar activity.
@@badatpseudoscience Really? I didn’t know that. 😂 It’s not illegal unless you get caught. 45 years on CB and I’ve never ran less than 100 watts. At 1500 watts im still a little guy. There’s others running many times that wattage. Hams do it all the time and nobody seems to care there either.
@@badatpseudoscience if you wanna hear Big power go down to 27.025 and give a listen to them guys. They are all running a minimum of 5000 watts. I know one guy who dead keys at 20,000 watts and swings 50,000 watts. There’s no enforcement on 11 meters so all I can say is “Run what you want”
@@badatpseudoscience I guess I do whatever I want. It Don’t make me a bad person. I’m actually a pretty friendly person. I help others with antenna projects, especially the old and I love CB radio. Ham is to stuffy for me.
I got started with CB back in 1975, at age 16. I got my general class ham license in 1989, at age 30. I still use CB. Except for CB (11 meters) being between the 10 and 12 meter ham bands, they are completely different services. The 11 meter (CB) band is at the very top of the HF band, and is still low enough on the frequency spectrum that the signals will "skip" depending on conditions, allowing you to make long distance contacts. Since that was not the original intent of CB, it does seem weird they used 11 meters. Now we have FRS and GMRS in the UHF band, which seems like a better place for short range FM communications. And now we have FM CB, still in the 11 meter band. Will be interesting to see how that works. I seriously doubt that anyone who is seriously into CB is using 4 watts anymore. My SSB CB base station has 100 watts. That is enough to communicate with distant stations without causing any interference (my CB is not "dirty" like many high powered CBs with cheap amplifiers) it is in fact a modified amateur radio that I modified for 11 meters myself. There is often a difference between legal and illegal, and right and wrong. I have no desire to cause problems for amateurs on 10 and 12 meters, or anyone else. But I also want to be able to use the 11 meter band to communicate long distance, without having to deal with all the rules and call signs that go with amateur radio. Every time you give your call sign, you are giving away a ton of personal information, even your home address. And I am not comfortable with that. I wish they would put an end to including that much information. We are living in a time where information of any kind can easily be used against you. Would you believe that I actually received a notice from the ARRL (and they got it from the FCC) that certain "political discussion" would not be tolerated on amateur radio, and doing so could cause you to lose your license? And they know who YOU are from your call sign What are they going to do next, add your SS number to your call sign information? That is why I have gotten farther and farther away from amateur radio and gotten back into SSB CB. Sometimes you need to break the rules (without causing any problems) to keep illegal and un Constitutional government interference out of your life. I do not operate illegally on amateur frequencies. You can get cheap CB amplifiers, (such as RM Italy) that do not stay on frequency, and bleed over onto other frequencies, including into the amateur bands. One nice thing about having the technical knowledge from being an amateur operator for a long time is the ability to build your own low power, stable, "clean" amplifier, or modify a high quality amateur radio to operate "out of band" on 11 meters. Remember, at least in the U.S., the First Amendment does apply to amateur radio, even though the government doesn't want it to.
@@user-su5sq5ib3i I know of some HAMs who are straight OUTLAWS. They know what they’re doing and they do it how they want. They run a major repeater too.
I used the HR-2510-4 ha ha And I had two Cobra 148dx radios I bought... one for my dad because it was easy for him and one later from another guy. Those 148dx radios are three bands of 40 channels. THe motherboard is very similar to the one in the RCI 2950 but with only three crystal banks being used on a uniden designed board. There was also a 148dx bootleg made that used a cybernet board which was used in Midland Pace and a few other manufacturers radios.
It was always fun to send new arrivals over to the Comms section to tell them “we need a PRC-E7 as soon as possible”. It didn’t normally take very long for him to show up either lol
back in 1994 i had a ranger 2950. freq rang 26-32 mghz am/fm/usb/lsb/cw with lot of other nice features built in. Also owned the ranger 2970 same radio just more power.
I wouldn't say they are arrogant, more like annoyed. They have to study and take test that aren't free to talk on ham radio then along comes a Trucker who cuts corners and modifies their radio to use some of the same bands. I'm a Trucker and a ham so I understand both sides of the topic
Not long ago if you wanted a non type excepted radio, all you had to do was visit the nearest truck stop cb shop. Just about everyone who could afford one had a "modded" RCI ranger in their truck. The right model could do 400 watts. If you didn't have ranger money, they had many "modded" galaxy radios for sale as well. They even sold linear amps "under the table"
I'm a truck driver. You have to have a Ham License to transmit on ham frequencies You have more bands and less power and talk farther like D Star I love very much With a Technician License you can use up to 1500 watts legally But a lot of these CB chop shops will sell 10 meter radios illegally In order to run the upper ssb of 10 meter by law u must have a license With a Technician License u can only use the lower ssb That's the law. But these chop shops are selling them illegally
The FCC has a service in the UHF band that's now called GMRS. It was originally called CLASS A CB. The 27 MHz was called CLASS D CB. There is also an R/C channels in the 27mhz band that was originally called CLASS C CB.
WE used the A channels to talk privately back in the day. 3A 7A 11A 15A 19A and 23A became channel 25 when the radios were made 40 channels. I did a lot of CB repairs and mods back in the day. I also had an amp that would do 375 dead key on AM on the setting 3 of 4 (not the highest) and used 6 Toshiba transistors as the power outputs. IT was Ruthless on the air. One year I used it on field day for the 10 meter station. IT ripped on 10 meters and easily outperformed the HF radios with the large mobile antenna on the truck. Those were good days. (30 years ago)
Greetings. What do you think about Cobra requesting to include FM to their AM CB radios. As of 15 July 2021, a FCC document was posted online on the subject matter.
Hi Ria, Just to let you know,...I would be so lost, if not for your videos. Really like your knowledge and the way you explained everything you are much appreciated thank you
Been driving truck 17 years. The truth of it from a working mans perspective: when you need information or help or need to alert others of dangerous situations IE watch the RUclips videos of 30-50 truck pile ups. You need the punch to get over the 3rd graders playing with daddies microphone. In Chicago land toward the south side the 2 biggest offenders of dirty nasty power are 2 base stations, (so not truckers)That mess with the working class. Is my 7610 opened up to be on 11m? NO. will my 7100 going mobile in my personal? Yes. Your car can go 100mph, what keeps you from doing so? Personal responsibility. When used responsibly and properly a dual band 10/11 radio for the working licensed folks is just fine. Let’s be honest no one is going to pay 3-5k for a LDMOS amp just for 11m most drivers make that in 3-4 months only a handful make that in a month I’m very fortunate that I’m in that category. So kindly turn down the dislike of “truckers”. My 10/11 radio on 10 has brought me several years of great fun and work safety on 11. 73, K9AWS.
I don't understand why anyone would use the term "CB radio service". It is not a service at all, merely a frequency allocation attached to some arbitrary rules, designed to prevent people making maximum use of the bandwidth. I have a radio that covers all UK and EU CB FM and AM frequencies as well as the 10 metre amateur band. The FCC needs to catch up with actual usage.
"The One With CB Radios." LOL! Great slogan. Gave it a thumbs up. Just one correction. There was a Class A and B CB band set up in 1948 using 460 MHz to 480 MHz. The class D service was for 27 MHz and was established in 1958 and as you correctly point out was taken out of the 11 Meter Amateur Radio band.
I imagine they can put the CB radio in there with the FM or something and probably put a ham radio switch on there too but usually Ham radios where you can only listen which is neat enough but you still need like a hundred foot antenna
One of the best examples of how screwed up the FCC is their handling of the Anytone Terminator multi band two way radio. This HT was amateur, GMRS, and MURS. To use each band you had to press a special key combination. The FCC originally approved the radio for part 95a (GMRS) part 95j (MURS) and part 97, (amateur), and then after complaints from the big 3 they withdrew the certification. This was a much anticipated radio for use in the search and rescue industry. An amateur volunteer could carry one radio instead of three to contact other volunteers with limited privileges. If a person is licensed for the GMRS band and the Amateur band why can’t they carry this radio. It forces users to use units like the Baofeng which can accomplish this functionality illegally without being certified. FCC start using common sense. Start listening to users instead of jealous manufacturers who continue losing market share to the innovative Chinese market. The Anytone Terminator also could receive on VHF (136-174MHz), Aircraft AM (108-136MHz), FM Broadcasts (64-108MHz), Short-Wave AM (2.3-30MHz), and AM Broadcasts (520-1710kHz. What a loss. anytonetech.com/TERMN-8R
another example how capitalizm is contrary to the well-beeing of mankind, without the greed of those "big 3" to oust the competitor in order to sell their own stuff to make the profit, that HT would have been sold new further with all those benefits mentioned.
So how does my Clearchannel 10/11 meter transceiver fit in this scheme these days? I purchased it in the late 80’s early 90’s primarily as a 10 meter with tunable 11 meters, is it still legal!?
It's just fine as long as you're not transmitting on CB and you have a Ham license to transmit on the Ham bands. It was never legal in the US as a CB transceiver. You don't need any license to just listen.
She's got it right, because "legally" is at the very core of it. I have both in one radio, but it's bacause I bought it from an outfit that advertised the service of "opening up" the transmit for the entire frequency band that the radio covers, in this case, all of 24-30 Megahertz, with AM/FM/SSB, with up to 100 watts output on SSB. Mine is only one of many 'export' radios sold in the U.S. every year. There are any number of CB operators who want the capabilities outside the normal CB band that these radios offer, and there are also a lot who buy dedicated amateur transceivers and either modify them at home or have someone do it for them. The new SDR radios with those beautiful displays and the additional digital modes are gaining a big audience and are partly what is fueling the tremendous resurgence of CB activity.
