Poll: Which brand is best at SSB?

[AudioShockwav]

i almost forgot my president lincoln is very good on ssb as well...

And If you look at the Board, It says "Uniden" on it, another vote for the Best.
Almost every export radio made started as a "clone" of the Uniden PB010 chassis, used in the Cobra 148GTL-DX /SuperStar 360FM.
In My book, as far as A Standard 40 Ch CB goes, the Uniden 40 channel SSB Chassis (President/Uniden Grant,Grant XL, Madison,early 148/2000GTL) are some of the Best built.
I voted Uniden.

73
Jeff

 

[C2]

i almost forgot my president lincoln is very good on ssb as well...

How could you have possibly almost forgot that?

Lincoln/2510/2600... 8)

 

[Switch Kit]

What about the new 148's? Aren't they not as good quality as the older style 148's? I do know that Cobra doesn't use Uniden boards any more. So how good would a new 148 be?

There OK / not the best / but can be worked on to do better.

 

[psycho]

uniden is the bst as far as cb goes. kenwoods are unbelievable on sideband, you can really zero in on someone and they sound lifelike.

Kenwoods are one of the very best on SSB, but on AM they have pronounced AM audio deficiencies.
Since you are posting in a CB radio topic I would say the Galaxy 959 is one of the nicest SSB rigs. Cobra and Uniden are Chinese junk. The older Cobra 148s and Uniden Grants are excellent SSB and AM radios.

 

[dway87]

Anyone know about the General Sherman?

 

[Carl]

same as other entery lever rci based radios. made to talk on am. ssb works pretty good.

if you are wanting a serious ssb radio look into a real ham rig (hf) they sond good on am if you set them up right. they can be loud and crystal clear but not as loud (or a muddy) as most exports. ssb is worlds apart.

my old kenwood ts 440s was unbelieveable durring ssb qso's. you can make 50 people calling cq down to just one by filtering. am was great for clairity but not as punchy as some of the more common crap exports. most people would rather hear a clean kenwood or icom on am over a louder over modulated muddy limiter cliped magnum or galaxy

 

[psycho]

same as other entery lever rci based radios. made to talk on am. ssb works pretty good.

if you are wanting a serious ssb radio look into a real ham rig (hf) they sond good on am if you set them up right. they can be loud and crystal clear but not as loud (or a muddy) as most exports. ssb is worlds apart.

my old kenwood ts 440s was unbelieveable durring ssb qso's. you can make 50 people calling cq down to just one by filtering. am was great for clairity but not as punchy as some of the more common crap exports. most people would rather hear a clean kenwood or icom on am over a louder over modulated muddy limiter cliped magnum or galaxy

I wonder who those "Most People". Superior as the Kenwoods and Icoms are on SSB, they are under modulating highly unimpressive AM radios. Of course they are not made for that purpose.....kind of like expecting great sound out of a top notch AM/FM/CD sound system on AM.........not good.

 

[N8YX]

I wonder who those "Most People". Superior as the Kenwoods and Icoms are on SSB, they are under modulating highly unimpressive AM radios.

I'm one of those "most people".

I would far rather hear a clean, correctly adjusted, low-level-modulated ham rig on AM than any of the atrocious sounding, overmodulated echo/splatterbox CBs which seem to pollute the airwaves as of late.

Modulate a carrier more than 100% and you're bound to introduce unwanted IMD products into the RF envelope. Contrary to popular belief, this does not make you sound "good". In fact, it'll certainly arouse the ire of any nearby radio users.

Add echo and all the other noise toys to the equation and you've got a signal which borders on unintelligibility.

Most late-model, multimode ham gear - when run in the 'AM' mode - doesn't emit true A3E...but rather H3E, or 'AME' (exalted carrier AM - which is carrier plus one sideband; usually upper). As such, one doesn't have as much modulating energy available in the waveform as an equivalent DSB AM emission, and the resultant signal may not appear to be as 'loud'

There are fixes for the above. One involves replacing the filter in the transmitter chain with one which will allow both sidebands to be passed then amplified; subsequently, the carrier oscillator must be offset to re-center the output of the balanced modulator in the new filter's passband. Another - in the case of rigs which use separate USB/LSB filters in the TX IF chain - is to enable both during AM TX.

Of course they are not made for that purpose.....kind of like expecting great sound out of a top notch AM/FM/CD sound system on AM.........not good.

Transmitted audio fidelty has everything to do with TX IF filter bandwidth and the inherent high/low cutoff points, as I pointed out above. Current FCC rules limit the bandwidth of a DSB AM signal within the ARS to 6KHz max and the manufacturers design their rigs accordingly. Just as the ESSB crowd is doing with these rigs on SSB, the AM TX chain can be opened up MUCH wider. The net effect - on a service with 10KHz spacing - would be to p!ss your neighbors off. So why would anyone want to do this?

 

[Lazybones1222]

You don't think a properly set up RCI 2950 is a good SSB radio?

I had a 2950 years ago. Bill Good helped redesign the horrible 2900 from RCI and the results of that endeavor was the 2950. Still, RCI didn't go far enough with the receiver per Bill Good.

The dual conversion receiver in the Grant XL/148/2000 was and still is superior to the RCI!

As far as the POLL question goes however, there is only ONE answer that is correct. This does not mean that RCI is bad, but there can be oly ONE "best" from that list. When talking radios, its ALL about the receivers! T

If the poll question said something about "features", using the same list, then my answer would have been different. But, for "BEST" SSB performance, it is and always will be, the Uniden chassis.

I see. I have a "Justin tuned" old Grant XL. I get great reports on SSB. But I like the features of that 2950 too. Kinda does it all.

As you said - the receive on that Grant is the best of all the radios I have.

Lazy

 

[Moleculo]

they are under modulating highly unimpressive AM radios.

OK, we're getting waaaay off topic here, but...

Most are not under modulating. They're properly modulating. A properly modulated AM transmission has a 4:1 peak to carrier ratio. For those that like the "CB sound", you're hearing an over-modulated transmission. That's fine too, if that's what you like. Different strokes for different folks....

 

[dway87]

I just bought a Uniden Grant XL from DTB radio for $140. I hope it's worth the money I paid for it.

 

[Switch Kit]

well the man gets nothing but top notch props around here for his work and know how , I'd say for 140.00 coming from him ,you more then likely did better then good . this would pretty much mean you got a properly alighned and tuned AM/SSB cb radio . Congratualations !!

 

[dway87]

yeah. it's been aligned and he added channels to it. so that' pretty good. i've never had a ssb radio.

 

[psycho]

yeah. it's been aligned and he added channels to it. so that' pretty good. i've never had a ssb radio.

You'll like talking SSB DX. A LOT less power will get you worldwide than with AM. I talk SSB DX but there hasn't been very much in the past few months.
If you can locate a older Malaysia made Cobra 148 GTL or a Uniden Grant XL....those are the best CB SSB radios.

 

[park]

I use CB radios for AM and a Icom 728 for SSB.