[BC] Older Cordless phones

[Kevin Tekel]

Dana Puopolo wrote:
> Those cordless phones also used CB channels at 27 mHz. Since they used
> FM, they were also illegal there.

FWIW, when CB radios became popular in the '70s, many were brought over
to Europe, where they were illegal.  A legal 27 MHz Citizen's Band was
eventually established in Europe, using the same channels as the U.S.
band, but most countries declared NBFM to be the preferred modulation
method.
As a result, CB radios in Europe commonly are either NBFM-only, or offer
both AM and NBFM.

In our CB allocation, there are five channel gaps reserved for use by
remote-control devices: 26.995, 27.045, 27.095, 27.145, and 27.195 MHz. 
These are probably the channels that 27 MHz cordless phones used, as
conversations on these channels would not be audible on a CB radio, even
if the phone used AM.  A remote-control allocation at 27.255 MHz also
pre-dated the CB service; it originally was placed atop the 11-meter ham
radio band, and when that band was turned into CB, this frequency became
shared with CB radio channel 23.

As for 46/49 MHz cordless phones, they were still popular well into the
late '90s due to their low price.  But once 2.4 GHz was allocated and
became the "premium" cordless phone band, 900 MHz became the "bargain"
cordless phone band and 46/49 MHz phones quickly disappeared from the
market.

p.s. I love watching cheesy '80s movies in which a cordless phone rings
and the person has to pull out a long whip antenna in order to answer it. 
Same thing with cell phones in the '80s, unless the person was using a
"car phone" with a corded handset and a curly-cue antenna stuck on the
rear window.  Pulling out an antenna tells everyone within sight, "Hey,
look at me, I'm answering (or making) a telephone call!", while today's
spindly little vestigal-whip and no-whip phones can't make that statement,
and thus need to use cheesy and highly annoying "ring tones" in order to
compensate.


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com