The purpose of the rules governing CB radio is to limit interference to other radio services and consumer appliances, like televisions and radios, as well as cordless phones (who uses those anymore?), etc. These rules were put in place so as to allow non-technical users the ability to use two way radio without having to demonstrate technical expertise. The way I see it is, if someone is interested in radio from a hobbyist standpoint, they're going to ultimately be much happier with amateur radio than CB. And, if they go that route, most of the restrictions imposed on CB no longer apply, making it easier for the hobbyist to explore radio from a technical standpoint. But, if your reason for using CB is to get traffic reports from other drivers or exchange pickle recipes or gossip with your neighbors like you're on a party line telephone, then you should have no problem with the restrictions placed on CB radios. I got started in radio with CB, but it was always for the technical reasons. I just love the science of radio. I never really cared about just having inane conversations with other people. It was always about my signal and my antennas and my radios. So, I got my Novice license at age 15 and I'm now an Extra Class operator with no interest in CB, whatsoever. But, it's not because I don't like the band. It's because my goals with the radio hobby are inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the typical CB user.
We had CBs in the 1980s when my mom (nurse) began doing night shifts at the hospital. It was for her to call for help if needed. We would keep her company on the trip to and from. My uncle had them for his hardware store but he became a hobbyist. Thing is I never got into ham radio because of CB. However I did get into it because of SWL. Thanks for joining!
I started with CB and became a ham more than 30 years ago... I used to make a lot of money working on radios and tuning them up. I was always astonished how much money they put into them. You also have to keep in mind that back in the 70's and 80's it was the social media of the era... and there was lots of mischief going on there. I was delayed being a ham because I was so heavily involved with CB at one time. I made contacts in Europe, UK(a fellow ham later), Russia, and of course South America and the Caribbean. Trust me 11meters is a great piece of spectrum and in the 80's and 90's had a lot more people in it to make contacts with across the country and internationally than Amateur radio. I mobiled alot and had big solid state amps to really put it out. Never liked the tubes. NO TUBES. These days being a ham, It makes me disappointed and sad how few people use Amateur or CB and both hobbies are dying. The young is very much disinterested in what we are doing... The foreign kids love it but here in the western hemisphere we are dead and screwed.
The FCC does not care about 27mhz or CB radio... and the use of one transmitter for both services is not a problem unless you are a PITA (pain in the arse) and they decide to do something about it. My brother was a ham and used an Icom706 as his CB and his HF in his pickup and a Yaesu in his big rig. THe other brother is not a ham and uses a Galaxy 99V high power in his pickup and big truck. Two rules apply here, the 11th commandment, THou Shalt Not Get Caught, and The Squeeky Wheel Gets The Grease. Trust me they do not care about CB and anyone who believes that trip needs to visit the shrink and get some treatments for their empty head syndrome. Unless you are interupting some important service or interfering with FM broadcast or TV or worse yet, Cellular, there is NO ONE who has any interest in you and what you are doing. None. Nada. Nothing. No. Nyet. THis argument is old, Its silly, and serves no useful purpose. NOw where is my D-104... I am going to tell the truckers with my KW solid state with the echo box turned on that they are down the pickle park looking for their girlfriend Dilhole Mulberry and her Bud Light can LOL
i have a cb. that i had "tuned up" Not turned up. went out at 3 W, with a clear transmit. so sometimes you can do better with even less than"full" power. but i mostly gave up on cb due to all the fools just screwing up the freq's.
One of the biggest issues between CB and amplifiers is AM operation, and the misunderstanding of how they're supposed to work. Never mind getting them to work together. In the AM pictures of the, "this is AM, this is FM" examples we remember, we notice that sound makes the radio wave expand and contract. For hi-fi* AM, you must have both expansion and contraction of the wave. Along comes the happless CB and the unsuspecting amplifier. This is a model that can do a squeaky clean 300W PEP output from a nice exciter. Like a Flex radio. Sadly, the CB isn't so nice. When all of this Katzenjammer is assembled, we're still warming up the poor amplifier. In the meantime, the dead key brings the Dosy to around 4½W. Whistling bumps it up to 5. Not bad. What the Dosy doesn't show though is that this signal expands to 18Wpk, and of course shrinks to zero. This is because of the whistle. Now, the amplifier has warmed up, and the standby switch flipped. The mic is keyed, and the Dosy shows around 325 watts. Whistling bumps it up to 330. What is unseen here though, without a 'scope is that because the dead key has hit the ceiling of how much the amplifier can amplify, there is no room for the signal to expand out into, just constriction. Long story short, the amplifier has sliced the top half from this signal going to the antenna. Along the way, there are some really nasty things that are invited to the party in the form of spurs. In an alternate universe, the CB would have a output power knob. (47-CFR95 would be okay with this) so you're not blasting your neighbor. In this shack, the amplifier is turned on, the mic keyed. The Dosy is dialed back to 75W. The whistle kicks the needle to almost 85W. Not bad. Also there is room for the signal to expand into, and nasty spurs just don't like coming to these parties. "Modulation. Modulation. Mooooooooooooooooooooodulation," *We'll ignore the bandwidth requirements for this example.
Actually, CB legal radios like the Galaxy 959 and its brother the 2547 are popular by illegal CBer's in the know because they are high quality type accepted legal equipment with SSB to begin with, but also because they DO have RF power adjustment for running amplifiers. While many idiots do exactly as you mention and overdrive their amps like complete morons, there are many who DO get power adjustable CB's and properly drive their illegal amps with very good quality and keep things clean. Other people who still use type accepted CB's to drive their illegal amps will have their RF power output permanently turned down to match their amps and drive them properly. For all the terrible operators out there, many do understand and will take the time to do their best. Some illegal amps nowadays are even "HD" or "high drive" to accept type accepted CB power at maximum (which seems to be 5 watts carrier and 20 watts maximum in full size rigs like the Galaxy 959 or Cobra 29 family). Which is why so many people seem to go down the route of illegal "10 meter" radios or just clipping and chipping big Ham radios for 11 meter. They reason, "if it is this much work to drive an amp to get that power, why not just run a radio with that much power" and that's exactly what they do. I'd say the BIGGEST problem is the lack of understanding of AM radio to begin with. The real trouble is that there are people trying to cut their carriers because they think it will improve performance, or think that overmodulation doesn't exist. MOAR POWER IS BETTER creates the vast majority of all problems on CB. Mic gain turned all the way up, power mics turned all the way up. Even if these bozos DO drive their illegal amps properly, they waste it all in the fact they are flat topping anyway from over modulating and making everything sound awful.
I think many Hams Have Ham radios that are open on 27 MHz and Many Cber's Have Ham radios that include 27 MHz too. I can understand the restrictions you guys have in the USA and we have similar restrictions here in VK (Australia) too. In VK a ham can modify a CB to operate on Ham Bands but after the Mod he/she cannot operate it on 27 MHz Cb band. A VK ham can also use a CB that covers 10 meters (like some do) legally but cannot operate it on 27 MHz Cb lol. One of my Ham Radios can TX on 27 MHz CB but provided I don't operate that radio on 27 MHz I am within the Law here in Australia (Although it's still frowned upon hahaha). Great Video btw, First time I have seen your channel 🙏 73 de VK3VKe ⚡🙏⚡
Practically, if you modify a ham rig to transmit on CB, and when on CB you obey the FCC restrictions on modes, frequencies, and power levels, and you verify the spectral purity of your modified rig, the result is not going to harm anyone and the FCC will never be the wiser. But it will still be illegal.
The problem is many ham radios on AM sound like crap compared to the better CB's out there. At the very least they sound weird. Nasal and mundane. On SSB though, they rule... But for AM, well not so much. I will take a Cobra Uniden or my president HR2510 - 4 lol any day over a bonified hf rig on AM.
@@KlodFather Interesting, and not totally a surprise. AM is not a popular ham mode, while it is the most popular CB mode. Hams who use AM tend to use vintage equipment, even though most modern equipment supports AM.
@@davidbarts6144 - There are two ways to make AM on a two way radio. The first is the obvious one where the audio amp output is added and subtracted to the amplifier stage of the final output B+. This is how AM has been made since forever. The other way is more complicated by using the balanced modulator that is used for SSB. By allowing both sidebands, you can then inject a carrier via the CW circuitry. In a setup like this, a 100 watt radio like an Icom 706 is going to have 100 watts on SSB but to do AM it will have a 45 or 50 watt carrier available and inject two 25 watt sidebands which will simulate all the components of an AM signal but do it the hard way/long way around Robinhood's barn. The engineers are so very careful to not go over 100% modulation that it sounds weak or mundane and a bit weird compared to a CB chassis which is crisp and clear. Now there is a cure for this and a darn good one. Most people do not know that you can in fact run 150% 200% and even 300% modulation on AM with no clipping or carrier collapse. How you might say? By making the adjustments to a ham rig on AM so that the carrier is turned down to around 40% of where they set it at from the factory, and removing the modulation limiters in the mic audio line headed for the balanced modulator. You can always spot those transistors in the audio path because they are positioned so that they can short the audio in the line to ground depending on how they are biased by the control circuitry. Just remove them (there is usually 2 maybe more) and be prepared to control your own mic gain. Watching an LED or light bulb in conjunction with your dummy load you can see the audio get very strong at one specific power setting on AM. The AM carrier power setting is usually a pot on the inside of the radio. There will be a sweet spot where the radio really barks and sounds good over the air. When you look at the AM envelopes on a scope the middle never collapses but the outside envelopes will get 2 to 3 times normal size. The receiving radio shows a carrier on the S-meter but the needle will forward swing while you are talking and that signal will punch through other traffic like a hot knife cutting through cream cheese. I set a lot of these up and trust me they are definitely well superior on the air than anything else out there. This can only be done with HAM radios using a balanced modulator on AM and not a conventional CB. HR-2510 HR-2600 and President Lincoln are all balanced modulation radios. None of the RCI units will do this as they are built on the same motherboard as Galaxy and Cobra 148DX models and use conventional AM modulation. The theory is sound and it works. It is Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier but the carrier is not completely gone. ITs just about a third or a little less than what it would normally be on an AM radio. When you talk... Everyone listens, especially with an amplifier ha ha. No more dead pan sound. It is strong and authoritative.
