Stock radio , was wondering if you can check out the video I quickly made. No matter how loud I speak on AM the meter never goes over midway, is this a sign of low modulation? Mic gain is turned to max setting , same with stock mic and astatic.
I take it the radio has never been "Peaked"?
It might just need a little adjustment inside, or fine tune. (Like Robb & Sonoma suggested)
And have you tried an amplified microphone?(if you got one anyways)
Breakout your screwdriver and turn up the AMC pot. Just about every new radio I have ever had usually has this pot turned way down. Look for VR17 near the top center. This is labeled on the board. Check your modulation too see if it increases because some radios have the pots in reverse direction for the gain value. It's ok to max out this pot because you still have the mic gain for control. Just don't be tempted to hack out the modulation limiter.
Here is a link for the service manual. Last page shows the adjustment locations. Don't screw around with the other pots if you don't know what you are doing.
https://www.gijoesradioelectronics.com/Images/Ranger_2950Dx_2970Dx_Service_Manual.pdf
I just posted the link. go back and click on it.L
My and scew drivers? They don't neven ( ranger) have 2970n2 or 2970n4 service manuals available still I dont think.
On the older rangers it was vr14 or vr17, i recall reading once.
Best thing for me to do is perhaps get another radio El Cheapo one, so I can hear the modulation out of it before making adjustments.
Freddy
Breakout your screwdriver and turn up the AMC pot. Just about every new radio I have ever had usually has this pot turned way down. Look for VR17 near the top center. This is labeled on the board. Check your modulation afterwards to see if it increases because some radios have the pots in reverse direction for the gain value. It's ok to max out this pot because you still have the mic gain for control. Just don't be tempted to hack out the modulation limiter.
Good point. It's still better than clipping the limiter because I've found on some radio's the AMC has no adjustment afterwards.A lot of people do this and it works for them. I don't like to turn the amc wide open and control the modulation with the mic gain. The reason is that the limiter adds some compression to the audio. If you turn it to max and turn the mic gain down to correct it it's not working anymore.
With the amc set properly you can turn up the mic gain so that softer spoken words are heard loud and clear while preventing overmodulation on the louder sounds. It levels everything out.
I was thinking if Limeybastard marked the current location of the AMC vr, and tweaked it just a little bit to let the radio modulate a little more, he might even see the gauge/meter go all the way to the top with more modulation.
Or the meter itself might need a VR tweak if the radio can do 100% mod as it sits.
(w/out a 'scope you won't be able to set it for 100%, but you can definitely increase the modulation is you so desired)