"" ) writes:
I can remember a period in the 70's
when CB radio was really popular.

Whatever happened to CB ?
As a tool ? ... as a hobby ?

Is this just a trucker thing now ?
Do truckers even use CB for communication ?

Just curious
rj
It is still around, though I'm not sure where you get the transceivers
these days. It's been a long time since I saw one in a Radio Shack
flyer here in Canada.

On the other hand I gather a license is no longer needed, here in Canada
or in the US. Though, it's been a vague line here and there that
tells me that, which is indicative of the fading of CB.

Popular is subjective. CB did get into public visibility in the
seventies, but my impression was that it was fairly popular before
that. As someone pointed out, it was placed in the wrong part of
the spectrum, and even in the early seventies when I first got
a shortwave radio, when conditions were good, it could be wall to
wall heterodynes (stations beating against other statiions).

I suspect it's purpose was ill-defined. SOmeone decided (or
was petitioned) that some space be allocated for "everyman".
From reading magazines of the early days, it was pretty wishy-washy.
It was a mix of personal use and business use, and they often did
conflict. The rules were fairly rigid in the early days, showing
it's intention for serious use, but as soon as it was out of the
gate it was portrayed by various people as a hobby band. The FCC
in the US had to keep issuing comments about how this wasn't allowed,
and how that wasn't allowed, and how it was not a hobby band. Ironically,
things that would limit its use, such as limiting conversations to 5
minutes (I can't remember if that was generally, or just to between
those who where not using the same license), and limiting useage of
some of the channels, were eliminated with time, allowing for it to
become the free for all that it did with time. It was a very small slice
of the spectrum, intended for "everyone", in a place in the spectrum where
transmissions were not limited to line of sight.

Obviously a fad is a fad, so it's not a surprise that CB faded out
after a while in the seventies. I have no idea what state it was
in at that point, but I suspect it basically went on as it had before
the boom, kind of messing, but not a total burnout.

I suspect it's faded in more recent years because it wasn't the only
choice. Radio equipment has basically gotten cheaper, so a small business
that needs to use radio can spend a bit more and get a business band
license and equipment. One can go to the GMRS band up around 460MHz,
and even use repeaters for better rangte. There's FRS for recreational
use, and there's MURS around 150MHz for some license-free use. These
options were either unavailable ten or twenty years ago, or the equipment
was too costly.

Maybe most important, cellphones came along, and got cheap to buy and
use. It's often forgotten, but with them more people use two-way radios on
a regular basis than at any previous time in history. Their range may
be limited, but ultimately their range is complete unlimited since it
hooks to the phone system. You need roundabout methods to make phone
calls from CB or some other two way radio, but phone calls are the reason
for cellphone. It makes really efficient use of the radio spectrum,
allowing for far more in one location than the 23 or 40 channels of
CB could accomodate, and almost lets one overlook the radio experience.

While some of the allure of CB was the experience, most people want
something practical. Cellphones are far more practical, so once they
were available and cheap, it's no wonder so many vacated to it.

Michael