ACBRO Team Inc (CB Radio)

Australian Association Of Citizens

And Band Radio Operators Inc 1980

Do You Remember When

1980

ACBRO Home Page

1980 March, Adelaide SA

CB RALLY OF 1980

July 1st 1977, saw CB Radios and the Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) become legally recognized. The Government of the day proposed that there would be a cessation of the 27 Mhz HF band in 1982 in favour of introducing the 466/477 Mhz UHF band as the preferred medium. Faced with the very real possibility that the 27 Mhz band would cease to be legally recognized, CBers in every state began to organize themselves in large numbers to protest and lobby the Government for the retention of the 27 Mhz HF band. In 1980, demonstrations, rallies and motorcades were the order of the day...and the rest is history.

A "scrap book" of letters, documents, newspaper clippings and photos of the Adelaide chapter of the rally of 1980 has been generously forwarded to ACBRO with reprint permission by Pioneer Radio 671 Joe, of The Pioneer Radio Club Australia & New Zealand (PO Box 1 Para Hills SA 5096) who was a rally organizer at the time. Thank you Joe, Pioneer Radio 671 of The Pioneer Radio Club Australia & New Zealand for your generosity in allowing for the publication of your "scrap book" on the ACBRO website. To view the scrap book click here (Pease allow time for the pages to completely "open up" as some of the files are large.)

1980 May, Adelaide SA

ACBRO FORMED

This year (1980)  has seen the formation of the Australian Association Of Citizens And Band Radio Operators Inc., (ACBRO) following the rallies that lobbied the Federal Government to retain the Citizens Band Radio Service, (CBRS) after moves by the Federal Government to abolish the system and render the use of a CB radio as illegal. ACBRO started sending around petitions for the retention of the service and had aligned themselves with the Labor Party. As a result of the call to retain the CBRS, the Shadow Minister for the Postal and Telecommunications, Mr. T Innes, decided that a CB policy would be in order for its retention.

1980 November, Canberra VIC

NEW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS

Ian Sinclair was appointed Minister for Communications (formerly Posts & Telecommunications) by the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser. Mr. Sinclair replaced Mr. Tony Staley who had resigned from Parliament for personal reasons. Together with the change of Minister, and the change of tide, Mr. Sinclair's department had changed its name also, to that of the Department of Communications (DOC). The change in names has reflected the changing role of the Department and its Minister towards communications. This was all a by-product of the separation of the Post Master General (PMG) into different sections that had begun a few years earlier.

1980 December, Washington USA

US CBERS GET REFUNDS

American CBer's operating between 1970 and 1975 were on the receiving end of a refund of their licence fees. Four years after a Federal Court struck down its licensing fee schedule, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were in the process of refunding $31 million to an estimated 2.4 million CB and Ham radio enthusiasts. The fee refund program stemmed from a December 1976, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, in which the FCC was found to be charging fees that generated more money than it cost to process licence requests. "The biggest problem," according to the then FCC's Richard J. Keller, "is to make sure that the 13 million to 14 million Americans who received a CB  licence after March 1, 1975, and who thus paid only $4, understand they are not eligible for a refund. Even if the FCC succeeds in getting this point across, the agency expects a flood of applications." At the time of this landmark decision, private radio chief Carlos V. Roberts estimated that there were roughly 1 million CB radio user by early 1975 who would have been considered as eligible for a $17.99 refund by filling out an FCC form.

CBer's in Australia, might ponder the very thought as to whether the licence fees they were paying prior to their abolishment had generated more income for the Government then the cost to have processed them. One Australian CBer commented, “Personally speaking and in retrospect I believe the only benefit I received from paying a licence fee was so I could be labeled with the callsign SAK 388.”

Source:
CB ACTION, CB FOCUS, CB MONTHLY, THE NEWS, THE ADVERTISER, THE MESSENGER, CB RADIO OPERATORS