The best CB with SSB?

A quick, cheap and easy approach to reduce drift on Galaxy's would be to attach a resistor to the side(s) of the crystal to provide the heat source.
Crystals need to stabilize as the radio internals warm up

 

I ran a 2970DX and a Magna Force 600 (staright 4-pill) for many years, outstanding on SSB and made many contacts on AM as well.....Frank at the old 1 Stop Electronics tuned mine and it was a talker..

so to answer the OP's question go 2950/2970 like the others above me have advised......

 

Not to be too picky but a ranger 2950 is not a CB radio ...YEA I know who cares ...

 

LOL........

 

Then you did good. Just make sure that's its on frequency and not over modulated,get yourself a Texas Star 250 and you will talk all over the world on SSB!

There are many mods for these radios that done corectly will make a really good radio,a really great radio. Just make sure you have a #### good tech do these or dont have them done at all!

Print this out and take it with you.Works for Cobra 148's and Cobra 2000 as well.

1. Carrier Adjustment: VR10. If lower carrier is desired, change R196 near VR-10. Try about 270 ohms.
2. Change R114to a 10K, and C46 to a .2 monolithic, this will widen up the audio on AM. ( A really great mod for these radios)
3. The AMC is TR-26. You can remove it, and still have good results on AM, the ALC for SSB is not effected by this. If you don't want the AMC disabled, leave it. the other way to disable the AMC is cut (will screw up your SSB so dont do it) R131. Check both to restore AMC from previous mods.

4. If extra frequencies have been added, perform the following to widen up the band pass filters to recover lost power at the highest and lowest frequencies: C163 - 4pf, C41 - 3pf

5. R180 - Jumper it. This brings up the gain of the TX mixer.

6. IC TDA6130 - Pin 12 to ground through 100 ohm resistor. Upper left, pin 14 = ground.

7. Remove the AM regulator, (usually a 2SC1419) and replace it with a 2N6487.

8. C174 - remove, add 1000uf electrolytic. connect POS to base of yellow wire next to it. If the yellow wire is too far away, it might be easier to connect the POS leg to the leg of the AM regulator closes to the back of the chassis via the bottom of the radio.

9. For 148F, change C18 to a 1000uf electrolytic, 16V

 

I lhave a few years of expierence and I can tell you that those radios are fine when set up by a qualified technician. The RCI 2970 OR 2950 will do a very nice job for you and they are not full of bells and whistles that you don't need. There are other Ranger models that are good as well like the RANGER 3900 SSB/AM although this radio comes with the echo you don't have to invoke echo you can run it without. And on top of that it will perform well on AM very well. I don't know who the responder was that thinks the 2970 or 2950 are bad radios for ssb but that just isn't so. Now if you want the power you must get the 2970 and I would recommend the newer version. If you can't find a good tech I would be happy to give any radio you decide on a complete going over, I have over 40 years in the repair business and work for a shop that has the equipment to get the job done right. You would have to send it to Wisconsin.

vintagetech52 @yahoo.com

just remove the space between the 2 and the # I don't know how an email could be dangerous but it is alot safer than a phone number.

 

One problem is some mods use switches for extra ( ILLEGAL ) channels
If you wind up on 10 meters which some of the mods will do it's not like CB the rules ARE enforced.

You need to find out just where these " EXTRA " channels are and what mod was done to get them ...The grants are very good radios I use a LT for a base ....