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“What is the difference in the terminology of a CB and ham radio?”Since I actually READ the question, I’ll restrict my answer to terminology. Terminology includes both what is actually said or communicated on-air, and what is said or written about in the shack, between co-hobbyists.Shack is common, and means the room and/or building where the home equipment is located. Here’s a shack I use sometimes. See why it’s called a shack?First, Amateur Radio, because it began over 100 years ago, and has a much longer tradition.When speaking, most of amateur radio is in plain language that anybody can understand. There are a few odd phrases that evolved from the early pre-WWII experimentations years. Remember that amateur radio started out with guys (almost ALL were guys) going out to the barn or other out-building, or perhaps in the corner of a bedroom, to experiment. Girls were NOT encouraged to experiment. It’s not lady-like. That’s the real reason the operating position is called a shack.As for the label ham, nobody knows for sure, but seems to have come from the pre-radio commercial telegrapher days, where a sloppy telegrapher was said to be ham-fisted. The first commercial wireless radio operators (ships and shore stations) were former land telegraphers, and brought some of that terminology and slang along with them. At the time, wireless spark-gap transmitters were very broad-band, and whoever had the most power could over-ride weaker stations. The amatuer experimenters often had more power, and weren’t very good telegraphers, so the commercial sparkies (remember, they were using spark-gap transmitters) referred to them as hams.There was no regulation, and the airwaves were a free-for-all, as in a donnybrook. A very good book about that is 200 Meters & Down: The Story of Amateur Radio by Clinton Desoto, first published in 1936.Many CW (Continuous Wave, meaning radiotelegraph)) terms migrated to the spoken word. CW uses many acronyms, because sending one letter at a time in Morse Code, at around 25 WPM (Words Per Minute), is very laborious, much like what texters do, today (LOL, ROFL, BFF, etc.).You youngsters think you invented that? Not hardly. Our great, great, grandfathers were doing that before the turn of the LAST century!Here are a few:OM — Old Man — ANY adult male, not just an old one.OT — Old Timer — an old man with lots of experience.YL — Young Lady — any unmarried female, adult or not.XYL — Ex- Young Lady — married woman, usually talking about your wife.HI HI — telegraphic laughter (LOL) — not HA HA, because the Morse Code letter “A” (di-dah) is longer than the letter “I” (di-dit) and telegraphers are lazy.DE — “This is” — part of the station identification, as in “W1AW de N7LRU K” spoken as “double-yew one A double-yew, this is en seven el are you, over” becauseK — “Over” — my transmission is over, now you can talk. Remember, most radio communication is one-way (simplex) and you can’t hear anybody while you are talking.73 — “Best Regards” — in Morse code, it’s (dah-dah-dah-di-dit, di-di-di-dah-dah) See the pattern? It’s part of the farewell signature, as in “73 de N7LRU AR” becauseAR — “OUT” — Done talking. There’s supposed to be a bar over the top of AR, signifying two letter sent with no space between, as in di-dah-di-dah-dit.88 — “love and kisses” — farewell between lovers, as in “88 de N7LRU AR”DX — Distant, as in a distant contact.WX — WeatherQTH — Location. There is a LONG list of “Q-signals” for Morse Code communications. Using them on voice is tolerated, but frowned on. In this context, it refers to the home QTH (my home location) “My QTH is Tacoma, WA.”QSL — “Acknowledge Receipt” In this case, it refers to QSL Cards. A QSL card is a 3x5 postcard with a picture or graphics on one side, with blank spaces for the operator to enter date, time, frequency, mode, and signal strength of a 2-way communication with another ham. After filling it out from the log (you ARE logging your contacts, aren’t you?), you send it to the other ham. Many (if not most) hams collect QSL cards to prove their contacts, either for personal satisfaction and boasting rights ( I contacted Japan on 6-meters!) or for contests and awards. There are all kinds of contests every week, for various modes, frequencies, locations, etc.. There are many awards, such as WAS (Worked All States), WAC (Worked All Continents), etc.. The award originator, such as the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) issue a certificate on completion, which often includes endorsements, such as accomplished on all amateur bands.This particular practice was copied by CBers, starting in the ‘70s. Their QSLs often have outrageous cartoons (outrageous to hams, who are pretty staid, as a group)Other terms describe things like modes, bands, etc.. For example, a “mode” is a method of communications, such as CW, voice, teletype, fax, TV, slow-scan TV, moon-bounce (Use a powerful transmitter connected to a huge antenna array to bounce radio signals off the moon, received by anybody who can also see the moon).Bands are the assigned parts of the frequency spectrum. For those interested, here are the US Amateur bands, as of 7/1/18. Two of them were just authorized after the last International conference in 2015. Bands are referred to by the wavelength, in meters. For example, the most popular shortwave band is 20 meters, around 14 MHz. Up until 1978, there was only one MF (Medium Frequency) and five HF (High Frequency aka “shortwave”) bands: 160/80/40/20/15/10 meters. There was another one, 11 meters, which was re-allocated in the ’50s to the new “Citizen’s Band” which is why hams, and some CBers, refer to it, still, as the 11-meter band.2,200 Meters (135 kHz) — 135.7–137.8 kHz (New Authorization)This band used to be part of the old maritime radio-location band, sending location beacons to ships at sea.630 Meters (472 kHz) — 472–479 kHz (New Authorization)For reference, this band was once part of the old maritime wireless band, with 500 kHz as the international distress frequency, and the AM Broadcast Band is 550–1715 kHz.160 Meters (1.8 MHz) — 1.800–2.000 MHzOften called “Top Band” before there were any allocations at longer wavelengths. This band used to be shared with the old LORAN ship navigations system. The maritime MF voice band is nearby, with the distress frequency at 2182 kHz.80 meters (3.5 MHz) — 3.500–4.000 MHzA nearby maritime voice band has a distress frequency of 4125 kHz.60 Meters (5.3 MHz) — Five channels in 6220.5–5406 kHz.Newer (1978) band shared with government and commercial stations (the only channelized amateur band). A near maritime distress frequency is 6215.0 kHz.40 Meters (7 MHz) — 7.000–7.300 MHzShared with shortwave broadcasters in other sections of the world.30 Meters (10.1 MHz) 10.1–10.15 MHzNewer (1978) band.20 Meters (14 MHz) — 14.000–14.350 MHz17 Meters (18 MHz) — 18.068–18.168 MHzNewer (1978) band. The odd frequencies are the result of international treaty.15 meters (21 MHz) — 21.000–21.450 MHz12 Meters (24 MHz) — 24.890–24.990 MHzNewer (1978) Band. 25 MHz is an international time-standards frequency.11 Meters (27 MHz) — (NOT a ham band!) 26.960–27.410)Citizens Band (CB) AM and SSB voice modes. National distress channel is Channel Nine (27.065 MHz). More info in the CB part of this novella.10 Meters (28 MHz) — 28.000–29.700 MHz6 Meters (50 MHz) — 50.0–54.0 MHzOriginally, the amateur allocation was at 5 Meters (56–60 MHz) with Broadcast TV surrounding it, from 50–88 MHz (FM Radio starts at 88 MHz). After WWII, TV Channel two was moved to 54–60 MHz, and the hams were moved to 6 Meters. TV Channel one was moved to 44–50 MHz. But the frequency band was shared with land-mobile stations, so Channel One was eliminated.2 Meters (144 MHz) — 144.0–148.0 MHzThis is the most popular and heaviest used portable/mobile FM band, which started when the land-mobile stations began to upgrade their equipment, and sold the surplus to the hams.1.25 Meters (222 MHz) — 219.9–220.0 MHz and 222.0–225.0 MHzOriginally 220.0–225.0 MHz. 220.0–222.0 MHz portion was politically stolen by UPS (The brown truck delivery people) for a special dispatch system, which they never used. For compensation (because the old frequencies were heavily used for digital message forwarding systems) 229.0–220.0 was allocated for those digital systems, ONLY.70 cm (420.0 MHz) — 420.0–440.0 MHz420.0–430.0 MHz is not an amateur band in Canada. Because of this, to prevent interference from the US, there is a restriction line, called Line A, where US hams are not allowed to operate. This band section is used for Amateur Television, and only accommodates one analog (NTSC) TV channel.33 cm (902 MHz) — 902.0–928.0 MHzA newer (1979) band.23 cm (1240 MHz) — 1240.0–1300.0 MHzThe following bands are used mostly for experimentation. Some are shared with other services (such as WiFi):2300–2310 MHz 10.0–10.5 GHz 122.25–123.0 GHz2390–2450 MHz 24.0–24.25 GHz 134–141 GHz3300–3500 MHz 47.0–47.2 GHz 241–250 GHz5650–5925 MHz 76.0–81.0 GHz All Above 275 GHzNow, for Citizens Band terminology. It’s a lot easier, and full of slang.Much of it was stolen from ham radio (cultural appropriation), because the CB hobbyists of the ’70s were ham wanna-bes.The more obvious terms were popularized on film and TV. Here are some:QSL CardsHome QTHDXOther terms or codes were borrowed from public safety agencies. Here are some examples.10–4 — yes10–33 — Emergency10–36 — Time (using this is a sign of a newcomer who has nothing to say)10–100 — Bathroom BreakA long (problematical) list: National 10 codes for CB radioNow, some slang. Here are some common ones.Bear or Smokey — State Patrol (They wear a Smokey Bear hat)City Kitty — City policeMeat Wagon — AmbulenceBreaker Breaker — You want to interrupt a conversationBucket Mouth — Somebody who talks a lotAlligator — (Big mouth and little ears) Somebody