Most of us DIDN'T talk "skip" in the 60s--at least the guys around here locally. They (me included) were afraid of the guys with the white vans!
What's the harm in driving your car at 100 MPH on the interstate? "You" could say that this is *my* hobby. What's the harm in drinking yourself into oblivion? You could say it's "my" hobby! What's the harm in making meth? Hobby?
Depends on your point of view! To those who see no harm in these things, it's no big deal. So where's the harm in "hobby" use of CB, no matter what it has become? The difference is your own perception of what is harmful and what is not. These perceptions are based on personal preference, awareness, moral opinion of the law, and one's training in the particular hobby he wishes to promote. Minus certain experience and training in RF matters, one simply cannot see how his talking from NC to Texas could possible hurt anything. It does seem like a trivial thing, right? If working "skip" had been OK, or was OK now, the petition of a few years ago would've been approved to abolish limits on talking distances beyond 155 miles on CB. No question, it might be OK for those who DO realize the impact of others and have the experience to achieve
lots of hobby "mileage" from CB skip-talking. But what if you open up this as a hobby to THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of people who are merely appliance operators and have NO idea of what impact such operation would create? It would snowball from something harmless to an even WORSE paralysis than CB experiences now! Then, in order to get over the racket, ever bigger linears are put on the air, making more noise, and more linears, then more noise, then more linears............... Then people say, "well, the H... with FCC, I'm gonna talk on them extra channels cause I got my rights". More interference both inside and OUTSIDE CB. More paralysis. Where would it end? Isn't THAT what is happening in and around CB NOW?
It isn't popular, but the facts are (and I didn't make 'em up), it has been determined and codified into US law that such is not the best interests of the country.
1. CB is in the Land Mobile Services. It is designed to be used as a cheap, LOCAL, specific radio. It is not a "hobby" as determined by US law. (again, I ain't the one to fuss with about it--someone ELSE made the law, I'm just discussing it.) It is basically, too, to be used by an UN-trained public in that he has a radio with limited power and 40 specific channels and is also strictly limited by regulations as to what he can and cannot do. We may not like it, but it is the law! The way to deal with it is to attempt to change said law thru legal means.
Outright defiance and disobedience of the law creates resistance. However, because there ARE established and still valid reasons for NOT allowing "hobby" use of CB, it is not likely to be changed. Witness the attempt mentioned earlier to have this changed.
2. The US Code, Title 47, pretty well determines and distinguishes what venues may be used as hobby, personal, business and commercial communications. And the distinctions are pretty narrow and clear. Thus, CB radios, like Motorola commercial units, have specific channels and set power levels (up to a certain limit) for a
consumer market. CB, then, is part of the Land Mobile Radio Services.
3. Hobby radio is pretty much codified and limited to Amateur Radio. It's rules and more relaxed equipment standards is much more accented towards the hobby user. This hobby user is much more likely to be able to deal with VFO operation, setting frequencies as opposed to channels, determining how much power is "enough", and how to minimize interference to other users. The determination of "who" qualifies" as a hobby operator is made by testing applicants to deem them "fit" to engage in hobby communications. Because he IS a hobbiest, he is more likely to be AWARE of what his operations will do to others, and will take more care. It ain't perfect, but it is the way it is. Tests can never fully assure that an operator is a responsible, caring radio-ist or an immature, self-centered egotist whose only thought WRT his radio is ME, MYSELF, and I.
We have licensed hams that prove this with banal, immature, bawdy, and embarassing behavior. There are ways to deal with this, and the law does so with warnings, fines, and even jail.
I don't post this to keep angst going, but I am simply trying to create thought as to why it is this way. It is very easy for us to cloud an issue with whys, wherefores, and I-don't-see-why-I-can't, etc. based on our own personal agendas and radio training--or lack of it. It is the very lack of insight (information) that drives this very deep wish to mold CB into what "WE" think it should be. *WE* want it to be a "hobby" whereby we can use it the same way we use a radio-controlled car from Radio Shack. As a consumer appliance. *WE* think CB is a hobby because *we* SAY so. *WE* don't want to take a test or conform to someone else's rules. Or *WE* want to be able to have drag races on public streets because *we* see no harm in it. *WE* see no harm in drinking a 5th at a party because *we* are good drivers. Perceptions all. But they may not be good perceptions.
But here's the--and, yes, I know it chaps our hineys--narrow and legal reason which we, deepdown, know is the way it is.
Even if we don't know WHY it is. CB radio is consumer-driven and has specific limits to minimize interference to others. It is not allowed to be a hobby. Amateur Radio is HOBBY and volunteer public-service driven radio whose rules and tests are designed to minimize interference, Both services arrive at the same objective via a different route! That objective is to prevent..............RIGHT! Interference!! Nothing is perfect nor can it ever be.
And if one determines for himself that those rules don't apply to him, then he may pay for it with warnings, revocation, or $$$! Just like the fella speeding 100 MPH.
73
CWM
