CB Radio in The United Kingdom - The CB Craze and Legalisation

The CB Craze and Legalisation

Wider CB usage in the UK started off with a few individuals, particularly truck drivers, importing US equipment and using it illegally. It clearly served a need as the craze grew rapidly, reaching an enormous peak in the early 1980s. At the same time, technically savvy engineers with a certain amount of curiosity about the rumours, started to convert radiotelephone equipment to use on the 27 MHz band. The result was an explosion in the number of users, and a huge growth in the CB culture that accompanied it. During this time, a great many CB clubs emerged in the UK and they became centres of protest in the march towards legalisation, in the hope that existing equipment could be used legally. As an example of a large CB club, 'Barnsley Breaker's Club' had a thousand members at its peak.

Around 1980, companies in Britain started to sell US equipment quite openly, as there was no law against selling or owning accessories, though being in possession of an unlicenced radio transmitter was an offence.

While the number of users grew, the authorities were slow to react. By the beginning of 1980, a number of police forces began clamping down on illegal CB users. Rural area police were sometimes heard using CB radio in their Land-Rovers.

The normal authority for regulating the use of radio, the Home Office Radio Regulatory Department, was overwhelmed and could not possibly trace and prosecute every illegal user. It is speculated that the actions by the police caused the popularity and longevity of CB to grow - suddenly the legalisation of CB was a common cause among CB enthusiasts. During the same period, CB clubs started appear in a large number of towns around the country, and the number of users increased proportionally. As the fad reached its peak towards the end of 1980, it became impossible to achieve a range of more than a few miles, at most, in built-up areas. This was often attributed by the number of users jamming the channels and the congestion from overseas operators but was worsened by the sunspot activity of the time.

Around this time, a number of CB-related periodicals appeared on the market, you could buy CB equipment such as antennae in many ordinary car accessory shops. The CB clubs organised a number of national demonstrations in favour of legalisation, including a mass "convoy" to the heart of London, which brought the city to a stand-still. In response to this, the government commissioned a white paper proposing a CB service called "Open Channel" around 860 MHz. Among the enthusiasts there was an outcry, since they wanted to use the 27 MHz equipment they had already invested in, despite the fact that the band was already allocated for model control and other applications. Eventually the government capitulated, and sanctioned both a 27 MHz and 934 MHz band. The CB lobby was appeased, until they saw the fine print – the new 27 MHz band used an odd channel offset and frequency modulation, so it was incompatible with the American system. The reason for this was on the grounds of reducing as much as possible the interference to legitimate services. By then it was too late, the legislation had been passed, and the 27 MHz FM system was standardised.

It was stated by the government of the day that the adoption of the awkward UK unique frequency allocations was for 2 reasons.

• To prevent illegal US sets from being modified for the UK bands
• To permit UK manufacturers a reasonable opportunity to compete in the market.

It turned out the frequency allocation was so awkward that initially, only one Japanese manufacturer had the capability of producing the synthesiser chips required to generate the transmitter and receiver local oscillator frequencies. That manufacturer refused to sell chips to non Japanese manufacturers. The problem was short lived as within a year despite initial shortages of sets, the market saturated faster than expected and many importers were left with large stocks of unwanted CB sets. By the end of 1982, CB radios were being given away with many other products.

The new system was taken up enthusiastically by all those who had held back using an illegal system, and it was one of the biggest selling gifts for Christmas in 1981. The system suffered from many nuisance users who regarded it as fun to deny the use of the recognised calling channels to other users by transmitting a blank carrier or more usually music. With the fight won, albeit with a considerable compromise, and particularly with the many nuisance users, interest rapidly waned, the CB clubs gradually dwindled in membership, many disappearing altogether within a year or so.