Can someone rationalize this purchase?

[Peddler]

OK Guys....enough is enough...If niether one has the point by now you never will.:headbang

Let it lay otr I'll lock the post...

2nd warning.

 

[psycho]

Well, it's been gone over many times, but 'properly tuned' is nowhere near where they are with those radios. They sound the way they do because they are way out of spec for a clean signal.

I don't care how anyone spends their money and I don't care if people run clipped/peaked/'tuned' radios on CB as long as they stay on that band. I do like to nudge people into investing their money more intelligently.

I actually feel bad that people are essentially fleeced by the whole CB market. They are paying way too much for what they are actually getting as far as the technology goes. Look at the photo galleries from some of the amp sites. Those people are spending their last dollars on essentially junk tech. It's mostly because they don't know any better.

I'm no hypocrite either. I did my time in CB and enjoyed it. I've just learned a whole lot since I started out. There was no internet back then and I didn't know any engineers back then either. It took a long time to get caught up. Hell I even asked my share of dumb questions here from back before I got my ticket and got my nose buried in the books again.

Between info I got here and my own digging, I've learned a lot and only intend on enlightening those who might not know any better yet.

I guess if you are going to continuously monitor your signal on an O-Scope then most if not all CB and Export radios tuned up are going to clip to a certain degree. Real CBers want clear, loud audio and are less concerned about being clean.......if it sounds good, hooray.

 

[Hammerjack Jones]

this getting good now

 

[Moleculo]

Real CBers want clear, loud audio and are less concerned about being clean.......if it sounds good, hooray.

I've avoided this thread, but I guess I'll jump in. First, I can't comprehend spending $600 for a CB. An export is a CB; don't kid yourself.

The whole discussion of "my CB will stomp your HF rig" is also sort of irrelevent. That's just like saying "my funny car will blow away your formula 1 car". They serve two different purposes and it's pointless to compare them. Yes, most CB on AM will key over most HF rigs. But the owners of HF rigs also aren't typically the types of operators that are into "competing" (drag racing) with others over the air to see who is louder. The HF rig operator is going to want to try and achieve more smooth and "flowing" audio, much like you would hear on a good broadcast AM station. You can't get audio quality like that on CB. You also aren't gong to get keydown contest material on an HF rig.

On SSB, the comparison becomes a bit more valid and the HF rig wins every single time. Not just from a TX audio perspective, but from a RX and features point of view also.

BTW, whoever said that a CB is just as "clean" as an HF rig has never looked at them both on a scope and spec analyzer. They also haven't looked at most modern HF rigs. On most of them, you can control how wide (how many "channels") your signal is with some dials or settings on the rig. You can also control how sharply the signal cuts off on the edges, also. There's no way you can get anything close on a CB to that "clean". It's just not technically possible with them. But on a CB, why would you care? The channels are spaced far enough apart that it doesn't matter nearly as much as it does in Amateur radio.

But like I said at the beginning...the whole comparison is sort of wierd. But $600 for a CB? No thanks.

 

[ron103067]

Hell for six hundred bucks you can get a uniden 78 for 100 then have 500 to spend on an amp which in my opinion will stomp on a export all day long

 

[kd-5-bgt]

Hmm 600$ to burn on a radio.To me it would depend on what mode I was using the most.AM/FM most likely it would have to be a CB(left pretty well factory) of some sort,maybe a 2950/70 modded for 11m,from what I have heard from those radios they seem to sound better on the above mentioned modes.Doing the above that leaves some scratch to get a good antenna system or a small kicker of some kind.

SSB mode...HF rig by far,ham radios are made for using on ssb and CW,the other modes are more for recieveing purposes even though they will transmit in those modes in most cases.Even when they are modded to include 11m if they are not over driven in the audio area they will sound great......

By making sure you are not over driving a radio you will usually keep any bleedover/distortion fairly well under control.

I have heard many radios that people have modded to the point that they can be heard 2 MHz in each way from where they are transmitting at.
Just the other day I was on a local interstate on 2 meter and actually had someone on a CB come in on an Icom 2200,that is about 120 MHz difference...needless to say that was a first

Personally I would rather have a good clean transmitting radio that gets out 50 miles as to have a splatter box that gets out 500

I guess what I am trying to say is dont get carried away with modding your radio for more output,audio wether you are a ham or a cber...a little tweak will do you more good in the long run than a huge one ...