Subj : Re: Wannbe HAM
To   : Joe Delahaye
From : Tony Langdon
Date : Fri Sep 16 2016 07:04 am

-=> Joe Delahaye wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

 JD> You dont see them as much any more.  Some still have them of course.
 JD> However, here in Ontario Canada, it is illegal to use them while
 JD> driving (Hams have an exemption (for now))

It's funny how histor goes.  The government back in the 1970s wanted UHF for CB
and set aside a band at 477 MHz.  However, the sheew weight of numbers of 27
MHz CNs in circulation forced them to adopt the US style service as well. 
Before then, this frequency range was actually the 11 metre ham band, and older
gear like the Yaesu FT-101 series came with it fitted.

Back then, UHF was a wasteland, as the gear was expensive, and the hobbyists
wanted to chase DX.  However, by the end of the 1980s, UHF got quite busy. 
Businesses and communities outside the major cities found it useful.  The
repeater here was full of business users from 9-5.  After 5, the hobbyists
would come out to play, many of them being the teenage kids of business owners,
using the same radios as their parents.  It was almost like the changing of the
guard.  These communities kept apart for the most part, though the few
hobbyists that were around during the day would often act like secretaries,
passing on messages for the commercial users when they didn't manage to make
contact.  In the big cities, the serious users stayed off the repeaters and
used simplex, because the repeaters were clogged with those on power trips
(imagine the worst 2m repeater x 1000 :) ).  Meanwhile, 27 MHz was going
strong, with lots of activity.  Back then, I was equally active on both bands.

Fast forward - 27 MHz activity fell off during the 1990s as the Internet took
hold.  Later, the Foundation licence would encourage many of the hobbyists to
move to the ham bands.  On UHF, mobile phones gradually took traffic away from
UHF, as they became cheap enbough for business.  Hobbyists and communities
remained, though the hobbyists too started drifting away to the Internet and
the ham bands.  The communities have remained, often with the emergency
services in more rural areas remaining on UHF - not as their primary radio, but
so they can communicate directly with other sections of the community during an
emergency.  UHF, with the advent of cheap portable radios in the mid-late
1990s, also became increasingly popular at public events as a low cost means to
coordinate activity.  In fact, UHF became so successful here than in the 1990s,
New Zealand addoped an identical service, and in 2011, the authorities here
doubled the number of channels to 80, by halving the spacing.

So the question of whether CB is still in use here has a second question "which
band"?


.... Old immortals don't die, they just... don't.
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