CB QSL Card cibi, carte postale, Citizen Band Radio postcard
Following the 1973 oil crisis, the U.S. government imposed a nationwide 55 mph speed limit, and fuel shortages and rationing were widespread. CB radio was often used, especially by truckers, to locate service stations with a supply of gasoline, to notify other drivers of speed traps, and to organize blockades and convoys in a 1974 strike protesting the new speed limit and other trucking regulations. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, a phenomenon was developing over the CB radio. Similar to the Internet chat rooms a quarter century later, the CB allowed people to get to know one another in a quasi-anonymous manner. Many movies and stories about CBers and the culture on-the-air developed.
The prominent use of [6] CB radios in 1970s-era films (see list below) such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Convoy (1978), and television shows like Movin´ On (debuted 1974) and The Dukes of Hazzard (debuted 1979) bolstered the appeal of CB radio. Moreover, popular novelty songs such as C.W. McCall´s Convoy (1976) helped establish CB radio as a nationwide craze in the USA in the mid- to late-1970s.
Originally, CB required a license and fee (it was $20.00 in the early 70´s; and $4.00 in the late 70´s), and the use of a call sign, but when the CB craze was at its peak, many people ignored this requirement and used made-up nicknames or "handles". The many restrictions on the authorized use of CB radio led to widespread disregard of the regulations, most notably in antenna height, distance restriction for communications, licensing and the use of call signs, and allowable transmitter power. After the FCC started receiving over 1,000,000 license applications a month, the license requirement was dropped entirely.
Originally, there were only 23 CB channels in the U.S.; the present 40-channel bandplan did not come along until 1977. Channel 9 was reserved for emergency use in 1969.[7] Channel 10 was used for highway communications at first, then, it was Channel 10 east of the Mississippi River, and channel 19 west of the Mississippi; then later Channel 19 became the preferred highway channel in most areas, as it did not have adjacent-channel interference problems with channel 9. Many CB´ers called Channel 19 "the trucker´s channel".
Until 1975,[8] only channels 9–15 and 23[9] could be used for "interstation" calls to other licensees. Channels 1–8 and 16–22 were reserved for "intrastation" communications among units under the same license.[10] After the interstation/intrastation rule was dropped, Channel 11 was reserved as a calling frequency for the sole purpose of establishing communications; however this was withdrawn in 1977.[11] During this time period, it was common for many CB radios to have these "interstation" channels ´colored´ on their dial, whilst the other channels were ´clear´ or ´normal´; with the exception of Channel 9 - it was usually colored Red. Also, it was common for Single Sideband (SSB) users to use Channel 16 as ´their´ channel.
It was also very common for towns relatively close together, to ´adopt´ one of these "interstation" channels as their ´home´ channel. This accomplised two things: first, this help prevent overcrowding on Ch 11, and 2nd; this allowed a CB´er to go to that town´s ´home channel´ to try and contact another CB´er from that town, instead of a general ´call´ on Ch 11.
In more recent years, CB has lost much of its original appeal due to development of mobile phones, the Internet, and Family Radio Service. The changing radio wave propagation for long-distance communications, due to the 11 year sunspot cycle, is always a factor for these frequencies. In addition, CB in some respects became a victim of its own intense popularity. Because of the millions of users jammed onto frequencies during the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s, channels often were intolerably noisy and communication became difficult. Many CBers started to use their radios less frequently or not at all after this period
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