I'm a truck driver of 20 years and a ham radio operator. There are so few truck drivers utilizing the CB radio anymore. Further, I have never herd any big rig driver on the FM side of channel 19. I've always said that my CB radio is my best tool for the road. It's hard sometimes getting another driver to answer me and nearly impossible to get the specific person to answer me anymore. It's too bad. Thanks for the video!
My son works for a national refuse collection company. Even though he's not over the road, he puts a lot of miles on his truck daily as we are a spread out rural state. Their company regulations, backed up by an internal video recording camera, dictate that their eyes remain on the road. No CB, cell phone, eating, anything. That camera saved his hide one day. He was driving a modified Ford F-450 on a short route when he was forced off the road by an idiot on a cell phone. He kept his job without penalty because the camera showed that he had both hands on the wheel and his eyes forward as he rolled the truck into a deep ditch. He was OK but when he showed me the footage on his phone, It looked kind of funny to see him cruising along then it looked like somebody picked up the truck and dropped it. I used to work for a major orange juice manufacturer in west central Florida before becoming disabled in 1999. Back then, the OTR drivers that weren't owner / operators were complaining about new regulations regarding "distractions." The only reason that you haven't heard any FM CB'ers on channel 19 is because, up until recently, it has been illegal to transmit FM on CB. In fact, I think only President is presently selling AM / FM CB's in the U.S. This is because they have been making them for the European market for years. England is FM but their band plan uses the "A" channels that we use for toy RC cars and boats. 3A, 7A, 11A, 15A and 19A. All they have to do is swap out the PLL chip to exclude these channels and add a switch for AM, (everything is preprogrammed in now adays), and they have radios made for the U.S. market,
I'm a relatively new trucker of only 6 years but I've already been saved by my CB enough times in places like Wyoming in the winter that I'll always have one for sure
You've never been to a gravel pit or driven a dump truck then. That's the only form on communication between the drivers and the loader operators and the scale house. When you have a job site full of dump trucks, that's how they all communicate also, things like where to pull in at, where to stage, where to haul away what's being loaded on the truck. CB's are very important and used all day long in my little world.
Hi, Folks. Australian 'truckies' solved this problem around THIRTY years ago. They went to UHF. If my understanding is correct, there is now a string of repeater stations up an down the East coast working on channels 1 thru 8 that can allow users with the necessary equipment to communicate pretty much from Melbourne in the South to Cairns in the North, a distance of over 2,500 miles. There are very few trucks running with the old 27MHZ sets any more. Just my 0.02. You all have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Obviously the truckers cannot just move frequencies. Need approved frequencies to talk on without a license. In the USA that pretty much is Family Radio Service. Which as the name implies is more for families. There are some licensed services that allow what you mentioned in the USA.
Cobra's biggest mistake was not getting into the GMRS/FRS (and even HAM) radio markets when they had the chance back in the 90s. Had they done that, they could have been the Baofeng of today. But their failure to adapt to changing market conditions is why they're practically a footnote in the pages of history today. In fact, I'd say that Cobra is a pretty good study as a "how NOT to run your business" lesson. They got too comfortable with just doing what they've always done since the 1950s, and now they have to resort to these kind of tactics just to desperately stay afloat.
Collins, Drake, Swan, Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, National, Heath Kit, Gonset, Knight Kit....who did I leave out of a list of US companies that went out of business because they failed to diversify. Great companies most back before solid state. All gone, just like products in our homes like Zenith, Motorola, Philco, RCA, Dumont, Crosley, GE, and dozens more before 1960. Failure to adapt and cheap overseas labor and parts. People campaigning on returning jobs are just spitting in the wind cause it sounds good I guess. But most people know labor intensive jobs will never come back. In fact with robots and AI, many jobs overseas will disappear. The World is becoming overpopulated even with a negative birth rate just from loss of jobs in the future.
@@Theywaswrong Heathkit didn't fail because they didn't diversify. They had a wide range of products, including TVs & stereos, amateur radio, test equipment, computers and more. I suspect they just couldn't compete on costs.
Consumers can thwart this messy free-for-all on 11 meters by simply adopting a strategy of using even channels for FM and odd channels for AM/SSB. This preserves things like channel 9 emergency for old and new gear, and allows a way for old and new equipment to coexist without a lot of clutter on every channel.
@user-kh1yg7tq4r It's been my belief for a while now that the idea of the "emergency channel" has been taken over by cell phone users. It went from channel 9, to hams using the repeater autopatch to call 911, to today where everyone can call 911.
I am a Ham guy and I got into radio with my grandfathers CB. They are a great segway into amateur radio. I am happy about the addition of FM. In my opinion it might be about 20 years too late to save CB, but what a blast it would be to have CBs come back to life like in the 70's and 80's.
When I got my amateur radio license, almost half a century ago, CBers were considered scum of the earth. ;-) The CB band was created from the 11M amateur radio band.
Ham is flopping much faster than cb. I monitor both all the time. Cb has remained constant while ham has taken a nose dive. Ham needs to worry about ham and not about cb and Im a general class ham licensee and have held license constantly since 1996
@James C : Unfortunately, with a lot of the new (and, let's be honest, quite a few of the old), neighborhoods having C C &R's, and HOA's, in place that restrict what, if any antennae are going to be available, for those who want to use two-way radios, regardless of the frequency range, it's not going to be "coming back like the 70's and 80's". After all, back then, you didn't have any restrictions, other than local ordinances, on placing your base station antenna system wherever you wanted it to be. Some would be C.B. radio operators also found out the hard way that the power lines near their house were, and are, a "force to be reckoned with" when it comes to antenna system placement.
I acquired my first Citizen Band radio in 1973. Over the years I had other radios and i also got my own license. In the 80's I discovered "outbanding" and realized first hand how I could talk all over the world using just a few watts on SSB and a 5/8 wave ground plane vertical antenna from Radio Shack. Heady times indeed. Soon I realized i wanted to do this legally and that led me to getting my Amateur Radio operator's license. I became licensed in 1986 as KB4OLX (novice). After a period of time I became N4RGQ (Technician). During much of these years I was inactive but maintained my license. I am now working on my General Class ticket.
I am right there with ya - now i like to play call of duty and yell at people over the game chat instead of continuous - yeah - this and - yeah that - blah blah blah . cod - kablammy and goody2shoes - those are my 2 names in the game When i first got my HAM license - they gave me KN4GQJ - i could not even say that much less remember it - i got a vanity K7CET - got the license plate for my truck and my motorcycle
My neighbor had an old 23 channel Courier tube base station back then. It was strong you could hear it all over town. I'm pretty sure it was more than 4 watts. More like 10!
STRYKER SR-955HP series for the win. Clean audio, plenty of power, stays on freq., has vfo and the list goes on and on. Ranger (RCI) will be poised and ready also. The new Ranger X9 is a powerhouse radio. Options will be out there. My humble opinion.
@@ronb6182 You don't need C.B.? Yet you profess 11 meter is dead?! Crystal ball maybe? You have a "ham license" do ya? Impressive! Glad you shared that with us. I say you are a liar and have zero radio knowledge or you are proof that any idiot can get licensed. Which is it?
@@ronb6182 Which ham frequency do I turn to to know which lane is closed from the accident ahead? Or that the weigh station is open, so I have plenty of time to get in the proper lane?
I have to admit my first experience with radio was with CB, then scanners, then I got my Amateur Radio License. You make a valid point about 11 meters. KC0KM
I'm not buying a new CB. I like my 29 Nightwatch...even though the backlight doesn't work anymore. I've had it in my truck for 20 years and it still works great. Plus, with not many people using CBs anymore on the road, or if they do, they are rude drivers just starting up drama. I normally only use it for speaking to scale operators at quarries and cement plants.
To Mark Mayfield if I buy another CB I wouldn't mind getting an old 23 channel model with one that has channel 22A as well as channel 22. My friend had an Eico that had 22A on it. That CB was able to communicate with California from Pennsylvania without a linear amplifier.
@@notsure7874 how do you fix the backlight? I can't find new base is, and it seems the bezel is commonly the issue. My local shop said there's nothing he can do about it. I have 3 NW radios that the backlight doesn't work on
we in Europe have always had the FM, but mainly the AM has always been used which is inexplicable as the FM was prohibited in your country. I add that often the internal card for the FM was removed to make room for the cards for modifications such as roger beep, echo and increased modulator with larger transformer, etc.
I've had export radio's with AM/FM/SSB/CW since the mid 80's here in the US on of my favorite was a Galaxy 2100 , Then a Ranger 3500 after that one of the best radio's made to modify to 11 meters was a HR 2510
Below channel 1 would be better, SSB Freebanders use all the Freq. above channel 40. There's a few International calling Freq. above channel 40 that FM would couse problems with.
I miss my old CBer friends; Channel Master, Straight Shooter number One, Twenty Century Fox, Geno Mitchellino, Major One, Earthquake, Fat Man, and many more.
Back when cb was a 23 channel radio, users went to channel 16 for sideband. When the channels were increased to 40, some of the upper most channels were selected by people using the radios for sideband. If you want to talk to others who are using sideband, you go to where you know they are. It'll likely be the same for fm. This band isn't crowded any longer, so when you get your fm enabled radio, you'll be turning it to fm and scanning for fm signals. As more people start appearing on certain channels while talking in the fm mode, those channels will likely become popular and they'll begin to be set aside by users as where to go to talk on fm. People have this tendency to figure out how to be cooperative when they want to use new features. You could go anywhere on any of those 40 channels to use sideband, but if you actually want to talk, you'll go where sideband is being used. It'll be the same with the new fm mode.
In Spain they legalized in August 1983. We could only have teams with 40 channels and FM. The AM and SSB came many years later. It is currently free of license.
In Europe FM is the most popular modulation on CB. I do not see a problem here. The local chat is on FM and when you want to catch DX you switch to AM or SB.
As a Brit I can tell you that we've been dropping FM into American rigs for years, however if you are going to sit on the ssb calling channel on FM then all hell will break out. When the skip is running we get US ssb blasting through the middle of our domestic FM bands. The frequencies need to be separate for different modes or the whole thing will become unusable. I've still got an old President Lincoln with FM and modified to cover the whole of 10 and 11 metres, there is plenty of room if someone allocates it intelligently.
Yeah except it's not here. So every time you try to establish urgent local communications with someone you are never going to know if they are there. It's going to be a nightmare without a huge majority user base either way.
Uhf is the way to go i think in the UK ,uses small antennas not as long as ugly 11 meters, maybe 40 chn 12.25 5watts i started out on CB in 1979 gave it up 2011 became ham operator found it boring use pmr 446 grat band just need 5 watts instead of 500mw.so uk went tge other way to you guys in the States FM is great
It’s my experience that most of the truck drivers out there that still use a CB radio, and it’s not all that many, already have FM on their export radios.
In the Netherlands we have FM on 11 meter as long as I can remember. We mostly use FM for short range communication. For longer range we use USB (AM is almost never used). Since all radio's sold in the Netherlands the last 40 years had AM and FM, people only buy new radio's if they want to use SSB.
They where sold, but they where not legal until the mid or late 90's. All imported / modified sets in the 1980's. And that was all due to the power restrictions of 0,5W in the early days. Just a little bit more "juice" was needed :)
@John Cliff That's right, AM can be more easily detected by AF amps than FM. But RF interference (carrier signal) causing hum is the same for both modulation techniques at the same carrier strength (FM is always full power, AM is 1/4th carrier and 3/4 modulation side bands).
@John Cliff I'm from the EU. Had FM/AM radio's all my life. Almost never used AM because FM is superior in audio. And its fine for DX too. Granted i use SSB as well. But AM rarely used that mode. I think Americans gonna be pleased with FM mode finally added.
Legal ssb is only 4watt pep in the Netherlands ( 2001 until now ) The most of Europe has 10 or 12 watt on ssb. AM max 4 watts. But almost everyone uses export radios these days. Cb at home is barely usable due PLC's, solar power and cheap led lights or charges.
Is niet helemaar waar want vroeger in de jaren 70 was het AM. Dat weet ik nog. Later werdt het FM 22 kanalen half watt in 1980 legaal..AM wordt bijna niet gebruikt in verband met storing en SSB wordt gebruikt meestel in de hogere kanalen. Zover ik weet export bakkies....
