CB radio in the United States
Citizens' Band personal radio service
In the United States, the Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS), commonly called citizens band radio (CB radio), is one of several personal radio services defined under Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 95. It is intended to be a two-way voice communication service for use in personal and business activities of the general public, and has a reliable communications range of several miles, though the range is highly dependent on type of radio, antenna and propagation.
CB radio is most frequently used by long-haul truck drivers for everything from relaying information regarding road conditions, the location of speed traps and other travel information, to basic socializing and friendly chatter. CB radio is also frequently used on larger farms for communication between machinery operators.
Origins
As originally constituted, what is now CB radio was Class D of the Citizens' Radio Service. Classes A and B were in the UHF radio band and served a similar purpose as Class D while Class C was interspersed among the current CB channels and used for remote control of devices, usually model craft (aircraft, watercraft, or road vehicles). Class A and B were eventually replaced by the FM Family Radio Service (FRS) and FM General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). What was initially Class C, is now known as the Radio Control Radio Service and now includes spectrum at 72 and 76 MHz in addition to the original 27 MHz AM channels interspersed among voice channels as well as CB channel 23.
Eligibility
There are no age, citizenship, or license requirements to operate a CB radio in the United States, and the service falls under the "License by Rule" part of the FCC rules (basically, if one follows the rules one is considered licensed). Operators may use any of the authorized 40 CB channels; however, channel 9 is used only for emergency communications or for traveler assistance.
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This entry incorporates text from “CB radio in the United States” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.