Mark S. @ Fine Tune CB (Hardrive)

Well in a manor of speaking i do want the loud n proud but not from a hack shack...I have listen to mark from NM when i was im Massachusetts and i loved the clarity..I bought a stryker cause it looked cool but mostly cause its more of a radio than just a cobra..Kinda like gettin away from the truck stop bullys and talkin with people from all over..
Had a awsome convo with a fella from texas and the carolinas while i was in quebec canada..Listened to guys in europe but they couldnt or didnt wanna hear me cause i had no ham call letters..Kinda hooked on it to a small degree..Same with military jets n such..Spent a small fortune on rudder peddals,f-16 and A-10 throttles n joystick..Radio stuff is in the simulation as well so it over laps to a small degree..It intregues me but getting the time to sit and learn aint easy..Long haul truckin,house huntin payin attention to my health after two cancer operations but i make time..Just dont have the ability to read and practice what i learn every day like some that have 9-5 type jobs..Where i live the cb world aint overly popular and the ham guys dont have time to mess with new guys,so im mostly on my own..
I have come a long ways though..I used to plug in the power wire,screw in a coax and chat..

 

Ok I get it, you guys are falling for the bull**it.

The thing you don't seem to get is this ... The radio is not supposed to be adjusted to the amp in that case. It is the amp that is dirty and causes the issue with the distortion. Class c is not something that alone would cause the issue of distortion, overdriving it, having a poor assembly and a bunch of other things will distort the signal. I know it is useless telling you guys this, some super tech says otherwise but many years have been spent getting it together by others so you can have good audio.

What essentially is going on is you are paying to detune the radio in order for it to work with the amp, making a problem out of the radio.

Most, including rm amps are pos amps, there are a couple on the market that are actually good designs and will work with most radios. When you hear clarity in its real form after an amp, you won't forget it.

See the other thing for all of you is this, you're striving for power and realying on people who are there to make money. Even though these are simple radios to work on, how many of you buy into this idea you need swing or something superloud? Too many. Even the idea of antennas are silly in some cases.

Well got to go to work, I'll pick this up later, it is too funny to read these things sometimes and makes me wonder if I should get back into building amps for a living.


Oh as a post script, I finished the cascadia, and I can put to rest a lot of rumors about them. I won't be posting details but say the least I was surprised at what we did to get it to work.

 

I'm with you ridgeline.

I don't post very very much but I read this section for the fun. There are people on here that make big talk to the point it makes the laws of physics not true.

leon
kc0iv

 

Well all i know is that i want a much better tx/rec with this stryker 955..I want the clairity as well but what i hate is the ton of white noise and poor range..The tx star i have i can take it or leave it and i dont need to be the biggest radio out there i just want it to be efficient and to be able to reach out and talk when i get more than a few mi away..
I have tried a cpl different locations,different mounts,studs,antenna but still hittin that brick wall..
I just dont know enough about radio/ant theory..The aarl bible i have is like a foreign l anguage so its lil to no help..
S what i have learned which is not alot i learned by trial and error when i get time to try stuff....
Thats my story and im stickin to it..

 

Ridgeline...There is a fella named CBMAN and he makes claims of 15 or so mi with his set up..Based on bits of info he is selling a idea or his system which
sounds like a bird perch and a hand made ant..Maybe its bs i dont know but if you have achieved that or better fill us crapcadia drivers in will ya..

 

Well if he has a tech better than sherman,why is it such a secret..Aint it the point to do business(unless the person is retired)..
Thats like being a mechanic but only work on one car..
Maybe its the "IM THE BIGGEST N BADDEST" syndrome...Who cares either way,i just want a good rec/tx sounding radio with range..
I like my stryler and just expect more outta it than a few miles and channel 1 or 19..

 

Wow working hard for the week I come back to this?

Too funny ... so I will repeat what I said.

Listen up.

First off you need to read what I said, he doesn't want me to blab who he is because he has a lot of work, he just hired another guy to help with all of it, plus he has his son working on simple stuff.

AND I also said he is my go to guy for things I either don't have time for or I don't think I can do right, like my spook radios. He is not elusive, he doesn't hide, crap he is in the phone book. I just won't tell anyone who he is because we agreed to that unless he tells me otherwise.

Everything else I DO myself. I do not depend on others for simple things like CB radios because I not only have the equipment to fix/tune/modify but also a lot of knowledge to make the work right.

