Citizens Band Radio

An unidentified driver is interviewed demonstrating the illegal use of Citizens Band Radio. CBers use callsigns and shared channels on US equipment as shown in the film Convoy (1978). “Breaker, breaker one nine” asking to break into Channel 19, epitomises the open on air conversations with phonetic alphabet and ten-codes for shortened messages. CB radio is a system of short-distance two-way radio communication used as an early system of mobile voice communication.

Introduced into the UK in the early seventies with unlicensed solid state radio equipment coming from the US, CBers joined clubs and lobbied for legalisation. By November 1981 the 27 MHz band on FM was granted by a licence fee paid at the Post Office. This led to CB radios being one of the biggest selling gifts for Christmas in 1981 and to CBers converting their previously illegal US AM sets. CBs were useful for reporting incidents or calling emergency services but could be unreliable and CBers were often ridiculed for the use of fake jargon. Hand-held walkie-talkies, remote controls, toys and radio-controlled scale models still use 27 MHz frequency although modellers were offered the 35 MHz frequency in 1981.