.... Thank the gods for FM capture effect, but can you imagine the heterodyne mess when the band opens???!!!
Been licensed since mid 70s, extra class,and also a cb op and freebander. freebander meaning the bands in the hf portion that uses very low power and license free but with lots of restrictions. plenty of fun for everyone. ANYWAY, FM is a good start for the cb band. properly tuned, with a decent antenna ,base or mobile, you can work 100s of miles on fm. 10meter fm is similar. Ive worked WAS(worked all states), and 30 countries with openings, all on 10 meters FM. I leave a scanner on 29.6 mhz fm and when i hear the squelch open up a little ,i get my radio warmed up. I also run 6 meters cw,ssb,and fm. pretty fun. bout time uncle charlie gave FM to the cb bands. will go along way to cut the noise, have more meaningful contacts locally and regionally.with a properly tuned base antenna even on Fm , 100 miles is easy and regular where i live in indiana and my vertical antenna is homemade and 3.5ft off the ground . no radials. its a paint pole that extendable. fed with rg6u quad shield cable. been using it for years. i also use a dipole for the fm portion of 10 meters. I use what i have available and with the dipole, i consistantly get into the 10 meter repeaters out east in NY, Canada, . So dont sell FM short on cb.I believe it will breathe new life into the CB hobby and the radio manufacturers. Lots of times ive been on 2 meters where i live and if you arent in the "click" there isnt anyone to contact. even for directions. oh well. went to indianapolis last year was getting in to the 700 machine there and it is great. most of the time there is someone.coming back, sparse to nothing and then i turned on my 40 channel cobra 19 stock, and immediately had someone reply to me thru REACT and sent some help for my car died on me. cellphone ? dont own one and dont want the bill.As for noise, there are filters that can be built to eliminate the noise to a point. On Fm, you wont have all that junk bogging down your front end.
) Class D CB (it's original name) was created to allow personal communications between family and non family members and small businesses who could not afford the larger and more expensive commercial land mobile gear at the time. The 11 meter band was originally a ham band....reallocated in late 1956 or 57 to the CB service. There was Class A and B CB already existing but they were UHF (and at the time had poor range and PRICEY equipment)...so the FCC thought using 11meters would give casual radio users decent range and inexpensive gear..the rules called for communications no further than 150 miles....at a sunspot minimum, that worked..but when the solar cycle started peaking, the CB ops realized they could work across the country on just 5 watts input power (something hams had been doing for decades) The oil embargos in the 70 sent CB popularity soaring as gear was cheap, plentiful and allowed anyone to listen to other folks on the road giving out "smokey reports"....Movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" just helped push the popularity along even more...and when people realized 10m linear amps could be easily used on 11m, the band got crowded with unlicensed and illegal operations..(since most folks by then didnt bother sending in the form for a license...the FCC was overwhelmed and could not control the problems on the band).
