Re: [IRCA] QSLing (now somewhat OT)

[AM-DXer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Griffith, N0NNK / WPE9HVW)]

That other Patrick :-) said: These are old original historic CB veries
from the 40s/50s I believe.
/////
Patrick, I think the class A and Class B citizens bands came into being
in the late 40s around the end of World War II. They were in the 460 to
470 MHz UHF band. I believe class A eventually evolved into what we now
know as GMRS and class B evolved into what we now know as FRS. Class C
was for business use. The 27 MHz class D citizens band came into being
in the late 50s. The 27 MHz band was formally a government band used
mostly by the military and the Forest Service. It was also the 11 meter
amateur band on a secondary basis. The original class D call letters
were issued as 1 or 2 numeric characters followed by an alpha character
and then 4 more numerics such as 2A1402, 7C2155, 16Q2399, or 20F3309.
The beginning numerics indicated the call district of the licensee. I
believe there were 24 call districts. I lived in northern Illinois which
was in the 18th call district. The ham radio operator who sparked my
interest in radio in the mid 60s held the CB call 18B2922 in addition to
his amateur radio call which was K9YOD. The FCC got into hot water with
the ITU over this series of CB calls since the format did not comply
with the ITU requirement that US calls start with A, N, K, or W. The FCC
thought that since the service was not designed for international use it
did not need to comply with the ITU. The ITU didn't agree. The system
was then converted to the 3 alpha 4 numeric format that most people are
familiar with such as KLK5459 (my old call). If your QSLs are from the
early class A or class B UHF service they are probably very rare. But I
don't know of any groups that collect them. If the QSLs are from the
class D citizens band service they are probably of little value. Huge
boxes of these are seen regularly on e-Bay selling for just a few
dollars. The shipping usually costs more than the cards themselves.

Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO
http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/
http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/

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