Hi, here in the UK we use FM but some countries in Europe use AM even though both modes are legal. I actually prefer AM because FM can be harsh on the ears when receiving a low signal. When it's a nice strong signal FM is nice and clear but CB doesn't always have great range before you get a lot of static coming through. I hope you all in USA have fun with both FM and AM. Love and respect from the UK 👍
Same here in France, FM is rarely use, too much qrm on weak signal and useless in mobile station. It works great between two base station with solid signal 😁
Here in Europe, The Netherlands, exactly the opposite happened. The first legal CB radio's where FM and it took until the late 90's before AM (1W carrier / 4W PEP) and SSB (4W PEP) became legal. I've heard a lot of truckers from the US during the summer of 2003 in AM. Sometimes S9+20 at the peaks of the skip, 8200 kilometers away and interfering with local stations within a 5km range.
Indeed, Hugo. My first license with call-sign IBBE305, was for 40ch/4W/AM, back in 1978. Afterward came a change with 23ch/500mW/FM, which resulted in Belgium with its many hills and valley's in an effective death sentence for the CB-community.
We had radios in the 70s that had a lot more chanels than 40. Put a little work inside of it you can get more power more modulation and a shit ton more chanels of course this was all illegal then.
We've been using UHF FM Cb 477MHz in Australia since the late 80s. 27MHz AM is almost obsolete down here. A few years ago radios were increased from 40 to 80 channels as well.
It's worth adding that the extra 40 were achieved by going narrow band fm (2.5khz deviation) and putting the extra channels in the gaps created by narrowbanding. So you do get some adjacent channel issues with older 40 channel radios. They still 'talk' to each other, though NB sounds a bit soft on wideband and wideband is overdeviating to a NB radio, but you can live with it.
Similarly we have Family Radio Service 462 megahertz band. And for a small fee you can be licensed for General Mobile Radio Service for the same frequencies at considerably higher power than the power limits for AM CB radio which is only 4 Watts whereas GMRS gives you up to 50 Watts and repeater use similar to amateur radio.
@@therealwolfspidertoo Our 477mhz CB is 5w narrowband (2.5khz) or wideband (5khz) FM and high gain antennas and repeaters are allowed. It's a free 'class' license, as long as you use type approved equipment, you don't need an individual license of any kind. Same for the old 27mhz CB as in the US. It's all free to use.
Key thing to note is that UHF left 27MHz alone and it is still used in some niche circumstances where it makes sense, I like the audio quality of UHF. Putting FM on top of your existing band sounds like a bad idea (unless you think you are going to sell more radios). What chance it will just make the whole CB space a bigger mess and less attractive?
@@geoffroberts1126 didn't use to be I rember 27 mhz had 20$ liscence in the 70s I was not adult yet so my father signed up the liscence for me thinking the fcc would be monitoring closely!! Ha ha I didn't complain cause he also got me my 1st ssb a browning baron that was hecka radio.to have as your first ssb before that I had 23 ch rad shack mobile
FM has a characteristic known as "Capture Effect." This causes the receiver to take the sound from only the strongest signal on the channel. Others are not processed.This applies at its best when the multiple sigs are FM. With mixed signals, chaos can occur. Regardless of mode, the strongest signal can over-ride any other even if it cannot be read...SSB or FM
My opinion is that for free-wheeling vast area communications like hf ham and CB, SSB is definitely the way to go. If you have a very active channel with a few people trying to talk around each other, it just ends up sounding like a typical in-person conversation in a room. You can understand everyone even if they're talking at the same time. There's no squeal from heterodyne and nobody "stomps" anyone else no matter how strong they are. It's just louder or softer. I can see this whole FM thing just creating yet another layer of "Mud duck stuck in the mud stomp smack squish! You ain't gettin out! You ain't gettin out! This be the Mr. Magic Radio Master saying no way you gettin out from under my monster truck madness world wide FM station we back QUIEEEETTTTT" 🤣 One on one, though, yeah I can see FM being nice if it has similar reach to AM. The ability to reject AM type interference is a definite plus. Still, seems super weird to me, the idea of working skip on FM, lol. I'm too old school I guess.
Noise is noise. If the skip is in and theres a million carriers on the channel, FM isn’t going to fix or help that. With that much competing RF on the same channel, the FM discriminator won’t have a clue what to do
@@14KiloWhisky What's your definition of "crap"? If FM was crap the commercial services wouldn't have embraced it 60 years ago. It has two distinct advantages: not having to constantly fiddle with the squelch, and the ability to use subaudible tone squelches for privacy. That said, it is subject to the same propagation physics as AM or SSB.
FM will require more robust output finals and possibly cooling fans since they will drive at 100% while keyed up unlike AM which is dependent on the audio.
My Cobra 148 GTL (I've had 2 of them) had FM, AM, upper and lower sideband ('80/90s). I really liked it. Had President with 10 meter and 11 meters with freq meter. Usually ran them with a Messenger 300 kicker. Good to have should the shtf.
Damn, I guess I shouldn't be surprised! I have had my 12 watt Cobra since it was custom built in 1995 but I hardly use it anymore; no one is on the CB unless we're all in traffic for miles.
I was building my own FM conversion kits for CB radios back in the early 1980's There were a lot of CB round tables where just like SSB that people were using FM. Most people that are really into CB have been purchasing export radios for years and years now with FM as an option. Most don't care for it because it isn't as loud to them as AM followed with another issue. To have a really good FM radio it needs to be rock solid as far as the frequency stability goes and it needs a rock solid mic limiter circuit to make it stay clear and not over deviate. There is another thing that turns people off with FM. Squelch is a must have because of the loud hiss when there is no signal present. A lot of CB people like to run their AM rigs without using squelch which they really can't do in the FM mode. Personally I really like FM and I've talked skip very well with FM and if you have a decent radio, FM really does deliver.
If the audio stages are made properly, the FM mode should be as loud as or louder than the AM side. I think on a lot of "export" type radios, the FM was an after-thought or another "feature" they could boast their radio as having, but which was not seriously used. I had an AnyTone "Smart CB" in my last car. It would do AM or FM. Talked with a ham friend who slid down to 11m and we were both amazed at the quality of the audio realized. I hope the manufacturers are quick to take advantage of the new FM feature by adding CTCSS/DCS squelch capability to these new dual mode radios.
@@grigorirasputin5020 I agree that it comes down to how far they decide to take their designs and builds as far as quality goes. Cannot say for sure they will go as far as CTCSS/DCS but you never know because these days they can build quality receivers (and transmitters) for a fraction of the cost of the older stuff. I too have a Anytone 5555n and for the price of that radio it sounds great on FM. I also run a Stryker SR-94HPC in the truck which is a common chassis you will find under a lot of different names and that radio is also stable and the FM is good quality on that radio too. If you remember the old mobile Midland 23 channel radios and even some of their early 40 channel radios they had the "delta tune" on the front of them which was another way of saying they were not temperature stable and through the years the radio manufactures were getting the hint and making improvements to stabilize them because in cars and trucks they would see major temperature swings that would degrade the receive bad enough to stand out like a sore thumb due to the IF shifting all over the place. When I would do FM mods on those older radios you would have to change out caps especially around the reference oscillators with temperature stable caps which would make them work great for FM conversions across a wide temperature range. Why they didn't take that step over adding the "delta tune" is beyond me. AM is a bit more forgiving were FM will muffle out if the IF window shifts even by 1Khz. I guess it comes down to these manufactures sticking to a standard especially with a lot of this crap coming here out of China but I agree with you that a well aligned stable radio can sound really top shelf on FM. FM and SSB is my personal favorite modes. It's funny that over in England they were only allowed to use FM CB radio rigs until somewhere around 2014 and now they can run FM, AM and SSB but what is crazier is they were always allowed to use 100 watts of transmit power on their rigs without a license! Go figure...
In the 1960's, some of our neighbors and us had a radio in just about every house, shop, barn, tractor, combine, truck, pickup, car, ... . We also had a call sign back then that we were required to use. Pretty much anyone who we heard on the radio was someone we already knew. When the CB craze hit, it killed it for us. After a couple of years of all that crap, we quit using them.
I grew up with cb radios in the 70s.When I was 14, I had a Midland mobile set up as a base station with base mic and magnetic mount antenna outside my bedroom window. If the atmosphere was just right I would be able to talk to truckers as far away as Michigan in the early morning hours ,crazy but true. 🙂
As far away as Michigan!! but we don’t know where you are. lol 😂 but I definitely believe it i’ve talked over 3000 miles on a handheld 4 W battery powered Uniden with AM skip anything is possible❤❤❤
We had the Midland Radios in our taxi cabs. They had to be a foot and a half long. Good heavy mikes. We could hear the dispatcher, we couldn't hear the other drivers.
What if you have a 1960s, tube, 5 channel Raytheon TWR II. No FM, No side band and 5, count 'em, five channels total. I love it and it still works. Got one when I was 15 om 1969. Still works.
If the band is dead, who's going to be buying these FM radios? Seems like a better marketing plan for Cobra would be to redesign their CB radios to operate on 10 meters and sell them to hams, especially considering we are going into another sunspot cycle.
@@lindaitken3321 Breaking News...CB radios have been "modified" for 10 Meters for decades. I have 2. One is a Galaxy 99V and the other is a RCI 2970. Both have been made TX/RX 24M-30M. And yes, I'm also a ham
As a Canadian, this is driving another wedge into communications. The Canadian government already made concessions to allow FRS/GRMS to align with US rules but that took years and we still can't legally have a mobile radio mounted in our cars that transmit on the UHF frequency as they can only be hand held units. Whom ever in Canada that makes these rules obviously is not into radios at all.
They may be trying to limit power output. People will be reluctant to use high power with the antennae next to their head. Having a remote antennae, such as a mobile unit entices them to increase the power.
I was speaking to someone who has some sway with new regulations in Canada and I can tell you that one reason they don't permit GMRS high power mobiles is to force people over to ham radio....Which is dumb. They HATE cb'ers.... It HAM operators who help shape the spectrum in Canada and their bias makes the situation the way it is.
Even Australia has mobile vehicle mounted UHF. What's up Canada? Come on. We Yankees may wish to talk to our northern brethren on more than two cans and string.
@@davidbrock4104 yes we have uhf cb which is still a bloody mess because no consultation was done with its deployment would of been better to deliver it on its own dedicated freq rather than over lay it over existing wide band plans and making narrow band and digital totally unusable.. in the cb spectrum of UHF And it is a separate license to run a repeater system in australia My opinion on both gmrs and frs is nothing but a poor man's uhf and vhf ham radio service .. Noting that typically to operate within 50-80 watts you typically using a radio in a repeater mode with 5-8 watts allowable input within 5km of a 50-200 foot repeater site .. noting ht's typically on only achieve 1-1.5 km range, mobile radios typically have a 2.5 km radius range with overlap 5km is about 4-5km As long as the skip is running 1500km is doable on HF 27MHz.. to be honest if we applied channeling to 21-24.999 and 28-29.999 or even upto 50MHz we'd have plenty of rag chew space, fm reception has been available in Australia though it usually only reception of broadcast FM as typically back in the 80's it was common place to replace your radio with a cb due to limited space in the motor vehicle..
Have had my cobra 29 for several years and just sitting in the closet as I lived in a overpopulated area. Now that I have moved north and up in the woods, considering putting the radio back in the truck. Good post to consider before mounting. Thanks.
The key is short range without a repeater. With interference or weak signal, you can still understand the sender with analog am though it may be hard to hear. Digital fm is subject to interference, short range and selective jamming. It's either clear or you get NOTHING. This is a bad move for CB when needed for emergencies. Missing or damaged repeaters mean you are screwed. Cobra is just an opportunistic tool working for special interests while setting up for an inside track. It's much like S&W pushing for smart gun tech when they thought they would get the whole market.
This isn't digital FM, it's analog FM. I primarily use analog FM - on GMRS, and amateur and marine VHF and UHF. When you have repeaters, it's hard to beat. I also have digital FM, and it's great too - zero noise, but you either have it, or you don't. It's even more so like that than analog FM. On CB I use AM where the locals hang out, or SSB to squeeze a bit more range out of it.
It's Cool that the FCC is actually looking at this. It'll create a whole new spectrum for sure. And the new person getting into the CB world almost always will go with the cobra and or uniden.
We now have AM/FM and SSB on your band and have had our own offset 40 channel FM system since 1981 as our goverment didn't allow the FCC system until 1987 and then that was only FM until AM and SSB was legalised in 2014 in the United Kindom......I think you need another 40 channels.......Dave M0OGY.
