More Background...

• Prior to 1981 there was (I think I'm right in saying) no allocation for wireless personal telecommunication for the 'general public' in the United Kingdom.  Yes - there was amateur radio, with its tight operating requirements; and PMR (Private Mobile Radio) as a costly and constrained facility for business and institutional use; and 'Car Phones' for the few (diplomats etc) which operated in the VHF part of the spectrum and took up serious boot space - but there was nothing that just anybody could buy, get a license, and use for two-way radio communication. There weren't  even cordless telephones!

  The USA had for many years had a CB radio service, which by the late 1970's had 40 channels within a frequency allocation of 26.965MHz  to 27.405Mhz ,  with AM and SSB modes permitted (Amplitude Modulation and Single SideBand).
  It was equipment designed for this american service which found its way to UK shores to be thoroughly enjoyed, illicitly, by thousands of 'breakers' (CB'ers) between the mid-to-late 1970's and 1981. Media reports of late-1980 / early-1981 estimated, if memory serves me rightly, about 250,000 illegal CB operators in the UK at that time. Something had to be done...
  The legal CB service introduced in 1981 - designated CB27/81 - permitted FM (Frequency Modulation) mode only, on 40 channels within frequency allocation 27.60125MHz to 27.99125MHz (unique to UK), leaving all of the equipment already in use rather 'out in the cold'.
  In 1988 the UK finally had to provide a CB service within 26.965MHz to 27.405MHz , but still only FM, for compatibility with other E.E.C. (European Economic Community) nations - this was designated PR27GB. However, by this time, many original operators who still had old equipment (all-be-it in the attic) capable of FM mode on the 'Mid Shift' had probably either been sidelined by the original legal system's incompatibility, or drifted away from the new face of CB since its legal introduction.
  It is possible that the introduction of a CB service in the UK, due mainly to the large-scale illicit use of CB type equipment, was the thin end of the wedge as regards opening up public access to the airwaves, as since that provision have come the following allocations, to mention but a few, in the sphere of personal radio telecommunications:-

  • License exempt low-power 49MHz two-way communication.
    Cordless Telephones
    License exempt low-power telemetry and control devices e.g. Alarm & Locking Key-fobs.
    Mobile Telephones
    Short Range Business Radio
    PMR446 'Family Radio' (from 1999)
  So, with regard to pre-1981 use of CB equipment in the UK, could it be a case of...
  'Never, in the field of personal telecommunications, has so much been owed by so many, to so few'? (Sorry Winston)

  Tequila Sunrise