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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 5th Mar 2019, 5:39 pm   #1
supernova
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Default AM CB radio law?

Hi. I don't know if I am posting this in the correct place. I read recently that the government have legalised AM CB radios. I have also been told that the
radio I have, a Ham International Major 360, 120 channel AM/FM upper and lower SSB still cannot be legally used. Any idea why?

I look forward to hearing from you.
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 6:12 pm   #2
Nuvistor
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

Best to read this, the information will be in here.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...izens-band.pdf
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 6:13 pm   #3
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Default Re: am cb radio law

If it's not type approved for the UK, even if what it transmits is the right mode, frequency and power its use still won't be legal.

If it does meet the conditions above and you don't upset anyone, the chances of being "done" are probably minimal. What you choose to risk doing is entirely up to you!
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 6:14 pm   #4
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

See here:-

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...izens-band.pdf

No more discussion about illegal operation please.
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 7:53 pm   #5
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

It is certainly illegal to use the Major radio asked about, because, as others have said, it is not type approved for UK use even though it is coincidentally capable of operating on frequencies and modes which recently became legal to use using type approved equipment only.

This does pose an interesting question about an intermediate group of radios, the Pan-European 'Plus/Multi' type of radios. It was recognised that truck drivers in particular were technically committing an offence when they crossed the border from their own country to some other European country with a CB radio which conformed to their own country's regs. In some cases these drivers were having their radios - perfectly legitimate in their own country - seized at the border crossing.

To address this problem, a new generation of Europe-wide legal 'soft modifiable' radios - typically with 'Plus' or 'Multi' appended to the model name - came into being. They have a 'country' menu setting which means they can be set to conform to the local radio regulations in a wide range of European countries - in the 'UK' mode they have 80 channels - 40 CEPT (European) and 40 CB/27/81 because both sets of channels are legal in the UK. However, they typically only use FM on both of those bands because until recently that was the only mode allowed in the UK.

If set to 'Italy' mode the same set only has the 40 CEPT channels but offers either 4W FM or 4W AM operation, but I would imagine that even these sets can not be said to be legal to use on the CEPT channels and AM mode in the UK, because their type approval only applies in the UK when they are set to their 'UK' mode.
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 9:41 pm   #6
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

I believe there is another problem with most of the "Old" pre-legal sets, in that they were covertly imported into the U.K., and the appropriate customs duty was not paid on them.
This makes them illegal in regard to the law relating to import duty, as distinct from the radio aspect. Tony

Last edited by boxdoctor; 5th Mar 2019 at 9:48 pm.
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Old 5th Mar 2019, 10:14 pm   #7
John KC0G
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

Re. import duty (post #6), the current Harmonized Tariffs and Trades classification for CB transceivers is 8825.60.10.10. Other than possibly the current trade dispute between the US and China, they are free of duty. Does anybody fancy a research project to check the classification and duty in the late 1970's / early 1980's?

VAT is a separate story.

Last edited by John KC0G; 5th Mar 2019 at 10:22 pm. Reason: Typo
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Old 6th Mar 2019, 12:48 am   #8
SiriusHardware
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Default Re: AM CB radio law?

John, not sure if you are aware but this forum is UK based, so we are referring to the law as it stands in the UK. Original CB operation in the UK was with illegally imported USA spec or 'export' spec radios, and because they bypassed UK customs they are still considered contraband and can be treated as such even today. It is technically illegal to own, never mind use, such a radio in the UK.

In 1981, the UK got its own legal CB radio system which operated on unique channels on FM, slightly higher up the 27Mhz band than the otherwise standard 40 channels which most of the world copied from the USA system. Some time later, we also adopted Europe's standardised 40 channels which are on the same frequencies as the USA channels, but using FM rather than AM as in the USA. (Here, they are called the CEPT frequencies).

Just recently, there was another Europe-wide move to allow the use of AM and SSB on the CEPT channels only, and only with equipment which conforms to type approval.

In the meantime, there are still thousands of the original illegally imported radios which, while capable of operating on the CEPT channels on all of the legal modes, can not be legally used because they do not meet type approval.
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