New CB. First Impressions

[SteveShannon]

8 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Outside the US, Channel 9 is not designated as an Emergency or Traveler Assistance Frequency for the most part..  Lots of Mexico and other SA DX users on the channel at times...

Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

[WRXR255]

Rule 5                Areas of Legal Operation

You are authorized to operate your CB station from:
{A} Within or over any area of the world where radio services are regulated by the FCC. Those areas are:
[1] The 50 United States
[2] The District Of Columbia
[3] Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
[4] Navassa Island
[5] United States Virgin Islands, it's 50 islets and cays
[6] American Samoa
[7] Baker Island
[8] Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
[9] Guam Island
[10] Howland Island
[11] Jarvis Islan
[12] Johnston Island
[13] Kingman Reef
[14] Midway Island
[15] Palmyra Island, and it's 50+ islets
[16] Wake Island
{B} Any area of the world, except, within the territorial limits of areas where radio services are regulated by -
[1] An agency of the United States other than the FCC, you are subject to it's rules.
[2] Any foreign government, you are subject to it's rules.
{C} An aircraft or ship, with the permission of the captain, within or over any area of the world where radio services are regulated by the FCC or upon or over international waters. You must operate your CB station according to any applicable treaty to which the United States is a party.

 

[WRXR255]

For reference, here is where I got the info:

https://www.cbradiomemories.com/fcc_rules_cb.htm

[SteveShannon]

Here are the official regulations:

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95#subpart-D
 

[LeoG]

I don't think CH9 being an emergency channel was ever an official decree.  It was made that way early on.

I could be wrong.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, LeoG said:

I don't think CH9 being an emergency channel was ever an official decree.  It was made that way early on.

I could be wrong.

You’re correct.  The convention of using Channel 9 for emergency purposes is not part of the FCC regulations.

What I said above is incorrect.  Channel 9 is reserved in regulations.

§ 95.931 Permissible CBRS uses.

The operator of a CBRS station may use that station to transmit two-way plain language voice communications to other CBRS stations and to other stations that are authorized to transmit on CBRS frequencies.

(a) Emergency communications. Any CBRS channel may be used for emergency communications or for traveler assistance.

(1) Operators of CBRS stations must, at all times and on all channels, give priority to emergency communications.

(2) CBRS Channel 9 may be used only for emergency communications or traveler assistance. It must not be used for any other purpose.

 

Edited July 24 by SteveShannon
I was wrong.

[LeoG]

Probably done by truckers to help their brethren.

[SteveShannon]

6 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Probably done by truckers to help their brethren.

According to page 60 (labeled 3-6) of this document, it was reserved by the regulations at one time.  Since then much has changed.

https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/47617NCJRS.pdf

[SteveShannon]

47 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

You’re correct.  The convention of using Channel 9 for emergency purposes is not part of the FCC regulations.

I was wrong.  After looking more carefully I found this:

§ 95.931 Permissible CBRS uses.

The operator of a CBRS station may use that station to transmit two-way plain language voice communications to other CBRS stations and to other stations that are authorized to transmit on CBRS frequencies.

(a) Emergency communications. Any CBRS channel may be used for emergency communications or for traveler assistance.

(1) Operators of CBRS stations must, at all times and on all channels, give priority to emergency communications.

(2) CBRS Channel 9 may be used only for emergency communications or traveler assistance. It must not be used for any other purpose.

 

[marcspaz]

4 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

(2) CBRS Channel 9 may be used only for emergency communications or traveler assistance. It must not be used for any other purpose.

 

 

Add that to the list of rules I mentioned earlier that don't make sense.  I could see emergency traffic and travelers assistance being priority on every channel... but saying one of the channels cannot be used for anything else seems like a waste of one of the limited number of channels.  Especially in today's world of communications tech.

[marcspaz]

5 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

If I do get a CB radio, I want one that does AM, FM, and SSB.

I think President is the only company making FCC type approved radios with all three modulation types.  The President George FCC is a great radio with all 3.  So is the McKinley II FCC.

I'm not sure if there are any other brands, but it would be fun to see what folks can find.

[Davichko5650]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

Really???   I do know that, but chances are average to good if you're hearing spanish on 11m, it's coming from down south Mexico way or down further.

[marcspaz]

2 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Really???   I do know that, but chances are average to good if you're hearing spanish on 11m, it's coming from down south Mexico way or down further.

 

I hear a lot of people from Dominican Republic. 

[SteveShannon]

5 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

I will sometimes scroll through the CB channels just to listen. My 10m inverted V antenna actually works quite well for 11 meters. I hear a guy from Puerto Rico on channel 9 quite often. He must be running a lot of power since he has an extremely strong signal. If I do get a CB radio, I want one that does AM, FM, and SSB.

