The Citizen Band (CB) Service
History and Background:
An American based radio Communication Company, formally known as Citizen Brand (CB) services. It was started by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1973.CB provides a short range and short-distance two-way telecommunications service for general public use. It is used for commercial as well as personal uses. Voice paging is also one of the common uses of CB services. With 40 authorized channels having frequencies between 26.965 MHz and 27.405 MHz. With the range of approx. 10 to 11 meters, CB services include mobile radios and vehicle radio services also.
CB in USA:
In the late 1950z, with the radio broadband initiation and the radios getting common for all types of purposes, along with this radios were still complex and could not be used much commonly, radios still kept getting improved and finally in 1973, when the US was hit by oil shortage and severe crisis, US government imposed a 55mph speed limit throughout the nation and that was the time CB radios were actually put into use and from that time onwards caught the flame of fame which kept burning till the time of 21st century now. Though now with the advent of mobile phones still you cannot use the phone and cellular signals everywhere and that is where CB still don’t have any competition.
Licensing:
When the CB service was first introduced and became common a short time license of 2 years but with the passage of time people would not take license and use nicknames and alternative methods but still would use CB service. Besides the ineligibility given by FCC, all types of people are allowed to have a CB station license according to a rule. Subpart D of 95 part, 47 C.F.R consist of the FCC rules for CB station license acquisition.
Channels and frequencies:
There are 40 channels catered by CB stations and have multiple 40 frequency ranges between the values of 26.965 MHz and 27.405 MHz. All these CB channels have a range of 10 KHz. However, the channel 9 with the frequency of 27.065 is for communication in emergency situations and assistance for travelers.
Antennas and Radios:
There are multiple companies making use of CB station services for communication among their heavy duty vehicles and drivers other than that and have 5 different kinds of antennas which are vehicle specific. Two most famous and highly efficient antennas are Magnetic mount antennas which does not require any drilling hole inside any part of the vehicle and the 102’’ long shaft antenna which give the best antennas services then any center mounted antenna of any kind.
Current Use:
Although CB antennas and radios are continuously updated with the increasing demand and multiple use of these radios the biggest limitation of these radios is there only 10 KHz limited range frequency, but it still is the best for field work and intercommunication between heavy work vehicles like tractors, drillers, truck loaders, 4x4, jeeps etc. Though the introduction of Very High Frequency (VHF) radios and their popularity, CB radios are still used massively by truck drivers and gaining information about accidents, police speed traps and road constructions.