Oh mt goodeness. I had a Super Panther that was a bit hot-rodded. Also a 30w linear and a diectional antenna. I got so many QSL cards from all over the world. A quarter wave was set up so the fun ploice would't get me.
I seriously wish every car & truck had some form of 2 way communication like CB radio in cases of road hazards, maybe we wouldn't read about 98 car pile ups on occasion.
I think with cell phones that’s moot. Years ago I wanted to buy the Honda gold wing with the built in CB but they wouldn’t sell it to me because it was a special edition only for police officers. Weird.
i didn't know the 150 mile thing was void. feels lots better calling to people across the pong now. not a ham, just a cb guy that sticks to low power. i have no desire to out transmit my receive. thank you Ms Ria
I have a legal CB and a 10 meter radio that can be modified to use as an illegal CB. There’s no way to fit the power and bandwidth output on the 10 meter radio when transmitting as a CB and I thought that a 1/2 wavelength antenna with a CB would be fun for QRP.
In Australia we have 2 cb frequencies 27mhz and 476 uhf frequencies, do not require any license for either band. Not many seem to run standard power on either band either, have never heard of anyone being prosecuted or fined for breaking these laws.
My amateur radio does both ham and cb because the 11 meter band was part of the amateur band when they were made . Radios are Collins 32v1 transmitter and Collins KWS-1 transmitter both have 11 meters on the band selection . Good video .
"My amateur radio does both ham and cb"
MANY amateur radios do both ham and CB. The topic is doing it *legally* and no, a Collins is not a type-certified CB radio.
@@thomasmaughan4798 It seems if you are an amateur radio operator, you would have no grief using the citizen's band frequencies with little chance of troubles. However, if one picks up an amateur radio and starts using it with no license, you are on borrowed time before there will be an unfriendly knock at the door. There may be equally unfriendly papers being served for an unfriendly date to keep. I knew an amateur radio operator that had used his radio equipment for decades for citizen's band as well. He used to give us CB walkie talkies for Christmas. I still have one. I miss Jim. He is what is referred to as, "silent key," or, "hushed key," now. Amazing old guys like that simply do not exist any more. He had quite the laugh when my father got me in very big trouble for making a homemade spark gap transmitter, that ripped through television, telephone, CB, HiFi, reception in the neighbourhood. In short, if you do not have an amateur radio license, I will give you a new Canadian dollar to go ahead and use it. But, if you have an amateur radio license, I will give you only and old Mexican Peso to use it.
I recently bought an Icom IC-728 used. It has the MARS mod. It works on the full 11 meter band SSB, at as much as 100 watts. Also makes a great shortwave radio, and it has continuous receive on AM from 0.5MHz-30MHz.
@@thomasmaughan4798 My Yaesu FT-101B has 11 meters stock. No mods of any kind. The rest of the world doesn't have to do what your little fcc says.
@@thomasmaughan4798 Just in the u.s. Nobody cares.
I have an anytone at 778uv that works HAM bands and CB, AND a xiegu G90 that works both HAM bands and CB.
Both radios have undergone modifications to open transmit on CB bands, but both radios will transmit on HAM and CB frequencies.
All of my HF radios have the ability to cover the entire frequency range they operate in, one from 1.3MHz up to about 35MHz.
@@JayFude Transmit and receive?
@@furonwarrior yes. It is only the operator that prevents use in out-of-band or out-of-license, there is no other check on the radios ability to transmit. They are older radios, not computerized or SDR. Where they can hear, they can transmit.
The anytone 778UV does NOT, i repeat, DOES NOT do 27mhz CB band. This person must live in a country where CB uses uhf frequencies. The AT778UV is a bit of a free-bander radio but will go nowhere near 27mhz lol. Lowest I can go is like 120mhz
@@anonyninja7737 - The chinese have a habit of selling radios with the same model number that are completely different in various markets. There is an anytone with the same model number as a UHF radio sold in the western hemisphere but I ran across it for sale online where it will operate 66 to 88 mhz continuous FM and a couple digital modes. Trust me, he may not be wrong about what he said. They have been known to recycle model numbers for radios that are completely different and even look different. Yes crazy.
Video summary: "Because laws"
There is no legitimate reason that a licensed ham - who knows the rules, power limits, transmisssion modes, etc - should be locked out of 11m on their regular rigs.
I agree, but ham radio can’t be used commercially while CB radio can. That’s probably the biggest line that separates the two.
@@furonwarrior What does that have to do with a licensed ham using ham rigs on the CB bands - provided they're operating within parameters?
This video may be my first to pass 100k views. The GMRS one is not far behind tho
@@notsure7874 The Federal government has issues with anything that involves money because they want to be a part of it.
Also, the CB/Ham radio could never be FCC Part 15 compliant for it to be operated as a unlicensed CB radio which is what that is. For hams to operate with CB as a ham radio would void Part 95 compliance, even if it’s “locked out” as a 4/12 watt radio.
Basically, CB radio can’t be CB radio without Part 15 and the amateur radio combo would void this as they would need to be separate devices. It would be the same as illegally operating within CB frequencies with a modded 10 meter radio regardless of the watt and bandwidth was at the legal limit.
@@n2rj congrats!
Growing up I knew an advanced amateur radio operator. He did use his amateur radio for Citizen's Band also. He had a mark on a power knob he would put the knob on it and switched to the CB band. He would use the amateur radio for CB and nobody knew. However, he also told me it was a no-no but nobody cared. He would let us talk many times. The kids loved that guy. He would give us CB radio walkie talkies, which he told us they were, "handie talkies," because walkie talkies were backpack type radios. He was a great guy. I still have a CB walkie talkie he gave me. He used to tell me using an amateur radio on CB was like speed limit 55 on the highway. You could go 60 miles per hour and nobody cares.
The FCC cares, I know a man that had a bunch of expensive ham radio equipment confiscated by the FCC because he was using it on 11 meters !
@@rickmckee6698 - That was 40 years ago and trust me nobody cares. And certainly not the FCC. 11meters is a lost cause and you are even more lost in the past than that. They DO NOT CARE anymore. Unless you are interfering with something that makes money or jeopardizes life or limb or property, NOTHING WILL COME OF IT. The last case of the FCC doing anything about a CB'er (and their headquarters is not far from here) was in the very early 80's. All the circular phased array listening stations around the country are gone. Disassembled and abandoned. If its under 60 MHZ they simply do not care. Promise. The FAA regulates the airwaves in HF and VHF for aircraft. You will get in trouble there.
@@rickmckee6698He did it for decades. He taught me Morse Code, which later got me in trouble with a homemade spark gap transmitter I made. He is now what he referred to as, "Silent Key," or, "hushed key." (dead unfortunately) He used the speed limit comparison a lot. He used to say speeding has been proven to kill far more than doing the posted speed limit. But people delight in doing it all the time. A ham radio used on CB frequencies has killed no one nor hurt anybody. He would tune to a CB frequency he called, "Super Boom." I found it to be channel 6AM after that. The characters there were taring up the frequency with radios he said were transmitting thousands of watts of power! He said the FCC had far bigger antennas to pull down. The strange thing is, I still hear those same characters today, 30 years later! They must be in their upper 70s by now! They are still pumping out thousands of watts. I hear the same on 80 metres as well. Regardless, I just have an old Cobra 148 GTL in old Jeep, and a communications receiver. I installed the Cobra in the Jeep in 1996. Only the, "Boom Masters," on channel 6AM can be heard today. But now, I am in Saskatchewan, Canada. I still hear the same, "boom masters," and, "wratchet Jaws." Every once in awhile, 35USB and 38LSB can be heard. I very rarely hear 40FM, also. But that is it. It is empty. The Cobra 148GTL does not transmit thousands of watts. It transmits 5 watts AM and 12 SSB.The FM modification does 4 watts. I have had this radio in all my vehicles since my first one and it was given to me when I was 11 I have found out that antenna is far more important than power, unless you have thousands of watts like Super Boom channel. I do not know why CRCT nor FCC do not do anything about it.
please list the event numbers so we can look it up.
CB has been effectively unregulated since 1980. We had to give up the 11M band to create their service, then we got slapped by the FCC because CBers were using our linears illegally when we didn' t have control over who those linears got sold to, so WE were punished because the FCC removed the 10M band from our linears. Then they punished us again by changing the way output power was determined from 1500 watts out at the transmitter to 1500 watts "effective radiated power" at the antenna, then they slapped us again by levying a $35 charge just to get to see our callsigns past April 22 this year. How far will they go next year - or will they wait that long before the next slap? Up until recently, the FCC played "fair", because they could use our abilities in times of war, and probably still will. But now they want to eliminate us by charging us to use the equipment we bought or built ourselves at absolutely no cost to them at all. I am ashamed of the Government telling the FCC its okay to price us out of a very valuable service to them because they think they do not need us anymore. One day soon, the FCC will find out they made a very bad mistake by casting us aside when the power grid, internet, and cellphone system fails because their cybersecurity failed and they are back to "smoke signals" once again because we might not be there to help them out "once again".
Honestly FRS/GMRS does just fine and it works better with buildings, alongside that we have MURS which could be used for truckers, so I don't entirely grasp why CB is still around.
