Matt ...

^ Here in Aust we have a UHF CB band ...

I think that's GMRS. The popular (or what was once popular) Citizen's Band
(27MHz) is probably better referred to as HF Citizen's Band.


^ Even better, there is a class licence applied to
^ it, so no need to pay for one.

That's probably through a club membership. The club has the license and all
club members are merely operators on that license.


^ This system is used very frequently by our rural fire
^ fighters (amongst many other users) ...

The purpose of this band is to give families a set of frequencies that they
can use amongst themselves. Government agencies, rural firefighters included,
already have a large chunk of the spectrum allocated for their usage. They
should not be infringing on the public's allocation. This might be a gray
area though, because some things are acceptable during emergencies. However,
the fire in my area has been out for a couple of days and the firefighters
are using GMRS just to mop up afterwards. That isn't emergency usage.

But I do like the idea of a personal, low cost radio on every firefighter out
in the field. There are other frequencies allocated for just this purpose but
the radio manufacturers want to charge the public services an arm and a leg
for them. I think emergency services should be permitted use of the public
bands but only until the actual emergency is over.

Frank