The UK FM channels was a good move. Reduced QRM from other countries probably made those channels better for the local users. FM sounds quite good compared to other modes. I am using it on two metres, and I would not even consider AM use there...
i used to live up on a mountain in wv no cellphone signal back in the early 2000s and family used a base station to communicate around the area neighbors and family would call in and ask if we was ("WERE"🙄😂) home before they try to run up the hill, fun times haha
In Germany we have this since decades. CB started with 12 channels AM in 1975 and limitation to 0,5 W power. In 1981 22 FM channels were added, again with limitation to 0,5 W. This was expanded to 40 channels FM with 4 W and the allowed max. power for the 12 AM channels was raised to 1 W. 40 channels for FM modulation were added in 1996 and also the max. allows power for the 12 AM channels was raised to 4 W ERP. Finally since December 2011 there are 40 channels to be used for both modulation types with 4 W ERP and 12 W PEP in SSB mode. the other 40 channels stayed for FM use with up to 4 W ERP exclusively. Quite complicate here.
wow, you need at least 20 watts mobile. I used 10-11-12 meters AM/FM/SSB with 100 watts (switchable 50 watts to 100watts). We were only allowed access to 11 meters with 5 watts max which was laughable. We would be all over 10 to 12 meters and some had mods for more expansion. I never heard of anyone caught doing any of this.
Back in 2018 I was short hauling from Tennessee to Florida and had been somewhere in the southern end of Georgia, approximately 110 miles north of the Florida state line on 75. I was in a 2018 International LT equipped with two custom antennas from Raccoon at the Tampa TA, a Cobra 29 LTD, peaked and tuned by the very same. I decided to hop on the radio and give a long "Auuuuuuudioooooooo," to which someone replied, "No one wants to hear your audio, driver." So I replied, "Viiiiiiiiideooooooo," and the same guy came back "Nobody wants to hear your video, either!" I get a little funny with him and retort, "Mainly because you don't hear video, you see it!" And we started bickering back and forth and he finally says "Alright, boy, where are you?" as though he was about to start a fight. I told him I could pull off at a numbered exit to a truck stop, and he replied with "Where? You're not at the rest area?" Turns out I had been talking skip to a guy all the way up in north Georgia, a solid 200+ miles away.
Actually you can receive FM on an AM receiver by a method called slope detection. If you tune to the side of the band pass of an AM receiver the FM modulation appears to be AM. We did if back in the 60’s with converters connected to our AM car radios to monitor FM police radio before the time of scanners. It does require the ability to fine tune the receiver frequency. I don’t know if the CB radios with SSB capability and clarifiers if the clarifier is active in the AM mode. By the way in the 60’s I was the sales manager for then CB radio manufacturer International Crystal. We also manufactured a converter like I spoke of above called a Mobilette. 73 W5HJ
I've got an old portable communication receiver (Sangean ATS 803a) here in the UK and sometimes listen to the FM CB Comms using that method. So I'm guessing ppl with old CBs could be easily confused if they pick up stuff not realising it's FM.
Howdy yall, new to the CB world as I was born in 1996. I picked up a cb cobra radio 19 VI something like that with 40 channels equippped with am/Fm. Still trying to understand the methods. My small little cobra radio is set up on my jeep with a fire stick antenna on the back. I picked up the radio for my road trip to Texas from CA. I didn’t hear my much on my way out to Texas, not sure if radio space was dead or if my antenna signal wasn’t strong. Before I installed my fire stick antenna I had purchased a antenna from Walmart with the magnet for temporary as I was running short on time before I hit the road but I’m here in Texas now and I am running fire stick antenna now. Hopefully I get a better signal and can actuallly communite down the hwy as I hope to not catch any severe weather. Cheers thanks for the video!
Makes sense, here in the UK we've had fm,am and ssb for quite a while now it's all good. Standardisation of radio's makes it easier for the manufacturers to sell their products AND finally I will be able to get some great radio's from the states which was pointless without fm included
I was big on CB especially before I got my first ham license and was limited to only Morse Code. Still had one in my car just for travel and emergencies before cell phones existed.
In Russia, we got this range in the early 90s and I followed the changes closely. It started with FM, but then SSB was added as well. There was even a period when 800 kHz bands were allowed, but now they have returned to 40 channels. Now I am trying to push the idea of using short waves for tourism. I wonder how with this issue in the USA?
In the United States, CB radio has been largely superseded by GMRS/FRS (basically the same thing) radio which is currently the primary two-way radio of general consumers. In other words, this will barely be an issue as most people no longer use CB radio anymore. Heck even truckers are using GMRS more and more these days.
The government outlawed am cb radio in the uk back in 1981. The reason was to try for a licensing fee from the public. We were told that it caused less interference. If you were caught with an am set ,then it would be confiscated ,all fm sets had a little 27/81 decal on the front to distinguish them from am sets. We would simply peel the decals off the retail boxes ,or cut out the cardboard emblem off the box ,and stick them on our am sets. Am radio has always been clearer ,and has further distance than fm. I've been on am cb since 1980 ,and still use it to this day. (OIL CAN HARRY 1980-PRESENT).
@@T200026 ...sure was, I think the amount of idiots made it noisier, you always got a better quality breaker on AM ...this is of course my experience ,so no offense meant before we all jump on our war horses !!!.
In 1976 I was on a 23 channel CB. My neighbor was on SSB and all I could hear was a bunch of unintelligible noise so how is that any different than what you have described for FM. ?
I was doing cb before it was 40 channels. The cb radio helped me do my job on the road for many years. The distance limitations of the radio was always a problem.
Generally 5 miles is enough for our sectors in a moving rig. IF you broadcast 25 miles out, it does not leave open air for flash-traffic incident reports inside for others to alert those closer. Things happen in seconds. You think about your own skin in dominant power, but it's misused and deadly. Kills people.
We have had this all along and anybody that knows how to use a linear and knows how to tune a radio can put that into any CB Box no matter what the brand
So many 11m radios have misadjusted modulation limiters and “power mics”. Over modulation on AM causes distortion, but on FM over modulation causes splatter. Noise canceling mics are one thing, but it might help if the new radios have a different mic plug to keep someone from using a power mic without wiring a new plug to it.
FM's bandwidth is measured in " kHz deviation", not modulation percentage as with AM. Overdeviation typically results in the signal being unreadable due to its bandwidth exceeding that of the receiver. Cranking the mod up on a FM transmitter results in no one being able to hear you.
The maximum frequency deviation and thus bandwidth of an FM signal is fixed by the transmitter and does not increase with increasing audio level. Driving more audio into an FM transmitter will simply distort the audio; the bandwidth of the signal will not increase.
In general, FM is a good thing, which is why almost all other communication radios went there long ago. So far as incompatibility with existing radios and confusion it won't be worse than SSB, which cannot be received on the majority of existing radios. CB users have come up with some loose conventions, typically AM is used on lower channel numbers and SSB on the higher ones. I'm sure there will be some channels where FM is the prevalent mode.
It has been many years since I spent much time on CB. But if memory serves, SSB is typically used on 35 through 40. I could easily see something like that happening for FM.
I am a fan for CB usage on FM. Many years ago, I had many friends on CB, one late night, we all went to a frequency and used FM. It was a pleasant experience. It was so clear. Now if the FCC allows that, that is the only way I would try that.
As a former CB operator from the 1960s living in South Florida, I cherished those days when most operators were licensed and on-the-air sanity was commonplace. Back then, most rigs were out-of-the-box stock (unmodified) tube units transmitting legal power. My first radio was a Lafayette tube set, a six-channel crystal-controlled transmitter with a tunable receiver (the "high-tech" digital readouts were still science fiction during that era). On a good day, I'd get three watts out of my little radio into a quarter-wave ground plane about 15 feet off the ground. Eventually, the band became crowded and disorderly as the popularity of CB radio grew. I tolerated the madness as long as possible and then progressed into amateur radio. I rolled my eyes when the FCC authorized FM on CB radios without proposing mode-specific plans for the band. That was irresponsible. Of course, the FCC is different from what it used to be, and nowadays, enforcement is an afterthought. KB1ARM (New Hampshire)
Precisely my first thought when I saw FCC changing the regs for 11m FM . . . manufacturers selling radios in a severely saturated market. It's MBA 501 that product sales in a completely saturated market can be generated and driven by obsolescence. The same occurred when additional channels were added increasing it to 40 along with SSB, and that was the real motive for doing it.
Just expand the frequency below channel 1 for FM use. Some of us are using them already called " Freebanding." Did Cobra drop the ball when they stopped production of their sideband radio (148) a few years ago ?
There were problems for a short while with SSB and AM mixing on the 40 channels but that pretty much sorted itself out. I'm sure FM with AM/SSB will do similarly.
@@K0LWC I think Ken is correct in saying it will sort itself out just as ssb vs fm did. What the truckers decide on should be honored anyway since truckers are probably 90% of who keep cb alive as it is. Without truckers cb frequencies would likely have been taken away from us by the government. And I'm not a trucker, just appreciative of them.
Same as it ever was. I operated four channel 27MHz radios for Civil Air Patrol nets in the 1960s. The 1970s brought us 23 channels, then 40 channels, then SSB. It's always been about 'churning' the market to stimulate new sales from existing customers. Same as it ever was.
I remember the CB craze of the 70s. People screamed for "more channels." They were given more channels. What did the people do with those channels? They kept hanging out on channel 19.
My ranger 3500 has been modified to cover cb band. It has FM AM Upper side band and lower. Been using mostly on side band. FM is great but it's only line of site like marine band is. It's much clearer than AM USB and LSB. FM has it's pros and cons. I'm a side band person for the most part.
@@BubbaWarbucks Agreed, but with a caveat... It depends on the bandwidth and eventual spectral density of the signal. The same watt, does more with a 3khz ssb signal than a 12.5 or 25khz wide fm signal.
@@gravesclay We'll see what the deviation they decide on is. The FCC just went from 25kHz to 12.5kHz for commercial radio traffic, which works fine. Tough to accomplish that when your channels are but 10kHz apart!
It's about time the FCC does this, how ever the FM CB has been out for over 25 years. Tried it back in the nineties and wasn't to impressed with it. If they are going to do this they need to add additional frequencies to the CB band for FM only in my opinion. But keep the frequencies a safe distance from amateur 10 meter frequencies. Good video. KK7T.
FM is an option that the exports have had for 40 years, yet seldom used, just make them legal and forget about it. But it is time to open up 26 -27.999 for legal use worldwide?
back in early seventys i had an old 23,,,channel lafayette 27 meg set if you balanced the channel selector .between 23,and one you got an extra channel old mate had same set so we had our own channel .it was great
While they are at it why not just add the UK 40 FM channels to prevent the bad interactions. We all know this just makes it easier to build radios that are all the same, including FM. The dead use of the upper 27 meg frequencies not allocated for use by anyone now should be allocated for FM or maybe splitting this 40 channel between SSB and FM?
i think you're spot on, always follow the money. fcc should have dedicated channels for fm use. they certainly know about the problem and didn't do a thing about it.
FM can still receive interference from FM. You won't hear the AM whine that you do hear on AM CB. With FM you have the Capture Effect and the strongest signal wins. A form of this happens with Broadcast FM and ducting.
This is similar to the situation when SSB was introduced. Originally, CB was AM only and when SSB became available, it was the same situation where a new radio was needed to use it. Otherwise, all you heard was noise. Also, this will be an improvement, due to the capture effect of FM (actually phase modulation with audio frequency roll off to make it sound like FM), where a strong signal completely overcomes a weaker signal. This means you won't hear noise from more distant stations, when you're trying to talk locally. You do, of course, remember that CB was intended to be local only. Do any other land mobile services still use AM or SSB? With amateur radio, you are free to use whatever mode you want, though there are band plans to keep the modes separate.
FM is a really bad idea on 11 meters. Why CB wasn't moved to UHF FM in the USA decades ago just boggles the mind. UHF antennas can be so much smaller and more efficient on vehicles, too. The FM capture effect works during 11 meter band openings, too. Locals will be talking on 11 meter FM CB in Chicago and they're going to get stepped on by somebody in New York.
@@scdevon Even back in the dark ages, when CB was first introduced, there already was a UHF service available. These days, there's GMRS available for low cost communications. The 11M band was in general a bad choice for the service.
@@James_Knott - CB should be limited to uhf only with no other options. It would keep the riff-raff out. You can run 1 billion watts on uhf if you want to and you might talk an extra mile or two beyond the horizon. Illegal power means almost nothing on uhf.
Not on CB anymore, to give you an idea my call sign was KODXXXX that tells you I was on CB before Single Sideband came into the being and there were only 23 channels. Doesn't require a genius to realize it's all about the $ and selling more products.
There is already a "gentleman's agreement" that channels 36-40 are designated as SSB, and the rest are AM. I would image they could do a similar thing when they add FM and designate certain channels for FM, such as channels 1-20 remain the same, but they designate 21-35 as FM channels or something like that.
