-=> Joe Delahaye wrote to Tony Langdon <=-   
      
    JD> You dont see them as much any more.  Some still have them of course.   
    JD> However, here in Ontario Canada, it is illegal to use them while   
    JD> driving (Hams have an exemption (for now))   
      
   It's funny how histor goes.  The government back in the 1970s wanted UHF for CB   
   and set aside a band at 477 MHz.  However, the sheew weight of numbers of 27   
   MHz CNs in circulation forced them to adopt the US style service as well.    
   Before then, this frequency range was actually the 11 metre ham band, and older   
   gear like the Yaesu FT-101 series came with it fitted.   
      
   Back then, UHF was a wasteland, as the gear was expensive, and the hobbyists   
   wanted to chase DX.  However, by the end of the 1980s, UHF got quite busy.    
   Businesses and communities outside the major cities found it useful.  The   
   repeater here was full of business users from 9-5.  After 5, the hobbyists   
   would come out to play, many of them being the teenage kids of business owners,   
   using the same radios as their parents.  It was almost like the changing of the   
   guard.  These communities kept apart for the most part, though the few   
   hobbyists that were around during the day would often act like secretaries,   
   passing on messages for the commercial users when they didn't manage to make   
   contact.  In the big cities, the serious users stayed off the repeaters and   
   used simplex, because the repeaters were clogged with those on power trips   
   (imagine the worst 2m repeater x 1000 :) ).  Meanwhile, 27 MHz was going   
   strong, with lots of activity.  Back then, I was equally active on both bands.   
      
   Fast forward - 27 MHz activity fell off during the 1990s as the Internet took   
   hold.  Later, the Foundation licence would encourage many of the hobbyists to   
   move to the ham bands.  On UHF, mobile phones gradually took traffic away from   
   UHF, as they became cheap enbough for business.  Hobbyists and communities   
   remained, though the hobbyists too started drifting away to the Internet and   
   the ham bands.  The communities have remained, often with the emergency   
   services in more rural areas remaining on UHF - not as their primary radio, but   
   so they can communicate directly with other sections of the community during an   
   emergency.  UHF, with the advent of cheap portable radios in the mid-late   
   1990s, also became increasingly popular at public events as a low cost means to   
   coordinate activity.  In fact, UHF became so successful here than in the 1990s,   
   New Zealand addoped an identical service, and in 2011, the authorities here   
   doubled the number of channels to 80, by halving the spacing.   
      
   So the question of whether CB is still in use here has a second question "which   
   band"?   
      
      
   ... Old immortals don't die, they just... don't.   
   --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49   
    * Origin: Freeway BBS - freeway.apana.org.au (3:633/410)