What Counts as CB and PRS in New Zealand
Citizen Band (CB) radio in New Zealand refers to two related public services. The original 26 to 27 MHz AM and SSB band, the classic "CB radio" most people picture, and the 477 MHz UHF band, officially the Personal Radio Service (PRS), which is what's inside most modern UHF handheld and vehicle-mounted units sold today. Both are genuinely public: free to use, shared with everyone else using the same channel at the same time.
PRS is by far the more commonly used of the two today. It currently offers 80 public channels, expanded from the original 40 back in 2011, giving recreational and light commercial users considerably more room to spread out than in the past.
The General User Radio Licence: What It Actually Covers
Here's something worth clearing up, because older guidance on this topic often gets it wrong: you do not need an individual licence, an application, or a personal callsign to use standard CB or PRS radio in New Zealand today. Both services are covered by a General User Radio Licence (GURL), issued by Radio Spectrum Management (RSM) to the public as a whole rather than to individuals. There's no fee, no paperwork, and no need to contact RSM directly before switching your radio on.
What the GURL does require is that your equipment is properly compliant. If you bought your radio from a reputable New Zealand retailer and it carries an RCM mark or R-NZ label, you're covered. Radios imported directly from overseas, particularly US-market FRS or GMRS units, or European PMR446 sets, are often built for different frequency allocations and can cause genuine interference with other services, including emergency channels, if used here. If your equipment isn't properly NZ-compliant, the fix is straightforward: go back to your supplier and get gear that is.
Good Operating Practice: The Do's
- Listen before you transmit. Make sure the channel is clear before you start talking, so you don't talk over someone else or cause interference.
- Speak naturally and clearly, and be brief. These are shared channels. A long-winded transmission ties up the frequency for everyone else waiting to use it.
- Be courteous. Offensive language on a public channel isn't just poor form, it's genuinely unacceptable and can be reported.
- Pause on long messages. If you've got a lot to say, break it up and check occasionally whether anyone else needs the channel urgently.
- Move to a general channel once contact is made. Calling channels exist to establish contact, not to hold an entire conversation. Once you've reached the person you're after, shift to a quieter channel and free up the calling channel for others.
What Not to Do, and Why It Matters
- Don't make long, unnecessary transmissions. It ties up a shared resource that other people, including anyone with a genuine emergency, are relying on being clear.
- Don't operate equipment in a way that causes interference to other radio communications, including those used by sports organisations, boating clubs, Civil Defence, and public safety and community events.
- Don't use offensive language, or impersonate another user. Public channels aren't anonymous in the way people sometimes assume, and this kind of behaviour can be reported to RSM.
- Don't transmit false or misleading information, particularly anything that could be mistaken for a genuine distress call.
- Don't use non-compliant equipment. Overseas-market radios not built for New Zealand's frequency plan can genuinely interfere with emergency services, even unintentionally.
None of this is red tape for its own sake. These rules exist because CB and PRS are genuinely shared spectrum, and one person's bad habits directly reduce the usefulness of the channel for everyone else on it, including in situations where it actually matters.
Emergency Calling on CB and PRS Channels
On CB, channel 15 is the recognised AM emergency calling channel, and channel 35 serves the same purpose for SSB. Channel 11 is worth knowing about too, as it's widely used by trucks and heavy vehicles for general calling and can be a useful channel to try if you need to raise attention on the road.
On PRS, if a repeater is available in your area, using the repeater channel gives you the best chance of your call being heard over a wider area than a simplex channel alone. A station in genuine distress can use any channel or means available to attract attention, that rule always overrides normal channel etiquette. Once an emergency transmission is underway, everyone else on that channel should stop transmitting immediately, to avoid interfering with the people involved in the distress call, especially the station in trouble.
When Public Channels Aren't Enough
Public CB and PRS channels work well for casual use, small recreational groups, and light commercial needs. But they're shared by definition, and in busier areas or during genuinely business-critical operations, that sharing becomes a real limitation. If your team needs a guaranteed, private, interference-free channel, whether that's a construction site, a forestry block, or a transport fleet, the answer isn't a more powerful public radio. It's a properly licensed frequency from Radio Spectrum Management, engineered and applied for through an approved radio engineer.
That's a different conversation to the one this guide covers, but it's worth knowing the option exists the moment public channels start feeling crowded or unreliable for what your business actually needs.
Getting the Right Radio for the Job
Mobile Systems Limited has been supplying, programming and servicing two-way radios from our Mount Maunganui base for over 25 years, whether that's a compliant PRS handheld for recreational use or a fully licensed commercial network for your business. We stock leading brands including Tait, Hytera, Motorola, Icom, GME and Uniden, all properly compliant with New Zealand's technical standards.
If you're not sure whether a public channel radio suits your needs or whether it's time to look at a licensed frequency, get in touch with our team for straightforward advice.
