Radio With Amp Questions

That's about as easy as taking it to a CB shop. Can find plenty just doing a web search on CB peak and tweak.

 

The "peak & tweak" thing is the first step in making your radio perform as it should or is capable of.

It's also the first possible step in making your radio perform poorly or break early.

The difference between the two is finding a shop that won't "snow" you when they do what they do.

A "peaking" or whatever they want to call it these days, consists of turning the modulation limiter circuits up to 100% modulation, tuning the transmitter to get the best output power with that 100% modulation & tuning the receiver sections for the best sensitivity & adjacent channel rejection it can get. Also, the receiver can be tuned to give the best signal to noise ratio its design will allow.

It's basically just "squeezing" the last drop of performance out of the radio that it's design will allow without "pushing" the transmitter circuits too far beyond their limits & causing premature failure.

It's not an amplifier in a box, just add water. There's only so much improvement to be had over the factory design/settings. It probably won't gain you more than an extra mile or so in tx range. You might not even notice the improvement in rx quality until/unless the channels are quiet.

Some radios, like the Cobra 29's etc, can easily work at a 6 watt or so carrier & still produce an undistorted 100% modulation of that carrier. The Cobra might come out of the box at 4-4.5 watts with maybe 80% modulation.

Taking that 4 watts & running it up to 6-7 watts is just a slightly noticeable improvement in output power. Turning the modulation up to 100% should provide a noticeable change in the distance.

Like I said, these are minor improvements & they shouldn't charge very much to do this. I would say it shouldn't take a half hour to do this including taking the covers off.

I would not let them talk me into any of those little "modulator" modules. They just distort your tx signal & create problems for other channels around you while actually reducing your useable tx range.

I would be very leary of something they call a "super tune". I think the definition varies for each shop's "super tune" but it's safe to say that it's not going to get you more out of the radio than it was designed to do in the first place.

If you are planning on making the investment of an amplifier, I wouldn't bother having the radio tuned until you can put the two of them on the bench at the same time.

The "matching" process normally employed in making sure the amp is not overdriven by the radio also includes retuning the radio. You would be undoing the work of a previously paid for tune-up. Why waste the money if it all has to be redone to add an amp?

If an amp is not in your future, apply the most effort & money in the antenna system. A well setup antenna system is going to do more for you than the standard tune-up will.

Ideally, you would first perfect your antenna system as a prerequisite for adding an amplifier. This kills 2 birds with one stone. It makes sure you're getting the best out of the antenna(s) & makes sure that all the stuff is done to the antenna system that would normally be required to add an amp later.

I can't tell you what antenna(s) to chose because there's so many that will work just fine hiding behind the highly marketed hi dollar "whopper 9000" antennas.

It would be equally difficult for me to tell you what's involved in making the best antenna system improvements for a specific truck. Each truck is different & requires a "tailored" approach unless you've done one & can repeat it.

I can only supply the basic design needs & it will be up to you to get someone to impliment them on that tailored basis.

Hopefully I've provided an answer to your question & a little extra useable info.

 

an echo mic?

 

Frankly, I wouldn't bother with the preamp myself.

A preamp can only increase what it hears & that would generally mean the noise as well as the signal.
It's not going to extract a wanted signal out of the noise.
If the channel is very quiet, this is about the only time a preamp can help you hear someone's weak signal.
But, the assumption is that, the other person is also running a preamp to be able to hear you as well.

In such weak signal work, it is better to add a little power to both signals to reach out further.
This helps your signal to get over the ambient noise on the other end.

 

can also distort the received signal of trucks talking close to you (overdriving front end receiver)

 

You may be talking about an audio processor.
Some of these can be very sophisticated in performance & operation.
There exists a few receive audio processors that can help differentiate between noise and voice.

These units generally employ microprocessor based filtering that regular analog circuits have trouble keeping up with.

Usually youll see these used on SSB but I think there's some benefit to AM op as well.
They're not a panacea for noise.