Mark S. @ Fine Tune CB (Hardrive)

Really?

i was just commenting on the fact that no one snuck anything in, but still check my moral compass?

What in the hell does that mean?

The guy is good, but he isn't the best. He is someone who does know how to work on old radio designs, which CB radios are. Some of you get all flustered when he is questioned, defending him which makes it comical when people tell you he is not gods gift to CB.

 

just seems like your ragging on him.no such thing as a cb god I agree.he works on the Stryker 655 and 955. I do know a lot of so called techs out there will tell you they don't work on them.at least their honest.they have no clue how to work on them.as far as comical this site is pretty much that. the way people just go on and on and on ad out swrs coax length etc.etc.etc. I don't get into a pissing match with anyone on here about my equipment.because they will tell you whatever your equipment is theirs is better.advice on cb radios and cb equipment is hit and miss on here I think we both know that.take care and have a blessed day.
.

 

If he's not the best I'd like to know who the best is so I can go get some radio work done and compare it to the radios that I have.
To the best of my knowledge Mark is the only technician that has at least two different customers
(Who I personally know) that regularly talk 135 miles in all directions without relying on mother nature for skip conditions.
Actually you have him wrong as far as him having a preference to work on Ancient radio designs. He prefers to work on new radio designs.
I agree that these export radios quite often are based upon an old design. He works on Ten Tec Kenwood Icom as well as Yaesu rigs. He prefers not to work on anything over 5 years old. The more difficult it is to work on the more he likes it because he knows that no one else would be able to duplicate or reverse engineer what he did.

 

Russ (AB7IF/KB7SEZ......deceased) was impressed with the advancement of his skills since they had spent time together. That is an endorsement that is worth something in my book.

 

Well I'm not actually ragging on him, I am on those who think that he is the only one that can do the work.

It is funny that someone can say something negative or God forbid realistic and all hell breaks out in the thread.

Rabbi, got to say this ... Where are the new designs?

I've got schematics of a lot of new radios and it seems the same exact designs, noting that there really isn't any design changes. Compared this to say hf rigs, cbs have not changed much if at all.

 

Mosfets are a drastic change. More stages less gain and lower fidelity than bipolars. Encoders are a new design over vari cap stuff

 

that makes sense to me .........

 

Really?

Mosfets have been around for a while and that is not what I'm driving at, encoders of what?

If you seriously look at the designs, nothing has changed. The same rf line, usually single conversion, some are/were double conversion.

The same front end design, usually broadband.

No good filtering in the if line, the mixers are basically the same, only a couple out there have really good mixers which matter a lot, oh and those radios are not made any more or are just modified design.

Some of the synthizers are noisy, a source of noise in the if line. PLLs were not made for anything but making it cheaper.

Compare those $400 with older ham radio gear that is really cheap now.

The point is that while communications equipment evolved, cbs have really not, they are stuck in the past. Not saying that you can't get good sounding or receiving performance out of them but they can be improved on a lot with serious changes in the design.

 

Well ridgeline...Start fabbin up some new fangled super duper radios and im sure you can make a cpl extra $$ a week..lol..

 

Craig, you may be kidding around but seriously I've finished one version on paper, made some mods and laying out another version, I did this to ease my numb mind from driving all kinds of hours for the last few months.

I've got a bread board version of a 10 meter rig that the paper versions come from, so I know everything works. I had the circuit board laid out, 4 layer and I've priced circuit boards, sourced the parts and even talked to a consulting lab in a near by city to see what it takes to get it type accepted.

Will it be made?

Who knows?

It is something I thought about for the past few months.

Right now with all the estimates I made, it comes in to costing about $175 to make.