Mark S. @ Fine Tune CB (Hardrive)

Sorry you guys but this crap gets boring.

I'm going to throw this at both of you.

RF is an animal that is hard to understand. So many factors go into figuring out why one can talk farther than someone else sitting next to each other.

I get bored's frustration, and get where some of the issues are, so I try to help all of you with what I see or have found out. He has a problem which is hard to figure out without being there, so it is hard to find a solution.

However ...

I was talking to someone I've known for years that worked at this company you may have heard of, Collins. I called him up to thank him for a book he sent me about his boss, art Collins. The usps wanted to make sure it was in great shape when I got it so it came in a plastic bag with a note on it apologizing for the damage it suffered. I called him to thank him and we got to talking, I realized that I have been doing this crap for 48 years now and have talked to, met and learned from people (including his boss) who played important roles in rf. From all of that time, I've learned to pick out talent and got to say only a few CB tuners are on my list and mark isn't one of them. I know rabbi will speak up but he doesn't know who I am or what I used to do, so I get the defensive front he puts up for mark, but it gets tiring and this last bunch of posts prove it.

So here is something to think about, there is more to these issues than mounts antennas and noise floors. I have spent mine own money to figure it out, I used the right stuff to find answers which I really don't need to use a CB at all. I have found many different issues, two I have repeated a few times and still some of you don't get it. To solve a couple I have two recent endeavors, one was to deal with the crap radios on the market so with help of some one with circuit board experience I built a radio to market, and which is at the test lab getting first phase of testing done - it does sound better than a mark tuned radio and rabbi is has the same noise floor as my best radio -139 dbm without tuning the front end. I reasoned with myself that if someone is willing to spend $399 on a super duper fake 10 meter gloried cb, then they may be willing to pay $200 for one that works better and works right.

The second is an antenna that im trying, it isn't what you think as a solution likemthese other sticks in the air crap out on the market, but so far the three on my trucks are working really well and takes advantage of one of the defect I have told you guys about but ignored, by the way the antennas have 3:1 swr and work well, anyone guess why? The testing I did this week with the pickup was amazing, stuck it at the top of the crank up tower and used it on 10 meters, talking to Australia and India on ... 5 watts.

 

not worried about it like I said I'm not letting myself go off the deep end and i see no reason to over think things I'd say that's what gets the best of craig...it's sometimes the littlest stupidest cheapest things that make all the difference... like a $5 part and then you think man am I a dumb ###

 

Ridgeline seeing your posts about your experimental antennas my amateur radios cut power automatically at about a 2:1swr how are you getting around that? I know antenna theory is science but in application sometimes it seems more like voodoo.

 

well I'm not part of the team turn it up burn it up. that's why I do respect marks term clean is mean.... all my radios make decent power but none of them are run wide open... all of my radios have a roger beep well ok except one they are never turned on at all. all of them have echo I won't let that get stupid like many drivers do.. I run a big amp in my trk. big deal most of the time it's not turned on . or right now it's not fully connected... but then the radio on the dash absolutely would blow that amp up. even when I hook up a radio to drive the amp nobody knows it's on. it is hooked up correctly.. over in the Carlisle area the black kid jumps in a conversation and finds out I'm running a linear or have one he immediately says turn it on... thinking he's going to hear this big difference in my radio. I figure out he's a idiot didn't take long to do that. so I told him this conversation is over you have no glue what your talking about. same as mark in las cruses he was pushing 1 watt into a Stryker 955 a radio he was doing for stringbean you could not tell the difference between amp on or amp off everything is better in moderation.... overpower it get the roger beep on echo that sucker out. oh yeah I'm sure you'll sound just great................. on the airwaves

 

They don't see it, there isn't any true reflective power being fed back, the meters and aa are all wrong because of the way the antenna works, the radio sees almost 51.2 ohms. The reading on everything except my vna comes back to above 3:1, but erp on the field strength meter seems to be consistent with a 1.3:1 swr.

If anyone ever read what I said about swr not being important, then you will get why this is happening.

I just wonder if the wizards here can figure it out.

 

Well I'll be the first to admit I'm not a wizard! Don't have a lot of technical knowledge either and get lost pretty quick when the post heads there. But, I enjoy reading and learning what I can from those that are more knowledgeable than me. (most of you) The differences on here keep it interesting and entertaining as well. Hope it continues to be a good place to come and learn, share and have a little fun!

 

As soon as you do market it, "shut up and take my money!!!"

 

Me too... I need another radio like I need another hole in my ### but I'm always up for a new gadget.

 

Well I will tell you guys a couple 'issues' and tell me what you both think.

Let me tell you a couple things first, this isn't a radio you modify, there isn't room to put in an echo or a talk back feature. It is a serious radio with little room to add anything. Channels are programmed in and can't be modified. - ok the legal disclosure crap is over with, here we go.

The first is it doesn't have much in the way of knobs, I don't like a cluttered radio and really the things like volume and squelch are there and if I want to add a RF gain its there but overall, it is a clean design. Adding something takes a little time on the design end and there is latitude to add some things like delta tune I am not going to use an LCD display but the first five radios have them for testing. They are ok but finding the right ones are hard in a way so most likely they will have the good old LED channel display. The radio I have here has an old display on it, mainly I wanted to see if it would work, it is a mini-nixie display (it is in a 2000gtl case), pretty cool for a while than it drives me up a wall. I've got one with a plain old analog dial on it, I like that the best.

The second is the packaging of the radio, the first early two were put into Motorola business band cases, those were a really good and rugged case, they worked well but can't find them cheap - bought 30 of them for a buck a piece at one swap fand flipped them at the same swap for $60 a peice with exceptions of five of them. Now I went off on a tangent, let me get back to my point ... the other radios were put into cobra 21GTL (and old old 19) cases that I had been given a long time ago from scrap radios.

The thing I may end up doing is using the 21 type of cases with the 21 front piece because the acceptance requirements doesn't force me into using new stuff or declaring packaging unless it effects things that fall under RF leakage so I can sell them as a conversion. I can find these radios for $10 everywhere and that would cost me more to get new packages than scrapping out these $10 radios.

So what'ch you think?

 

I don't use echo so that's a non-issue with me. And if I want to hear what my radio sounds like, I'll record it from another one.

RF gain is mandatory for me. I run my squelch off and the RF gain at just over the threshold of noise. That way I can hear a weak signal in the distance saying "accident at the 109. All lanes are shut down..."