One of my first radios was a Pearce Simpson "Super Cheetah" 40 channel AM/SSB mobile. What a great radio that was. President equipment is still sold in Europe and is now recently available in the USA (again) as well. I used to have a Superstar GR (re-branded President Grant) with low-mid-high bands AM/FM/SSB and a 6-digit frequency counter. The radio did 26.515-26.955 MHz (low), 26.965-27.405 MHz (mid) and 27.415-27.855 (high) with amazing modulation. I ended up selling it and buying a Taiwanese Superstar 3900...even though the Superstar GR/President Grant was also made in Taiwan...I wanted a radio that did 25615-28305 instead of 26515-27855.
There's a lot of Latin American taxicab companies (and of course trucking companies everywhere) that like to use the lower frequencies. The lower bands are also very popular with hunters in the USA. In fact, Ranger/RCI made two radios called the Connex Deer Hunter and Connex Coyote Hunter. The Deer Hunter did 26515-27855 AM/FM with high/low power switch (Ranger knew most hunters are connecting their radios to amplifiers) and the Coyote Hunter did 25615-27405 (so 3 bands of lower channels and the regular CB band as the highest band).
I live in a state where deer and duck hunting is extremely popular. Most hunters have export radios
and VHF marine radios installed in their trucks. Hunters illegally using the VHF marine channels is a significant problem. I've heard the US Coast Guard get on VHF marine channel 16 and tell hunters to vacate the frequency because they were causing interference to the marine emergency frequency. During deer hunting season I can scan the VHF marine channels and hear traffic on 5-10 channels at once, all of the traffic being hunting clubs talking to each other.
It's interesting that you mention 8918 kHz USB. Have you tried the other, lower frequencies for New York Radio? Those in the 5-6 MHz region? What about the US Coast Guard stations NMN (Chesapeake, Virginia), NMG (New Orleans, Louisiana), NMC (Point Reyes, California), NOJ (Kodiak, Alaska) and NMO (Honolulu, Hawaii)?
I hear NMN and NMG on a daily basis, frequencies and schedules can be found here:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/hfvoice.htmI'm surprised the Australian UHF CB band isn't more popular. The 22 channel FRS/GMRS "combination radios" are very popular in the USA, and even though licenses are required to use the GMRS channels and to transmit more than 0.5 watts on FRS channels 1-7, the vast majority of users aren't licensed and FCC enforcement is basically zero. GMRS repeaters can be found in almost every city in the USA, with some cities having multiple repeaters on the same channel.
Since FRS/GMRS are the American version of a "UHF CB" service, the American Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) could be referred to as "VHF CB". Due to the heavy pirating of VHF business band frequencies by unlicensed users, the FCC released 5 frequencies to the general public for unlicensed use. Unlike FRS/GMRS or regular 26-27 MHz CB, MURS allows use of AM, FM, and various digital modes and is heavily used for short-range data links as well as on-site communications at schools, construction sites, etc.
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