DX
If you pose that question to Larry Brock. Field Engineer of FCC's Dallas Office, he would likely tell you the reason is one word. Interference. It is why the rule was initiated to start with--along with that bugaboo about CB as a hobby is against the law. In good conditions, thousands of CB stations with 4 watts would cause mayhem--and already DO! I've tried to answer as honestly and completely as I could with previous posts. I used analogies such as drag racing on public streets.
You can CALL anything a hobby based on one's own personal goals and perceptions. *YOU* may think "I can't see the harm in stoplight dragracing. It is YOUR hobby, right? There were a couple of guys some weeks ago that stoplight raced in my own town. *They* were in control. One driver lost control of his Camaro at around 75 MPH and spun into a line of innocent people at a Dairy Queen, injuring 5 or so people (lucky no one was killed!). He most certainly thought he was capable of handling the situation (racing) when he obviously couldn't). Likewise, while you, QRN, may see no harm in "skip talking", it does, in fact, cause harm to other users. Ever listen to that telltell howl and roar common to CB radio when the "skip" is in?
It doesn't even HAVE to be more than the 4 watt limit--4 watts
will make enough of that howl and roar as is! Now let's say we legalize it--OK!! It's OK now for you to talk over 155 miles. Folks that, perhaps, didn't do that before, now have a "new" hobby that replaces the legal venue for such activity. Now you double, triple, quadruple the number of stations out there yelling
"BREAK SKIPLAND!!!!!!!! AUDIOOOOOOOOOO, AUDIOOOOOOOO!
BREAK! THIS IS THE WAGGY DAWGY IN CENTRAL N'AWTH C'LINA, WE TRYIN', C'MON BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".
Then there is a the moral issue of the willingness of the people to obey the law that has ostensibly been put in place for good reason. At least, American citizens have the option of getting a law CHANGED thru their representatives. When *we* decide that there is no harm in doing something that *we* think isn't important, we are unknowingly going a slippery slide from which there is no returning. Let's say that one finds a bank bag containing $12000 and he KEEPS the bag and the money. The owner, discovering he has lost his life's savings because he put it on top of his car and it fell as he drove, returns home and embarks on a frantic search for this bag. Walking along the sidewalk (where he suspects it could've fallen), he steps into traffic and is struck and killed! He is a widower with no children, but leaves relatives in another town. YOU now have gained an advantage over this hapless, but now dead, person. Is it OK to keep this money and not turn it over to the authorities? Are you "hurting" anybody by keeping the money. Maybe the relatives are well off, maybe not. So what is the harm?
Likewise, as in the case of the "stolen" (that actually is what it is whether you rationalize it or not) money, you are creating harm in the form of interference to other radio users who may or may not hear you, but, in reality, that person could be trying to call his wife to get a wrecker to his stalled car (can't afford a cellphone). You, OTH, are not heaing the other station, but you are booming in on TOP of the stricken motorist and "stealing" his ability to summon help! To YOU it is a hobby, to the unfortunate driver, it is a TOOL (as it was intended to be) to get help. Betcha he is sitting there listening to you saying, "if I could find that guy with his "break skipland", I'd cram that radio right up"........................well, you get the idea! But that TOOL is useless to him. Now put the shoe on the other foot. Now it is YOU sitting out in the boonies with a dead cellphone battery and a stalled car, miles from nowhere. The guy that WAS broke down is now the fella that is screaming, BREAK, BREAK, YA GOT AN' OLE COPY, WE TRYIN'," and YOU are the one saying, "I'd like to grab that guy by the neck and jack-slap the you-know-what outta him"!!!!!!!!!!
The very vagaries of skip is the REASON they don't want CB folks to work DX. While one person is trying to use CB as a short ranged, local tool, another fella is engaging in his hobby and talking to a station in Singapore. However, the skip to the utility CB user is one-way and he can hear YOU, YOU and the Singapore statio hear EACH other, but YOU can't hear HIM. You are messing him up without ever knowing it and, of course, you can't see what the big deal is!
NO question, FCC doesn't necessarily go after skip talkers due to funding issues. It STILL doesn't make it right. Just like the money that was found and kept, a crime was committed in that
keeping found money IS illegal, but, yes, you may get away with it. It STILL doesn't make it RIGHT! Just because the FCC is not able to cite every station for every offense doesn't mean that it is OK. The moral climate in the country, unfortunately, has fallen to new lows in that the laws that, imperfect as they are, are made for good purpose, and we say in our own moral code, "It is OK to break the law as long as we don't get caught!" Tell me, would you SPEED at 95 MPH, if you knew that ALL the highway patrolmen were tied up in a riot control. Is it OK *just* because there is a situation that can't be helped? (There's that money layin' in the road again). It is STILL wrong and STILL against the law to do it.
Still, the HARM in making CB a hobby, i.e., DXing, is that it DOES cause harm to other users. That's the bottom line. We may not LIKE it, but it is the truth. It competes wrongfully with the Amateur Radio Service where DX is welcomed AND encouraged. It harms because it allows people to do unseen harm to other people without either knowing, caring, OR taking responsibility for their actions. Sure, stations all over can hear you with your 4 watts and, sure, you could talk to them. But you don't HAVE to. The nature of 27 MHZ is what it is and can't be helped. It is bad enough as it stands without making it WORSE by sanctioning hobby use of CB radio. Doing so would only create an even worse mess. And that is why they will never legalize it.
This has been a great debate, and I've enjoyed it!
It boils down to: you have an opinion, I have mine. And I know you aren't gonna yield no matter what I say!
Yer dadburned mind is made up! LOL! So there!! 8)
73 all,
CWM
