the VR4 mod for cobra

No it just means removing it was the method someone chose to disable the limiter circuit. You can either get it fixed or learn to control your mike gain when anyone complains your too loud and over modulated.

 

D 11 is the limiter diode. cutting it will make you sound like #### on other end. Vr4 is a variable pot,you dont clip it or remove it. The radio will not function without it.

 

VR4, D11, C70 or 73 I forget which (one is C25 other C29) are all in series in limiter circuit. If VR4 is missing why cut D11? How many holes do you need for a tire to go flat? None of these parts if missing will make the radio not work. As I said learn to control your mike gain and you will not notice problems anyway. You should have titled the thread 'How do I cut limiters to make Boat Anchor Radios?".

 

TickTick,
While you're having your buddy listen to you, go ahead and give him a count to 30 or 60, and have him dial around and see how many channels away he can hear the noise from your signal. While he probably won't be able to actually undertand the actual words you're saying, but once he has your speaking rhythm down, he should be able to identify the splatter he hears as coming from you, rather than some other source. It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise if he tells you that he can identify your voice as much as 5 or 6 channels either side of whatever channel you're testing on.
In order to help validate the test, try and do the test before the skip starts rolling, so you're most likely to hear local stations (like your buddy) reliably, rather than the woman reciting numbers in Mexico. And pick a channel that's quiet locally to where you are. If you start around channel 12 or so, you should be able to avoid the Superbowl wannabees as he tunes down, and the Keven Kilowatts up on the "working" channel of 19.
It'll be interesting to see how wide your signal actually is, especially when you recall that all that energy that can be heard on the other channels, even though it will show on a wattmeter, is being wasted, because it's not on the channel that people you're talking to are listening on.
If you want to get that radio sounding really good, it'd be worth a half-hour of time (yours or a competent tech's) to replace the missing pot, the clipped diode, and whatever parts have been removed, then adjust the modulation to 100% on voice peaks. "Louder" only translates to "more power" within the bandwidth of a properly modulated channel, which the removed components were intended to control. Also bear in mind that if you take your radio that was made to put out 4 or 5 watts and manage to wrest 7 or 8 watts out of it, it'll drastically shorten the life of the components that make the power, and won't be noticed by anyone on the air in real life; it'll be less than a needle's width on an S-meter.
If you need more range after the radio is set right set correctly, and your antenna is the most efficient you can afford and install correctly on your vehicle, an outboard amplifier will help give you more power. Most of them won't help your receive sensitivity, so you'll end up as an "alligator station": all mouth, no ears, so if you can talk ten times as far as you can talk to the average user, you'll only be able to carry on a conversation with other high power stations, or until the other legal radios go out of range of your receiver.
Just a thought. I'm so old that thoughts come to me seldom enough that I try to write them down when they spring (however briefly) into my mind.....
Hope it helps.
73,

Handlebar

 

Sounds like you're ready to open a CB shop.

 

just be sure to have that screwdriver gold plated.

 

Well if he is trying to learn, and it appears that he is, you guys aren't much encouragement.......pretty negative and demeaning actually:smt012:smt012.......some might say you come across as arrogant pr@*ks, but I won't go that far. (maybe just trying to be funny......yeah that's probably it....)