First off the Communications Act of 1934 empowers the FCC to regulate
and determine standards for all transmitters used by the general
public. So whether they grandfather one specific model or not is not a
violation of any Law or the Constitution. During WW2 the US Congress
suspended "ALL" none essential Communications traffic in the US. That
included amature radio. Only Public safety, and broadcast radio were
not affected. It took an act in 1947, if my memory serves me
correctly, to reinstate the amature radio service.

It's legal for them to do that during wartime, but not during
peacetime.

In 1976 the FCC changed the rules for Type Acceptance of CB radios.
Any radio that met type acceptance prior to that date was allowed to
be used but their sale was made illegal. As for your question, if it
was a type accepted kit prior to 1976 and unassembled and you obtained
in a sale on or before January of 1976 then it would be legal to build
and use. If you obtained the kit not through a sale it also would be
legal to build.


In reality, today if you were find one and build it and it met these
criteria:

1) caused no TVI to your neighbors
2) transmitted less the 5 watts output

then for most part the FCC probably wont bother you.

Although I doubt if there's any of those kits left, I do know that
there are some people who can only afford to shop in secondhand shops.

And might run across one today, although it's probably much more
likely they would find an actual full power 23 chanel cb.

Those old radios are good for nostalgia purposes. Their receivers lack
today in comparision to even the cheapest of CB sets. I had an old
Radio Shack Knight Kit CB radio back in the early 70's. The main
complaint I had of it was selectivity.

james

yes. Those kits did lack sensitivity. And aren't as good as real cb
radios today.

And they probably weren't as good as real cb radios back then, either.

The old broadcast AM radios have better sensitivity than today's
radios on the AM band.

Even the old AM/FM radios have better sensitivity on the AM band than
today's AM/FM radios.

Today's radios seem to have better sensitivity on the FM band than the
older AM/FM radios do.

At least, that's been my experience.

Back to CB, the last time I looked, which was recently (2007), one of
the Radio Shacks near here is selling a channel CB walkie-talkie.
Which uses crystals the
user is supposed to put in himself for the channels he wants to
operate on.

However, these crystals are easily switched around by any user to
transmit out of band. Just by switching the transmit and recieve
crystals around.

It is a FCC-approved radio.

However, the FCC rules also say it's not a FCC-approved radio.

Even though there is an FCC approved notice either on a sticker on the
radio or engraved into the radio itself, if I recall correctly.

I believe it's engraved.

Screwed up government at work once again.







At least, that's been my experience.