By the way, someone asked me what a spook radio is, I explained it to him the other day, and now I will explain it to you so you guys know what I'm talking about. It is a high end receiver or receiving system that is used by the NSA/CIA/FCC for monitoring and tracking. I have a few Watkins-Johnson systems, a couple collins and a few from overseas. Most of the stuff is just really really good top shelf stuff and is really complicated so I don't like to do more than turn it on and enjoy it.

Second I spend some time here trying to counter the bullshi*t. Most of you guys don't know what a good tech is or how he really works, one thing is he is not like the soup nazi - no radio tune FOR YOU! Many of these guys I run across take a simple electronics course or worst watch youtube videos and hack away. Some think that they are good because they can read an instruction sheet They know something what a scope does, maybe know how to rudimentary use a spectrum analyser but when they are pressed with something beyond simple waveforms on a screen, they are dumbfounded.

Example;

It is like the coax thing, most of you will spend wasted money on it because some tech says you need to have only this or that when simple stuff is sufficient, YOU DON'T need military grade coax that they use in the space shuttle or the Hubble satellite because the frequency that you guys talk on. Crap I met someone a few years back who bought 7/8" hardline coax for his truck, he was running 250 watts, the tech said this was the best and sold it to the guy with some high cost that was ridiculous (I think he said $6 a foot), the connectors were the price of the radio ... all that counted the guy was happy because he got out.

Anywho ... the reason I say this, is the losses encountered with coax are so minute at 11 meters, that it isn't even worth the effort to spend the additional money because it is all under 100 feet. The key to all of it is usually the connectors, not the coax but when you have bad coax, there is a very clear indication you have it when it gets really bad, so replacing it is a good thing. The same goes for periodically changing it out, maybe every five years or even three.

What connectors do I use?

Glad you all asked, I use N type connectors.

Why?

Because they seal really well and I can count on them not to have a water issue.

So I digress ...

BUT I keep hearing how one figures out they have bad coax by using an ohm meter, it isn't possible. SO NO ONE has yet to explain to me how to properly test coax, and most won't even understand how to do it - hint, you really can't with a AA like a MFJ-259.

Should I go on?

By the way, if the radio works, then leave it alone. If it doesn't work, first work on the antenna then on the radio. If you have an amp, get rid of it or at least out of line then once everything is up and running, then put it back into the system to see how it works.

 

Ridge..You almost sound pissed off /insulted..If its been explained here somewhere why do you feel the need to do it again....
Hey if you have the skillz you say power to ya but many dont...Many dont know squat(me being one of them but im slowly learning lil bits at a time)and there is so much banter back and forth as to what works and doesnt..
lets use coax...So many say you need 18 ft others say no you dont..Some say dont coil yet i saw a vid that it was..mfj says you can test coax with an mfj and if i understand you correctly you say no...
Maybe its the ends,solder or how well its connected and that again is another debate..
No need to get huffy when someone speaks to the subject of amps and how it works if they have the knowledge and tested it..Rather than get worked up to any degree ..Show what you know to be correct and maybe teach someone(like meeeeee)something..

Like its been said...If its on the inter web its gotta be true.....Oh that spook radio you mentioned,grabbed my attention..
Anyways im unhookin this trailer and in 20 minutes there will be either a stiff rum and coke or a cold cold beer in my hand...

 

Not pissed off nor insulted.

What worries me or bothers me ( better put) is the time and effort that is made to fix something to make it work right when many times it is wrong"

Most spend money with these yahoos and get pretty much screwed. I hate to see that happen because many of these guys are just woodbutchers ... Nothing more and no one deserves to be screwed.

It is like this guy who is the subject of this thread, he seems to be good, I know his work but when people defend him or don't get that this isn't rocket science, it seems people are missing the point that there are no one person that is great out there, a lot of talent is out there, many who work on complex system with skills that make any of these CB techs look like preschoolers - including this guy - but you never see them or hear of them. Must be million or so people doing really work so it is realistic that this one guy may be great but compared to others, isn't.

I share a lot of info, or try to. I would rather inform someone what's what than to see them try one or another or another thing and not get it right. I know many don't know a lot, one reason why I step in and make comment or three about one or another subject.

But one thing I do know that I keep driving at is this is not rocket science, these radio designs are old, nothing has changes much other than the way they are put together and maybe the controls.

I pointed out in a thread somewhere (there are a bunch of threads that are blurred together to me because of my limited time lately) that fade is not something a tech can fix or can do anything about, mainly because it is in the detector stage of the radio and one solution for that is the synchronized detector. I know of a couple people who have replaced the detector in their CB with a synchronized detector and did the conversion myself but no one seems to care it was done. I didn't do this to boast but to show what can be done beside pointing out the fact that tech tuning has zero to do with propagation.

So hope that answer your concerns