In the early 70's the CB band also required a license. When the "CB boom"
hit in the mid 70's, the FCC found it didn't have the resources to handle
the huge influx of applications, or the the resources to enforce people
operating without a liscense. So to save face - they threw the service
open to free usage.

To date, I've never heard of a case of FCC enforcement on CB that didn't
involve numerous complaints about the same operator coupled with the FCC
being spoon fed the location of the offender. These complaints always
involved very excessive power, or extremely profane operation. Unliscensed
operation was way too petty to squander resources on.

-W


"Keith" wrote in message

Now how many folks who got these for Christmas do you think are going to
apply for an FCC license? Sure reminds me of the old CB radio days. Just
another taxation scheme.