Strangely I've seen a huge increase in email in the last couple of months regarding a youtube video I did on the Icom 718 with a CB slant posted over a year ago. These are outside emails have nothing to do with this forum but I thought I'd post my view on this topic as it's an interesting discussion. This isn't meant to start a contentious argument as we've all seen that here before, I thought this was just an interesting topic based on the increase in email I've seen so let's keep it clean folks.
Now as a ham I can understand why many hams may not like the idea of CBer's using ham radios but many of the emails I've been receiving seem pretty nasty and misguided.
The interesting part of CBer's using the Icom 718 to me is that I think in many cases it's actually a positive thing. I like to look at it in the following manner.
1) First of all, your basic new or non-hobby oriented CBer' who owns and runs a Cobra 25 or similar isn't going to drop $400+ on a used Icom 718. The users are most likely going to be more serious operators who are on the hobby side.
2) If hobby operators are buying a $400+ radio they most likely knowledge of radios and understand the CB/ham radio frequency distribution. The operators are unlikely to buy this radio and then start talking on 20 meters without a license, not to mention that even if they did most ham's would immediately realize they weren't a licensed ham. So it's highly unlikely they would use the radio on ham frequencies.
3) Most hobby operators tend to want to talk DX and they fall into two categories - the big radio AM crowd or the SSB crowd. While some in the AM crowd do run high end ham radios many tend to lean towards less expensive radios that can be clipped or modded for extreme modulation. The AM crowd tends to cause more interference with their big power setups, so even though they are unlikely to use a Icom 718, it would almost be better for everyone around if they were running an Icom 718 into their 8 pill instead of a Galaxy 44 that's had the modulation limiter removed. (Along the dirty in/dirty out argument). Obviously if the amplifier has it's own issues the radio isn't going to make a huge difference either way.
So if we can assume the SSB CB crowd are the ones purchasing the Icom 718 we can also assume they are most likely planning to use the radio for LSB on the CB frequencies or LSB/USB on the freeband frequencies. Again - it's probably preferable to most hams that if these operators are going to use a illegal radio with higher power that they use a Icom 718 rather than a Galaxy 95T etc as we would hope it will give them cleaner signals with less splatter.
4) Anyone can own a ham radio (modified for 11 meters or not). The legality only comes into play if the radio is used to transmit. In fact I was given a ham radio as a kid long before I had the license to transmit on it and I spent many hours listening to operators getting excited about the hobby. A serious SSB CB operator who runs a 2950DX or similar export may never realize that even though 11 meter DX is dead that 20 meters is running strong. Again if they own a Icom 718 instead of a 2950DX there is a higher probability that they might want to become licensed or learn more about the ham radio hobby.
5) Many SSB CB operators consider themselves proud to be cber's and don't use Ham frequencies at all and have no interest in doing so. For them the Icom 718 offers a high end radio to use on the CB and freeband frequencies only and again they are highly unlikely to cause any disturbance to any ham operators and the use of this radio over a cheaper export means they are even less likely to cause any interference.
So in the end I think all of the nasty emails I've been receiving from ham operators is misdirected and if they took the time to read this post they might see how the use of these radio might actually reduce interference issues and could result in new licensed operators.
Obviously if the ham community had it their way no one without a license would ever transmit on any "ham" radio. Barring an act of god that just isn't going to happen and I think that we can all agree that if more higher end ham radios were being used on the CB band (albeit illegally) in place of export radios that many of the transmissions would be cleaner.
That serious ssb CB operators cause problems for hams is a pretty weak argument. In the last year I've only heard one operator on 10 and one on 20 who I assume were unlicensed. Operators immediately called them out and they were off the frequency in a matter of seconds. As has been mentioned on the forum many times, I would actually argue that there are more licensed ham trouble makers causing problems on ham bands than unlicensed CBer's. Any problems from unlicensed operators usually occurs on 10 meters and it is most often credited to truckers/businesses/individuals who have 10 meter export radios but are not "hobby" end users and don't understand the band plan. Again we can assume these people would not be buying or using the 718.
