Radio Daze - 1

Public Radio Service, aka PRS aka UHF-CB came to New Zealand in 1996. Up until that point the only way to wirelessly communicate was to purchase license spectrum and commercial radio telephones. It was possible to use 26 MHz CB but for logistical and practical reasons this was difficult. It was seen by my future boss Paul, to be such a revolution that not only that he offered me a job to sell PRS radio, and even before I'd accepted, drove me to the field days in Hamilton to see the products on show for farmers.

?He believed that PRS radio would revolutionise communications on farm. The technology never came to the full fruition that Paul had hoped for. It is still used today mostly in a small group form, but it wasn’t the radical new market that he had expected.

The interesting thing about both 26 MHz CB, PRS, and the Internet is that giving a voice to the public unfettered, gives a voice to the trolls who often speak loudest.

?When I lived in Christchurch in the mid 80s 26 MHz CB was full of these trolls. And listening recently to PRS radio again after a long break from radio I see that things have not changed.

?Amateur radio by virtue of having to pass examinations filters out those voices that are toxic on 26 MHz CB and PRS