I guess the "Purists" are out in force again. A Galaxy 959 with a clipped limiter will sound fine as long as the dead key is not set too high or low.
Spreading the TVI coils is always a bad idea.
I remember the days of buying a Cobra 148 GTL clipping the limiter and having the best sounding mobile around. Back in the 70s and 80s you bought a radio clipped the limiter and set the key to 3 watts.......DONE. Now CBers are so anal retentive...at least the ones on internet forums appear to be.
I have been a Cber for 32 years and have always had one of the loudest and best sounding radios in the area......clipped limiter and all.
Of course some export radios sound horrible with clipped limiters, but some sound great.
I know I will get hate mail for this but people ask questions for knowledge and they need to hear both sides.....it's CB radio for crying out loud.
Don't think its fair to call it 'anal retentive'. But I can understand where you are coming from. Things are changing from that day. Technology is even creeping into CB's too. Things never seem to stand still; do they?
What I wrote about spreading the 54mhz coils and the modulation limiter were true. CBers need to know what it is that these so-called 'mods' do. Don't they? Can you think of any better place to discover, learn, and discuss these things? Sure, being a Ham had something to do with what I wrote. If this is what you are referring to - anyway. Doesn't make what was said any less true.
CB's and CBers can have it better. What once was considered 'the way to do it' has been been explored and de-bunked. I'm not the first to say it either. After all; I am a Ham and a CBer. I can see how the Ham is more than a little upset about those who run stations with linears that are putting out crap signals because their 'modified' radios are starting the 'crap cycle'. Making interference where none rally needs to be - if one understands what can be done. But I can see it from the CBer side as well; we want to make a bodacious signal that can really cut through and sound distinct too.
Clipping the AM modulation limiter is equivalent to turning the modulation pot all of the way open. How much is enough? 110%? 130%? What happens after 100% modulation is distortion. You cannot have more than 100% of anything; as this is the nature of percentage. So what is the addition number point to? Distortion. Now; how much distortion would you like to have when you transmit? 10%? 30%? More? I think not. You might get away with 10 to 20% before it gets to sound nasty; but nasty isn't what our goal is. Is it? So; running modulation too high above 100% may sound OK; or it might be just over the top too.
Better still, is to run compression in the mic audio circuit. This solves many of needs of high quality modulation and can still keep it at 100% modulation. This isn't so much a compromise as it is the means to accomplish the same thing by another means. It makes any mic more sensitive as well as boosting the output of the signal. There is always going to be a certain amount of distortion in any radio mic circuit; we really don't need to add more. It is inherent to transistors that are noisy and are being improperly driven in that circuit.
Going the distance to use a quality mic is also being realized day-by-day to the average CBer. The day of the nasty-sounding mics may well be a thing of the past - too.
Clip that AM limiter - and prove that nothing has changed in the mean time . . .