I guess no one cares that the guy is on the emergency channel. I remember a time when one would get told to stay off channel 9 except for emergencies. 

 

12 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

Really???   I do know that, but chances are average to good if you're hearing spanish on 11m, it's coming from down south Mexico way or down further.

Nobody said anything about Spanish speaking. You responded to the post above that specific said Puerto Rico.

[LeoG]

3 hours ago, marcspaz said:

 

Add that to the list of rules I mentioned earlier that don't make sense.  I could see emergency traffic and travelers assistance being priority on every channel... but saying one of the channels cannot be used for anything else seems like a waste of one of the limited number of channels.  Especially in today's world of communications tech.

Originally the same amount of channels in CB as GMRS.  23 for CB and 22 for GMRS.  The they went to 40 and added SSB which just annoyed people.  Just like putting digital on GMRS

[Lscott]

39 minutes ago, LeoG said:

The they went to 40 and added SSB which just annoyed people.

Now they added FM. Oh joy.

[marcspaz]

5 minutes ago, Lscott said:

Now they added FM. Oh joy.

 

I mean, they didn't do it until 4 decades after the rest of the nations with CB equivalent services did it.  If the FCC kept with the times, GMRS as we know it might not exist.

 

Now that I think about it, 27 MHz FM with 50w and repeaters doesn't sound like a terrible idea from a technology standpoint, but it hasn't been very popular on 29 MHz. So, we may have ended up with modern GMRS regardless.

 

[WRYZ926]

6 hours ago, Davichko5650 said:

Outside the US, Channel 9 is not designated as an Emergency or Traveler Assistance Frequency for the most part..  Lots of Mexico and other SA DX users on the channel at times...

I am well aware of that. But it makes the channel useless for those in the US that need it.

[WRYZ926]

4 hours ago, Davichko5650 said:

Really???   I do know that, but chances are average to good if you're hearing spanish on 11m, it's coming from down south Mexico way or down further.

I know the station in question is from Puerto Rico since he states it in his transmissions.

4 hours ago, marcspaz said:

I think President is the only company making FCC type approved radios with all three modulation types.  The President George FCC is a great radio with all 3.  So is the McKinley II FCC.

I'm not sure if there are any other brands, but it would be fun to see what folks can find.

The President George FCC is the only radio with all modes that I have found so far that is legal to use for the CB bands.

I could always open up my Xiegu G90 too 

[marcspaz]

30 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I could always open up my Xiegu G90 too 

 

When I had my FT-891 and IC-7300 MARS modded, it opened up transmit on the CB frequencies, too.  Even though I have a legit CB, it's nice to know I have options if needed.

[WRYZ926]

It's always nice to have options.

[nokones]

On 7/24/2024 at 1:50 PM, Lscott said:

Now they added FM. Oh joy.

I believe there may be a CB Radio that has PL capability now to join in on the joy.

[Lscott]

13 hours ago, nokones said:

I believe there may be a CB Radio that has PL capability now to join in on the joy.

I wonder what took them so long.

The FCC could just can 11M CB completely here and expand GMRS. Australia has a nice nation wide UHF FM CB service. They have up to 80 channels, some reserved and others are for specific uses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHF_CB

 

[Lscott]

On 7/24/2024 at 6:10 PM, marcspaz said:

 

When I had my FT-891 and IC-7300 MARS modded, it opened up transmit on the CB frequencies, too.  Even though I have a legit CB, it's nice to know I have options if needed.

My FT-817 and IC-706MKIIG have the MARS/CAP mod. I'm guessing a lot of Hams have their HF mobile radio's opened up for CB.

The FM deviation on a modified Ham HF radio might be a bit low for the new FM mode allowed by the FCC on the CB 11M band. For those who may not know but FM is allowed on the Ham 10M band on frequencies above 29.6MHz. The band itself runs from 28MHz to 29.7MHz.

There has been some unsuccessful attempts to get a 4M, 70MHz, allocation here. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-metre_band

US Amature Band Plan 2020.pdf

[marcspaz]

2 hours ago, Lscott said:

For those who may not know but FM is allowed on the Ham 10M band on frequencies above 29.6MHz.

 

Actually, FM is allow almost everywhere phone/voice is allowed on the HF bands.  The only modulation restrictions I have ever found in the rules are on 60m where you must us USB for phone, and on 10m tech segment (28.3-28.5) and only if you have a tech license.  Then, you have to use AM or sideband.

The only other restrictions I found specifically for HF voice is that the total bandwidth of a sideband emission with a B designation or a multiplexed image and phone emission cannot exceed the communications quality A3E emission.  Which is kinda of stupid, but whatever.