Campaigns

Following ongoing investigations by ACREM members and other CB hobbyists, it has become apparent that many retailers selling CB equipment have little or no knowledge of the CLass Licence or the allocated emergency channels. This often results in customers being given incorrect information that has lead to newcomers using the emergency channels by accident.

During investigations in the Newcastle and Hunter Region of NSW customers visiting several major retailers were told by numerous staff that "there are no laws governing the use of CB" and that "there are no channel allocations" that they needed to be aware of. When confronted with the factual information these employees, and in many cases their managers, indicated that they had no idea that the Class Licence even existed.

In one case, in Tasmania, tourists travelling around Australia were found to be using UHF CB channel 35 to communication between vehicles. When finally confronted by volunteer monitors they advised that the retailer they had purchased the hand-held sets from had told them to use channel 35 to communicate with each other.

Following the death in 2004 of a person in a motor vehicle accident waiting to summon help while monitors took some 40 minutes to clear the emergency channels ACREM vowed to fight an ongoing education campaign in an effort to reduce the instances of interference to the emergency channels. The retailer education campaign is one initiative in this campaign.

How can you help?

When you next pass a retailer that sells CB equipment, call in and ask a few questions. Ask the sales person:

Are the cheap UHF hand-helds CB radio?
Are there any laws that control the use of CB?
Are there any channels that you can’t use on the CB?

Then, if you are given incorrect information (e.g. if they say there are no laws governing CB use, or that there are no channel use restrictions), note the sales persons name, the date and time, and the store name and address and then send the details to us using the form below. ACREM will contact the retailer and provide them with information concerning the CB bands and the emergency channels, and posters that they can display near the CB displays.

If you would like to contact us regarding the above campaign, please use the following form.

Do not use HTML code in any field or you will trigger our spam filter!
* indicates a required field