Maybe truckers want 19 for FM. I really don't know. Maybe make the same rule as with Ham radio. Ask if the channel is being used. If not then call for a breaker or in Ham CQ. Then there should not be interference on that channel. I remember radio Shack had a non license cb for doing Morse code on channel 14. I bet that drove CB'ers crazy trying to talk with all the beeping in the background. Even though it was on a 100 mw radio.
@@ronb6182 Def need to bring back CB morse code channel 14, but not fake AM beeping to AM reciever, true carrier pulsating and a 455 khz BFO equipped reciever, to make almost 8 qso's possible on the one channel, with open clarifier.
This really screws the truck stops that have piles of am rigs for sale. Hopefully they take one more step while the FCC rule vault is open, and include the Euro and UK channels into the band in the USA, because that is where all the radios will ship from, and not need hacking, and not ruin AM/SSB channels.
In the early1960s the FCC tried an experiment: 100 milliwatt license free operation on the radio control channels. Voice and Morse code. Despite a ton of hype from the magazines (you have to look for S9 Magazine and Electronics Illustrated) it never took hold and the one radio made for this is rare as hens teeth.
I remember people modifying their cb's to have FM. FM sounds like SSB to a CBer. I also found them interfering with adjacent channels as if they were using a linear. This made it very difficult to hear anyone on your channel if their signal was somewhat weak.
Wow, DMR would be cool ! - And on the Superbowl Channel 6 thing: They use massive amplifiers with thousands of watts on one-band. Meanwhile Hams can talk farther with only 100 watts on 40 meters.
Years ago, I had an Elmac AF67 that was primarily an AM transmitter/exciter but it had "narrow band" FM. I don't know anyone who used it so to me it was a novelty. This radio was built in the late to early 1950's as models AF54, AF67 and AF68.
Still legal on 10m i believe. The early Central Electronics 10 and 20a models had it too. Easy way to modulate without big modulators and transformers. AM receivers could hear it by tuning off center a bit. Nice idea but never caught on. AF67 was a great radio for it day
Of course Amateur Radio went through this with the addition of SSB when everyone was using AM back in the 50's and the later when FM became popular on 2 meters.
As a Ham of 40 years, and an electronics technician this is the dumbest move ever! Why? because the build of the FRS Band is the stepping stone for improvement, not 27Mhz .. Next mixing FM and AM together on a channelized band isn't cool, their is a thing called "capture ratio" that is involved in FM discriminators. what happens is the "emergency" advantage of AM (or SSB) is lost to the caller .. The reason AM is still used in the Aircraft Band ... in AM the mix of the caller and an interference station are both heard !!! in FM the Capture only goes to the strongest station.. FM requires a bit more signal ( to noise than AM) in an already 'noisey ' band ( reason FCC gave this band to CB was its high cosmic noise level) yes the audio will be pretty but the range will fall slightly ..then the BIG Gun amplifier guys will find out "strongest signal captures ALL" so the power wars will increase.. Cobra wants sales obviously and they are looking for a revival of this band to do it... for the technology NO ..for the corp bottom line YES real answer for citizens change the FRS band to 5 watts and loosen antenna restrictions K4DSB
The biggest effect to this change is going to be newcomers to the radio hobby that have no clue what they're doing. I've been a CB operator for many years and most of us hardcore and long time CB operators are already using export radios that are modified and most of those radios already have FM. And yes I agree with you 100% on the power wars for those who decide to broadcast on FM. AM is more modulated based versus FM where it's more signal based. But I can tell you I still have not heard anyone making the switch to FM so it will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come.
My 1990's RCI 2950 did FM but none of my friends or anyone for that matter were using FM along with me, Of the few contacts I made back then it did sound pretty good and was nice to not have so much noise ( Ignition noise, alternator whine etc)
The Citizens Band in the U.S., 11 meters, was never well suited for local communications, regardless as to what mode of modulation is used. However, it has always been great for making relatively distant contacts when the sun solar cycle is allowing. Implementing FM on 11 meters won't make it any more effective for local communications, really... and adding FM to a band that's already populated with untold numbers of AM and SSB rigs, would likely create an epic communications train wreck for all users. FM has a number of advantages, and would be a great option to have for CB users, but it probably won't amount to much in terms of user capability or radio sales, either one.
Its not a conspiracy to sell more cb radios but the option to sell the same cb radios as in Europe. An informed shopper will select a multi mode radio with am / usb / fm.
CB Radio Users in the US have had FM capable rigs for decades, we don't use it. This push for sales may work for a while. However, most buyers will figure out it is a very inefficient mode and does not "play well" with the other modes. You want FM? stay on GMRS/FRS or god forbid 2M. Great video LWC, Cheers.
For sure, exports have been around a long time, but I think those have mainly gone to the hardcore folks. Having all radios start coming with FM will be a long-term change over a period of years for 11 meters that will be different.
WE been using narrow fm in UK for ages, its far superior, bear in mind this new super narrow fm is 8K0 F3E bandwidth at 2,00khz max deviation. The other topic is most of these new set coming out now have support for CTCSS single tone or split tones (repeater uses) and just recently repeater channel split for semi duplex operation for internet cb gateways and repeater uses, so this may also tie in with USA new kit.In Germany they have 80channels ,UK has 80channels on CB band too so yes we can separate modes a bit better. Generally speaking 25.6 to 29.995mhz there's plenty of unused space for personal radio service that could be repurposed. But its fab news that FCC gone for FM mode, regardless of the sales issues brought up. def a positive step forward. Rob P 73's
FM was the only legal mode in the UK for many years. What it did do was increase normal everyday range over the american AM sets quite substantially. A contact of 3 miles mobile was a good copy on the old AM sets, when it went FM you could work 10 miles most days with good audio, it also caused far less bleed through interference.
FM is terrible for weak signal communication. You can understand SSB and AM signals during quiet conditions that don't even move the needle. If CB is intended for short range communication only, it should have never been on 11 meters. It should have been on VHF / UHF.
This is pretty interested. I have been a CB user since the '70s. I still remember my call sign when I paid for a CB license. Today, I am a member of a motorcycle riding group where the Road Captains (leader and sweep on the ride) are required to have a CB radio for active communication. Harley-Davidson and other motorcycle manufacturers used to equip their touring motorcycles with integrated CB radios. Most recently, H-D has made it a very difficult option requiring an a la carte purchase of the various components. Because of this, new buyers are opting to purchase devices made by Sena that use a different technology. It's really too bad because I have personally witnessed the drop-outs in communication when we had a group that stretches out a quarter mile or so. I never had this problem with CB. But this is probably going to mean the end of motorcycle CB usage as people start migrating to Sena. I'm not sure if you and your watchers were even aware of our use of CB radios.
FM will be a very narrow TX/RX. I see there being little to no problem for most folks. The only problem I see is the splatter box AM radios that bleed everywhere already. Yes, those loudmouth, dirty, channel 6 bunch, are the ones I'm talking about. I have monitored FM on 27Mhz and found it to be noisy in S units but doesn't seem to have much in the way of bleed over from AM/SSB so we are probably okay. Yes my radios already do FM/AM/SSB 10-12 meter. Don't care who knows it.
@@hwsadberry6781 Yes don't care. 10 meter/11 meters. Short range stuff unless the Sun wants to play ball. 20 meters is where DX is, where it's more reliable. But then it all depends on what foot ball field you play in. But yes, weather it's AM or SB double or single each has bleedover, FM does not have the bleed over AM and SB has. There will be more issues with dirty power lines, dirty AC units, dirty switching power supplies etc that will have more impact on receivers and reduce membership.
It's probably the original set of CB radio channels. 1-23. It was later expand to the current 40 channels. CB radio was also known as the Class D Citizens’ Radio Service before it was called CB radio.
a good point to add is that they want to cut costs as well. many of their export models already have FM. it can cut costs of manufacturing down if they just have the models all the same.
A company I worked for had FM Business Channel radios for our communications from offices , delivery vehicles, and salesmen to stay in touch with one another. I know the clarity and range of those radios would be nice for trucking.
I'm a truck driver of 20 years and a ham radio operator. There are so few truck drivers utilizing the CB radio anymore. Further, I have never herd any big rig driver on the FM side of channel 19. I've always said that my CB radio is my best tool for the road. It's hard sometimes getting another driver to answer me and nearly impossible to get the specific person to answer me anymore. It's too bad. Thanks for the video!
I haven't seen a Cobra CB in years. Unless those 29 knockoffs are made by them.
My son works for a national refuse collection company. Even though he's not over the road, he puts a lot of miles on his truck daily as we are a spread out rural state. Their company regulations, backed up by an internal video recording camera, dictate that their eyes remain on the road. No CB, cell phone, eating, anything. That camera saved his hide one day. He was driving a modified Ford F-450 on a short route when he was forced off the road by an idiot on a cell phone. He kept his job without penalty because the camera showed that he had both hands on the wheel and his eyes forward as he rolled the truck into a deep ditch. He was OK but when he showed me the footage on his phone, It looked kind of funny to see him cruising along then it looked like somebody picked up the truck and dropped it.
I used to work for a major orange juice manufacturer in west central Florida before becoming disabled in 1999. Back then, the OTR drivers that weren't owner / operators were complaining about new regulations regarding "distractions."
The only reason that you haven't heard any FM CB'ers on channel 19 is because, up until recently, it has been illegal to transmit FM on CB. In fact, I think only President is presently selling AM / FM CB's in the U.S. This is because they have been making them for the European market for years. England is FM but their band plan uses the "A" channels that we use for toy RC cars and boats. 3A, 7A, 11A, 15A and 19A. All they have to do is swap out the PLL chip to exclude these channels and add a switch for AM, (everything is preprogrammed in now adays), and they have radios made for the U.S. market,
I'm a relatively new trucker of only 6 years but I've already been saved by my CB enough times in places like Wyoming in the winter that I'll always have one for sure
@@pohldriver I've got a Cobra 29 classic in one of my personal vehicles. Great little unit.
You've never been to a gravel pit or driven a dump truck then. That's the only form on communication between the drivers and the loader operators and the scale house. When you have a job site full of dump trucks, that's how they all communicate also, things like where to pull in at, where to stage, where to haul away what's being loaded on the truck. CB's are very important and used all day long in my little world.
Anything that Google can’t monitor and record in your name is a good thing.
If you do like me and don't use google it is no problem. And use fake info here.
@@gfl1957 Stated on a Google own site. DUHHHHHHH
@@rayh592 😂😂😂😂😂 true
Well forty rogers own that
5g towers can track every move you make especially if your vaccinated...
Hi, Folks.
Australian 'truckies' solved this problem around THIRTY years ago. They went to UHF. If my understanding is correct, there is now a string of repeater stations up an down the East coast working on channels 1 thru 8 that can allow users with the necessary equipment to communicate pretty much from Melbourne in the South to Cairns in the North, a distance of over 2,500 miles.
There are very few trucks running with the old 27MHZ sets any more.
Just my 0.02.
You all have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Obviously the truckers cannot just move frequencies. Need approved frequencies to talk on without a license. In the USA that pretty much is Family Radio Service. Which as the name implies is more for families. There are some licensed services that allow what you mentioned in the USA.
@@awprc yup exactly what I said!
Any corporation petitioning the government (lobbying) is for the benefit of the corporation, not the consumer.
Clearly that's the case. However, it's 2021, if you're not a pilot, AM suck dix.
Exactly, careful what you wish for people. It's all about big business - you'll see - kiss your hobby goodbye.
Maybe so but let us say in an SHTF situation something like a ZOMBIE apocalypse, an FM band radio would be a welcome addition with shortwave radio.
You got that right
Bob Clark.
Cobra's biggest mistake was not getting into the GMRS/FRS (and even HAM) radio markets when they had the chance back in the 90s. Had they done that, they could have been the Baofeng of today. But their failure to adapt to changing market conditions is why they're practically a footnote in the pages of history today. In fact, I'd say that Cobra is a pretty good study as a "how NOT to run your business" lesson. They got too comfortable with just doing what they've always done since the 1950s, and now they have to resort to these kind of tactics just to desperately stay afloat.
Well put.
They can sell more 4 watt legal radios so drivers could turn them up more in power compared to ham radio
A lot of American companies like to rest on their laurels; it's the American way.
Collins, Drake, Swan, Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, National, Heath Kit, Gonset, Knight Kit....who did I leave out of a list of US companies that went out of business because they failed to diversify. Great companies most back before solid state. All gone, just like products in our homes like Zenith, Motorola, Philco, RCA, Dumont, Crosley, GE, and dozens more before 1960. Failure to adapt and cheap overseas labor and parts. People campaigning on returning jobs are just spitting in the wind cause it sounds good I guess. But most people know labor intensive jobs will never come back. In fact with robots and AI, many jobs overseas will disappear. The World is becoming overpopulated even with a negative birth rate just from loss of jobs in the future.
@@Theywaswrong Heathkit didn't fail because they didn't diversify. They had a wide range of products, including TVs & stereos, amateur radio, test equipment, computers and more. I suspect they just couldn't compete on costs.
Consumers can thwart this messy free-for-all on 11 meters by simply adopting a strategy of using even channels for FM and odd channels for AM/SSB. This preserves things like channel 9 emergency for old and new gear, and allows a way for old and new equipment to coexist without a lot of clutter on every channel.
Have you listened to channel 9 lately? It's become a Puerto Rican shootout channel with Bleedover six channels in both directions.
@user-kh1yg7tq4r It's been my belief for a while now that the idea of the "emergency channel" has been taken over by cell phone users. It went from channel 9, to hams using the repeater autopatch to call 911, to today where everyone can call 911.
@@oldskooldriver9379 am and ssb don't mix well
FM was the only legal mode from 1981 to 2014 here in the UK.
SSB and AM became in 2014, and SSB has since become the mode of choice for many.
I am a Ham guy and I got into radio with my grandfathers CB. They are a great segway into amateur radio. I am happy about the addition of FM. In my opinion it might be about 20 years too late to save CB, but what a blast it would be to have CBs come back to life like in the 70's and 80's.
When I got my amateur radio license, almost half a century ago, CBers were considered scum of the earth. ;-) The CB band was created from the 11M amateur radio band.
CB doesn't need to be "saved." There is plenty of activity, and FM won't charge that.
Ham is flopping much faster than cb. I monitor both all the time. Cb has remained constant while ham has taken a nose dive. Ham needs to worry about ham and not about cb and Im a general class ham licensee and have held license constantly since 1996
@James C :
Unfortunately, with a lot of the new (and, let's be honest, quite a few of the old), neighborhoods having C C &R's, and HOA's, in place that restrict what, if any antennae are going to be available, for those who want to use two-way radios, regardless of the frequency range, it's not going to be "coming back like the 70's and 80's". After all, back then, you didn't have any restrictions, other than local ordinances, on placing your base station antenna system wherever you wanted it to be.
Some would be C.B. radio operators also found out the hard way that the power lines near their house were, and are, a "force to be reckoned with" when it comes to antenna system placement.
The beer bug got many people back to CB. I'm one of them as well.
I acquired my first Citizen Band radio in 1973. Over the years I had other radios and i also got my own license. In the 80's I discovered "outbanding" and realized first hand how I could talk all over the world using just a few watts on SSB and a 5/8 wave ground plane vertical antenna from Radio Shack. Heady times indeed. Soon I realized i wanted to do this legally and that led me to getting my Amateur Radio operator's license. I became licensed in 1986 as KB4OLX (novice). After a period of time I became N4RGQ (Technician). During much of these years I was inactive but maintained my license. I am now working on my General Class ticket.
I am right there with ya -
now i like to play call of duty and yell at people over the game chat instead of continuous - yeah - this and - yeah that - blah blah blah .
cod - kablammy and goody2shoes - those are my 2 names in the game
When i first got my HAM license - they gave me KN4GQJ - i could not even say that much less remember it - i got a vanity
K7CET - got the license plate for my truck and my motorcycle
My neighbor had an old 23 channel Courier tube base station back then. It was strong you could hear it all over town. I'm pretty sure it was more than 4 watts. More like 10!
You hit the nail on the head: Cobra and President want more sales.
Yes!!!!
STRYKER SR-955HP series for the win. Clean audio, plenty of power, stays on freq., has vfo and the list goes on and on. Ranger (RCI) will be poised and ready also. The new Ranger X9 is a powerhouse radio. Options will be out there. My humble opinion.
@@ronb6182 You don't need C.B.? Yet you profess 11 meter is dead?! Crystal ball maybe? You have a "ham license" do ya? Impressive! Glad you shared that with us. I say you are a liar and have zero radio knowledge or you are proof that any idiot can get licensed. Which is it?
@@ronb6182 Which ham frequency do I turn to to know which lane is closed from the accident ahead? Or that the weigh station is open, so I have plenty of time to get in the proper lane?
Yes, but also it's fm so you will be able to understand people a whole lot better
I have to admit my first experience with radio was with CB, then scanners, then I got my Amateur Radio License. You make a valid point about 11 meters. KC0KM
As a newbie on CB subject, I really appreciate this info! Thanks 😊 from BC, Canada 🇨🇦
Citizens Band in Canada now no longer requires a licence. But the good antennas are pretty expensive, and not so easy to set up.
I'm not buying a new CB. I like my 29 Nightwatch...even though the backlight doesn't work anymore. I've had it in my truck for 20 years and it still works great. Plus, with not many people using CBs anymore on the road, or if they do, they are rude drivers just starting up drama. I normally only use it for speaking to scale operators at quarries and cement plants.
To Mark Mayfield if I buy another CB I wouldn't mind getting an old 23 channel model with one that has channel 22A as well as channel 22. My friend had an Eico that had 22A on it. That CB was able to communicate with California from Pennsylvania without a linear amplifier.
Get that backlight fixed man! Those are excellent radios. Hard to beat a 29.
@@notsure7874 I'd like to. Just too busy runnin' to get to a radio shop. Gotta make the Benjamins.
@@markmayfield2228 No doubt. I've been burning the candle at both ends myself. Not gonna get ahead waiting around on money getting handed out right?
@@notsure7874 how do you fix the backlight? I can't find new base is, and it seems the bezel is commonly the issue. My local shop said there's nothing he can do about it. I have 3 NW radios that the backlight doesn't work on
That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it.
I've been on cb since 1973. My mother named me Little Owl 🦉. I've kept it all these years. Lol.
FM is worse than AM because you only have the carrier power & Zero forward output power like AM & SSB.Totally Useless & for sure on 11 meters.
we in Europe have always had the FM, but mainly the AM has always been used which is inexplicable as the FM was prohibited in your country. I add that often the internal card for the FM was removed to make room for the cards for modifications such as roger beep, echo and increased modulator with larger transformer, etc.
I've had export radio's with AM/FM/SSB/CW since the mid 80's here in the US on of my favorite was a Galaxy 2100 , Then a Ranger 3500 after that one of the best radio's made to modify to 11 meters was a HR 2510
I would hope that FM could have it's own channel like 41 -80 and leave 1 - 40 alome for AM.
Below channel 1 would be better, SSB Freebanders use all the Freq. above channel 40. There's a few International calling Freq. above channel 40 that FM would couse problems with.
Who do you plan on taking that spectrum away from?
@@DiggerX digger butt real deep
Man .lol.
I miss my old CBer friends; Channel Master, Straight Shooter number One, Twenty Century Fox, Geno Mitchellino, Major One, Earthquake, Fat Man, and many more.
@@Knotty_Bill brother black. Chicken bone. And me junk yard dog .lol
Back when cb was a 23 channel radio, users went to channel 16 for sideband. When the channels were increased to 40, some of the upper most channels were selected by people using the radios for sideband. If you want to talk to others who are using sideband, you go to where you know they are. It'll likely be the same for fm. This band isn't crowded any longer, so when you get your fm enabled radio, you'll be turning it to fm and scanning for fm signals. As more people start appearing on certain channels while talking in the fm mode, those channels will likely become popular and they'll begin to be set aside by users as where to go to talk on fm. People have this tendency to figure out how to be cooperative when they want to use new features. You could go anywhere on any of those 40 channels to use sideband, but if you actually want to talk, you'll go where sideband is being used. It'll be the same with the new fm mode.
I vote for the lower channels being FM since it seems that the higher are popular for SSB
@@user-3tf67bk46u saved me a ton of typing, that’s for sure. 😉
Be careful, your making to much sense here.
No seriously though, I tend to agree with you.
In Spain they legalized in August 1983. We could only have teams with 40 channels and FM. The AM and SSB came many years later. It is currently free of license.
In Europe FM is the most popular modulation on CB. I do not see a problem here. The local chat is on FM and when you want to catch DX you switch to AM or SB.
Hmm, well, popular, ok, subjective. You are right, when local FM is where it is. SSB is the way for the CB on 11 meters. 73, 2E0FWE.
As a Brit I can tell you that we've been dropping FM into American rigs for years, however if you are going to sit on the ssb calling channel on FM then all hell will break out. When the skip is running we get US ssb blasting through the middle of our domestic FM bands. The frequencies need to be separate for different modes or the whole thing will become unusable. I've still got an old President Lincoln with FM and modified to cover the whole of 10 and 11 metres, there is plenty of room if someone allocates it intelligently.
Yeah except it's not here. So every time you try to establish urgent local communications with someone you are never going to know if they are there. It's going to be a nightmare without a huge majority user base either way.
They have a lot more frequencies too
Uhf is the way to go i think in the UK ,uses small antennas not as long as ugly 11 meters, maybe 40 chn 12.25 5watts i started out on CB in 1979 gave it up 2011 became ham operator found it boring use pmr 446 grat band just need 5 watts instead of 500mw.so uk went tge other way to you guys in the States FM is great
It’s my experience that most of the truck drivers out there that still use a CB radio, and it’s not all that many, already have FM on their export radios.
There is some frequency hopping going on too. FCC about 30 years behind the times.
All anyone uses the CB for anymore is talking shit.
, maybe you do but then again the a$$holes hang out on AM, truckers running together go to the sidebands
In the Netherlands we have FM on 11 meter as long as I can remember. We mostly use FM for short range communication. For longer range we use USB (AM is almost never used). Since all radio's sold in the Netherlands the last 40 years had AM and FM, people only buy new radio's if they want to use SSB.
They where sold, but they where not legal until the mid or late 90's. All imported / modified sets in the 1980's. And that was all due to the power restrictions of 0,5W in the early days. Just a little bit more "juice" was needed :)
@John Cliff That's right, AM can be more easily detected by AF amps than FM. But RF interference (carrier signal) causing hum is the same for both modulation techniques at the same carrier strength (FM is always full power, AM is 1/4th carrier and 3/4 modulation side bands).
@John Cliff I'm from the EU. Had FM/AM radio's all my life. Almost never used AM because FM is superior in audio. And its fine for DX too. Granted i use SSB as well. But AM rarely used that mode. I think Americans gonna be pleased with FM mode finally added.
Legal ssb is only 4watt pep in the Netherlands ( 2001 until now )
The most of Europe has 10 or 12 watt on ssb.
AM max 4 watts.
But almost everyone uses export radios these days.
Cb at home is barely usable due PLC's, solar power and cheap led lights or charges.
Is niet helemaar waar want vroeger in de jaren 70 was het AM. Dat weet ik nog. Later werdt het FM 22 kanalen half watt in 1980 legaal..AM wordt bijna niet gebruikt in verband met storing en SSB wordt gebruikt meestel in de hogere kanalen. Zover ik weet export bakkies....
Hi, here in the UK we use FM but some countries in Europe use AM even though both modes are legal.
I actually prefer AM because FM can be harsh on the ears when receiving a low signal. When it's a nice
strong signal FM is nice and clear but CB doesn't always have great range before you get a lot of static
coming through. I hope you all in USA have fun with both FM and AM.
Love and respect from the UK 👍
Same here in France, FM is rarely use, too much qrm on weak signal and useless in mobile station. It works great between two base station with solid signal 😁
Fm is crappy on cb. Am reaches further and is easier on the ears. CB doesn't have the fidelity to hear any difference between fm or am modulation
So you have all downfalls of fm and none of it's benefits. Just stay on am and don't fall for this snakeoil
Here in Europe, The Netherlands, exactly the opposite happened. The first legal CB radio's where FM and it took until the late 90's before AM (1W carrier / 4W PEP) and SSB (4W PEP) became legal. I've heard a lot of truckers from the US during the summer of 2003 in AM. Sometimes S9+20 at the peaks of the skip, 8200 kilometers away and interfering with local stations within a 5km range.
where I lived it was Russian taxis :)
Indeed, Hugo. My first license with call-sign IBBE305, was for 40ch/4W/AM, back in 1978. Afterward came a change with 23ch/500mW/FM, which resulted in Belgium with its many hills and valley's in an effective death sentence for the CB-community.
We had radios in the 70s that had a lot more chanels than 40. Put a little work inside of it you can get more power more modulation and a shit ton more chanels of course this was all illegal then.
10-4, *G E K O L O N I S E E R D!*
@@_-_SK_-_ Yeesh, lol.
We've been using UHF FM Cb 477MHz in Australia since the late 80s. 27MHz AM is almost obsolete down here. A few years ago radios were increased from 40 to 80 channels as well.