In belgium they dikslap you with 60 euro a year almost 70 usd. Fcc must have taken note of that. I freezed my licence since there is no way I give them 70 euro for s licence to talk at home. I can go on field days and to other stations and do that
The FCC has no power in most places. However, the 11 meter band was like the 6 meter band today. Nobody cared when it disappeared. 6 meters is likely going to be the next amateur band deletion. 8 meter band is likely going to disappear, as well, for amateurs. It was a failed experiment. It was ridiculous to even try to make an 8 meter band for amateurs when 6 meters is nothing but a desert band. 33 centimeter band is also likely to be deleted from amateur radio usage. It is already being populated with devices that require no license. 4 meter band is also a failed experiment for most nations.
CB is JUNK
#1 Just stay in band , stay out of trouble and have fun . Beware of people that go around citing fcc rules to you when no harm has or will be done by you. Run a clean station . Be kind . Share knowledge with thirsty minds . Most of all LISTEN . 73s thanks for posting
Its fairly safe to use any of the frequencies between 26.155 and 27.955 with little or no repercussions. None of that spectrum is used for anything and is simply a guard band around CB. And as you said about being kind and considerate, remember the 11th commandment. Thou Shalt Not Get Caught and The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease. Don't get greased ha ha
i have on this date No ham radio that works on the cb freqs.
no real interest there. mostly as to get a 10m radio to work on 11m you lose both ways with a antenna that “can” do both but does it very poorly.
i am setting up my truck ( personal pu) with a simple 2m and 440 ham radio. and a cb radio.
might even hook up a gmrs. antenna to a walkiy gmrs radio.
not a radio nerd. just some ares, needs require deferent things. .
we are in a digital age now cb doesn't interfere like it used to alot of the time its cb's that get interference now from cheap switch mode power supplies or in my case neighbours pond pump! or powerline technology wifi boosters etc.
Actually Ria you can work DX leagally now on 11 meters.
The FCC recently dropped the range limit. Am is still 4 watts unmodulated and ssb Is 12 watts PEP.
@@n2rj I guess I should’ve paid closer attention.
73.
Ria is talking about ruls, your ruls not mine!
@@VicGreenBitcoin I don’t have any rules. It’s open season. No harm no foul.
That depends on you call, "DX." Before and after the range limit, it has always been illegal to use sky waves to communicate, even when it was less than 155 miles and even now. The only thing that has changed is there is now no limit on ground wave communication. I live more than 155 miles from a mountain range and below it. Some radio friends will drive to those mountains and we can talk ground wave any time, day or night. They are on the mountains looking down on me and I'm looking up at the mountains. That's now legal. Sometimes sky waves will travel where I can hear a city only 100 miles away, fading in and out. Talking with them is still illegal. A 4 watt AM carrier 100 percent modulated has a PEP of 16 watts. What they did was subtract the 4 watt carrier and allow the 12 watts of sideband for the single sideband power limit.
I CB everyday. As a Trucker I used it everyday. Now retired I LSB all the time on my old Cobra 2000GTL regular. It’s fun.
Mars Mod involves removing a FCC required diode designed to block tx on 11m . In antique equipment 11m was an amateur band and is not blocked. Thousands of hams use mars modded equipment every day on 11m they just don't use there amateur callsigns on CB .
Years ago when I was young, I spent over a week modifying, retuning, and programming a nice old Motorola biz band mobile rig to cover 2 meters, police, fire, sheriff, weather, and a couple of other radio services, (and added a low and high power switch to switch between 30 W and 160 W,) for a higher-up in FEMA who said that they just couldn't handle having 8 different radios in their emergency service SUV. I built it up, expanded channel memory to add banked channel groups, further ruggedized it, and tricked it out every way I could think of to ensure that it was the best damn 2-way that I could make it. I added a key lock to the control-head, and handed the FEMA manager the rig and the keys - no charge. I provided both the rig and the work for free, as there was no possible way to get something like that through all of the governmental red tape. It was a totally illegal radio as far as the FCC was concerned, but utterly necessary for the intended purpose, for FEMA to save lives. The manager sent me a nice thank-you card and some FEMA decals. That was plenty of pay for the job.
I'm late to this party, but your video was well put together and explained your points well.
As I watched it I was thinking of the question you asked. "Why can't I have a radio with two services, ie CB and gmrs? It seems the FCC is firm, so okay.
A radio manufacturer could sell a backplane, similar to how individual servers now plug into one big box servicing many such servers inside data centers.
This backplane would house common services for any radio plugged into the backplane. The backplane would provide power, connections to the vehicle's sound system, a system to connect multiple antennas, a microphone, and a speaker. And a priority system to decide who gets listened to and who will hear your response. Perhaps even amplifiers in compliance with law and only one heatsink and fan! And a display so most of this goes in the trunk.
A complete offering of all the different radios with each radio certified to all the rules for each. I might purchase a CB, police/fire/rescue scanner and a gmrs. You likely would purchase others. But we both would plug it into the same backplane. Hm I wonder if it could have a shortwave receiver too?
Everyone would get most of what they want. The FCC would have certified radios running on a certified backplane. connected to certified antenna running certified software.
The user would technically lose one radio that does everything, but I wonder if the question isn't really "one radio?" It is really about space.
"Really? Must my front seat, or my desk overlooking the pond, be cluttered with equipment and lock like the front seat of a cop car?"
As a bonus users could monitor more than one radio as they conserve space.
There are some interesting arguments against this idea but I think I could answer them.
Thanks for an opportunity to think.
So, if I understand this: As a licensed amateur in the USA I can build a radio from the ground up or modify an existing radio (military for example) to work in the amateur radio bands. BUT, once I modify the radio it will no longer meet type acceptance for the service it was originally built for. So, I can modify a CB to work on 10 meters, but I can't then use it on CB. Do I have that correct?
Yes... legally... But there is no one to enforce it. Don't squeak and you will not get greased. Just have fun quietly with your gear and don't be a pain in the butt and you will be fine.
@@KlodFather For those who do make a PITA out of themselves, they will eventually irritate someone enough to go find them and the FCC will eventually issue them a fine or other enforcement. But, you are correct, if you use your Baofeng on an FRS frequency or get a GMRS license and use the Baofeng there, so long as you don't interfere with other users no one will really care.
@@BryanTorok - Its like on CB no one cares... when I became a new ham, I had a killer 11 meter setup in my truck and I worked 10 meters with it for field day, easily outperforming the HF rigs due to raw power and optimization. I was a radio tech and engineer for years who ran on the edgy side of things and was not afraid to push the limits a little. 10 was up that year and in the pileup like on CB, I beat my own hole in the ozone layer and made those contacts for the club. While both shocked and amazed at its performance, that setup which I have since sold really did the trick... But I was never hassled for it because I was never a PITA with it. And that unit was hot enough to give you a decent RF burn if you were dumb around the antenna while transmitting. On AM one time near the city back in 92 or so, I keyed it up and a guys very new Toyota car started to miss and stalled. IT would not restart in traffic. I knew the techs at the Toyota garage. The RF had burned out the PCM which was under the seat. Toyota in those years issued warnings to not install a transmitter more than 5 watts in their cars because it could damage the car electronics... Well It was not hard to do some real damage in those days. Present day electronics in cars is much harder but the last couple of years have been shaky and I would not want to bet on any of that junk they are pedaling.
@@BryanTorok - Some of the PITAs I was referring to were two idiots that I got a call about in my area... The FAA wanted help tracking down some agitators on the Aviation band. I hooked them up with some young guys who did a fox hunt on them and the morons were found and punished. They were dumb and deserve to go. Hassling planes taking off and landing at a major airport is no Joke.
@@KlodFather I seem to recall a buddy who was traveling on business and had to return two rental cars after he hooked up his 50 watt ham radio and tried transmitting. After that, he gave up.
@Ria. I do not have a Ham ticket at least not yet but I have been on CB since 1969. Back then there was only 23 channels not including the "A" channels that were used for RC car, planes and boats. The channels above channel 23-40 were reserved for Business Band Radio. Back then they were used for towing companies, Taxi dispatch and other commercial businesses. Ch 23 prior to the expansion actually had a power limit of 25 watts AM. All those businesses were given time to move to another service. This was prior to 1977. For as long as I have been on CB there has always been Skip. Was someone calling you from Nevada and you're in NY. Are you supposed to ignore it because "Skip" is illegal? People are going to key the mic and say hello. You can also tell that the FCC doesn't give a flying you know what about people on 11 meters running power. If they did Channel 6 aka Superbowl would be a ghost town. As far as i know CB radios in Canada use the same 4 watt output but as far as i know they are not restricted when it comes to using a linear. I personally use a converted 10 meter radio on CB simply because they are built better and receive better. My President has better channel rejection than a Cobra or Midland. Most newer CB radios are built cheaper than the ones made 20 or more years ago. I hooked up a Cobra 29 in my car and purposely went to Ch 6. Then I did the same with my Lincoln II+. With the Cobra it was getting splashed to Ch 1 and up as far as Ch15. When i did the same with the Lincoln it rejected the signals 2 channels to either side. the noise level on Ch 3 and 7 was quiet. BTW my Cobra 148 GTL goes 80 over 40 and 80 below 1. I got the radio in the late 80's.
Back in the day in NZ we only had 9ch on AM @ 2watts on 26mhz. But, we were allowed to use skip.
The rule against skip communications on CB was repealed a few years ago.
Yeah, like how in the hell would you regulate a natural phenomenon?
It was the government's mistake to begin with, putting the CBRS between two amateur bands. That was asking for trouble. They could'a/should'a put it in the VHF spectrum to begin with instead.
So, the only reason CB and ham radio can't be in one radio is FCC rules that limits it. It is 100% technically feasible, but since you are the property of the government, you must follow its rules or be fined or jailed.
If a person has a birth certificate, a citizen of the United States Corporation, they are definitely an indentured servant of that said corporation.
1 switch and it goes to radio amateur
A modified cb produces lots of harmonics and that brings you in problems. About amplifiers. If you want to spew out 1000 to 1500 watt buy a 2000 watt amp instead of 1500 watt so it will not send harmonics.
