Martin Potter wrote:

The sunspot peak of 1968-69 helped a lot. The band was pretty dead
(thankfully) due to low MUF during the early 1960s.

When I said popular, I was refering to the operation within the U.S.
law (which was and is very different than the rest of the world) which
prohibits "skip" operation.

Most of the useage at that time was still families keeping in touch,
aid to motorists, etc. Almost overnight during the truker's strike it
became the home of what seems like a bunch of 12 year old's with
walkie-talkies.

At one time there was a reasonable license fee (about $10 a year). Then
the FCC raised it to $25 to help keep usage low. Someone sued complaining
that it was unreasonable and won. The FCC then started issuing free licenses
as compensation for their overcharging. Then they started allowing
temporary call signs ("K" your initials and your zip code) so mine would
have been at the time "KGSM19120",

I even had a license with a real call sign, but I've long since lost it
and forgoten the call. I wonder if there are CB callbooks from the
1970's and 1980s? I'm no longer in the U.S. anyway but I believe if you
were issued a call, you can still use it if you want to.

Eventually, it became too much trouble and expense to issue free licenses
to people who never used them anyway, so they issued a blanket license
to anyone on U.S. soil.

Possibly someone else can fill in the exact time line.

As for outside of the U.S. it still flourishes as a no-code no-test
amateur radio service. In the E.U., there are few restrictions on
what you can do, including less limitations on transmitters, FM,
and packet operation.

There are even a few European websites devoted to using CB to "improve
the radio art" e.g. experimental antennas.

The U.K. had a 927 mHz CB service which was canceled when the frequencies
were assigned to GSM cell phones.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 Fax ONLY: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
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