wrote:

SNIPPED

Some more facts:

11 meters was never a ham band by international treaty. FCC allowed
hams to use it on a shared basis with Industrial, Scientific and
Medical users after WW2. This was done in part as a sort of
compensation for hams' loss of 160 meters to LORAN after WW2.

The Citizens' Radio Service was created by FCC in the late 1940s. The
original Class A and Class B services were on UHF - right where FRS
and GMRS are now.

The problem was that, in those days, the UHF radios that performed well
were big, heavy, expensive, power hungry and complex. Simple UHF sets
that were small, light, inexpensive and simple didn't perform too well.


The Citizen's Radio service had so few takers at the end of 10 years
that FCC created Class C and Class D, at 27 MHz. Low power channelized
sets for 27 MHz could be made small and inexpensive even with the
technology of the late 1950s.

FCC could take the band away from hams because it wasn't a ham band by
treaty anyway. They also argued that the creation of the 15 meter ham
band in 1954, and the gradual return of 160 to hams, meant that 11
meters wasn't critical to ham radio.

Add to that the fact that 11 meters wasn't the most-popular ham band
anyway. Many popular rigs of the time didn't even cover the band. It
wasn't harmonically related to the other HF/MF ham bands of the era,
and in many areas it was full of noise from ISM users like diathermy
machines, vacuum formers, etc. Since many other countries didn't
allocate 11 meters to hams, there wasn't as much DX to work on 11. And
the 1.7 MHz wide 10 meter band was right next door.

Of course hams didn't like losing the band, fearing that it was a
harbinger of things to come, but it wasn't. Over the intervening years,
we hams got all of 160 back, and three new HF bands at 30, 17 and 12
meters. The cb boom of the '70s came and went, and hams are still here.

73 de Jim, N2EY


As a former user of 11 meters, the Ham Band, this summary pretty much reflects
my memory of events. BTW, my old Multi-Elmac AH-54 [if I recall] had 11 meters
factory installed. It drifted "slighlty" during each transmission. Slightly
meaning 50 +/- KHz. I had to use crystal control to stay reasonably close to any
frequency!

"larya" wrote in message
ups.com...
Second... I also think you will find that the fcc, and in my country
the IC, are deeply regretting the conversion of 11 meters to 'cb'.

I hope not. The FCC providing unlicensed spectrum for the masses was one of
the smartest thing they ever did! Yes, it leads to all sorts of horrible
operating practices, but CB and -- more contemporarily -- FRS/GMRS and WiFi
had provided *huge* benefits for people (and many millions of dollars in
equipment sales) nationwide. I'd hate to live in a country where there's no
such thing as a license-free $20 pair of FRS-type walkie talkies or $20 WiFi
cards for high-speed Internet access.

Virtually all of our bad radio operating procedures, of all radio
services, can all be traced back to the bad operating technique found
in the 11 meter cb band....

I'd say they can be traced back to human nature. People were rowdy and
"uncouth" in, say, taverns for thousands of years before CB came along.

---Joel

Joel Kolstad wrote:

SNIPPED

I'd say they can be traced back to human nature. People were rowdy and
"uncouth" in, say, taverns for thousands of years before CB came along.

---Joel



I'll agree with the uncouth in the taverns part, but, disagree with the context.

CB brought the uncouth out of the tavern and onto the air.

:-)

"Dave" wrote in message
...
CB brought the uncouth out of the tavern and onto the air.

Drive by the tavern... tune past the CBers? ;-)

I suppose amateur radio is supposed to be more a high-class dining
establishment than a dinner -- suit, tie, and official FCC-approved membership
required --, although these days you wouldn't necessarily know it from
listening to the airwaves.

Joel Kolstad wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message
...
CB brought the uncouth out of the tavern and onto the air.

Drive by the tavern... tune past the CBers? ;-)

I suppose amateur radio is supposed to be more a high-class dining
establishment than a dinner -- suit, tie, and official FCC-approved membership
required --, although these days you wouldn't necessarily know it from
listening to the airwaves.





Hmmm:

You mean you can quickly tell the difference from some self-important,
self-worshiping, self-impressed, carried-away-with-oneself personality
as opposed to one considering himself/herself to being a
student-of-the-world? And, your final implication being, "This group of
amateurs is full of the former?"

You present a most interesting observation! in-a-contemplative-state

JS

Joel Kolstad wrote:
"Dave" wrote in message
...
CB brought the uncouth out of the tavern and onto the air.

