[Jeffhs]

I had a CB radio back in the late '60s- '70s, before I got my amateur radio license. Not a full-power set, just a 100-mw walkie-talkie on channel 7 (a Lafayette Radio HA-470), and later channel 14 (several small W/Ts, one of which I swear must have had a regenerative receiver section; no kidding, that thing was as broad as a barn as far as selectivity went!). My dad had one (a full-power 5-watt mobile rig) in his car as well. However, shortly after I moved to my current residence, I tuned across what was the Citizens Band on my Icom IC-725 ham rig. I never heard such nonsense in my life! Nothing like the Citizens Band I had known and used 25 years earlier.

I think (in fact, I am all but sure) the Citizens Band started to go downhill as soon as the FCC ceased issuance of CB licenses. The band is now just an unholy mess, and getting worse with each passing day. When the last CB license expired, there went the neighborhood, as the expression goes. The once-orderly, organized, civilized Citizens Band then turned into an unregulated mess, the "Wild West" of the RF spectrum.

Do I miss CB? Absolutely not. Amateur radio is several cuts above CB, and always will be; one reason for this, of course, is that amateur stations must be licensed by the FCC. I will admit, however, to having had a CB radio alongside my ham rig in the '80s, but I did not advertise that fact on the amateur bands because of what some amateurs of that time might have said had I so much as mentioned CB on an amateur frequency. I know better than to even so much as suggest CB on the one 2m repeater I can use in this area, or when I am in contact with someone over Echolink; if I did, I could start one heck of an argument, or worse.