It's worth adding that the extra 40 were achieved by going narrow band fm (2.5khz deviation) and putting the extra channels in the gaps created by narrowbanding. So you do get some adjacent channel issues with older 40 channel radios. They still 'talk' to each other, though NB sounds a bit soft on wideband and wideband is overdeviating to a NB radio, but you can live with it.
Similarly we have Family Radio Service 462 megahertz band. And for a small fee you can be licensed for General Mobile Radio Service for the same frequencies at considerably higher power than the power limits for AM CB radio which is only 4 Watts whereas GMRS gives you up to 50 Watts and repeater use similar to amateur radio.
@@therealwolfspidertoo Our 477mhz CB is 5w narrowband (2.5khz) or wideband (5khz) FM and high gain antennas and repeaters are allowed. It's a free 'class' license, as long as you use type approved equipment, you don't need an individual license of any kind. Same for the old 27mhz CB as in the US. It's all free to use.
Key thing to note is that UHF left 27MHz alone and it is still used in some niche circumstances where it makes sense, I like the audio quality of UHF. Putting FM on top of your existing band sounds like a bad idea (unless you think you are going to sell more radios). What chance it will just make the whole CB space a bigger mess and less attractive?
@@geoffroberts1126 didn't use to be I rember 27 mhz had 20$ liscence in the 70s I was not adult yet so my father signed up the liscence for me thinking the fcc would be monitoring closely!! Ha ha I didn't complain cause he also got me my 1st ssb a browning baron that was hecka radio.to have as your first ssb before that I had 23 ch rad shack mobile
FM has a characteristic known as "Capture Effect."
This causes the receiver to take the sound from only the strongest signal on the channel. Others are not processed.This applies at its best when the multiple sigs are FM.
With mixed signals, chaos can occur. Regardless of mode, the strongest signal can over-ride any other even if it cannot be read...SSB or FM
My opinion is that for free-wheeling vast area communications like hf ham and CB, SSB is definitely the way to go. If you have a very active channel with a few people trying to talk around each other, it just ends up sounding like a typical in-person conversation in a room. You can understand everyone even if they're talking at the same time. There's no squeal from heterodyne and nobody "stomps" anyone else no matter how strong they are. It's just louder or softer. I can see this whole FM thing just creating yet another layer of "Mud duck stuck in the mud stomp smack squish! You ain't gettin out! You ain't gettin out! This be the Mr. Magic Radio Master saying no way you gettin out from under my monster truck madness world wide FM station we back QUIEEEETTTTT" 🤣
One on one, though, yeah I can see FM being nice if it has similar reach to AM. The ability to reject AM type interference is a definite plus. Still, seems super weird to me, the idea of working skip on FM, lol. I'm too old school I guess.
Noise is noise. If the skip is in and theres a million carriers on the channel, FM isn’t going to fix or help that. With that much competing RF on the same channel, the FM discriminator won’t have a clue what to do
FM is so much better then AM, it also has a greater range and sounds better. However skip is also present on FM...for a HAM you not that smart😂
@@VicGreenBitcoinFM is crap 😅 except at short distance between base station with solid signal. Try FM in mobile and you'll see... 🤣🤣
@@14KiloWhisky What's your definition of "crap"? If FM was crap the commercial services wouldn't have embraced it 60 years ago. It has two distinct advantages: not having to constantly fiddle with the squelch, and the ability to use subaudible tone squelches for privacy.
That said, it is subject to the same propagation physics as AM or SSB.
FM will require more robust output finals and possibly cooling fans since they will drive at 100% while keyed up unlike AM which is dependent on the audio.
AM & FM have similar requirements. It's only SSB that has less than 100% duty cycle.
My Cobra 148 GTL (I've had 2 of them) had FM, AM, upper and lower sideband ('80/90s). I really liked it. Had President with 10 meter and 11 meters with freq meter. Usually ran them with a Messenger 300 kicker. Good to have should the shtf.
Damn, I guess I shouldn't be surprised! I have had my 12 watt Cobra since it was custom built in 1995 but I hardly use it anymore; no one is on the CB unless we're all in traffic for miles.
I was building my own FM conversion kits for CB radios back in the early 1980's There were a lot of CB round tables where just like SSB that people were using FM. Most people that are really into CB have been purchasing export radios for years and years now with FM as an option. Most don't care for it because it isn't as loud to them as AM followed with another issue. To have a really good FM radio it needs to be rock solid as far as the frequency stability goes and it needs a rock solid mic limiter circuit to make it stay clear and not over deviate. There is another thing that turns people off with FM. Squelch is a must have because of the loud hiss when there is no signal present. A lot of CB people like to run their AM rigs without using squelch which they really can't do in the FM mode. Personally I really like FM and I've talked skip very well with FM and if you have a decent radio, FM really does deliver.
If the audio stages are made properly, the FM mode should be as loud as or louder than the AM side. I think on a lot of "export" type radios, the FM was an after-thought or another "feature" they could boast their radio as having, but which was not seriously used. I had an AnyTone "Smart CB" in my last car. It would do AM or FM. Talked with a ham friend who slid down to 11m and we were both amazed at the quality of the audio realized.
I hope the manufacturers are quick to take advantage of the new FM feature by adding CTCSS/DCS squelch capability to these new dual mode radios.
@@grigorirasputin5020 I agree that it comes down to how far they decide to take their designs and builds as far as quality goes. Cannot say for sure they will go as far as CTCSS/DCS but you never know because these days they can build quality receivers (and transmitters) for a fraction of the cost of the older stuff. I too have a Anytone 5555n and for the price of that radio it sounds great on FM. I also run a Stryker SR-94HPC in the truck which is a common chassis you will find under a lot of different names and that radio is also stable and the FM is good quality on that radio too. If you remember the old mobile Midland 23 channel radios and even some of their early 40 channel radios they had the "delta tune" on the front of them which was another way of saying they were not temperature stable and through the years the radio manufactures were getting the hint and making improvements to stabilize them because in cars and trucks they would see major temperature swings that would degrade the receive bad enough to stand out like a sore thumb due to the IF shifting all over the place. When I would do FM mods on those older radios you would have to change out caps especially around the reference oscillators with temperature stable caps which would make them work great for FM conversions across a wide temperature range. Why they didn't take that step over adding the "delta tune" is beyond me. AM is a bit more forgiving were FM will muffle out if the IF window shifts even by 1Khz. I guess it comes down to these manufactures sticking to a standard especially with a lot of this crap coming here out of China but I agree with you that a well aligned stable radio can sound really top shelf on FM. FM and SSB is my personal favorite modes. It's funny that over in England they were only allowed to use FM CB radio rigs until somewhere around 2014 and now they can run FM, AM and SSB but what is crazier is they were always allowed to use 100 watts of transmit power on their rigs without a license! Go figure...
I'm a ham of over 30 years and yes I still enjoy the CB radio
In the 1960's, some of our neighbors and us had a radio in just about every house, shop, barn, tractor, combine, truck, pickup, car, ... . We also had a call sign back then that we were required to use. Pretty much anyone who we heard on the radio was someone we already knew.
When the CB craze hit, it killed it for us. After a couple of years of all that crap, we quit using them.
Rogo Rogo 10-4 on that, I'm back quiet.
I grew up with cb radios in the 70s.When I was 14, I had a Midland mobile set up as a base station with base mic and magnetic mount antenna outside my bedroom window. If the atmosphere was just right I would be able to talk to truckers as far away as Michigan in the early morning hours ,crazy but true. 🙂
As far away as Michigan!! but we don’t know where you are. lol 😂 but I definitely believe it i’ve talked over 3000 miles on a handheld 4 W battery powered Uniden with AM skip anything is possible❤❤❤
We had the Midland Radios in our taxi cabs. They had to be a foot and a half long. Good heavy mikes. We could hear the dispatcher, we couldn't hear the other drivers.
Not many truckers have C.B.s
@@MrArchiearcher sorry, 😁 you're right, I never mentioned I was in NYC at the time.
@@smokingjoe9864 When did this happen?
Great idea love ❤️ that.Ive had 10 &11 meters for over 30 years.Just used regular cb channels.But 10 meters is fantastic operation user friendly
Just be glad they didn't brand it as "HD CB" :-p
Now that's some good marketing. :)
Tru dat
Lol
with "CD quality"
When they bring DMR or another digital voice mode to CB, they do that branding.
Great info to know & thanx for the update!🇺🇲
What if you have a 1960s, tube, 5 channel Raytheon TWR II. No FM, No side band and 5, count 'em, five channels total. I love it and it still works. Got one when I was 15 om 1969. Still works.
If this brings 11 meter back from the dead I'm all for it. The 80's were awesome.
So were the 70's. :)
Duke . That's a big 10/4 Good Buddy .
If the band is dead, who's going to be buying these FM radios? Seems like a better marketing plan for Cobra would be to redesign their CB radios to operate on 10 meters and sell them to hams, especially considering we are going into another sunspot cycle.
@@lindaitken3321 Breaking News...CB radios have been "modified" for 10 Meters for decades. I have 2. One is a Galaxy 99V and the other is a RCI 2970. Both have been made TX/RX 24M-30M. And yes, I'm also a ham
@@chetklugjr626I know that Radio Shack had a 10 meter rig, but I don't see anything in QST advertising them these days.
As a Canadian, this is driving another wedge into communications. The Canadian government already made concessions to allow FRS/GRMS to align with US rules but that took years and we still can't legally have a mobile radio mounted in our cars that transmit on the UHF frequency as they can only be hand held units. Whom ever in Canada that makes these rules obviously is not into radios at all.
They may be trying to limit power output. People will be reluctant to use high power with the antennae next to their head. Having a remote antennae, such as a mobile unit entices them to increase the power.
I was speaking to someone who has some sway with new regulations in Canada and I can tell you that one reason they don't permit GMRS high power mobiles is to force people over to ham radio....Which is dumb. They HATE cb'ers.... It HAM operators who help shape the spectrum in Canada and their bias makes the situation the way it is.
Even Australia has mobile vehicle mounted UHF. What's up Canada? Come on. We Yankees may wish to talk to our northern brethren on more than two cans and string.
Or maybe it's just about control like they are trying to control your truckers.
@@davidbrock4104 yes we have uhf cb which is still a bloody mess because no consultation was done with its deployment would of been better to deliver it on its own dedicated freq rather than over lay it over existing wide band plans and making narrow band and digital totally unusable.. in the cb spectrum of UHF
And it is a separate license to run a repeater system in australia
My opinion on both gmrs and frs is nothing but a poor man's uhf and vhf ham radio service ..
Noting that typically to operate within 50-80 watts you typically using a radio in a repeater mode with 5-8 watts allowable input within 5km of a 50-200 foot repeater site ..
noting ht's typically on only achieve 1-1.5 km range, mobile radios typically have a 2.5 km radius range with overlap 5km is about 4-5km
As long as the skip is running 1500km is doable on HF 27MHz..
to be honest if we applied channeling to 21-24.999 and 28-29.999 or even upto 50MHz we'd have plenty of rag chew space,
fm reception has been available in Australia though it usually only reception of broadcast FM as typically back in the 80's it was common place to replace your radio with a cb due to limited space in the motor vehicle..
Have had my cobra 29 for several years and just sitting in the closet as I lived in a overpopulated area. Now that I have moved north and up in the woods, considering putting the radio back in the truck. Good post to consider before mounting. Thanks.
The key is short range without a repeater. With interference or weak signal, you can still understand the sender with analog am though it may be hard to hear. Digital fm is subject to interference, short range and selective jamming. It's either clear or you get NOTHING. This is a bad move for CB when needed for emergencies. Missing or damaged repeaters mean you are screwed. Cobra is just an opportunistic tool working for special interests while setting up for an inside track. It's much like S&W pushing for smart gun tech when they thought they would get the whole market.
This isn't digital FM, it's analog FM. I primarily use analog FM - on GMRS, and amateur and marine VHF and UHF. When you have repeaters, it's hard to beat. I also have digital FM, and it's great too - zero noise, but you either have it, or you don't. It's even more so like that than analog FM. On CB I use AM where the locals hang out, or SSB to squeeze a bit more range out of it.
My bumper sticker. I love cats .
Dead ones .lmao.
I love cats.lol.
CB should only permit am/ssb QRP Transmissions , taking Advantage of Skywave .
Most radios will have a selector switch, AM, SSB, FM. if one don't work for you flip a switch.
It's Cool that the FCC is actually looking at this. It'll create a whole new spectrum for sure. And the new person getting into the CB world almost always will go with the cobra and or uniden.
Yes buying a new radio and a President too. Good statement!
We now have AM/FM and SSB on your band and have had our own offset 40 channel FM system since 1981 as our goverment didn't allow the FCC system until 1987 and then that was only FM until AM and SSB was legalised in 2014 in the United Kindom......I think you need another 40 channels.......Dave M0OGY.
