Hobbies: What Citizens Have Wrought

The nation's busiest party line is a shortwave voice communications setup called the Citizens Radio Service. It was established by the Federal Communications Commission as a short-distance (150 miles maximum) two-way radio system for people who needed it for business or professional reasons: a doctor keeping in touch with his office from his car, taxicab fleets sending directions to cruising cabs, contractors issuing orders to trucks, farm wives calling to their husbands in distant fields. In a rash moment, the FCC also authorized house-to-automobile communi cations on a noncommercial, or "Honey,...

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