@@Alessioalessio-qv1ffThat’s not exactly how it works.
@@oldjarhead386 oh yes it works. But I won't tell you the band
The same type of basic usage rules that apply to CB, also apply to FRS. The frequencies must be channelized, the power must be fixed at some predetermined level, repeaters are not allowed and amplifiers are not allowed. FRS also requires non removable antennas (and 1/2 watt power limitations) whereas CB you're allowed to have different antennas but there are restrictions on height. Both services allow usage without a license, but only under the conditions that they (the FCC) specify. This may come as a surprise to some, but in the UK. They allow for FM in addition to AM and SSB. In parts of Europe, they are also allowed to use packet radio on the CB bands. And 60 years ago, there were actually CB radio kits. The way around the FCC type acceptance rule was the RF section was already assembled and tested but everything else could be assembled. For some of us, CB radio was one of the ways we kept in touch with friends and meet new people in an era before cellphones, computers, the internet and social media.
Now some FRS channels are allowed 2 watts but the others are still limited to 1/2 watt.
@@kd5you1 but also GMRS licensed operators can use the same FRS frequencies with 5 watts and/up to 50 watts depending on the channel
"Both services allow usage without a license"
Actually, they are licensed by rule. The device is licensed, not the operator.
I loved the topic. I just purchased a 40 channel CB for my truck (which also has UHF/VHF (FTM-400DR) and an HF rigs (FT-891) mainly for EmComm use. Back in the 1970s I was a licensed CB'er (KJB8124) long before I got into ham radio, which I am an Extra class license holder (W9HJ).
Caution, I killed my CB when I was using my 2 meter FT-2800 but had my CB on at the same time. I'm quite sure it was because the antenna were not terribly far apart from each other and I think I fried the receive circuitry. The CB would still transmit but was deaf. It was a new enough CB that I returned it before coming to the conclusion it was from transmitting on the 2m radio, I chose to only have one radio on at a time from now on.
Can you tell me what cb you purchased thank you
KQF-5235 OKLAHOMA
I was KAJB0961
I was the youngest operator in the area, KBX-1339. I had a tremendous amount of fun with an antenna I cut from threaded rod I cut to 259 centimeters (102 inches back then) I installed it on the chimney. The power supply was an old car battery on a charger. I could talk to northern Mexico from north Michigan! On sideband, I was contacting England! It was incredible! When I got my license, I installed the radio in my first vehicle. It has been in my other 5 more vehicles as well. Even in the current vehicle I bought in 1996, the radio is installed in it. However, things have changed. Besides the Boom Masters on channel 6 AM sporadic, 35USB, 38LSB and very rare 40FM, that is all I hear now. The old radio does not transmit as far though the power is exactly the same and I have an antenna the same length as the old threaded rod. Nobody uses Citizen's Band any more except the Boom Masters and wratchet jaws. I would remove the old Cobra 148GTL. But I had poor foresight. When I bought the Jeep new, in 1996, I carefully cut a rectangular hole into the dashboard an a round hole for the microphone jack. There is no way to find a dashboard for a vehicle this old now. Thus, the old CB stays. It looks great installed. It is just so empty on the band.
73 de KBX-1339
The Grinder
I started CB radio 45yrs ago, it was really cool back then.
yes back then it was good. but i stoped have a radio in my work trucks cause of so many fools out there messing it up for everybody else.
but also as some company's do not want you having such in there trucks.
damage? ( hard mounting) or just they say is is a distraction.
and the makers do not want there product to be the same as makers. so no mounting to the mirror mounts.
a "high end" CB has a clarifier and a 10K switch which allows you to work frequency within the channel and allows access to the "alpha" channels..
The early models of Yaesu FT-101 had 11 meter capability. That radio offered 260 Watt PEP input power!
Back then the 11m band was a ham band, That's why
You can clip or solder any ham radio to use on cb .. I love it when people are using a ham radio on cb channels no splatter boxs and get lots of people into ham radio .PS QRP is so much fun
Kenwood ts440 the famous diode clip ;)
i had a galaxy 99 in my truck converted over with 350 watt texas star kicker peacked and tuned i talked all over the u.s and talked across the world never had a problem
from aug 1985 to oct 2016 was my trucking year
That is a righeous setup. Brother uses his 99V and amp in his work truck. He is a class A driver for a major company in the city. Other brother passed away in his truck. He was OTR for Landstar and a silent key. RIP
@@KlodFather sorry for your loss
When I drove I love talking on cb radio I love talking skip
I forgot to mention that I had a Texas star 350 to drive it
@@KlodFather sorry for your loss
When I drove I love talking on cb radio I love talking skip
I forgot to mention that I had a Texas star 350 to drive it
@@geraldnulischjr - THos old Texas Star 4 transistor final amps were strong and got the job done. THey needed good wiring to work correctly also... and using a cheap antenna could be a problem as they frequently burned up crappy antennas LOL Thank you for your well wishes. Shooting skip is cool. I have my ham ticket now but still love and reminisce about skip and international communications on 11 meters. I even now tease the ham guys and ask at the meetings who is going to run 11 meters for Field Day LOL. Most laugh any more. In the past a few would get mad but they won't give me the pleasure of their indignance ha ha. I had a BigAss Palamar amp that had 2 drivers and 6 finals in it back in the day and it would do 375 dead key on setting 3 of 4 power levels. Audio was between 500 and 600 and swinging. It would flicker the fluorescent lights in the Burger King where I was running it when transmitting HA HA. Especially on Side Band. But the AM side of that rig with the power on was BRUTAL and would get into PA systems and all sorts of things and screw them up. I had to harden my truck agains the RF because it would make it idle rough or stall when I keyed it up and the gages would go crazy. Like I said in another post, I keyed it up at the intersection near the airport and a mans toyota car stalled and would not restart. It burned up his ECM.
SURVIVAL gear ⚠️ ALERT tip:
All of the LED flashlights will be fried, destroyed when an EMP hits them 🔦 You should ALWAYS carry an incandescent type of flashlight as a backup to your LED flashlights and carry a mechanical wrist-watch as a backup to your digital watch !
*Please also research which two-way communication handheld radios cannot be destroyed by an EMP.
I recommend solid state radios.
Ammo cans provide excelent EMP protection.
Emp is kind of a toss up. In all the nuclear test detonations , only a very few produced emps.
Same for the Carrington event everyone worries about.
If you are really worried , toss some radios in a garbage can and bury it.
You can find plenty of older radios cheap at a hamfest or just buy a handful of Chinese radios.
Radios may be useful afterwards but if there is an EMP and it is like the doomsayers claim, there will be other more important things to worry over
I may have misunderstood but I have a 10meter radio with both. I own a 10 meter radio Galaxy dx99v. Of course all I did was open up the radio and there's two wires that are taped to the electronics but not connected to anything until I brought the two pieces together and fit perfectly. Now I have the cb channels along with Side band. I would talk for over 150 miles in any direction. And with hundreds of channels to go thru .all.i need is a break to go get whatever it .
My Yaesu 857d does 11 meters. My Yaesu screwdriver antenna will tune it too. I've had people tell me that my radio "sounds so good!" on 11 meters. I bought it brand new and have never had it apart.
It can but not legally. That’s the point.
C.B .started with 19 channels and slowly increased to 40 .my last radio has built in ham and is legal to use but technically you must have your ham license to use it .
23 channels then went to 40.
So it's not that we 'can't' have a CB and HAM radio in one, as if no such ability exists, but its that we're not "permitted" to?
yep mixed gas. no drones, 1.6 toilet, and double paine windows. its called GOV REGULATION!
@@williamdaniels6943 and the chidren's band has shown us for many years what the lack of regulation is like in the real world BREEEEAAAKKKKKK SUPER BOWLERS WITH MY ILLEGAL 3500 WATT LINEAR AAAAAAAMMMMMMMP
@@williamdaniels6943 If most adults would act responsible rather than like adolescent children we wouldn't need government regulations. Case in point. Look how long we've been fighting Covid-19? We could have been done with this months ago had it not been for (mostly red state) adults acting like children.
Put your "big boy" pants on, William, and we wouldn't need so much regulation to protect the majority from the "Idiocracy" minority.
@@phillipzx3754 You REALLY ! Believe We Would Be Done With C19 if Everyone Would Just Fall in Line..... LOL !!! There Gonna Play This Plandemic as Long as People Like You Continue to Be Un-Educated ! Follow The Science They Say .......Well Follow The Science Basic Math Will Show You All You Need To Know. Go To The CDC's Covid Tracker and Get There Number's and Take The Number of Death's and Divide By The The Number of Cases Move Your Decimal Point 2 Places To The Right and See For Yourself The Current Death Rate From C19 Spoiler Alert it's Been That For Well Over a Year. It Has Only Fluctuated .1% Minus or Plus in That Time. Prove Me Wrong !!!
@@kellydardeen6308 You're right. Screw everyone else. Let's drag this out for as long as we can.
If you can't be considerate enough towards other peoples health because "big brother" told you to wear a simple mask..FUCK YOU!
I'm out of fucks to give.
Yaesu once did that! It was called an FT-101EE!
Kenwood did it too....TS-430s
Icom kinda does this right now IC-7300 will receive fully on 11 and doing a mars mod will allow transmit as well.
Yes, but the 11 meter band was a ham band in most countries back then.
@@yauwohn that's right
The FCC gave up policing the citizens band airwaves in the mid to late 90s. I’ve had a CB radio since 1978, I also have my amateur radio license. And I can tell you it was a blast back in the late 70s. as for using amateur radios on the 11 m band, I bought a used Yaesu 1000 MP several years ago and when you flipped it to 10 m the first channel that popped up was 27.185
Im in ne england...i was about in the 90s fun with 500w and loadsa dx...i now have my licence and a 1000mp too...great radio...kev
@@26KE185 I also have an 1000mp!