In the end, ham radios such as the Icom 718 are out on the market and are widely used by ham and CB operators alike. As we all know the equipment itself isn't really the issue, it's who has their hands on the equipment and how it will be used. The use of these types of radios by cb operators is really a non-issue for most involved and could actually be viewed as a positive step forward over highly modified cb or export radios
Now as a ham I can understand why many hams may not like the idea of CBer's using ham radios but many of the emails I've been receiving seem pretty nasty and misguided.
The interesting part of CBer's using the Icom 718 to me is that I think in many cases it's actually a positive thing. I like to look at it in the following manner.
1) First of all, your basic new or non-hobby oriented CBer' who owns and runs a Cobra 25 or similar isn't going to drop $400+ on a used Icom 718. The users are most likely going to be more serious operators who are on the hobby side.
2) If hobby operators are buying a $400+ radio they most likely knowledge of radios and understand the CB/ham radio frequency distribution. The operators are unlikely to buy this radio and then start talking on 20 meters without a license, not to mention that even if they did most ham's would immediately realize they weren't a licensed ham. So it's highly unlikely they would use the radio on ham frequencies.
3) Most hobby operators tend to want to talk DX and they fall into two categories - the big radio AM crowd or the SSB crowd. While some in the AM crowd do run high end ham radios many tend to lean towards less expensive radios that can be clipped or modded for extreme modulation. The AM crowd tends to cause more interference with their big power setups, so even though they are unlikely to use a Icom 718, it would almost be better for everyone around if they were running an Icom 718 into their 8 pill instead of a Galaxy 44 that's had the modulation limiter removed. (Along the dirty in/dirty out argument). Obviously if the amplifier has it's own issues the radio isn't going to make a huge difference either way.
So if we can assume the SSB CB crowd are the ones purchasing the Icom 718 we can also assume they are most likely planning to use the radio for LSB on the CB frequencies or LSB/USB on the freeband frequencies. Again - it's probably preferable to most hams that if these operators are going to use a illegal radio with higher power that they use a Icom 718 rather than a Galaxy 95T etc as we would hope it will give them cleaner signals with less splatter.
4) Anyone can own a ham radio (modified for 11 meters or not). The legality only comes into play if the radio is used to transmit. In fact I was given a ham radio as a kid long before I had the license to transmit on it and I spent many hours listening to operators getting excited about the hobby. A serious SSB CB operator who runs a 2950DX or similar export may never realize that even though 11 meter DX is dead that 20 meters is running strong. Again if they own a Icom 718 instead of a 2950DX there is a higher probability that they might want to become licensed or learn more about the ham radio hobby.
5) Many SSB CB operators consider themselves proud to be cber's and don't use Ham frequencies at all and have no interest in doing so. For them the Icom 718 offers a high end radio to use on the CB and freeband frequencies only and again they are highly unlikely to cause any disturbance to any ham operators and the use of this radio over a cheaper export means they are even less likely to cause any interference.
So in the end I think all of the nasty emails I've been receiving from ham operators is misdirected and if they took the time to read this post they might see how the use of these radio might actually reduce interference issues and could result in new licensed operators.
Obviously if the ham community had it their way no one without a license would ever transmit on any "ham" radio. Barring an act of god that just isn't going to happen and I think that we can all agree that if more higher end ham radios were being used on the CB band (albeit illegally) in place of export radios that many of the transmissions would be cleaner.
That serious ssb CB operators cause problems for hams is a pretty weak argument. In the last year I've only heard one operator on 10 and one on 20 who I assume were unlicensed. Operators immediately called them out and they were off the frequency in a matter of seconds. As has been mentioned on the forum many times, I would actually argue that there are more licensed ham trouble makers causing problems on ham bands than unlicensed CBer's. Any problems from unlicensed operators usually occurs on 10 meters and it is most often credited to truckers/businesses/individuals who have 10 meter export radios but are not "hobby" end users and don't understand the band plan. Again we can assume these people would not be buying or using the 718.
In the end, ham radios such as the Icom 718 are out on the market and are widely used by ham and CB operators alike. As we all know the equipment itself isn't really the issue, it's who has their hands on the equipment and how it will be used. The use of these types of radios by cb operators is really a non-issue for most involved and could actually be viewed as a positive step forward over highly modified cb or export radios