who talks a lot and doesn’tlistenHandle — A chosen nick-name, like Robber Duck, Tiny TimFour-Wheeler — a car.Eighteen-Wheeler — A semi-truckHere’s a long list. List of CB slang - WikipediaSome CB channels have special uses. The only one with a Federal restriction is Channel 9, the Emergency Channel. It was set aside to ONLY be used for emergencies and traveler assistance. For a VERY long time, it was monitored by volunteers in a national organization, called REACT (Radio Emergency Associated Communication Teams). Cell phones made it essentially useless.A dying breed, CB radio group signs off — a Seattle P-I article in 2004.I knew the guy in the picture. He helped me and a few other people be charter members of a REACT Team in Kitsap County, WA, in 1986. At the hight of the Cold War, we worked to integrate REACT with local emergency communications, the ham Amateur Radio Emergency Service and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (A Federally authorized volunteer group with designated emergency frequencies) and local Navy-Marine Corps MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System), which allowed ham radio volunteers to use military frequencies.Other channels in common use are channel 17 and 19 (trucker channels. On the west coast, channel 19 is for east-west traveling trucks, and channel 17 is used for north-south drivers. In the rest of the country, most of the trucker traffic is on channel 19. Sometimes, you see a semi with a green light on the front of the trailer. In the past, it meant that the driver was monitoring the trucker channel. I still see it sometimes, and I assume it hasn’t changed.Channel 16, and channels above channel 30 were “reserved” for Sideband (using Single Sideband instead of AM. They need to be separate, because AMers can’t understand Sideband transmissions (it sounds like Donald Duck) and AM signals cause a God-Awful whine over all Sideband talkers.For a long time, Channel 6 was the Gay Channel. I don’t know if it’s true. A common handle there was “Ben Gay.” How original. It was generally agreed that bigots weren’t allowed there, and any that showed-up would be either ignored or blocked, until they got disgusted and left.A brief note about CB now. Many people don;t listen to it because of all the obscene profanity on a family-type radio. Most of that goes away during the dip in the 11-year sunspot cycle, like now.But having a CB Radio is a good thing during disasters, when normal communications fall apart. There are two groups that are ready for that, Preppers and SHTF (S*** Hits The Fan), the Armageddon preppers.On CB Radio, on AM, the Prepper CB Network is on Channel 3, and the American Preppers Network is on Channel 4. On Sideband, the USB Survivalist network is on channel 36U, and the USB Prepper network is on channel 37U.There are several other civilian/family radio services available, also. One requires a license (file a form and pay a fee). GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) on 462 MHz. Other services include FRS (Family Radio Service) also on 462 MHz (these are the little hand-talkies you can buy at your local sports stores), and MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service on 151 MHz.The GMRS/FRS prepper UHF frequencies are FRS Channel 3 (462.6125 MHz), GMRS Channel Channel 17 (462.6 MHz) simplex and GMRS Channel 20 (462.875 + 5 MHz repeater duplex) with a 141.3 Hz PL access tone.The MURS VHF prepper frequency is MURS Channel 3 (151.940 MHz).Some CBers have modified radios that can operate on unauthorized CB channels (called freebanders). The preppers are on 27.368 MHz USB, 27.378 MHz USB and 27.425 MHz USB.Other bands, that are supposed to be licensed, that preppers use areLowband VHF on 33.400 Mhz FM simplex, and Marine-band VHF on Channel 16 (156.800 MHz), the international calling/safety/emergency channel, and Marine Channel 72 (156.625 MHz).Ham preppers prefer the following frequrncies (“prefer” is because there are NO reserved channels in the ham bands, except for RACES frequencies after a federally declared emergency.):HF (shortwave)80 Meters — 3.818 MHz LSB60 Meters — 5.357 MHz USB — Used for NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) medium-range networks40 Meters — 7.242 MHz LSB20 Meters — 14.242 MHz USB10 Meters — 28.305 MHz USBVHF (2 Meters FM)146.420 MHz — Prepper146.520 MHz — The National 2 Meter calling frequency146.55) MHz — SurvivalistUHF (70 cm FM)446.030 MHz — PrepperThis link has a printable frequency card in PDF format.SHTF Survivalist Radio Frequency ListsEDIT I forgot to show what my QSL Card looks like. Oops!The picture is the submarine I helped build (I’m a “plank-owner”) in 1984, and spent six years going to sea on, USS Henry M. Jackson SSBN-730. Three years on the original Gold crew, and two years, later on the Blue crew.The boat is on the surface in Hood Canal (specifically, Dabob Bay), with the Olympic Mountains in the background.