{"id":34101,"date":"2018-09-11T08:04:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T12:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=34101"},"modified":"2018-09-11T08:34:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T12:34:05","slug":"citizens-band-cb-radio-celebrates-60th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/citizens-band-cb-radio-celebrates-60th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens Band (CB) radio celebrates 60th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, Ron, who reminds us that today is Class D CB radio’s 60th anniversary. From Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

On September 11, 1958 the Class D CB service was created on 27 MHz, and this band became what is popularly known today as “Citizens Band”. There were only 23 channels at the time; the first 22 were taken from the former amateur radio service 11-meter band, and channel 23 was shared with radio-controlled devices. Some hobbyists continue to use the designation “11 meters” to refer to the Citizens Band and adjoining frequencies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My dad was an avid CBer when I was a kid. He had an FCC-issued license and belonged to a healthy community of CBers in our part of the state. He had a beautiful yellow Robyn T-240D (same as pictured above) as a base station, and a mobile CB installed in every car. After the FCC dropped the licensing requirement, his activity on the bands slowed down although it did give me a chance to hop on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My best friend (who lived about 1\/4 mile away) and I used to keep in constant contact with our 40 channel 5 watt CB walkie talkies. It was great fun.<\/p>\n

Of course, it was a treat when I would catch some “skip” and make contact with someone two states away with that same walkie talkie.<\/p>\n

Like it or hate it, a lot of radio enthusiasts and ham radio operators cut their teeth on CB radio.<\/p>\n

I was certainly one of them.<\/p>\n

CB radio is still a pretty dynamic public radio space today.\u00a0 True, it’s a bit of a free-for-all and if you can’t tolerate profanity and “colorful metaphors” then you best stay away.<\/p>\n