connexion 3300hp hi/lo power switch

That's simple, the radio is tuned up wrong by the idiot who did the work.

You should reduce power, meaning switch on lo to talk to people close (you most likely know that) and hi for talking farther but it seems he screwed it up.

 

I don't know, I assume the guy knew something other than how to turn a screwdriver.

I guess I'm critical of these so called techs, I only know a hand full of them who know what is going on that I would trust to do anything to my radios. Most of those I met while on the road I would not even allow them to change a fuse.

 

Out of the box, that radio is spec'd at 3 watts out on low power, and 12 watts on high. If your experience is that you're able to be heard more clearly and/or farther away when the power switch is on "low", then a couple of things come to mind.
1) If this only shows while you're very close to the other party, then it's possible that his/her/its receiver is being swamped ("overloaded") by your higher signal level. By "very close", I mean on the order of a couple of vehicle lengths. Or...
B) (using the Car Talk® bullet point labeling system) When whoever it was that converted your alleged 10 Meter amateur radio to cover the CB range couldn't resist the temptation to randomly turn adjustments inside the radio, grossly distorting your radio's output.

You mention that the cb shop (the same one who did your "peak and tune"?) told you that "hi rf is for talking up close." That only makes sense to me if he/she/it was referring to the receiver's RF Gain adjustment that encircles your volume knob, instead of the transmit "RF PWR" slide switch. In that sense, "hi rf" is what your radio is experiencing; your RF Gain pot allows you to knock your receiver's sensitivity down a bit, making your receiver a little more numb and less likely to be swamped by the high RF level from a nearby or very high powered transmitter.

If you notice this going on other than when your radio is just one or two lanes away from the other operator, then I'm leaning towards a badly done adjustment by someone who tunes only by watching the power meter. If he/she/it also randomly turned some of the receiver adjustments, or the synthesizer's frequency adjustment, then there's no telling what is going on inside your radio at this point.

BTW, you are using the radio *only* on AM, right? If you've accidentally chosen FM, then AM stations are going to sound very faint to you, while your transmitted signal will sound horrible at the other radio because FM takes up 2 or 3 channels' worth of space, which is too wide for a proper AM receiver to detect.

If this is a new purchase, I'd recommend taking the radio back whence you bought it and ask them to return the tuning to stock, i.e., undo their so-called peak and tune. If you don't see an oscilloscope on their service bench, I'd personally be inclined to see about a refund of the whole thing and take your hard-earned $$$ elsewhere.

73

 

Whoever told you this didn't tell you correctly.

The reason for the switch is so you can run an amp. Most amps require a low carrier to keep the transistors cool.

When not running an amp you keep it on high. With an amp keep it on low.

The switch drops the carrier.

 

Why else would they go to the trouble to put variable power on one??? If your radio is tuned properly it will sound just as good up close as it does far away, thus no need to turn the power down......unless you run a amp.