some of you may have seen my name here before and already know I’m pretty new to this. But anyhow, I bought an rci 2995dx over the weekend. Radio is awesome! My question is, why can someone show about 9 pounds on the meter, but have little to no modulation? I can hear many other people loud and proud with very little signal, but some people bang the needle all the way over to 9 or above and I can’t hear a word they are saying. You can just tell it’s someone talking. It would seem as if other people can hear them though because they are obviously talking to someone. Unless they are schizophrenic I suppose lol
-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
High signal but little to no modulation?
- Thread starter Hollerhunter
- Start date
sounds like the RX is getting over loaded. try turning the rf gain down and see it that corrects the problem. if so need to see if some one has increased the RX on the radio. not sure if any one else has had this problem. see who chimes in on it. but do check the rf gain so you will know if that is the problem.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
I would guess that the big signals that you can't hear are over modulated or there is not enough headroom in the amp causing it to flat top. Or I could be totally wrong.
I will try turning down my rf gain when I have this problem again. Thanks guys you all always have suggestions.
Is this a new radio?
If it's used, I would wonder if maybe it was plugged into the antenna during a storm. If lightning strikes a utility pole down the street, you could still get a jolt coming down the coax that would cause this sort of fault.
The RF-Gain test will narrow this down a bit. If turning it down always clears them up, the radio's automatic-gain circuit is not performing correctly.
73
If it's used, I would wonder if maybe it was plugged into the antenna during a storm. If lightning strikes a utility pole down the street, you could still get a jolt coming down the coax that would cause this sort of fault.
The RF-Gain test will narrow this down a bit. If turning it down always clears them up, the radio's automatic-gain circuit is not performing correctly.
73
I turned down the rf gain and it seemed to help me. It is a used radio and yes I am on am. There is a guy about a mile down the road who has the same radio as me. I’m wondering if maybe it was him with his radio cranked up trying to reach out and touch someone pretty far off. Could this be the case?
If it's only one strong nearby station that behaves this way, the problem could be his station alone.
But if your radio does this with other strong stations, the problem is in your receiver.
73
But if your radio does this with other strong stations, the problem is in your receiver.
73
Last edited:
Greetings!
IF he was trying to talk to someone on FM mode, and you're listening to him on AM on your radio - the effect would be like very pinched-up audio. 2995DX has FM - so if your neighbor has the same radio - well - you switching over your radio to FM mode would have cleared this up real quick
Now if this "low-volume" occurs when someone is talking to you on AM and you're listening to them on your radio on the AM mode- that's relatively close by (same signal strength or within that "1-mile" distance) and sounds "pinched-up" - then yes, I 2nd nomads notion of the problem is within your receiver.
For some hints to this RX problem would also show this effect on SSB modes too - and they wouldn't have to be very close - they'd be excessively loud and "garbled" on their voice peaks and your meter would be going crazy with local popping noises and electrical ambient noises because there would be little to no control over the gain your receiver has. ANL doesn't work in SSB but NB does - so with these symptoms and the NB switch has no effect - you have a problem in your receiver.
What kind? Well, that is a bit more complicated but I'd think AGC (Automatic Gain Control) is a strong candidate. It's a signal generated the radios' detector/discriminator/signal processor that routes back to the 1st stage of the Receiver and starts "Backing Down" the amplifiers' gain so it doesn't damage the RX strip chain that follows.
It can do it in various ways. Methods used are; offsets to the RF gain control power present on the line for the RX section (controlled as a unit) or via PIN diodes than can be used to shunt - limit - RF input to the RF amp stage via directly - controlled by the RF gain knob.
If any of those parts failed - they can make the radio act like it's WIDE OPEN and picks up everything from noisy car engines idling nearby onto local electrical devices and security systems "polling" their base units with "Keep alive" signals - all kinds of stuff sniffed out of the air...but one wrong spike in EMF/EMP close by, can damage the radio. It can't back down the gain and may overload your receiver and potentially do damage...
So don't neglect it - look into it and hope the above gives you some direction to work towards to figure this out.
I'd start with the various modes first, like FM and AM and listen for the changes to the received audio In various modes...and if your neighbor starts up sounding like that again...try switching to FM and see if you can hear them better - they don't have to know you're listening but at least you can understand them. If you can, great, you can relax but of this still happens no matter where you're one the band and what mode you're in then you have a real problem.
Regards!
:+> Andy <+:
IF he was trying to talk to someone on FM mode, and you're listening to him on AM on your radio - the effect would be like very pinched-up audio. 2995DX has FM - so if your neighbor has the same radio - well - you switching over your radio to FM mode would have cleared this up real quick
Now if this "low-volume" occurs when someone is talking to you on AM and you're listening to them on your radio on the AM mode- that's relatively close by (same signal strength or within that "1-mile" distance) and sounds "pinched-up" - then yes, I 2nd nomads notion of the problem is within your receiver.
For some hints to this RX problem would also show this effect on SSB modes too - and they wouldn't have to be very close - they'd be excessively loud and "garbled" on their voice peaks and your meter would be going crazy with local popping noises and electrical ambient noises because there would be little to no control over the gain your receiver has. ANL doesn't work in SSB but NB does - so with these symptoms and the NB switch has no effect - you have a problem in your receiver.
What kind? Well, that is a bit more complicated but I'd think AGC (Automatic Gain Control) is a strong candidate. It's a signal generated the radios' detector/discriminator/signal processor that routes back to the 1st stage of the Receiver and starts "Backing Down" the amplifiers' gain so it doesn't damage the RX strip chain that follows.
It can do it in various ways. Methods used are; offsets to the RF gain control power present on the line for the RX section (controlled as a unit) or via PIN diodes than can be used to shunt - limit - RF input to the RF amp stage via directly - controlled by the RF gain knob.
If any of those parts failed - they can make the radio act like it's WIDE OPEN and picks up everything from noisy car engines idling nearby onto local electrical devices and security systems "polling" their base units with "Keep alive" signals - all kinds of stuff sniffed out of the air...but one wrong spike in EMF/EMP close by, can damage the radio. It can't back down the gain and may overload your receiver and potentially do damage...
So don't neglect it - look into it and hope the above gives you some direction to work towards to figure this out.
I'd start with the various modes first, like FM and AM and listen for the changes to the received audio In various modes...and if your neighbor starts up sounding like that again...try switching to FM and see if you can hear them better - they don't have to know you're listening but at least you can understand them. If you can, great, you can relax but of this still happens no matter where you're one the band and what mode you're in then you have a real problem.
Regards!
:+> Andy <+: