I am one of the old farts that remembers when 11 meters was a ham band; back before 1958-59 when this travesty called CB came about. In fact, I used to use the band and made many enjoyable contacts there; my B & W 5100' s still have the 11 meter band marked on the vfo.
For whatever reason, the individuals that populated the " new " citizens band came mostly from the lower class under-educated masses. It became a cesspool of illegality right from the start and soon began its process of causing the general public to think of CB and ham radio as one and the same, since most people had no knowledge of the difference between the two. The advent of CB was the first giant step in the bastardization of the ham radio hobby. The quality of ham radio operators and the hobby as a whole has gone downhill ever since. I believe that the eventual demise of ham radio will be as a result of the negative influences of the citizen band, or more specifically, the CB' ers themselves. Most of the recent watering-down of the licensing requirements have happened because of CB'ers not being capable of passing real tests, but wanting to " git on thet thar raadio " anyway. For anyone calling himself or herself a ham, or for any legitimate manufacturer, or any legitimate organization, to promote any kind of " freeband " operation on a dx-pedition is a slap in the face to the ham radio community. All steps possible should be taken to discourage and eliminate this type of activity. We won' t have to worry about the internet destroying our hobby; the CB' ers are doing that quite well. We certainly don' t need to help them by letting the gross illegality of " freebanding " become an acceptable practice. M. Kent Miller - K4MK Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
