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Bill Horne[_4_] · May 9th 08, 04:34 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On May 8, 4:03�pm, Jeffrey D Angus wrote:
Bill Horne wrote:

It's a shame, but it's also easy to understand: the
FCC was _very_ badly burned by the Citizen's Band fiasco,
and I'd bet other government bureaucrats in and out of the
military had that fresh in their minds as Vietnam was
winding down and the PRC-25's were filling up warehouses.

I'm interested in more detail about how different people see "the
Citizen's Band fiasco.

IMHO, what happened was that FCC created UHF CB in 1948, and it went
OK except that its popularity was limited. This was because, in those
days, the good UHF equipment cost too much and the inexpensive UHF
equipment had pretty dismal performance.

So in 1958, FCC created 27 MHz CB, with the idea that the
equipment would be simpler and less expensive, while still giving
adequate performance for the intended uses. And it worked - for a
while.

But what FCC never counted on was that large numbers of people would
buy CB sets and simply ignore the regulations for CB. FCC could not
begin to adequately enforce the rules once the CB culture had become
one of simply ignoring them.

How do others see it?

I think the Citizen's Band was a good idea, but at the worst possible
time. As you point out, the FCC took 11 meters away from hams because
commercial equipment was still using vacuum tubes, and they wanted CB to
have inexpensive radios.

In retrospect, the cynic in me wonders if the commissioners were
preassured by an industry that could see the sunset coming for vacuum
tubes, and which wanted to clear the shelves before it got stuck with
millions of 12BY7's. No matter: whatever the reason for the decision, it
worked surprisingly well for about ten years, and then went downhill
quickly when invaded by yahoos of all types.

What started the decline is open to question, although the sunspots
cycle certainly played a role (1): in the end the small businesses who
employed the Citizen's Band as it was intended to be used, and the
people who used CB because they wanted to imitate hams, were both
overwhelmed by foul-mouthed trailer-trash who sought out CB as a
pipeline into a captive audience whom could be forced to listen to their
delusions of grandeur. In the end we all learned anew that a few rotten
apples really _do_ spoil the barrel.

Which brings us to the question of why the FCC got burned: a
psychologist would say that it was compensation for Vietnam and the
civil unrest of the 60's. The FCC was so roundly criticized for CB's
decline because the government minions in other bureaus, who had found
out the hard way that a million people really _can't_ be wrong, wasted
no time blaming the FCC for not getting on the new bandwagon.

After all, the FCC was the most staid of federal bureaus, responsible
for issuing licenses to, and assessing fines on, a public thoroughly
cowed by the 50's Duck-and-cover drills and McCarthyism: between
mild-mannered ham operators and cautious broadcasters and conservative
business-band licensees, it simply wasn't in the commission's world-view
to imagine radio users who wouldn't follow the rules.

When the Citizen's Band went from a well-intentioned "service" to an
uncontrollable nightmare in less than two years, the commission had to
take abuse from everyone else in and out of the government who were
still smarting from _their_ earlier revelations that they could predict
or control the actions neither of the ungrateful whelps who had picked
up placards and told a nation of their elders to shove the American
Dream, nor of the froggy little native boys who had picked up AK-47's
and said "No, Daddy Warbucks, you *won't* do that here".

73, W1AC

(1) There were other factors, as well: the FCC never counted on "Smokey
and the Bandit" and other films, which were rushed into theaters to take
advantage of the CB craze, and in the process helped to spread it. The
first "Bandit" was produced so quickly that the actors didn't even learn
how to use two-way radios, with the result that Jackie Gleason was
always talking into a CB microphone without pushing the PTT button:
industry spin control quickly spread the word that the car was equipped
with a "floor switch", and _that_ bit of B.S. resulted in third-party
add-on floor switches being quickly rushed onto shelves for sale to
Bufford T. Justice wannabees.

--
(Remove QRM from my address for direct replies.)