In the US, as I recall, it's 150 miles. I used to operate on 11 
meters and always wondered why, if we weren't supposed to talk over 150 
miles, we were allocated a group of frequencies where it was quite easy 
to do so a good deal of the time. Guess that's government for ya.
colin McDonald wrote:
> yep, it's illegal to knowingly seek out and talk to dx or distant stations 
> on the designated north american citizens band frequencies IE 26.965 to 
> 27.405MHZ.
> I read it once, but I forget exactly how they define distance.
> I believe it actually might only mean outside of your own country.
> there are also regulations surrounding antenna gain and types of 
> antennas...your not supposed to use a directional antenna on the cb 
> frequencies or exceed a certain EIRP...in canada anyway
> of course, the band is very seldom regulated or regulations enforced unless 
> there are complaints to industry canada, or the FCC in the US.
> there is nothing you can do if your signal is being received by a dx 
> station, as long as you don't knowingly try to contact that station.
> again, it's also illegal to use more than 12W of transmitter power into the 
> antenna on SSB on the cb frequencies and how many CB'ers actually adhere to 
> that reg hi hi.
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Martin McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 9:29 AM
> Subject: Re: The bands
>
>
>   
>> I got my first really good short wave receiver in 1966.
>> It was a Halicrafter's SX100 and its upper limit was 34 MHZ but
>> it would do pretty well up to 37 MHZ due to rather poor image
>> rejection at the very high end.
>>
>> In 1966, the Sun was starting to wake up again after the
>> preceeding minimum so I remember a number of Winter days with
>> nothing but hiss and power line buzz above about 23 MHZ. One
>> could usually hear some broadcasters above 15 meters and that
>> was pretty much all.
>>
>> There were a few faint Sporadic E openings in which one
>> could hear the CB stations on eleven meters, but it was the fact
>> that you could always tell when ten was open to somewhere by
>> checking eleven that really burned in to my brain. Here it is 44
>> years later and I still do the same thing only the modern way. I
>> have three CB channels programmed in to an ICR75 receiver. One
>> is 27.025 which is CB Channel 6, 27.185 which is CB channel 19
>> and sideband channel 38 because a lot of CBers hang out there
>> and talk skip on sideband. Talking skip, by the way, is still
>> illegal in the United States for the CB service but if there is
>> even the slightest opening, you hear a bunch of them with their
>> made-up call signs and rather odd speech mannerisms but it sure
>> lets one know if ten meters should be open.
>>
>> CB Channel 6 is where a large number of AM stations with
>> really biiiiiiiiiig linears appear to create their own
>> ionosphere by brute force.
>>
>> Is talking skip illegal in Canada, also? When we have a
>> big band opening, I hear loads of canadian stations doing the
>> same things that their American brethren are doing here and I
>> suspect that it is probably just as illegal in Canada as it is
>> here.
>>
>> My wife even commented one time that what you hear on
>> the ham bands is generally smarter and more well behaved. I have
>> not played her some of the garbage that used to go on on twenty
>> meters and on 80 late at night but I have told her about it and
>> we both comment on what a waste of time it must be to get an
>> amateur license and then spend days just being a total jerk.
>>
>> When I decide to kick back and see what's on, eleven
>> meters is the first place I check and then I check ten if eleven
>> was hopping. Another really good place to check is the repeater
>> subband at the high end of ten. You would be amazed at times
>> what is there.
>>
>> Several years ago during early November, I discovered a
>> New York repeater which is part of a large system in New York
>> state. That's nothing special except I picked it up at 2:30 in
>> the morning here in Oklahoma. Reception was poor but the fact
>> one could hear them at all was interesting.
>>
>> If you want to see if 6 is open, it is still worth
>> checking the television channel frequencies between Channels 2
>> and 6. Canada is supposed to go digital next year but Mexico is
>> not scheduled to go digital until 2021 so we should hear lots of
>> Spanish on those channels for years to come.
>>
>> There are lots of neat ways to know if the bands are
>> open and you just never know when the higher bands may wake up
>> and let in the whole world.
>>
>> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK
>> Systems Engineer
>> OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group
>> colin McDonald writes:
>>     
>>> and yet there are still guys who will go on at great length about how
>>> terrible HF is and to not even bother getting on the HF bands when 
>>> they're
>>> talking to new hams. 
>>>       
>
>