Big Radio filter...

Unfortunatley that is the problem with CB....back in 1958 4 watts of power was good enough, but then Bobby decided he wanted to be the king of the airwaves, so Bobby went out and got himself a 50 watt amp so his signal could be heard above everyone elses....and once Bobby was all that was heard, then Jimmy decided to get 1 up on Bobby, and went out and bought a 100 watt amp.....now Jimmy is king of the airwaves....until Eddie decides he wants to be top dog, so he goes out and gets a 500 watt amp....and so on and so on...it's sort of like when a dog pees on a tree to mark his territory, then another dog senses it and pees on the same tree, then another dog comes and does the same thing...everyone trying to out do the next.

As for echo, that's a whole nother ball of wax...yes I concur some people with echo set it too high so you can't understand what they're saying. Sadly there is no filter for this, other than the off switch. And that's part of the reason why CB is dying off....is because some do not want to listen to echo, or beeps, or the sound of a thousand signals heterodying together into a howling squealing mess. So many folks just leave it off, which is sad because the CB can be an invaluable tool, but not when the FCC throws in the towel on trying to control the airwaves and instead it's every man for himself.

 

Only in the sense of there being something that won't entail a second staff member in the cab with you, running what would look like Mr. Spock's science station on Ye Olde Enterprise, NCC-1701.

A lot of audio problems that originate in the source can only be practically solved at the source. The over-echoed and -delayed and -reverbed vocals that you hear (and cause such admittedly worthy tooth-grinding) are similar to listening to a live band. Even with all the instruments playing through "un-effected" amplifiers (no delays, flangers, distortion, reverb tanks, etc.), also called "playing clean", it's common for the vocalist(s) to have his/her/their mic lines run through an adjustably small amount of reverb. Part of what that does is that it allows the syllables that they sing to seem to end more-or-less at the same time as the backing band ends that chord or phrase, in case the singer(s) cut off a wee bit early. The reverb then allows their apparent voice signal to continue to ring a little longer. And with an engineer in the booth, he/she/it/they can control how and where the effects begin and end.
But it's only whilst recording that there's a chance to go back and fix stuff. Your situation is more like listening to a live band. Reverb is often (or usually) used in small amounts for the singer(s), and for the same reasons as earlier. But ever notice what happens when the band stops playing and someone wants to make an announcement? If it hasn't already been done, the person on the mic turns to whatever buffoon is working sound (oft-times around here, *I* am that buffoon) and asks, "Please kill the reverb for me," or "Please make the mic dry for a moment." ("Dry" means without effects. Oddly, all the other words meaning "with effects" sounds a little disturbing, like, "Please make me moist (or wet, or damp)" -- all of which have varying degrees of discomfort for the sound buffoon.
Anyhoo, the reason for having the vocals set dry for announcements is that the same effect that helps to stretch out syllables in the microphone circuits so they'll better match the instruments do so at the cost of the natural cadence of speech. Once your mind hears the beginning of a word, it starts to fill in what the rest of the word will be, taking into account things like whether the pitch of the voice is rising or falling, the context of the line in which the word is being used, the speaker's rate of speech (how many words per minute), and such.
And if you're hearing a song to which you know the lyrics, your mind has an advantage: it knows the word that's coming, so even when its rhythm (cadence) is altered, like by stretching out a final syllable of a word to match a sustained chord, you're able to let your analytical (left) side of the brain be told to, in effect, mind its own business by the artistic (right) side of the brain, and that all is right with the world, cuz, well, it's art (speed-deathcore-black metal to the contrary).
Sometimes, a delay (also known as echo) is used to a large degree for short passages, like in Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", when Pink's doctor begins the first verse of the song, with "Hello <hello, hello>, is there anybody in there?" and later with "Okay <okay, okay>, just a little pinprick". In those cases, there's no competing sound with the echoes of the first voice -- just a huge chord by the band, so it's easy to hear what amounts to the only word being sung right then. (B minor, for any non-Floyd musicians out there).

