That was a subject of great debate among both Hams and CB operators as 
late as the mid 60s.

The most prominent reason I heard expressed by hams was not enough 
amateur activity on 11 meters.

Other hams insisted that there was plenty of activity, including local 
mobile and emergency nets.

However, since 11 meters was a shared band between the amateur service 
and various industrial devices as has been discussed here recently, it 
was much easier for the FCC to boot the amateur service off of the 
band. I have long suspected that was a strong factor in the decision.

Another reason was economics. CB was intended to be a more affordable 
radio service for small businesses. In 1956, "good" equipment for 11 
meters was much cheaper to produce than it would have been for a VHF 
range, even as low as 6 meters. Yes, there was vhf, and even UHF 
equipment out there, but the more stable equipment cost big bucks.

By the mid 1970s, there was a proposal for yet another new CB service 
which would have taken part of the 220 mhz band.

Again, the lack of activity was sited as a reason behind it. But, the 
fact that the 220 band was not an international amateur allocation 
also made this proposal, along with the one which ultimately did take 
2 mhz out of the band in the early 1990s, much easier for the FCC to 
handle.

Regarding the 220 MHZ CB proposal, it was supported by groups such as 
React, and by many individual CB operators who were not interested in 
being able to talk with stations around the world while not being able 
to communicate across the street.

The proposal, as you know, ultimately failed. But, while it was alive, 
rumors flew that many Japanese companies had "warehouses full" of 10 
channel 220 CB rigs ready to unleash on the marketplace. Midland was 
the company I remember hearing mentioned most of the time on this 
subject.

While this was a possibility, many amateurs of the day including me, 
always thought that excluding a few prototypes for demonstration 
purposes, these rigs existed for the most part only on paper. The 
logic for this thinking was that if these rigs really did exist, why 
weren't they unleashed on the amateur radio market rather than allowed 
to become trash.


Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs