I keep an old Realistic 40 channel base unit here at home to listen to once in a while, there's not much of anything going on at 27 Mhz in my area though. I occaisionally here chatter between truckers, but not too often. I live on a stretch of 2-lane highway that's some ways off of the interstate. If I were closer to I-55 or I-40 I'd probably recieve a lot more, but I'd also hear a lot of overmodulated crap as well.

I don't listen to 27 MHz that often myself, despite the fact that the receiver in my Icom IC725 ham rig is general coverage. The last time I tuned in (several years ago), however, I heard quite a bit of chatter but not much garbage from overmodulated signals. I live several miles from any major highway, so I probably wouldn't hear much in the way of trucker chatter since my HF ham antenna isn't that good (indoor loaded vertical). I'm even further away from any major interstate road, so unless my antenna were a lot better than it is I likely would not hear truckers on those roads either.

Since CB no longer requires a license (since about 1983-'84), one would think it has turned into a "Wild West" almost-anything-goes poor excuse for a communications service. In a lot of ways it probably is, but since the FCC still monitors 27 MHz and still cites errant users for rule violations, there probably isn't a whole lot of monkey business going on aside from operators transmitting on top of each other (intentionally or otherwise), catcalls, the occasional would-be deejay playing music, et al.

I don't know if CB operators still try to get away with pulling their illegal stunts on the amateur ten-meter band using high-power linear amplifiers, or if they are using such amps on 27 MHz. Most of these amplifiers are broadbanded enough to tune to 27 MHz, even with the band switch set to 28 MHz (ten meters). When CBers still needed licenses, many would hook their CB rigs to such an amp and talk across the country in much the same manner as do radio amateurs using single-sideband or CW (Morse code). The FCC caught a lot of these characters and ended their CB communications days for good. Many times this meant that an errant CBer would also be barred from ever getting an amateur license.

These days, the rules are a lot more strict, with stiffer penalties. For example, operating a transmitter of any kind without a license (except, of course, 0.1-watt License-Free Band limited-range systems) often results in the perpetrator being barred from using anything--anything at all--that incorporates a radio transmitter, including but not limited to cordless and cellular telephones. In fact, in the days before IR (infrared) television remotes, I wouldn't have been surprised if these rule-benders were also strictly forbidden to use RF-based TV remote controls, since the latter were actually miniature radio transmitters--very short range ones, to be sure, but transmitters nevertheless.

Interesting post, however I an not sure people with FCC rule violations
on record are truly banned from operating cell phones, since in that
case the licensee is the phone company, not the telephone user.
Any other input on this?

I thought that there might be some partial validity to the above in regard to LPFM applications... I just checked the FCC site and found this clarification:

"10) Will pirates be eligible for LPFM licenses?

Eligible licensees will be subject to the same character qualifications as currently applied to full power licensees. Because some entities that broadcast without a license in the past may have operated based on ignorance or misinformation, such parties may apply for LPFM licenses if they certify that they promptly ceased unlicensed operation when advised by the Commission to do so, or voluntarily ceased operations by February 26, 1999. Entities who continued illegal broadcasting are ineligible for any broadcast license."
From:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/lpfm/lpfmfaq.html

So, as I read it, a persistent pirate could become ineligible for any broadcast license... cell phones and tv remotes, however do not require a broadcast license to operate.

jr