Subj : Re: Wannbe HAM
To : Joe Delahaye
From : Tony Langdon
Date : Sat Sep 17 2016 05:55 pm
-=> Joe Delahaye wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-
JD> If you owned one, you could continue to use it, and obviously they were
JD> sold privately. Back then you also needed a license to operate a CB.
A lot of 23 channel CBs found their way down here too. Technically illegal I
think, but once the 40 channel band plan was adopted, authorities pretty much
turned a blind eye, as they were operating within specs on the 23 channels they
were capable of. The 18 channel sets were officially phased out within a few
years, but remained on air for many years afterwards. Probably some still out
in the wild now. :)
The latest round of obsolescence occurs when the 40 channel UHF spec sunsets in
2017, leaving only 80 channel radios legal for use on the UHF CB band, but I
suspect we'll see old gems like the Philips FM-320 on air for many years to
come. :)
And we also needed a licence in Australia to operate a CB until 1994. I did
have a licence, two actually - one for UHF, one for 27 MHz. We were supposed
to licence each individual radio, though I went with one per band, since I had
at least one radio on each band. For most of thoe years, I had at least 2 CBs
on each band. All licences held by the one person generally had the same
callsign, so it was hard to tell.