We're operating in reverse. You get AM/SSB...now we're getting FM. :)
@@K0LWC Just like the old "town circles" (or roundabouts) and rotary doors (which also go one way here in the other way there).
Better late than never..
Just as Europe switched to digital TV - LONG before the good ole USA came along, leading from the caboose as usual.
The UK FM channels was a good move. Reduced QRM from other countries probably made those channels better for the local users.
FM sounds quite good compared to other modes. I am using it on two metres, and I would not even consider AM use there...
i used to live up on a mountain in wv no cellphone signal back in the early 2000s and family used a base station to communicate around the area neighbors and family would call in and ask if we was ("WERE"🙄😂) home before they try to run up the hill, fun times haha
"... if we was home"? Try "if we WERE home"...
This is fantastic news! Once again Cobra is changing the industry for the benefit of the people. Thank you for sharing this wonderful information!
FM had always been preferred here in Germany. AM had to be registered and paid for every month in the 80s and 90s.
In Germany we have this since decades.
CB started with 12 channels AM in 1975 and limitation to 0,5 W power.
In 1981 22 FM channels were added, again with limitation to 0,5 W.
This was expanded to 40 channels FM with 4 W and the allowed max. power for the 12 AM channels was raised to 1 W.
40 channels for FM modulation were added in 1996 and also the max. allows power for the 12 AM channels was raised to 4 W ERP.
Finally since December 2011 there are 40 channels to be used for both modulation types with 4 W ERP and 12 W PEP in SSB mode. the other 40 channels stayed for FM use with up to 4 W ERP exclusively.
Quite complicate here.
wow, you need at least 20 watts mobile. I used 10-11-12 meters AM/FM/SSB with 100 watts (switchable 50 watts to 100watts). We were only allowed access to 11 meters with 5 watts max which was laughable. We would be all over 10 to 12 meters and some had mods for more expansion. I never heard of anyone caught doing any of this.
Most of us drivers are using converted 10 meter radios that already have fm. Conex, Galaxy, Stryker.
Back in 2018 I was short hauling from Tennessee to Florida and had been somewhere in the southern end of Georgia, approximately 110 miles north of the Florida state line on 75. I was in a 2018 International LT equipped with two custom antennas from Raccoon at the Tampa TA, a Cobra 29 LTD, peaked and tuned by the very same. I decided to hop on the radio and give a long "Auuuuuuudioooooooo," to which someone replied, "No one wants to hear your audio, driver." So I replied, "Viiiiiiiiideooooooo," and the same guy came back "Nobody wants to hear your video, either!" I get a little funny with him and retort, "Mainly because you don't hear video, you see it!" And we started bickering back and forth and he finally says "Alright, boy, where are you?" as though he was about to start a fight. I told him I could pull off at a numbered exit to a truck stop, and he replied with "Where? You're not at the rest area?"
Turns out I had been talking skip to a guy all the way up in north Georgia, a solid 200+ miles away.
Actually you can receive FM on an AM receiver by a method called slope detection. If you tune to the side of the band pass of an AM receiver the FM modulation appears to be AM. We did if back in the 60’s with converters connected to our AM car radios to monitor FM police radio before the time of scanners. It does require the ability to fine tune the receiver frequency. I don’t know if the CB radios with SSB capability and clarifiers if the clarifier is active in the AM mode.
By the way in the 60’s I was the sales manager for then CB radio manufacturer International Crystal. We also manufactured a converter like I spoke of above called a Mobilette. 73 W5HJ
I've got an old portable communication receiver (Sangean ATS 803a) here in the UK and sometimes listen to the FM CB Comms using that method. So I'm guessing ppl with old CBs could be easily confused if they pick up stuff not realising it's FM.
Howdy yall, new to the CB world as I was born in 1996. I picked up a cb cobra radio 19 VI something like that with 40 channels equippped with am/Fm. Still trying to understand the methods. My small little cobra radio is set up on my jeep with a fire stick antenna on the back. I picked up the radio for my road trip to Texas from CA. I didn’t hear my much on my way out to Texas, not sure if radio space was dead or if my antenna signal wasn’t strong. Before I installed my fire stick antenna I had purchased a antenna from Walmart with the magnet for temporary as I was running short on time before I hit the road but I’m here in Texas now and I am running fire stick antenna now. Hopefully I get a better signal and can actuallly communite down the hwy as I hope to not catch any severe weather. Cheers thanks for the video!
Hell Cobra bring back the 148GTL-DX that was a great radio with FM already in it.
or that 200 gtl (i think) export lol
ElectroGaming Been using a COBRA 148GTL-DX for years. FM CB works quite well from my experience.
Export radios were junk.
Makes sense, here in the UK we've had fm,am and ssb for quite a while now it's all good. Standardisation of radio's makes it easier for the manufacturers to sell their products AND finally I will be able to get some great radio's from the states which was pointless without fm included
I was big on CB especially before I got my first ham license and was limited to only Morse Code. Still had one in my car just for travel and emergencies before cell phones existed.
In Russia, we got this range in the early 90s and I followed the changes closely. It started with FM, but then SSB was added as well. There was even a period when 800 kHz bands were allowed, but now they have returned to 40 channels.
Now I am trying to push the idea of using short waves for tourism. I wonder how with this issue in the USA?
In the United States, CB radio has been largely superseded by GMRS/FRS (basically the same thing) radio which is currently the primary two-way radio of general consumers. In other words, this will barely be an issue as most people no longer use CB radio anymore. Heck even truckers are using GMRS more and more these days.
The government outlawed am cb radio in the uk back in 1981. The reason was to try for a licensing fee from the public. We were told that it caused less interference. If you were caught with an am set ,then it would be confiscated ,all fm sets had a little 27/81 decal on the front to distinguish them from am sets. We would simply peel the decals off the retail boxes ,or cut out the cardboard emblem off the box ,and stick them on our am sets. Am radio has always been clearer ,and has further distance than fm. I've been on am cb since 1980 ,and still use it to this day. (OIL CAN HARRY 1980-PRESENT).
The good old days, FM was noisy though 😂
@@T200026 ...sure was, I think the amount of idiots made it noisier, you always got a better quality breaker on AM ...this is of course my experience ,so no offense meant before we all jump on our war horses !!!.
In 1976 I was on a 23 channel CB. My neighbor was on SSB and all I could hear was a bunch of unintelligible noise so how is that any different than what you have described for FM. ?
I was doing cb before it was 40 channels. The cb radio helped me do my job on the road for many years. The distance limitations of the radio was always a problem.
Watts & antennas fixes that, but FM will not.
Generally 5 miles is enough for our sectors in a moving rig. IF you broadcast 25 miles out, it does not leave open air for flash-traffic incident reports inside for others to alert those closer. Things happen in seconds. You think about your own skin in dominant power, but it's misused and deadly. Kills people.
We have had this all along and anybody that knows how to use a linear and knows how to tune a radio can put that into any CB Box no matter what the brand
I still have a 300 watt. One.
Say that again? Put what in FM?
@@vsmichael1 keep getting sauteed
1978 Plymouth Lori actually sold a car with an AM/FM cd unit built right in back in the day. I am one of these cars and love it.
So many 11m radios have misadjusted modulation limiters and “power mics”. Over modulation on AM causes distortion, but on FM over modulation causes splatter. Noise canceling mics are one thing, but it might help if the new radios have a different mic plug to keep someone from using a power mic without wiring a new plug to it.
FM's bandwidth is measured in " kHz deviation", not modulation percentage as with AM. Overdeviation typically results in the signal being unreadable due to its bandwidth exceeding that of the receiver. Cranking the mod up on a FM transmitter results in no one being able to hear you.
The maximum frequency deviation and thus bandwidth of an FM signal is fixed by the transmitter and does not increase with increasing audio level. Driving more audio into an FM transmitter will simply distort the audio; the bandwidth of the signal will not increase.
In general, FM is a good thing, which is why almost all other communication radios went there long ago. So far as incompatibility with existing radios and confusion it won't be worse than SSB, which cannot be received on the majority of existing radios. CB users have come up with some loose conventions, typically AM is used on lower channel numbers and SSB on the higher ones. I'm sure there will be some channels where FM is the prevalent mode.
noise reduction button and a squelch works just as well, hahaha
It has been many years since I spent much time on CB. But if memory serves, SSB is typically used on 35 through 40.
I could easily see something like that happening for FM.
I am a fan for CB usage on FM. Many years ago, I had many friends on CB, one late night, we all went to a frequency and used FM. It was a pleasant experience. It was so clear. Now if the FCC allows that, that is the only way I would try that.
As a former CB operator from the 1960s living in South Florida, I cherished those days when most operators were licensed and on-the-air sanity was commonplace. Back then, most rigs were out-of-the-box stock (unmodified) tube units transmitting legal power. My first radio was a Lafayette tube set, a six-channel crystal-controlled transmitter with a tunable receiver (the "high-tech" digital readouts were still science fiction during that era). On a good day, I'd get three watts out of my little radio into a quarter-wave ground plane about 15 feet off the ground.
Eventually, the band became crowded and disorderly as the popularity of CB radio grew. I tolerated the madness as long as possible and then progressed into amateur radio.
I rolled my eyes when the FCC authorized FM on CB radios without proposing mode-specific plans for the band. That was irresponsible. Of course, the FCC is different from what it used to be, and nowadays, enforcement is an afterthought.
KB1ARM (New Hampshire)
Precisely my first thought when I saw FCC changing the regs for 11m FM . . . manufacturers selling radios in a severely saturated market. It's MBA 501 that product sales in a completely saturated market can be generated and driven by obsolescence. The same occurred when additional channels were added increasing it to 40 along with SSB, and that was the real motive for doing it.
Just expand the frequency below channel 1 for FM use. Some of us are using them already called " Freebanding." Did Cobra drop the ball when they stopped production of their sideband radio (148) a few years ago ?
Yes. True
There were problems for a short while with SSB and AM mixing on the 40 channels but that pretty much sorted itself out. I'm sure FM with AM/SSB will do similarly.
I think Channel 19 will be the problem. I can see many truckers wanting to use FM.
@@K0LWC I think Ken is correct in saying it will sort itself out just as ssb vs fm did. What the truckers decide on should be honored anyway since truckers are probably 90% of who keep cb alive as it is. Without truckers cb frequencies would likely have been taken away from us by the government. And I'm not a trucker, just appreciative of them.
I don't ever recall it being sorted out back when I was active on 11 meters.
@@wc4r Except when it isn't. 🤪
@@wc4r Except when it isn't. 🤪
Same as it ever was. I operated four channel 27MHz radios for Civil Air Patrol nets in the 1960s. The 1970s brought us 23 channels, then 40 channels, then SSB. It's always been about 'churning' the market to stimulate new sales from existing customers. Same as it ever was.
I remember the CB craze of the 70s. People screamed for "more channels." They were given more channels. What did the people do with those channels? They kept hanging out on channel 19.
You're right 👍 it's "new" , so I need this new stuff... In my country, we don't use FM, too much qrm on weak signal...
Let's be real- most guys on CB are using radios that already have FM anyway, along with a linear.
My ranger 3500 has been modified to cover cb band. It has FM AM Upper side band and lower. Been using mostly on side band. FM is great but it's only line of site like marine band is. It's much clearer than AM USB and LSB. FM has it's pros and cons. I'm a side band person for the most part.
@@paulmazzola398 FM skips the same way as AM and SSB. It's all RF.
@@BubbaWarbucks Agreed, but with a caveat... It depends on the bandwidth and eventual spectral density of the signal. The same watt, does more with a 3khz ssb signal than a 12.5 or 25khz wide fm signal.
@@gravesclay We'll see what the deviation they decide on is. The FCC just went from 25kHz to 12.5kHz for commercial radio traffic, which works fine. Tough to accomplish that when your channels are but 10kHz apart!
@@gravesclay Also I've worked into Europe on 10M FM, and that's at 5kHz deviation.
When will these new radios come out and what do you think the cost will be for them? Will they also have SSB included?
It's about time the FCC does this, how ever the FM CB has been out for over 25 years. Tried it back in the nineties and wasn't to impressed with it. If they are going to do this they need to add additional frequencies to the CB band for FM only in my opinion. But keep the frequencies a safe distance from amateur 10 meter frequencies. Good video. KK7T.
What is commonly known as the "Freeband" channels should be the new FM channels.
FM is an option that the exports have had for 40 years, yet seldom used, just make them legal and forget about it. But it is time to open up 26 -27.999 for legal use worldwide?
