Let me give you all a little background history you may not be aware of.
When the FCC started the concept of CB which stands for Citizens Band, they wanted a cheap service that would serve the average citizen without the expense of the existing commercial radios and all the expense and hassle that entailed. This was in the late 50's. First they tried what was called Class A service. This was up in the 460 Mhz range. This was a great idea, however the technology of the day failed to produce radios in the price range that was envisioned that the average citizen could afford and the utility and performance that was required. All lot of the problems was frequency stability at these UHF frequencies at a low price point. So, this plan was scrapped for the most part, and a new band was decided upon.
This was the 11 meter or 27 Mhz band. This band was currently assigned to Amateur radio. This band was taken from the Amateurs in 1958 and designated the Class D Citizens Band. This was a mistake. A huge mistake. But the die was cast. Manufactures could produce cheap, effective and stable radio sets at this much lower frequency with ease. BUT no one seemed to think about fact that the 27 Mhz allocation is subject to F2 ionospheric propagation during peak sunspot cycle years.
It wasn't too many years later that some people began to utilize CB as a "hobby band" instead of as a service to serve persons and small business needs. So pretty soon a lot of folks started to work this "skip" and take advantage of the enhanced propagation to communicate over thousands of miles. The FCC never anticipated this. Also some movies of the time glamorized this type of activity. While this activity was strictly codified as being illegal in the rules, pertaining to height of antennas, and distances allowed to be worked on CB, these rules were ignored and hence the original purpose of CB was perverted. Soon the FCC lost total control of the "Children's Band" and even eventually dropped the entire callsign and licensing structure it started out with in 1958.
During peak sunspot years it became a lawless wasteland with people running huge antennas and huge amounts of of power with illegal power amplifiers becoming the norm. Of course during sunspot minimum years all would become quiet as the enhanced propagation dies down and just doesn't support much long distance communications.
Of course all of this could have been avoided if the FCC had some foresight and not chosen a frequency range that supported F2 layer ionospheric propagation. But they did what they did, and people did what they did, and the FCC lost total control of the whole situation.
I would not put any money into 27 Mhz equipment. There are lots of other good choices. MURS or GMRS equipment would be 2 choices that don't require testing of individuals or of course Amateur radio, but that does require a simple 35 question test for the entry level license that would allow access to the VHF/UHF frequencies available to these license holders.