But in a normal, simplex (push to talk, one person at a time, single frequency -- i.e., CB) conversation, the parts of your mind that aren't already having to contend with moronic four-wheeler drivers and a Qualcomm that buzzes every fifteen seconds for no apparent reason and hoping there'll still be a parking place at that TS twenty miles up the road, then as long as someone's signal is strong enough to overcome the electronic distortion that *already* occurs in a properly adjusted radio, it doesn't take too much "wrong" about the voice of the speaker to make them unintelligible.
I personally believe (although it's entirely without research) that there's nobody using echo/robovoice/other vocal goofiness who doesn't also have talkback so they can hear how awesome they sound to themselves. There are those who hold that "a little reverb enhances my signal" (?), but many of them are the same ones who maintain that clipping a limiter circuit and adjusting the mic gain pot "correctly" (?) also makes them sound better.
So, to your goal -- to filter out the intentional distortion and leave just a "dry audio signal" at your speaker. Here's where Spock and his rack of gear come in. You need to record each incoming transmission that carries annoying features, like echoes, and identify its beginning and end. After the first time through, you don't want to hear it again. Have a computer programmed to mute your receiver when it recognizes that pattern beginning again. If your gear is fast enough (processor, RAM, etc.) you can sample shorter bits of words or even syllables, then have the program look for them again and mute as above. Your receiver's audio won't go "on" again until the next unique sound comes through, and then cut off as it hears that bit of sound start to repeat (as it comes over the air from the trash-laden radio).
Rather than have all those muted audio times, you *could* have a computer "invert" the audio of the repeated parts, in much the same way as the earliest voice inversion radio scramblers, and when played back in sync with the repeated trash on the air, they'd cancel. That's much the same as the technology used in noise cancelling headphones, but they use a second microphone element to pick up local sounds, invert them, and feed them to your ears along with the stuff you *do* want to hear. That results in just (mostly) hearing what you wanted to. But that won't work in this case because the source of the noise is not close enough to you to just run a microphone cord to the other clown's cab.

So Mr. Spock keeps his/her/its ever-watchful eyes & ears on the scope display (think "ProTools"), cuts out samples, inverts them, and either discards them or plays them back to you.

In real time, conversations are going to be much like watching a TV news anchor talking to a field reporter someplace in East B.F. Egypt, where after you hear the anchor ask the field guy a question, he/she/it continues to grin stupidly at his/her/its camera, waiting for the audio to get to him/her/it via a geostationary satellite, with a round trip time on the order of 3-5 seconds, allowing for processing at the far end. It can seem as if you've simply not been heard, and your receive audio is gonna be full of long-ish holes whilst awaiting Mr. Spock's computer manipulation of "that other guy's" signal.
Assuming there's *only one* offender on the channel at a time. When was the last time, especially during "high skip days", that there was only one person out there who is tickled to death with how awesome he/she/it sounds?

The problem, as with live music and voice announcers, is (of course) to solve it at the source. Technically it just involves *not* installing or using Awesomeness boxes. The individual's decision to use them, however, is probably the hardest part to solve.

Part of what amazes me is that two or more of those same noise-ridden RF blastboxes can carry on a conversation and apparently understand one another in the first place. I've got no idea on that one.

Well, that's just my two cents.

73

 

I envy folks who can sing well. I can only sing three notes, and two of those are wrong .
I tell people I'm a bass player cuz I've got no sense of rhythm.
73

 

I know what you mean. you get the volume adjusted for the normal radios and then Mr Clipped Audio comes on sounding like a tin can in a blender. :smt071

 

My 2 cents on this also...I think some truck drivers view their CB as both a communicational tool and a toy. Otherwise there would be no purpose in having echo, roger beeps, noise toys, rebel flag face plates, blue LED's, illuminated jewel knobs, chrome cases....the sound effects (echo, roger beep, noise recordings) remind me of kid's toys. It is possible some of these guys have the talkback up so they can hear themselves.

 

No filter available, and just turning off or disconnecting your unit doesn't necessarily mean Billy Big Radio won't come threw your speaker...I have been known to turn on peoples radios that were OFF, just by driving by them talking on mine!...and by todays standards, my radio is not all that big. not even close!

 

I can place an order at sonic and never push the red button !!

 

Hi, Old guy here. I think the stuff they can do to a 99.00 radio is quite cute. I enjoy SSB as most of the Idiots only use AM channels. Ham is nice also. For some CB is a toy. some a tool, some a lifeline. If the human mouth can say it, I have heard it. Some of them bleed over my TV. No filter for a truck yet. Tech Tip, Never park between Bull Haulers. They push 1500 watts each. Any truck close to them might as well move.