On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 11:36:21 +0000, Kafkaësque
wrote:

Just to add, I wasn't condoning the use of such radios on 6.5 or 27MHz.
However, there's no point in denying that it happened.

I should probably mot mention this, but since the company has been
defunct for about 20 years, I think it's safe to leak a few stories.

I used to work for a US marine radio manufacturer. We have various
marine operator licenses and ham radio operator licenses. We had STA
(special temporary authority) licenses and an FCC first class
radiotelephone license (now known as a GROL). The problem was that
few of the licenses were issued to the company. Most were all held by
individuals. As employees came and went, so did the licence. The
final inspection and compliance certificate included my FCC first
class license number, which was used for many years after I had left
the company, because nobody found it necessary to order a new rubber
stamp.

One of the radios I worked on was a 2-30 Mhz marine SSB transceiver.
While the output lopass filter limited the operating frequency range
to the normal marine bands, it was easy enough to build a filter that
would work on CB frequencies. This was used for occasional air checks
as the commercial HF radiotelephone operators did not appreciate our
interruptions asking for air checks. So, we got our signal and
modulation reports from a variety of local CB'ers. CB was also useful
for testing how our receiver responded to off frequency, over
modulated, and problematic transmitters.

Some of our dealers were also buying replacement 150w PEP power
amplifiers and repackaging them as CB linears. All I knew was that my
power amp had an apparently high failure rate and that dealers claimed
that they fixed the blown amps themselves (to avoid returning the
original amp). Eventually, someone returned one of these linears to
the factory for repair and the secret was out. We put an end to that
nonsense rather quickly.

Later, I worked for a company making radios for the electric utility
industry. I soon discovered that I was the only engineer with an FCC
license. When we submitted paperwork for type certification, all that
was necessary was for one responsible and licensed individual to sign
on the dotted line. That was me. I also worked for other companies
with similar licensing arrangements.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558