UHF Going to 77 channels?

[mitch]

G'day all

New here, sorry if its the wrong place to out this. Couldn't find this info elsewhere so thought i'd ask.

Have heard that UHF CB is going to increase from the current 40 channels up to 77 channels. Can anyone tell me when this is supposed to be happening? I see uniden has released a model already, the UH7700NB.

"The UH7700NB is 77 Channel Ready* making it one of the first UHF mobiles in the market available and user upgradeable for free when the ACMA standard is published early in the year"

Is there any other radios that will be capable of the upgrade as is or will it basically mean time to buy new one?

Cheers
Mitch

[rochedalescan]

Most commercial radio's capable of being programmed will be okay however the ones that are pre-programed like alot of unidens other UHF's will be useless.

[Comint]

Have heard that UHF CB is going to increase from the current 40 channels up to 77 channels.

Officially, it is going to 80 channels, but Chs 22 and 23 are reserved for Telemetry (NO Voice), and in the past, some manufacturers have chosen to omit these channels so as to remove the temptation for the Channels to be used incorrectly, although this doesn't appear to be the case with the UH7700NB.

In the proposed Channel Plan, there are three Channels marked as "Reserved for future use" (Chs 61, 62, and 63), as these 'bracket' Chs 22 and 23, so it looks like Uniden may have chosen to omit these from the Channel line-up.

You may care to have a read of this document.

Can anyone tell me when this is supposed to be happening?

Well, it was supposed to be happening in January 2011, but late last year the ACMA found that they hadn't completed all the Legislative processes, so it is delayed till an unspecified date, later this year.

--
Comint

[ryancal]

is there any new update to when this is going to happen as i am holding off on buying a new set to the 80 chn is in

[Phil]

When the ACMA do up the new class license, if you do purchase this item there will be a way to unlock these channels in the future