I had an old ranger talked around the world with it.. but i also had an old golden egale that would do the same.
back in early seventys i had an old 23,,,channel lafayette 27 meg set if you balanced the channel selector .between 23,and one you got an extra channel old mate had same set so we had our own channel .it was great
While they are at it why not just add the UK 40 FM channels to prevent the bad interactions. We all know this just makes it easier to build radios that are all the same, including FM. The dead use of the upper 27 meg frequencies not allocated for use by anyone now should be allocated for FM or maybe splitting this 40 channel between SSB and FM?
They'd rather have us shoot one another. One goes to jail, the other to the graveyard. Gets two signals off the air.
i think you're spot on, always follow the money. fcc should have dedicated channels for fm use. they certainly know about the problem and didn't do a thing about it.
FM can still receive interference from FM. You won't hear the AM whine that you do hear on AM CB. With FM you have the Capture Effect and the strongest signal wins. A form of this happens with Broadcast FM and ducting.
Tone use will help a LOT. As will the digital transition once that hits in a future FCC game play
FM will result in much shorter communication distances with cb, since no repeater involved.
This is similar to the situation when SSB was introduced. Originally, CB was AM only and when SSB became available, it was the same situation where a new radio was needed to use it. Otherwise, all you heard was noise. Also, this will be an improvement, due to the capture effect of FM (actually phase modulation with audio frequency roll off to make it sound like FM), where a strong signal completely overcomes a weaker signal. This means you won't hear noise from more distant stations, when you're trying to talk locally. You do, of course, remember that CB was intended to be local only. Do any other land mobile services still use AM or SSB? With amateur radio, you are free to use whatever mode you want, though there are band plans to keep the modes separate.
FM is a really bad idea on 11 meters. Why CB wasn't moved to UHF FM in the USA decades ago just boggles the mind. UHF antennas can be so much smaller and more efficient on vehicles, too. The FM capture effect works during 11 meter band openings, too.
Locals will be talking on 11 meter FM CB in Chicago and they're going to get stepped on by somebody in New York.
@@scdevon Even back in the dark ages, when CB was first introduced, there already was a UHF service available. These days, there's GMRS available for low cost communications. The 11M band was in general a bad choice for the service.
@@James_Knott - CB should be limited to uhf only with no other options. It would keep the riff-raff out. You can run 1 billion watts on uhf if you want to and you might talk an extra mile or two beyond the horizon. Illegal power means almost nothing on uhf.
@@scdevon Yep. BTW, I've had an amateur radio license for over 50 years.
@@James_Knott - Nice. I hold an Advanced Class ham ticket (no longer issued). I've been licensed for 34 years. 73 !!
Not on CB anymore, to give you an idea my call sign was KODXXXX that tells you I was on CB before Single Sideband came into the being and there were only 23 channels. Doesn't require a genius to realize it's all about the $ and selling more products.
There is already a "gentleman's agreement" that channels 36-40 are designated as SSB, and the rest are AM. I would image they could do a similar thing when they add FM and designate certain channels for FM, such as channels 1-20 remain the same, but they designate 21-35 as FM channels or something like that.
Maybe truckers want 19 for FM. I really don't know. Maybe make the same rule as with Ham radio. Ask if the channel is being used. If not then call for a breaker or in Ham CQ. Then there should not be interference on that channel. I remember radio Shack had a non license cb for doing Morse code on channel 14. I bet that drove CB'ers crazy trying to talk with all the beeping in the background. Even though it was on a 100 mw radio.
@@ronb6182 Def need to bring back CB morse code channel 14, but not fake AM beeping to AM reciever, true carrier pulsating and a 455 khz BFO equipped reciever, to make almost 8 qso's possible on the one channel, with open clarifier.
This really screws the truck stops that have piles of am rigs for sale. Hopefully they take one more step while the FCC rule vault is open, and include the Euro and UK channels into the band in the USA, because that is where all the radios will ship from, and not need hacking, and not ruin AM/SSB channels.
In the early1960s the FCC tried an experiment: 100 milliwatt license free operation on the radio control channels. Voice and Morse code. Despite a ton of hype from the magazines (you have to look for S9 Magazine and Electronics Illustrated) it never took hold and the one radio made for this is rare as hens teeth.
Those channels are allocated to the US military. There are sites on here that have the ones to avoid listed.
...We could care less about more sales ....What we want are Quality Radios with More Features at a Cheaper price! ....
Great commentary and style. Cheers!
I remember people modifying their cb's to have FM. FM sounds like SSB to a CBer. I also found them interfering with adjacent channels as if they were using a linear. This made it very difficult to hear anyone on your channel if their signal was somewhat weak.
...Next FCC decision: The "Superbowl" amendment: Maximum RF power: 50 kW ERP..
...FM ???? We're in 2021 !!!! I'd prefer DMR !!!
I'm only in if they make it 100kW. I want to compete with my local broadcast stations. 😁
don't you mean minimum 50 kw
Wow, DMR would be cool ! - And on the Superbowl Channel 6 thing: They use massive amplifiers with thousands of watts on one-band. Meanwhile Hams can talk farther with only 100 watts on 40 meters.
DMR sounds like complete crap. keep that digital garbage off of these frequencies.
DMR sounds fine, especially compared to D-STAR
Years ago, I had an Elmac AF67 that was primarily an AM transmitter/exciter but it had "narrow band" FM. I don't know anyone who used it so to me it was a novelty. This radio was built in the late to early 1950's as models AF54, AF67 and AF68.
Still legal on 10m i believe. The early Central Electronics 10 and 20a models had it too. Easy way to modulate without big modulators and transformers. AM receivers could hear it by tuning off center a bit. Nice idea but never caught on. AF67 was a great radio for it day
You are going to have to have some kind of electronic filtering for the older radios to block out the FM interference.
Of course Amateur Radio went through this with the addition of SSB when everyone was using AM back in the 50's and the later when FM became popular on 2 meters.
my vote: planned and legislated obsolescence = sales. your sales theory is spot on sir.
As a Ham of 40 years, and an electronics technician this is the dumbest move ever! Why? because the build of the FRS Band is the stepping stone for improvement, not 27Mhz .. Next mixing FM and AM together on a channelized band isn't cool, their is a thing called "capture ratio" that is involved in FM discriminators. what happens is the "emergency" advantage of AM (or SSB) is lost to the caller .. The reason AM is still used in the Aircraft Band ... in AM the mix of the caller and an interference station are both heard !!! in FM the Capture only goes to the strongest station.. FM requires a bit more signal ( to noise than AM) in an already 'noisey ' band ( reason FCC gave this band to CB was its high cosmic noise level) yes the audio will be pretty but the range will fall slightly ..then the BIG Gun amplifier guys will find out "strongest signal captures ALL" so the power wars will increase.. Cobra wants sales obviously and they are looking for a revival of this band to do it... for the technology NO ..for the corp bottom line YES real answer for citizens change the FRS band to 5 watts and loosen antenna restrictions K4DSB
The biggest effect to this change is going to be newcomers to the radio hobby that have no clue what they're doing. I've been a CB operator for many years and most of us hardcore and long time CB operators are already using export radios that are modified and most of those radios already have FM. And yes I agree with you 100% on the power wars for those who decide to broadcast on FM. AM is more modulated based versus FM where it's more signal based. But I can tell you I still have not heard anyone making the switch to FM so it will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come.
My 1990's RCI 2950 did FM but none of my friends or anyone for that matter were using FM along with me, Of the few contacts I made back then it did sound pretty good and was nice to not have so much noise ( Ignition noise, alternator whine etc)
The Citizens Band in the U.S., 11 meters, was never well suited for local communications, regardless as to what mode of modulation is used. However, it has always been great for making relatively distant contacts when the sun solar cycle is allowing. Implementing FM on 11 meters won't make it any more effective for local communications, really... and adding FM to a band that's already populated with untold numbers of AM and SSB rigs, would likely create an epic communications train wreck for all users. FM has a number of advantages, and would be a great option to have for CB users, but it probably won't amount to much in terms of user capability or radio sales, either one.
And what frequency is?
Its not a conspiracy to sell more cb radios but the option to sell the same cb radios as in Europe. An informed shopper will select a multi mode radio with am / usb / fm.
CB Radio Users in the US have had FM capable rigs for decades, we don't use it. This push for sales may work for a while. However, most buyers will figure out it is a very inefficient mode and does not "play well" with the other modes. You want FM? stay on GMRS/FRS or god forbid 2M. Great video LWC, Cheers.
For sure, exports have been around a long time, but I think those have mainly gone to the hardcore folks. Having all radios start coming with FM will be a long-term change over a period of years for 11 meters that will be different.
WE been using narrow fm in UK for ages, its far superior, bear in mind this new super narrow fm is 8K0 F3E bandwidth at 2,00khz max deviation. The other topic is most of these new set coming out now have support for CTCSS single tone or split tones (repeater uses) and just recently repeater channel split for semi duplex operation for internet cb gateways and repeater uses, so this may also tie in with USA new kit.In Germany they have 80channels ,UK has 80channels on CB band too so yes we can separate modes a bit better.
Generally speaking 25.6 to 29.995mhz there's plenty of unused space for personal radio service that could be repurposed.
But its fab news that FCC gone for FM mode, regardless of the sales issues brought up.
def a positive step forward.
Rob P 73's
Far superior... 😅
FM was the only legal mode in the UK for many years.
What it did do was increase normal everyday range over the american AM sets quite substantially.
A contact of 3 miles mobile was a good copy on the old AM sets, when it went FM you could work 10 miles most days with good audio, it also caused far less bleed through interference.
FM is terrible for weak signal communication. You can understand SSB and AM signals during quiet conditions that don't even move the needle. If CB is intended for short range communication only, it should have never been on 11 meters. It should have been on VHF / UHF.
This is pretty interested. I have been a CB user since the '70s. I still remember my call sign when I paid for a CB license. Today, I am a member of a motorcycle riding group where the Road Captains (leader and sweep on the ride) are required to have a CB radio for active communication. Harley-Davidson and other motorcycle manufacturers used to equip their touring motorcycles with integrated CB radios. Most recently, H-D has made it a very difficult option requiring an a la carte purchase of the various components. Because of this, new buyers are opting to purchase devices made by Sena that use a different technology. It's really too bad because I have personally witnessed the drop-outs in communication when we had a group that stretches out a quarter mile or so. I never had this problem with CB. But this is probably going to mean the end of motorcycle CB usage as people start migrating to Sena. I'm not sure if you and your watchers were even aware of our use of CB radios.
Don’t think it’s a bad thing so long as the fm portion is away from the ssb/am portion of the band 73 Gm4zji
FM will be a very narrow TX/RX. I see there being little to no problem for most folks. The only problem I see is the splatter box AM radios that bleed everywhere already. Yes, those loudmouth, dirty, channel 6 bunch, are the ones I'm talking about. I have monitored FM on 27Mhz and found it to be noisy in S units but doesn't seem to have much in the way of bleed over from AM/SSB so we are probably okay. Yes my radios already do FM/AM/SSB 10-12 meter. Don't care who knows it.
@@hwsadberry6781 Yes don't care. 10 meter/11 meters. Short range stuff unless the Sun wants to play ball. 20 meters is where DX is, where it's more reliable. But then it all depends on what foot ball field you play in. But yes, weather it's AM or SB double or single each has bleedover, FM does not have the bleed over AM and SB has.
There will be more issues with dirty power lines, dirty AC units, dirty switching power supplies etc that will have more impact on receivers and reduce membership.
the users will define the rules, just like they did with SSB and the super bowl channel 6
as always
Classic..
The people who amp accross country on 6 really piss me off. Half the time its not even intelligible audio, and it always interrupts my scan.
@@Mac-tw3zu You are correct and it is a shame that a few can ruin it for many.
@@Mac-tw3zu yeah...."blah,blah,blah... I'm king this or that, you're not and I'm out..bye bye bye"....
what is "D" band. I have heard it referenced a couple of times and I don't know what it is... I suspect is a group of frequency's but not certain???
It's probably the original set of CB radio channels. 1-23. It was later expand to the current 40 channels. CB radio was also known as the Class D Citizens’ Radio Service before it was called CB radio.
a good point to add is that they want to cut costs as well. many of their export models already have FM. it can cut costs of manufacturing down if they just have the models all the same.
You are preaching to the choir on that one most hams are going nut over it
I remember using FM on 11m modified 2950s and 2510s back in the mid 90s. Honestly surprised it took this long for this to happen.
The good ole Ranger 2950 and HR 2510s. I loved them both!
Yup. Great radios
A company I worked for had FM Business Channel radios for our communications from offices , delivery vehicles, and salesmen to stay in touch with one another. I know the clarity and range of those radios would be nice for trucking.