About the CB Radio Band
Citizens Band (CB Radio Service) is a private two-way voice communication
service for use in personal and business activities of the general
public. Its communications range is from one to ten miles. License
documents are neither needed nor issued and there are no age or
citizenship requirements.
You
may operate your CB radio within the territorial limits of the
fifty United States, the District of Columbia, and the Caribbean
and Pacific Insular areas ("U.S."). You may also operate
your CB radio on or over any other area of the world, except within
the territorial limits of areas where radio-communications are
regulated by another agency of the U.S. or within the territorial
limits of any foreign government. You may also be permitted to
use your CB radio in Canada subject to the rules of Industry Canada.
Travelers to the U.S. may operate a CB radio within the U.S. as
long the unit is FCC certificated.
There are no height restrictions for CB radio antennas mounted
on vehicles or for hand-held units. For structures, the highest
point of your CB radio 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
CB radio antenna structure is located within two miles of an airport.
Rules & Regulations
The FCC rules and regulations for CB radio are codified in Title
47 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). They are initially
published in the Federal Register. The FCC does not maintain a
database of its rules nor does it print or stock copies of the
rules and regulations. That task is performed by the Government
Printing Office (GPO). After October 1 of each year, the GPO compiles
all the changes, additions, and deletions to the FCC rules and
publishes an updated CFR.
The
rules for CB radios are provided in text version and in portable
document format (PDF) and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat
Reader.
You can check the Federal Register to review rule changes since
October 1, 2004.
