THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAM RADIO AND CB.

From the beginning of the first wireless devices there have been Amateur Radio Operators also known as Hams.

It was these ham radio operators who experimented and developed the radio industry. In the beginning thee were no regulations but as time went by it was understood that without some organization and regulations the whole radio field would become nothing but mass confusion and thus its benefits would be very little. Ham radio, as well as other emerging radio services, was restricted in the frequencies or wave lengths its operators were allowed to use. It also had power restrictions. The restrictions changed as the state of the art of radio changed.

In 1945 a means where businesses and individuals could use radio communications for business and personal communications was provided on the 460 to 470 MHz band. This was called Citizen Band.

For several reasons, which for time I will not explain here, a new band using 27 MHz was added to the Citizen Band radio service in 1958. This meant taking the old 11 meter amateur band to provide area for the new service provided. There was no test required but anyone with a CB station had to register the station with the FCC and be issued a call sign. The restrictions were very clear. They were to have a final input power of no more then 5 watts. They were also antenna height restrictions and restrictions on the distance they were allowed to communicate. CB stations were not to give a general call unless there was a distress. They were to call a station by its call sign and give its own call sign.

The whole idea was to provide an inexpensive two way radio service for the general public and that was all it was meant to be. Thus the above restrictions along with many more were imposed.

Unfortunately there are people who will not follow the rules. There were many who started to use the citizen band frequencies much like Ham radio by giving and answering general calls. They exceeded the power limits, used profanity and cursing which is illegal, and broke every regulation imposed by the FCC. It finally came to the point where the band became totally useless for its intended purpose and a good idea became a bad night mare. The FCC does not have the personnel or the finances to regulate the service.

Some of these people even call themselves hams. They are not hams.

A ham radio operator is allowed to give general call. They can legally talk to other hams all over the world. They have power restrictions but they are much higher then CB. To be a ham requires the individual to be tested in regards to their knowledge of rules and regulations, standard operating procedures, and technical knowledge about radio. Hams have many bands on which they are allowed to operate. Types of communications allowed on the ham bands include, Morse code, radio teletype, AM, FM, SSB, Amateur TV, Facsimile (FAX), and radio control. There are ham repeaters and ham satellites. Hams bounce signals off the Moon back to earth to communicate. The manned space crafts sometimes have hams on board which communicate back to other hams on earth.

The differences between Ham radio and CB are far more then the similarities. If you would be interested in getting involved in some of the exciting things mentioned above or some of many other activities not mentioned above you must first pass the test. I will be starting classes to help you pass the Amateur radio test starting here on this site on 09/04/2007. Meanwhile keep coming back here to learn more about ham radio.