Owners of 40 channel CB radios will be able to keep using them after ACMA reversed a decision to make their use illegal from June 1

February 6, 2017

A decision to make 40 channel CB radios illegal from June 1 has been overturned.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced on Friday it had reversed a decision that would have forced users to switch to 80 channel CB radios, because congestion on CB frequencies had decreased.

The CB radios are widely used in the transport industry and on some farming properties, and some users would have faced heavy costs to make the switch.

“Recent monitoring conducted by ACMA indicates that the CB radio spectrum is now operating effectively and provides sufficient access to CB channels for users,” ACMA said.

“ACMA therefore considers that the 2011 changes have already led to a reduction in congestion, and will continue to do so as 25 kHz equipment is progressively replaced by the 12.5 kHz equipment mandated in the current technical standard.

“In these circumstances, imposition of the present time limit on the use of legacy 25 kHz CB equipment already in private hands is seen as an unnecessary imposition on CB users.”

ACMA said it also proposes to remove the limitation on the use of CB stations to link CB channels and CB repeaters after concerns that this practice would cause interference were found to be groundless.

In relation to CB repeater interlinking, ACMA said it considers that other compliance mechanisms may be more appropriate to manage interference that might arise from the interlinking of repeaters.


 

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