Originally Posted by tired old man

Citizens band radio also known as CB {11 meter band 26.965 to 27.405MHz} does not require a license. The license requirement went away in the late 70's. Darn near everyone and their left handed read headed uncle Jim had a CB and few bothered to get a license or call sign. Most that did have a license used a handle instead anyway. You can still legally make a call sign up by using the letter K your initials and the last four digits of your zip code, social security number or phone number, but you might as well use a handle like everyone else.


My first CB call sign was KID1134 but I let it expire. A few years later when I decided to open my shop I got a new license and was issued KAEE6623 as my last CB call sign just before they stopped having them. I can use that until such time as I die if I so desire.


When I had my shop I kept the license applications on hand. All anyone had to do was fill it out and send it and some money in and in a few weeks they would get a call sign that was good for up to 5 radios. Later you could still send in for the same license but there was no charge.


My amateur radio call sign will expire in 2023. I have the option of renewing it {online for free} or letting it expire. If I do let it expire I still have the option of renewing it {for a fee} for two more years. If I die and one of my relatives wants my call they will have first shot at it {for a fee through the vanity call system} for the same two years after my death.


If no one wants it the FCC will toss it back into the call sign pool and some new ham will more than likely get it some day.


FRS used to require a license but I think the FCC gave up on trying to enforce that just like CB. GMRS radio does require you to be licensed but again the FCC is just to understaffed to enforce much on the band. With places like Bestbuy, Radio Shack and Walmart selling GMRS radios in blister packs for around $20.00 for two radios, there are just to many of them around being used illegally.


Not so long ago, locally, the FCC made a bust of a bunch of coyote hunters that were using marine band hand held radios to coordinate their coyote hunts.


Lately a lot of people who call themselves “Prepper's” have been buying the cheap Chinese Baofeng{and other brand} radios that will transmit in the ham bands and using them without licenses. Since I am licensed this bothers me a lot.


If TSHTF and the zombi acropolis thing happens I will be happy enough to talk to unlicensed folk I guess, but until then they really need to get a license, it ain't that hard.


While I was growing up listening to foreigner broadcast radio station late at night I would sometimes hear amateur radio operators sending code or sometimes using AM phone or even the 'newfangled' {at the time} unintelligible {without more circuitry than most home broadcast radios had} SBB phone and wonder about it all.


What I really wanted a broadcast band AM radio of my very own to use in my bedroom to listen to WLS and KAAY when I wanted to. This caused me to start reading about how to build a radio. I built several crystal sets but they were to limited in range. With the large family I was in {there were 11 counting mom and dad} money was usually pretty scarce so it wasn't like I could just go buy a new radio to listen to.


I ended up scavenging one from the town dump and rebuilding it. Later my neighbor who was the extra class ham sold me a general coverage Hammerlund receiver. My folks were a little ticked that he was charging me {a mere lad of 9 years old} $50.00 for the old radio. At the time the Hammerlund was barely 5 years old and worth a lot more than $50.00.


I mowed a lot of lawns shoveled a lot of snow and raked more than one garden and lawn to pay for that radio. Mom and dad relented a lot when I finally brought the radio home and built a good outdoor antenna for it and could tune in WSM even in the daylight.


My neighbor had wanted me to take the radio as soon as I started paying for it but I told him since he was taking payments over time I wanted him to keep a hold of the radio until it was paid for otherwise I might get tired of paying and have to return the radio.


My grandma sent me enough money to finally pay the radio off for my 10th birthday. I was a very happy lad that day.

Originally Posted by aofarrell2

Owned my computer development business since November 2011, it's finally starting to make some profit.

I owned my own mechanical repair shop, focusing mostly on small engines and ag equipment, from August 2011 to December 2013.

I really haven't had a childhood since I was about 10. Been homeschooled so it's allowed me enough flexibility to do these things. I've always been working some sort of job since I was 11... My family has been really messed up, so I haven't really had a dad to teach me "man things", just the sorta things guys teach guys, so I never learned them early on, and I've only started learning some of those things thanks to some other older guys who have sorta "taken me under their wings" and helped me out somewhat.

Originally Posted by aofarrell2

In Iowa I was told by the gov't officials that I need a license to operate CB radio. Maybe they just didn't know what they were talking about.

I do know that a license is needed to operate high-powered GMRS.

Originally Posted by tired old man

Well there are a lot of other radio applications that also require a license. Business radios and public service come to mind. Most folks that use radios for their job do not have to have their own license for the use of the radio their employers hold one that covers them.

They do have to have 'type accepted' radios for the grade of license they are using and those radios are not field programmable. You can switch between pre-programmed frequencies but can't just punch in a new or different frequency. As far as the FCC is concerned if the employer will allow it and the user has a amateur radio license they can be programmed with amateur radio frequencies if the radio can operate with them. But, you are not allowed to program your ham radios with public service or business frequencies.

I just did a quick search trying to find when the CB license thing ended and the best I can find is sometime in the late '70's. No particular date.

As I recall the first one I got was $25.00 and when I got the new one it was $15.00. when I tried to renew the second one I sent in the proper form along with a money order for $15.00 and they sent the money order back saying I could continue to use the call sign I already had until my death and that there was no fee for that.

This site says you do not need a license for FRS radio use.

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/fami...io-service-frs

Here is a link to the PDF covering the GMRS license

http://wireless.fcc.gov/feesforms/fe...eralmobile.pdf

It appears that $85.00 will cover it and there is no test requirement.

Here is a link to the CB license thing

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/citi...and-cb-service

There now you know lots more than you ever cared to about some radio licenses.

As far as radio dead spots, yeah, there are lots of them around. WIFI works at very high frequencies and generally low power, that is why they are generally so short range. They are short enough wavelengths at such low power that they are easily absorbed or deflected.

Yagi/Uda beam antennas, named after the Japanese co inverters {more commonly just called yagi antenna} can help a lot but most folks have no idea how to build one. They are really quite simple. I used to use a pair of them along with a pair of WIFI routers to send and receive the internet between my house and my trailer house {about a mile apart from each other} for a few years. Unfortunately the foliage {trees mostly} grew to a height that they effectively blocked the signals so the system only works minimally during the winter when the leaves are not on the trees.

Another problem is interference. A lot of things are vertically polarized like broadcast radio services use vertical antennas. But there are all kinds of other things that cause problems from plasma TV's to the cheap switcher power supplies used in a lot of consumer electronics.

The part 15 regulations say your device has to accept most of the interference, some companies like phone, cable, and satellite providers work pretty hard to cure those problems.

My next door neighbors used to put out a huge Christmas light display every year. They would usually at least start around Thanksgiving time and I could pretty well forget about getting on my ham radios until they were turned off at night or until they took the display down after Christmas.

From the sound of things you are probably far enough out of town not to have to put up with your neighbors noises much.

Something I find odd about cell phones is I have a Tracfone cell phone. It is a very basic older model. I can almost always use my phone successfully to make calls or send texts while my daughter who has a Verizon cell phone can not. She pays a lot more to have her named phone, on a monthly plan, than me and I'm pretty sure I use the same cell towers but my service seems much better. I rarely have a dropped call but she might have to recall whomever she is talking to several times to complete a call even if she is sitting in the same room as I am.

Of course she has an Samsung android smart phone and mine is a much older, though digital, plain old Nokia cell phone.