• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

FCC's rules about the CB Radio.

Status
Not open for further replies.

whiskeytango

Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2009
Messages
320
Location
sacramento ca/reno nv
Antennas

There are no height restrictions for antennas mounted on vehicles or for hand-held units. For structures, the highest point of your antenna must not be more than 20 feet above the highest point of the building or tree on which it is mounted, or 60 feet above the ground. There are lower height limits if your antenna structure is located within two miles of an airport.

how big you tryin to go?
 

N0IU

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2009
Messages
802
Location
Wentzville, Missouri
FCC: Wireless Services: Citizens Band: Operations

And a question about Antenna height. I'm confused about this. Are they talking about Hand Held's only? Or are they talking about the bigger Radio's that are connected to your car/truck battery? Like the Cobra 29LTD?
From the link the OP provided:

"There are no height restrictions for antennas mounted on vehicles or for hand-held units."

And you wonder why some people (not me of course!), find it hard to take CB'ers seriously! Makes you wonder if he even bothered to read it?
 

Allan_Love_Jr

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2005
Messages
884
Location
Arlington, Nebraska
Antennas

There are no height restrictions for antennas mounted on vehicles or for hand-held units. For structures, the highest point of your antenna must not be more than 20 feet above the highest point of the building or tree on which it is mounted, or 60 feet above the ground. There are lower height limits if your antenna structure is located within two miles of an airport.

how big you tryin to go?
Off into Space :D
 

roadranger

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2006
Messages
303
Location
Athens, Ga
It might be best...

...to run a dipole to the max height for the longest distance, anyway. The top of the antenna is only so short a distance above the rest of the dipole, anyway.
 

kb2vxa

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
6,100
Location
Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.
Seriously, unless you're in an airport glide path with a tower that could take the wheels off a jet I wouldn't worry about height restrictions I've never seen enforced. There are far worse things you can do on CB, the FCC has bigger fish to fry like those knuckleheads on channel 6 AKA The Bowl. Now don't take this as an endorsement to break the rules but they can be bent a little within reason without any undue consequences, it happens all the time.
 

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,226
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
Many years ago when the FCC visited to inspect my station they measured the height of my CB antenna. Fortunately it didn't add to the fine I got for not identifying my station, which was licensed at the time.
prcguy
 

gewecke

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
7,452
Location
Illinois
The FCC Rules.

Yer joshin' right? I thought they were just a myth! Like the proverbial,mysterious white van skulking around in suspected neighborhoods? Yeah Right!:lol::lol:
N9ZAS
 

vagrant

ker-muhj-uhn
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Messages
3,150
Location
California
Yer joshin' right? I thought they were just a myth! Like the proverbial,mysterious white van skulking around in suspected neighborhoods? Yeah Right!:lol::lol:
N9ZAS
It's no myth. I remember about 30 years ago they came knocking on my door and yes they were in a van. (Not sure if it was light green, or white as it was night.) I let them hook up a box to my equipment, as I wasn't doing anything illegal and was more interested in what they would look for. Their box just checked for the power/watts to see if I was pushing the five watt limit.

Anyways, I didn't get a ticket, I wasn't even a teenager at the time. I had been cussing and playing some music, but just a short clip of something. What they were after wasn't there. I didn't run an amp/linear of any kind. I just had a 1/4 wave antenna on the roof and a low SWR that gave me some good boom.

(Yes, my parents were home at the time, but it was my radio. No one else in my family ever used it.)
 

kb2vxa

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
6,100
Location
Point Pleasant Beach, N.J.
30 years ago it was a different FCC altogether and they actually had monitoring stations. Yup, they gave us close attention and enforced the rules, I actually became an assistant of sorts helping them resolve a few problems at their request. No, I never ratted out anybody, purely technical stuff like tracking down a source of TVI that turned out to be a defective transmitter radiating a strong 3rd harmonic from its case. Eh, they usually don't carry low pass filters and dummy loads around with them. (;->)

Still they were agreeable and always worked things out with the least hassle, mostly warnings and only the most flagrant violators got NALs. The monitoring stations closed and staff was cut to the bone, these days they concentrate on the worst violators, the broadcast industry. All else is on a complaint only basis and one must present plenty of hard evidence just to motivate an investigation, all else gets the brush. Oh don't think CBers or anyone else won't get hammered, they still take serious violations seriously so while a few bent rules won't amount to much as always the best thing is stay legal and stay safe.