@@26KE185 Am I wrong thinking that in the UK “Citizens Band” was strictly Fm and in the UHF band?
@@TexasScout it was fm legalised in 1981 27.605 to 27.905...hi band but a few years later we got another 40 channels mid band below that...4 watts only on both and fm only...934mhz 20 channels got released for some time around then too very expensive radios but it flopped
The 934mhz radios were £300 to buy and didnt do anymore than 30km...for the other 80 channels we were only allowed an antenna with a height of 1.5 metres then it went to 1.65m...i used this size in the beginning but then went on to a 18 and 21ft aluminium antenna...a silvet rod...which were a half wave and five eightths wave...then i went better and got a sigma 4 which was seven eighths...for 11 metres...look one up...theyre huge...the bottom of it sat above my house
I remember when you actually had to have ACB license it wasn't expensive or hard to get but you still had to have a license to operate ACB
I had one back in the day (1970's) I wish I could remember/ find out what my call sign was back then.
FM is coming to North American CB. It is going to be used for shorter range communication where someone does not want to hear skip and wants a clear signal. The rule is eminent. Cobra electronics petition the rule and the FCC and CRCT are going to allow it. FM will be much clearer, will not hear the AM skip coming in, save a few muffled transmissions, and will add more versatility to the CB radios. Some nations already have AM/FM/SSB modes allowed for their CB radio band
I remember back in the 70's seeing vans cruising around town with their twirling direction finding rigs... 😂 Eventually those guys disappeared. I do both ham and cb. Ham for me is basically video transmission for fpv flights and a little uh fun the hills here. CB is going on my jeep and for comms with friends who have no license.
I have been a ham for over 20 years but still do CB. Someone gave me a 10 meter radio once converted for CB. Screwed the radio up period. Channel 3 came.up twice. Modulation was off.
The reason is simple. CB has always been very limited in legal power. With a ham transceiver you want a lot of power. Combine them and you either have to limit Ham to basically QRP levels or allow CB to transmit on illegal levels of power. There ya go. You'd think a ham radio person like her would figure this out.
OR.........you can invent a knob that would somehow controlled the RF output of your transceiver.you would think a child could figure this out.
When the fcc makes all electronics like transformers, ballasts, and everything that reises the ambient noise level, I will only use 4 watts.
FCC made a change to the rules regarding CB DX. It used to be a limit of 150 miles. That limit has been removed, and CB are now allowed to use FM.
Thanks for commenting without watching the video. I actually said that.
That was one of the things that is very helpful to CB to allow FM and to remove the skip restriction... because when the band is up, its easy to just have a casual conversation with someone 1500 or more miles away with your 5 watts on the air... or especially with SSB. Its amazing how open the band can be sometimes. Especially when the skip is up and there are not many stations on... then someone says hello and you find out they are thousands of miles away and sound like just down the street. Lovely piece of RF spectrum. 6 meters is the grab bag band because it will not only skip when CB is really hot with skip but 6 meters will do tropospheric ducting and other inversion DX very well during storms and solar activity.
I have CB and ham in one radio.
It’s an Icom 7610 modded for MARS and CAP.
And an Ameritron AL 82 for a little fire in the wire.
To use that on the CB band is illegal.
@@badatpseudoscience Really? I didn’t know that. 😂
It’s not illegal unless you get caught. 45 years on CB and I’ve never ran less than 100 watts. At 1500 watts im still a little guy. There’s others running many times that wattage. Hams do it all the time and nobody seems to care there either.
@@wwtf7180 It depends on what type of person you are.
@@badatpseudoscience if you wanna hear Big power go down to 27.025 and give a listen to them guys. They are all running a minimum of 5000 watts. I know one guy who dead keys at 20,000 watts and swings 50,000 watts. There’s no enforcement on 11 meters so all I can say is “Run what you want”
@@badatpseudoscience I guess I do whatever I want. It Don’t make me a bad person. I’m actually a pretty friendly person. I help others with antenna projects, especially the old and I love CB radio.
Ham is to stuffy for me.
AFAIK this applies within the UK too.
Although it doesn't stop people using ham gear on CB frequencies and vis versa.
I got started with CB back in 1975, at age 16. I got my general class ham license in 1989, at age 30. I still use CB. Except for CB (11 meters) being between the 10 and 12 meter ham bands, they are completely different services. The 11 meter (CB) band is at the very top of the HF band, and is still low enough on the frequency spectrum that the signals will "skip" depending on conditions, allowing you to make long distance contacts. Since that was not the original intent of CB, it does seem weird they used 11 meters. Now we have FRS and GMRS in the UHF band, which seems like a better place for short range FM communications. And now we have FM CB, still in the 11 meter band. Will be interesting to see how that works.
I seriously doubt that anyone who is seriously into CB is using 4 watts anymore. My SSB CB base station has 100 watts. That is enough to communicate with distant stations without causing any interference (my CB is not "dirty" like many high powered CBs with cheap amplifiers) it is in fact a modified amateur radio that I modified for 11 meters myself. There is often a difference between legal and illegal, and right and wrong. I have no desire to cause problems for amateurs on 10 and 12 meters, or anyone else. But I also want to be able to use the 11 meter band to communicate long distance, without having to deal with all the rules and call signs that go with amateur radio. Every time you give your call sign, you are giving away a ton of personal information, even your home address. And I am not comfortable with that. I wish they would put an end to including that much information. We are living in a time where information of any kind can easily be used against you. Would you believe that I actually received a notice from the ARRL (and they got it from the FCC) that certain "political discussion" would not be tolerated on amateur radio, and doing so could cause you to lose your license? And they know who YOU are from your call sign What are they going to do next, add your SS number to your call sign information? That is why I have gotten farther and farther away from amateur radio and gotten back into SSB CB. Sometimes you need to break the rules (without causing any problems) to keep illegal and un Constitutional government interference out of your life. I do not operate illegally on amateur frequencies. You can get cheap CB amplifiers, (such as RM Italy) that do not stay on frequency, and bleed over onto other frequencies, including into the amateur bands. One nice thing about having the technical knowledge from being an amateur operator for a long time is the ability to build your own low power, stable, "clean" amplifier, or modify a high quality amateur radio to operate "out of band" on 11 meters.
Remember, at least in the U.S., the First Amendment does apply to amateur radio, even though the government doesn't want it to.
Cb is here to stay, it has its place. I still cb even tho I am a ham. I find alot of hams as well as cbers do what they want lol.
Licenced ham here. I spend my time on CB. My local cb community is great
Nobody has ever cared about cb rules. They make a entire line of so called 10/11 meter radios for cb fans.
@@Johnyrocket70 that's very true, but you don't have to go far to see hams not following rules, to a lesser extent but still.
CBers still getting on down!!!!!
@@user-su5sq5ib3i I know of some HAMs who are straight OUTLAWS. They know what they’re doing and they do it how they want. They run a major repeater too.
Watching and listening to you from Kentucky,.... “ The Bluegrass State “ . Thank you. .....
Ky! Boyle county here.
My first ham radio was a Galaxy Pluto, then a RCI 2950 and a Galaxy DX 88HL and those did 25 -50 watts and all 3 also had the CB channel's
I used the HR-2510-4 ha ha And I had two Cobra 148dx radios I bought... one for my dad because it was easy for him and one later from another guy. Those 148dx radios are three bands of 40 channels. THe motherboard is very similar to the one in the RCI 2950 but with only three crystal banks being used on a uniden designed board. There was also a 148dx bootleg made that used a cybernet board which was used in Midland Pace and a few other manufacturers radios.
I think the PRC I used in the corps had all the band's. I needed to rig different antenna for them though, mostly from comm wire.
the bands
It was always fun to send new arrivals over to the Comms section to tell them “we need a PRC-E7 as soon as possible”. It didn’t normally take very long for him to show up either lol
Very good video. I have been operating on 11 meter band since 1977 and still transmit pretty much daily.
back in 1994 i had a ranger 2950. freq rang 26-32 mghz am/fm/usb/lsb/cw with lot of other nice features built in. Also owned the ranger 2970 same radio just more power.
I personal like CBèr a lot more then the most Amateur radio operators. My question is Why are Amateurs so Arrogant...?
I wouldn't say they are arrogant, more like annoyed. They have to study and take test that aren't free to talk on ham radio then along comes a Trucker who cuts corners and modifies their radio to use some of the same bands. I'm a Trucker and a ham so I understand both sides of the topic
CB'ers = beer. Ham'ers = wine.
I am a ham radio operator. There are operators that are stuffy. I learned when I first got into it. I just don,t waste my time on them.
@@randycoolbaugh1408 I drink both👍lol
Why dont you stop whining and get your ham license. If your smart enough that is.
Not long ago if you wanted a non type excepted radio, all you had to do was visit the nearest truck stop cb shop. Just about everyone who could afford one had a "modded" RCI ranger in their truck. The right model could do 400 watts. If you didn't have ranger money, they had many "modded" galaxy radios for sale as well. They even sold linear amps "under the table"
The FCC did crack down on a few of them… as I mentioned in the video.
Yaesu invented CB and Hamradio in one when they put a 27Mhz band xtal in the FT101
and sold a million of them
And I had one those radios back around 1980 miss that radio ended up trading it off as it was having transformer issues
Probably was modified. KK7T.
@Kent Teffeteller my is modified
I have a Siltronix 1011B AM radio with CB band 23 channel it also has 28, 28.5 29 and 29.2 with usb, lsb and AM rec.
I'm a truck driver. You have to have a Ham License to transmit on ham frequencies
You have more bands and less power and talk farther like D Star I love very much
With a Technician License you can use up to 1500 watts legally
But a lot of these CB chop shops will sell 10 meter radios illegally
In order to run the upper ssb of 10 meter by law u must have a license
With a Technician License u can only use the lower ssb
That's the law.
