CB Radio in The United Kingdom - Nuisance

Nuisance

While most CB users felt they were a persecuted and harmless segment of society, there were some notable anti-social aspects to the craze. Many users boosted their signals to very high levels using imported power amplifiers (called 'boots' or 'burners' in the CB jargon) and these would often cause interference to local television reception, or cause "breakthrough" on other equipment, such as stereo systems. This was a particular problem from SSB mode transmission.

Even some un-amplified equipment caused interference in some cases. Harmonics from badly designed or misaligned equipment could cause radio interference to legitimate services; indeed, this was the main argument used by opponents of CB against the illegal users. Imported equipment was of variable quality and certainly never tested to any British standard. Problems were often exacerbated because users were not often technically minded and installations were sometimes very poor.

Radio amateurs using the 28 MHz ten-metre band were particularly offended by CB radios that could transmit into their frequency band. This was mostly a problem in the lower-frequency part of their band, which was mostly used for morse transmissions. CB "dx-ers" using SSB mode were the biggest problem but part of the 'hurt' was because amateurs were licenced whilst CB "dx-ers" were not.

Some enthusiasts erected very large antennas, which were considered an eyesore and posed a danger in high winds. Others would use high powers even when talking locally and posed a nuisance to other breakers who suffered poor reception as a result.

The band used for CB was already allocated in the UK to radio controlled models. While this was usually little more than a frustrating nuisance for modellers, it did pose a genuine danger for aircraft models, which can kill or seriously injure. As a result of the CB craze, it became mandatory to operate aircraft models on the alternative band of 35 MHz. The legalised service left some of the 27 MHz band available for ground models, but since the illegal American equipment continued to be widely used, most modellers gave up and adopted other frequencies instead.