Drive by the tavern... tune past the CBers? ;-)

I suppose amateur radio is supposed to be more a high-class dining
establishment than a dinner -- suit, tie, and official FCC-approved membership
required --, although these days you wouldn't necessarily know it from
listening to the airwaves.

I think it depends where you listen...

This past weekend, I was active in the November CW Sweepstakes. Made
over 400 QSOs in 74 sections (all states except Hawaii). Lots of
activity but nothing objectionable at all.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Dave wrote:
wrote:

SNIPPED

Some more facts:

11 meters was never a ham band by international treaty. FCC allowed
hams to use it on a shared basis with Industrial, Scientific and
Medical users after WW2. This was done in part as a sort of
compensation for hams' loss of 160 meters to LORAN after WW2.

The Citizens' Radio Service was created by FCC in the late 1940s. The
original Class A and Class B services were on UHF - right where FRS
and GMRS are now.

The problem was that, in those days, the UHF radios that performed well
were big, heavy, expensive, power hungry and complex. Simple UHF sets
that were small, light, inexpensive and simple didn't perform too well.


The Citizen's Radio service had so few takers at the end of 10 years
that FCC created Class C and Class D, at 27 MHz. Low power channelized
sets for 27 MHz could be made small and inexpensive even with the
technology of the late 1950s.

FCC could take the band away from hams because it wasn't a ham band by
treaty anyway. They also argued that the creation of the 15 meter ham
band in 1954, and the gradual return of 160 to hams, meant that 11
meters wasn't critical to ham radio.

Add to that the fact that 11 meters wasn't the most-popular ham band
anyway. Many popular rigs of the time didn't even cover the band. It
wasn't harmonically related to the other HF/MF ham bands of the era,
and in many areas it was full of noise from ISM users like diathermy
machines, vacuum formers, etc. Since many other countries didn't
allocate 11 meters to hams, there wasn't as much DX to work on 11. And
the 1.7 MHz wide 10 meter band was right next door.

Of course hams didn't like losing the band, fearing that it was a
harbinger of things to come, but it wasn't. Over the intervening years,
we hams got all of 160 back, and three new HF bands at 30, 17 and 12
meters. The cb boom of the '70s came and went, and hams are still here.

73 de Jim, N2EY

As a former user of 11 meters, the Ham Band, this summary pretty much reflects
my memory of events.

Thanks!

BTW, my old Multi-Elmac AH-54 [if I recall] had 11 meters
factory installed. It drifted "slighlty" during each transmission. Slightly
meaning 50 +/- KHz. I had to use crystal control to stay reasonably close to any
frequency!

I think one reason for the relative unpopularity of 11 meters with hams
was that the band was not harmonically related to other bands, meaning
crystals bought for 11 were probably not useful on any other ham band.

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in
ps.com:

The cb boom of the '70s came and went, and hams are still here.

73 de Jim, N2EY


Hams are still here right up until code is eliminated.

SC

"Joel Kolstad" wrote in
:

"Dave" wrote in message
...
CB brought the uncouth out of the tavern and onto the air.

Drive by the tavern... tune past the CBers? ;-)

I suppose amateur radio is supposed to be more a high-class dining
establishment than a dinner -- suit, tie, and official FCC-approved
membership required --,


Too many amateurs now don't care if ham radio turns into the local
scarf & barf.

Joel Kolstad wrote:
"larya" wrote in message
ups.com...
Second... I also think you will find that the fcc, and in my country
the IC, are deeply regretting the conversion of 11 meters to 'cb'.

I hope not. The FCC providing unlicensed spectrum for the masses was one of
the smartest thing they ever did! Yes, it leads to all sorts of horrible
operating practices, but CB and -- more contemporarily -- FRS/GMRS and WiFi
had provided *huge* benefits for people (and many millions of dollars in
equipment sales) nationwide. I'd hate to live in a country where there's no
such thing as a license-free $20 pair of FRS-type walkie talkies or $20 WiFi
cards for high-speed Internet access.

Virtually all of our bad radio operating procedures, of all radio
services, can all be traced back to the bad operating technique found
in the 11 meter cb band....

I'd say they can be traced back to human nature. People were rowdy and
"uncouth" in, say, taverns for thousands of years before CB came along.

---Joel


At the time "CB" in the 27mhz region made sense because UHF equipment
was too expensive to build for the masses. That's no longer true. The
FCC should eliminate the 27 mhz CB service before the start of the next
sunspot cycle and force everyone there to move to UHF. One of CB's
biggest problems was interference from 'skip' (DX), and it is illegal to
work DX stations anyway.