But these chop shops are selling them illegally
Not hard to get
The best band of the spectrum.
You can have a radio that does all... Most HF radios can be expanded so you can transmit on ham and CB....
My little Icom 706 does it superbly....
Brother had one of those in his pickup truck. I have it now. He died in 2018 and left me about 13 radios.
Great speech. Tell the 99% of hams on GMRS to buy a compliant radio.
We do not comply...
please note that back in 1976 the legal output of a cb was increased from 4 watts to 5 . and 12 watts pep for sideband
Why is 12 a multiple of 4....
The FCC has a service in the UHF band that's now called GMRS. It was originally called CLASS A CB. The 27 MHz was called CLASS D CB. There is also an R/C channels in the 27mhz band that was originally called CLASS C CB.
27.195 19 able😃
Gmrs operates up on 462. Mhz. That's way higher than cb.
WE used the A channels to talk privately back in the day. 3A 7A 11A 15A 19A and 23A became channel 25 when the radios were made 40 channels. I did a lot of CB repairs and mods back in the day. I also had an amp that would do 375 dead key on AM on the setting 3 of 4 (not the highest) and used 6 Toshiba transistors as the power outputs. IT was Ruthless on the air. One year I used it on field day for the 10 meter station. IT ripped on 10 meters and easily outperformed the HF radios with the large mobile antenna on the truck. Those were good days. (30 years ago)
Greetings. What do you think about Cobra requesting to include FM to their AM CB radios. As of 15 July 2021, a FCC document was posted online on the subject matter.
I have an upcoming video about that. Stay tuned.
My Cobra 148 is both a CB & a ham receiver thanks to the Troy Radio DDS VFO modificatiion.
Hi Ria,
Just to let you know,...I would be so lost, if not for your videos. Really like your knowledge and the way you explained everything you are much appreciated thank you
Been driving truck 17 years. The truth of it from a working mans perspective: when you need information or help or need to alert others of dangerous situations IE watch the RUclips videos of 30-50 truck pile ups. You need the punch to get over the 3rd graders playing with daddies microphone. In Chicago land toward the south side the 2 biggest offenders of dirty nasty power are 2 base stations, (so not truckers)That mess with the working class.
Is my 7610 opened up to be on 11m? NO. will my 7100 going mobile in my personal? Yes. Your car can go 100mph, what keeps you from doing so? Personal responsibility.
When used responsibly and properly a dual band 10/11 radio for the working licensed folks is just fine. Let’s be honest no one is going to pay 3-5k for a LDMOS amp just for 11m most drivers make that in 3-4 months only a handful make that in a month I’m very fortunate that I’m in that category. So kindly turn down the dislike of “truckers”. My 10/11 radio on 10 has brought me several years of great fun and work safety on 11.
73, K9AWS.
Yes, CB is very useful for OTR truckers. It's really perfect for that - dirt simple and cheap.
Wow! Thanks for the video Ria, it was informative and interesting.
Great video! Now in 2023, it is possible to have both in one unit.
Not legally
I don't understand why anyone would use the term "CB radio service". It is not a service at all, merely a frequency allocation attached to some arbitrary rules, designed to prevent people making maximum use of the bandwidth. I have a radio that covers all UK and EU CB FM and AM frequencies as well as the 10 metre amateur band. The FCC needs to catch up with actual usage.
YeRs back the tempp 1 was cb and ham 250 watt ham amp was used illegal on 23 channel xb to extend range
"The One With CB Radios." LOL! Great slogan. Gave it a thumbs up. Just one correction. There was a Class A and B CB band set up in 1948 using 460 MHz to 480 MHz. The class D service was for 27 MHz and was established in 1958 and as you correctly point out was taken out of the 11 Meter Amateur Radio band.
I am currently studying for my general and extra class. Thank you for amazing content.
I imagine they can put the CB radio in there with the FM or something and probably put a ham radio switch on there too but usually Ham radios where you can only listen which is neat enough but you still need like a hundred foot antenna
The most they can do is share the speaker, mic and power supply. Everything else will have to be separate
One of the best examples of how screwed up the FCC is their handling of the Anytone Terminator multi band two way radio. This HT was amateur, GMRS, and MURS. To use each band you had to press a special key combination. The FCC originally approved the radio for part 95a (GMRS) part 95j (MURS) and part 97, (amateur), and then after complaints from the big 3 they withdrew the certification. This was a much anticipated radio for use in the search and rescue industry. An amateur volunteer could carry one radio instead of three to contact other volunteers with limited privileges. If a person is licensed for the GMRS band and the Amateur band why can’t they carry this radio. It forces users to use units like the Baofeng which can accomplish this functionality illegally without being certified. FCC start using common sense. Start listening to users instead of jealous manufacturers who continue losing market share to the innovative Chinese market. The Anytone Terminator also could receive on VHF (136-174MHz), Aircraft AM (108-136MHz), FM Broadcasts (64-108MHz), Short-Wave AM (2.3-30MHz), and AM Broadcasts (520-1710kHz. What a loss. anytonetech.com/TERMN-8R
another example how capitalizm is contrary to the well-beeing of mankind, without the greed of those "big 3" to oust the competitor in order to sell their own stuff to make the profit, that HT would have been sold new further with all those benefits mentioned.
Are these anytone termn8tr radios still available to purchase or did they pull them?
I heard they were really cool. Wished it had ssb rx on hf.
Skip is nice do all the time when conditions are right
I don't run converted radios because I studied a year and a half for my ham license and the power that license gives me
Does the fcc even police the air waves anymore? I’ve ran 10m converted to 11m running 100+/-w for years.
Pirate enforcement for fm is now stepped up thanks to a new law from congress. I talked about it on my radio show
We could if the FCC would let us. Lots of 10m radios being sold that are easily converted to CB.
Pretty much! Thanks for watching. :)
So how does my Clearchannel 10/11 meter transceiver fit in this scheme these days? I purchased it in the late 80’s early 90’s primarily as a 10 meter with tunable 11 meters, is it still legal!?
Likely not anymore.
It's just fine as long as you're not transmitting on CB and you have a Ham license to transmit on the Ham bands. It was never legal in the US as a CB transceiver. You don't need any license to just listen.
She's got it right, because "legally" is at the very core of it. I have both in one radio, but it's bacause I bought it from an outfit that advertised the service of "opening up" the transmit for the entire frequency band that the radio covers, in this case, all of
24-30 Megahertz, with AM/FM/SSB, with up to 100 watts output on SSB. Mine is only one of many 'export' radios sold in the
U.S. every year. There are any number of CB operators who want the capabilities outside the normal CB band that these radios offer, and there are also a lot who buy dedicated amateur transceivers and either modify them at home or have someone do it for them. The new SDR radios with those beautiful displays and the additional digital modes are gaining a big audience and are partly what is fueling the tremendous resurgence of CB activity.
What is the radio that you have? Does this have the MARS/CAP modification in order to have those capabilities?
The purpose of the rules governing CB radio is to limit interference to other radio services and consumer appliances, like televisions and radios, as well as cordless phones (who uses those anymore?), etc. These rules were put in place so as to allow non-technical users the ability to use two way radio without having to demonstrate technical expertise.
The way I see it is, if someone is interested in radio from a hobbyist standpoint, they're going to ultimately be much happier with amateur radio than CB. And, if they go that route, most of the restrictions imposed on CB no longer apply, making it easier for the hobbyist to explore radio from a technical standpoint. But, if your reason for using CB is to get traffic reports from other drivers or exchange pickle recipes or gossip with your neighbors like you're on a party line telephone, then you should have no problem with the restrictions placed on CB radios.
I got started in radio with CB, but it was always for the technical reasons. I just love the science of radio. I never really cared about just having inane conversations with other people. It was always about my signal and my antennas and my radios. So, I got my Novice license at age 15 and I'm now an Extra Class operator with no interest in CB, whatsoever. But, it's not because I don't like the band. It's because my goals with the radio hobby are inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the typical CB user.
We had CBs in the 1980s when my mom (nurse) began doing night shifts at the hospital. It was for her to call for help if needed. We would keep her company on the trip to and from. My uncle had them for his hardware store but he became a hobbyist. Thing is I never got into ham radio because of CB. However I did get into it because of SWL. Thanks for joining!
I started with CB and became a ham more than 30 years ago... I used to make a lot of money working on radios and tuning them up. I was always astonished how much money they put into them. You also have to keep in mind that back in the 70's and 80's it was the social media of the era... and there was lots of mischief going on there. I was delayed being a ham because I was so heavily involved with CB at one time. I made contacts in Europe, UK(a fellow ham later), Russia, and of course South America and the Caribbean. Trust me 11meters is a great piece of spectrum and in the 80's and 90's had a lot more people in it to make contacts with across the country and internationally than Amateur radio. I mobiled alot and had big solid state amps to really put it out. Never liked the tubes. NO TUBES. These days being a ham, It makes me disappointed and sad how few people use Amateur or CB and both hobbies are dying. The young is very much disinterested in what we are doing... The foreign kids love it but here in the western hemisphere we are dead and screwed.
No issues here in Ireland, some of the CB operators in Ireland have more and better equipment than some of the hams... No regulations enforced here..