Van? What van? This is the "FCCmobile" that visited me in days of yore, a '63 Dodge Dart with G12 plates. (;->)
 
Last edited:

DX949

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
364
30 years ago it was a different FCC altogether and they actually had monitoring stations. Yup, they gave us close attention and enforced the rules, I actually became an assistant of sorts helping them resolve a few problems at their request. No, I never ratted out anybody, purely technical stuff like tracking down a source of TVI that turned out to be a defective transmitter radiating a strong 3rd harmonic from its case. Eh, they usually don't carry low pass filters and dummy loads around with them. (;->)

Still they were agreeable and always worked things out with the least hassle, mostly warnings and only the most flagrant violators got NALs. The monitoring stations closed and staff was cut to the bone, these days they concentrate on the worst violators, the broadcast industry. All else is on a complaint only basis and one must present plenty of hard evidence just to motivate an investigation, all else gets the brush. Oh don't think CBers or anyone else won't get hammered, they still take serious violations seriously so while a few bent rules won't amount to much as always the best thing is stay legal and stay safe.

Van? What van? This is the "FCCmobile" that visited me in days of yore, a '63 Dodge Dart with G12 plates. (;->)[/QUOTE

Yep your right.......You never no what kind of rat is out there........hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
 

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,226
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
Its true, wish I still had the pink slip I later received in the mail with the $50 fine. These particular guys showed up in a brown Ford with little hub caps and blackwall tires. They had apparently monitored me with the van and used another vehicle for the visit.

Years later I spotted an FCC van on a hilltop location near Los Angeles and got up enough nerve to knock on the door. The thing that got my attention was the white Gov plates and CDE rotor on the bumper with telescoping mast up to roof level which was not deployed. The nice engineer invited me inside, gave a rundown of all the equipment including a Singer FM-10 and Radio Shack scanner and mentioned that day was being spent monitoring marine radio traffic. I have a picture from 25yrs ago and will post if I can find it.
prcguy





Yer joshin' right? I thought they were just a myth! Like the proverbial,mysterious white van skulking around in suspected neighborhoods? Yeah Right!:lol::lol:
N9ZAS
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2004
Messages
1,217
Location
Tulsa
Back in the mid 70's the FCC still came to town to conduct quarterly FCC license exams, they some times came a couple of days early to conduct radio station inspections. I was managing a rather large Motorola MSS and the eningeer showed up one day and wanted to inspect a local facility with several radios; the funny part he let me choose which site. We got in his sedan and under the dash he had a Collins tube type S line general coverage receiver, I took him to a convenant site and he unloaded a Singer FM10 and set up and monitored the transmitters for about an hour, didn't find any violations and we left.
 

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,226
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
When they inspected my CB "station" in the 70s and I walked the FCC guys to my radio room they gasped and asked which of these (many many) radios where you using on the night of bla bla.

I was able to choose one with the least amount of modifications and my station passed. It was well worth the small fine for not using my call sign at the time just for the experience of the visit.
prcguy

Back in the mid 70's the FCC still came to town to conduct quarterly FCC license exams, they some times came a couple of days early to conduct radio station inspections. I was managing a rather large Motorola MSS and the eningeer showed up one day and wanted to inspect a local facility with several radios; the funny part he let me choose which site. We got in his sedan and under the dash he had a Collins tube type S line general coverage receiver, I took him to a convenant site and he unloaded a Singer FM10 and set up and monitored the transmitters for about an hour, didn't find any violations and we left.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top