One step closer to a European wide FM/AM/SSB CEPT CB band

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Guzzy
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needle bender wrote:vhf/uhf...cb radio...not in my life time thats for sure..934 was'nt brilliant but stolen away from cber's for profit. history now so not worth discussing...446, well with the specs that go with that its fun for the kids only...and clowns who like climbing mountains and coming back down with yarns of a 50 mile copy..I do remember having a set of 49 or 50 meg radios as a kid put out about 10 milliwatts or so, good for a few hundred yards only.but with no pretentions of anything more...
You are probably correct about UHF CB. Although it's surprisingly easy and cheap to pick up 5W handies and 50W mobiles that will work just fine on the PMR446 channels (all 16 of them Image ). UHF CB can and does work very well, just check out the Australian and New Zealand UHF (80 channel) CB service. It's more popular than the 27MHz CB down there. The antennas are MUCH smaller, look much less obtrusive and work just as well for mobile operation. Sure, you don't get the upper atmospheric skip conditions with UHF CB, but that is a bonus if you want to use CB to talk to locals.

Although, to be honest, there are so few hobby level CB'ers left in the UK, we're probably better of concentrating on 27MHz CB. Especially as we are about to see a whole load of new FM/AM/SSB kit coming from China/Korea. :D
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Adriano9966
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Guzzy wrote: UHF CB can and does work very well, just check out the Australian and New Zealand UHF (80 channel) CB service. It's more popular than the 27MHz CB down there. The antennas are MUCH smaller, look much less obtrusive and work just as well for mobile operation. Sure, you don't get the upper atmospheric skip conditions with UHF CB, but that is a bonus if you want to use CB to talk to locals.


:D All very true I was on 934 however it did take me several years after legalisation to obtain a reasonably priced second hand transceiver for the band.
Guzzy wrote: there are so few hobby level CB'ers left in the UK, we're probably better of concentrating on 27MHz CB. Especially as we are about to see a whole load of new FM/AM/SSB kit coming from China/Korea. :D
yep agreed my fault sorry.Perhaps me going back over old ground is a useful frame of reference but not if it leads away from the topic under discussion.

:D Anyway exciting times and that...At the very least these new terms will bring a new range of transceivers to the market
8) 8) 8)
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yeah,it would be nice to have a cb system on vhf/uhf to run alongside 27 megs...but we got what we have and thats that!!!...I'm not over excited about the the prospect of a new generation of multimodes which will hit the market to meet the new eu specs...if the jackson 2 is anything to go by...nearly £300 and nothing special by all accounts...the newies?...£350 ???....I think the so called 10 metre transceiver will continue to be the cber's choice...
Guzzy
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We'll see. :wink:

I have a feeling that once there is a European wide FM/AM/SSB CEPT band, the manufacturers will take advantage of this to release new models that can be sold legally and easily across the whole of Europe.

Might not happen straight away, as R&D takes a little while, and the financial situation across Europe isn't exactly buoyant at the minute. A couple of years maybe.
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Two years.???...dunno...i think the big guns will be falling over themselves to get their products to market faults and all ...I'm still holding off buyimg new ..summer is almost through and my old nato has served me well again this year,,,so we can wait and see what the likes of president and cobra etc can come up with....hey ,i can even see Alan sugar coming back to the market with a high flying super amstrad transciever with optional switchable rodger beep of course.... :D .
Guzzy
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needle bender wrote:Two years.???
These things take time. We're not talking Apple iPhone here, you know! :lol:
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Bionic Budgie
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I heard that AM and SSB will be legal in the UK on the CEPT band from October.. is this correct?

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Guzzy
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Bionic Budgie wrote:I heard that AM and SSB will be legal in the UK on the CEPT band from October.. is this correct?

Bionic Budgie
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Point to an official source, otherwise I would just assume that it's more reflected rumours and assumptions floating about and being repeated by different people.

We just don't know yet.

As I said, please point to an official source, as I would really like this to be the case.
needle bender
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Ofcom have not released any statements yet...dont want to repeat myself,this is all old post ...but i am certain there will be a positive conclusion to this ongoing saga..Ofcom cannot reject this new directive,,if they can,then tell me on what grounds???...because they have none!!!....yeah cept is the way forward,,i am already back to my roots on the am mode.yes here in my neck of the woods we already have a few old am'ers returning,plus one or two new recruits.... i dont wish to encourage anyone to use illegal modes...but two cber's using am soon becomes three...then more...like bees to a honey pot...novelty value perhaps...but you know what they say...from little acorns...what grows :D
Last edited by needle bender on Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Guzzy
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needle bender wrote:but you know what they say...from little acorns...what grows :D
Is that where CB's come from?! #-o
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oak trees guz,,oak trees 8)
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Adriano9966
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needle bender wrote:I don't wish to encourage anyone to use illegal modes...but two cber's using am soon becomes three...then more...like bees to a honey pot...novelty value perhaps...but you know what they say...from little acorns...what grows :D
:) hmmmm which is exactly why I think the government made mpt1320 in the first place otherwise people would have just carried on using am with their original transceivers .It would have been far too difficult for authority to enforce .

:| Many diehards like myself carried on regardless on am for a few years after legalisation but it soon became apparent that our numbers were dwindling .The constant fear of being busted and looking over my shoulder soon made me go completely legal and I did not operate Am again until I met my wife and settled in Italy in 1989.

:D I operated on mainly am from Rome where the local operators instantly dubbed me 'l'inglese and proceeded to bombard me with requests to translate stuff from English

The main objection from authority to am has for years been 'potential for undue interference to other services
which was in fairness a concern in the infancy of legal cb due to domestic appliances like stereos and tv sets having poor emc but little to do with choice of mode .

Back then cb was a craze with at least eg 3 operators per street some using loft antennas fed with unsuitable 75 ohms tv coax.The fact that it was not legal was contributing to the problem/emc concern as many cbers pointed out during the original campain for legalisation.

However emc IMHO was NOT less likely from fm under these circumstances with the subtle difference that voice would not be audible as with am..
whereas on fm the interference would result in eg colour loss on tv sets or a low buzzing type noise on a stereos speaker system.

The potential for emc argument has now finally been dismantled due to better product design, specific emc criteria for domestic appliances


[-o< Perhaps now after all this time we can have what we wanted in the first place lets hope so eh thirty years is a long wait
Guzzy
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Remember,

Even if Ofcom refuse to implement the new European wide standard in the UK, we will still be quids in, as they will be powerless to stop the distribution and sale of perfectly LEGAL FM/AM/SSB equipment within the UK. :D

Gotta love those European Union fair trade laws! *King*

It makes more sense for them to allow it and offer advice and guidance on correct operation. :lol:
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Guzzy wrote: Gotta love those European Union fair trade laws! *King*

It makes more sense for them to allow it and offer advice and guidance on correct operation. :lol:

:D exactly =D>
needle bender
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I concur with what guzzy says on guidance in using the new transceivers....just a few more weeks to go...now have faith,it will all be good...cb radio will step out of the shadows into a bright new future....ps if ofcom play fair then i will....4 watts am/fm...12 watts pep on ssb...what will it be?...a jackson 3...maybe.... :D
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