The FCC does not care about 27mhz or CB radio... and the use of one transmitter for both services is not a problem unless you are a PITA (pain in the arse) and they decide to do something about it. My brother was a ham and used an Icom706 as his CB and his HF in his pickup and a Yaesu in his big rig. THe other brother is not a ham and uses a Galaxy 99V high power in his pickup and big truck. Two rules apply here, the 11th commandment, THou Shalt Not Get Caught, and The Squeeky Wheel Gets The Grease. Trust me they do not care about CB and anyone who believes that trip needs to visit the shrink and get some treatments for their empty head syndrome. Unless you are interupting some important service or interfering with FM broadcast or TV or worse yet, Cellular, there is NO ONE who has any interest in you and what you are doing. None. Nada. Nothing. No. Nyet. THis argument is old, Its silly, and serves no useful purpose. NOw where is my D-104... I am going to tell the truckers with my KW solid state with the echo box turned on that they are down the pickle park looking for their girlfriend Dilhole Mulberry and her Bud Light can LOL
In Italy the cb is power 4 watt in am/fm and 40channel,is liberated usated,for ham is 28 usated only with license and exams for patent ham
i have a cb. that i had "tuned up" Not turned up. went out at 3 W, with a clear transmit. so sometimes you can do better with even less than"full" power.
but i mostly gave up on cb due to all the fools just screwing up the freq's.
The antique ft101 did have 11 m built into it from factory I know because I used to own one I am N0SPW
because back in the day, 11m was a ham band
In the UK we have them to gether cb and ham I'm a ham but love cb I'm probably on cb more than ham
One of the biggest issues between CB and amplifiers is AM operation, and the misunderstanding of how they're supposed to work. Never mind getting them to work together.
In the AM pictures of the, "this is AM, this is FM" examples we remember, we notice that sound makes the radio wave expand and contract. For hi-fi* AM, you must have both expansion and contraction of the wave.
Along comes the happless CB and the unsuspecting amplifier. This is a model that can do a squeaky clean 300W PEP output from a nice exciter. Like a Flex radio. Sadly, the CB isn't so nice.
When all of this Katzenjammer is assembled, we're still warming up the poor amplifier. In the meantime, the dead key brings the Dosy to around 4½W. Whistling bumps it up to 5. Not bad. What the Dosy doesn't show though is that this signal expands to 18Wpk, and of course shrinks to zero. This is because of the whistle.
Now, the amplifier has warmed up, and the standby switch flipped. The mic is keyed, and the Dosy shows around 325 watts. Whistling bumps it up to 330.
What is unseen here though, without a 'scope is that because the dead key has hit the ceiling of how much the amplifier can amplify, there is no room for the signal to expand out into, just constriction. Long story short, the amplifier has sliced the top half from this signal going to the antenna. Along the way, there are some really nasty things that are invited to the party in the form of spurs.
In an alternate universe, the CB would have a output power knob. (47-CFR95 would be okay with this) so you're not blasting your neighbor.
In this shack, the amplifier is turned on, the mic keyed. The Dosy is dialed back to 75W. The whistle kicks the needle to almost 85W. Not bad. Also there is room for the signal to expand into, and nasty spurs just don't like coming to these parties.
"Modulation. Modulation. Mooooooooooooooooooooodulation,"
*We'll ignore the bandwidth requirements for this example.
Actually, CB legal radios like the Galaxy 959 and its brother the 2547 are popular by illegal CBer's in the know because they are high quality type accepted legal equipment with SSB to begin with, but also because they DO have RF power adjustment for running amplifiers. While many idiots do exactly as you mention and overdrive their amps like complete morons, there are many who DO get power adjustable CB's and properly drive their illegal amps with very good quality and keep things clean.
Other people who still use type accepted CB's to drive their illegal amps will have their RF power output permanently turned down to match their amps and drive them properly. For all the terrible operators out there, many do understand and will take the time to do their best. Some illegal amps nowadays are even "HD" or "high drive" to accept type accepted CB power at maximum (which seems to be 5 watts carrier and 20 watts maximum in full size rigs like the Galaxy 959 or Cobra 29 family).
Which is why so many people seem to go down the route of illegal "10 meter" radios or just clipping and chipping big Ham radios for 11 meter. They reason, "if it is this much work to drive an amp to get that power, why not just run a radio with that much power" and that's exactly what they do.
I'd say the BIGGEST problem is the lack of understanding of AM radio to begin with. The real trouble is that there are people trying to cut their carriers because they think it will improve performance, or think that overmodulation doesn't exist. MOAR POWER IS BETTER creates the vast majority of all problems on CB. Mic gain turned all the way up, power mics turned all the way up. Even if these bozos DO drive their illegal amps properly, they waste it all in the fact they are flat topping anyway from over modulating and making everything sound awful.
Not permitted to "whistle" on the air waves. It could be mistaken for "music broadcasting"... or worse, concealed secretive military leaking... :P
I think many Hams Have Ham radios that are open on 27 MHz
and Many Cber's Have Ham radios that include 27 MHz too.
I can understand the restrictions you guys have in the USA
and we have similar restrictions here in VK (Australia) too.
In VK a ham can modify a CB to operate on Ham Bands
but after the Mod he/she cannot operate it on 27 MHz Cb band.
A VK ham can also use a CB that covers 10 meters (like some do) legally
but cannot operate it on 27 MHz Cb lol.
One of my Ham Radios can TX on 27 MHz CB
but provided I don't operate that radio on 27 MHz I am within the Law here in Australia (Although it's still frowned upon hahaha).
Great Video btw,
First time I have seen your channel 🙏
73 de VK3VKe ⚡🙏⚡
My 10m radio does CB, so does my HF rig. You CAN, not "legal" tho..
Practically, if you modify a ham rig to transmit on CB, and when on CB you obey the FCC restrictions on modes, frequencies, and power levels, and you verify the spectral purity of your modified rig, the result is not going to harm anyone and the FCC will never be the wiser. But it will still be illegal.
Pretty much.
The problem is many ham radios on AM sound like crap compared to the better CB's out there. At the very least they sound weird. Nasal and mundane. On SSB though, they rule... But for AM, well not so much. I will take a Cobra Uniden or my president HR2510 - 4 lol any day over a bonified hf rig on AM.
@@KlodFather Interesting, and not totally a surprise. AM is not a popular ham mode, while it is the most popular CB mode. Hams who use AM tend to use vintage equipment, even though most modern equipment supports AM.
@@davidbarts6144 - There are two ways to make AM on a two way radio. The first is the obvious one where the audio amp output is added and subtracted to the amplifier stage of the final output B+. This is how AM has been made since forever. The other way is more complicated by using the balanced modulator that is used for SSB. By allowing both sidebands, you can then inject a carrier via the CW circuitry. In a setup like this, a 100 watt radio like an Icom 706 is going to have 100 watts on SSB but to do AM it will have a 45 or 50 watt carrier available and inject two 25 watt sidebands which will simulate all the components of an AM signal but do it the hard way/long way around Robinhood's barn. The engineers are so very careful to not go over 100% modulation that it sounds weak or mundane and a bit weird compared to a CB chassis which is crisp and clear. Now there is a cure for this and a darn good one. Most people do not know that you can in fact run 150% 200% and even 300% modulation on AM with no clipping or carrier collapse. How you might say? By making the adjustments to a ham rig on AM so that the carrier is turned down to around 40% of where they set it at from the factory, and removing the modulation limiters in the mic audio line headed for the balanced modulator. You can always spot those transistors in the audio path because they are positioned so that they can short the audio in the line to ground depending on how they are biased by the control circuitry. Just remove them (there is usually 2 maybe more) and be prepared to control your own mic gain. Watching an LED or light bulb in conjunction with your dummy load you can see the audio get very strong at one specific power setting on AM. The AM carrier power setting is usually a pot on the inside of the radio. There will be a sweet spot where the radio really barks and sounds good over the air. When you look at the AM envelopes on a scope the middle never collapses but the outside envelopes will get 2 to 3 times normal size. The receiving radio shows a carrier on the S-meter but the needle will forward swing while you are talking and that signal will punch through other traffic like a hot knife cutting through cream cheese. I set a lot of these up and trust me they are definitely well superior on the air than anything else out there. This can only be done with HAM radios using a balanced modulator on AM and not a conventional CB. HR-2510 HR-2600 and President Lincoln are all balanced modulation radios. None of the RCI units will do this as they are built on the same motherboard as Galaxy and Cobra 148DX models and use conventional AM modulation. The theory is sound and it works. It is Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier but the carrier is not completely gone. ITs just about a third or a little less than what it would normally be on an AM radio. When you talk... Everyone listens, especially with an amplifier ha ha. No more dead pan sound. It is strong and authoritative.
You can do cb, ham, gmrs, and murs if you have the right rig and know what you’re doing.
Thanks Ria !
Enjoyed your take. Well explained. "Just subscribed"
Will you do a video on how you run your coax in the house? Thanks
Oh mt goodeness. I had a Super Panther that was a bit hot-rodded. Also a 30w linear and a diectional antenna. I got so many QSL cards from all over the world. A quarter wave was set up so the fun ploice would't get me.
I seriously wish every car & truck had some form of 2 way communication like CB radio in cases of road hazards, maybe we wouldn't read about 98 car pile ups on occasion.
I think with cell phones that’s moot. Years ago I wanted to buy the Honda gold wing with the built in CB but they wouldn’t sell it to me because it was a special edition only for police officers. Weird.
i didn't know the 150 mile thing was void. feels lots better calling to people across the pong now. not a ham, just a cb guy that sticks to low power. i have no desire to out transmit my receive. thank you Ms Ria
I have a legal CB and a 10 meter radio that can be modified to use as an illegal CB.
There’s no way to fit the power and bandwidth output on the 10 meter radio when transmitting as a CB and I thought that a 1/2 wavelength antenna with a CB would be fun for QRP.
In Europe how do they balance the antenna to run on both 10 and 11 meters?
Can anyone give me their opinion on the icom IC-705 that works as both a ham radio and a CB radio?
Small government is always preferable than big ones!
In Australia we have 2 cb frequencies 27mhz and 476 uhf frequencies, do not require any license for either band. Not many seem to run standard power on either band either, have never heard of anyone being prosecuted or fined for breaking these laws.
Awesome information. Thank you so much.
You can have both in one radio. Not sure where you got your information from