The First, The Original, The Most Informative & The Most Copied…
The British Breakers Mag. — WE LEAD… OTHERS FOLLOW!
From the illegal AM days of 1980 through the great FM legalisation of November 1981 and beyond — this is the living archive of Britain’s original CB magazine.
All content drawn from the original printed pages of CB Radio — The British Breakers Mag.
Before legalisation, tens of thousands of British breakers ran American-spec 27 MHz AM gear. The Home Office hunted them; the magazines (including this one) documented the scene, the clubs, the DX, and the growing campaign for a proper British CB service.
“We don’t rely on half-clad young ladies… we bring you, the British breaker, the facts about CB and nothing else!”
After years of lobbying, the government finally authorised a 27 MHz FM service (CB 27/81). The November 1981 issue of CB Radio declared “NOW IT’S LEGAL” and carried the first practical reviews of the new legal rigs — Amstrad, Midland and more. Production couldn’t keep up with demand; many Christmas stockings went empty.
AM sets could be “transverted” to legal FM provided back-duty was paid and the set was stamped with the official logo.
Shows at Wembley, new British and imported FM gear, linear amplifiers (some of dubious safety), power-supply horror stories, and endless antenna tests. The magazine celebrated its second birthday, launched the Apollo series, and kept the British breaker informed while the rest of the press moved on.
By the time you read this, FM CB will be legal. This is the first time this statement has ever appeared in CB Radio Magazine. Unlike other publications WE GET IT RIGHT! Well, almost… since August we had been saying CB would be legal on 1st November. Nobody checked the calendar to discover that November the first was a Sunday. You can’t expect us to be intelligent as well as clairvoyant, now can you?
We would very much like to welcome all the new readers. If you are looking through this issue while standing in W. H. Smith’s and not sure which magazine to buy, look no further. Forget all the imitations. We were the first and we are still the best.
“If you want to read about car cassette decks or fighter planes, Playboy is on the top shelf next to Mayfair.”
As we predicted, the Home Office announcement made allowances for AM breakers to have their sets converted to FM. Ever since we published that article we have been bombarded with calls about where to get this service. The number for Finelms Electronic (Warrington) is (0925) 574691.
It is most important that if you are considering having your rig transverted from AM to “legal” FM you get a receipt for the back duty and that the rig is stamped with the CB27/81 logo. Unless the set has had the back duty paid and bears that stamp it will still be illegal to operate, regardless of what the person doing the transversion tells you.
In the earliest issues the magazine covered the National Committee for the Legalisation of CB, the Discussion Document, and the official stance of the Radio Society of Great Britain. The RSGB made it clear they were neither for nor against a citizens’ band, provided it did not harm the amateur service — a position that helped shape the eventual 27 MHz FM allocation.
The Christmas issue asked the hard question many breakers were whispering: had the government chosen the wrong mode? Alongside the debate sat a complete DIY project — “How to Build a 27 FM Rig” — and the first big round-up of what legal equipment was actually available in the shops.
The September 1982 cover featured a smoking “Dodgy – Power Supply – Unregulated – Potentially Dangerous” unit. Inside, the magazine tested a selection of non-lethal power supplies and warned breakers about the cheap unregulated bricks that could (and did) destroy expensive new FM gear — or worse.
Every cover from the archive. Click a cover to enlarge, or use the Download PDF button under each one to get the full magazine from the BPFRG library.
Full PDFs available from the BPFRG Downloads library. Click any title to download.
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