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CBC Dynamic Speech Processor

kb7obw

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Jun 10, 2009
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Has anyone in the forum built and installed the CBC Dynamic Speech Processor kit? If so, what is your experience with it and what radios are you using it with?

I bought the kit for the heck of it and am thinking of installing it in my Kenwood TS-440S HF rig.

I just wrote the company asking if there are any mods needed to the board (as mentioned on pg. 16 of the User/Construction Manual that came with it) for the Kenwood installation.

There was a few construction modifications with included additional parts for some radios mentioned in the manual. The Kenwood was not one of them.

(I posted the same question under "CB Accessories".)

73's

Robbie
 
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SAVE 20%! SPEECH PROCESSOR KIT BLOWS THEIR EARS OFF! - eBay (item 330344586452 end time Aug-12-09 21:24:32 PDT)
http://cgi.ebay.com/SAVE-20%!-SPEEC...temQQimsxZ20090714?IMSfp=TL090714185002r17778
I think this what you are referring to. Yeah, I've seen this for awhile and wondered about it myself. I don't know anyone that has one or uses one. It would be a great experiment to get one and put it in a stock Cobra 25 and do a 'before and after' theme with it.

Anyone willing to donate the stuff?!?
 
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Is the processor in your 440 broken? The Kenwood factory processor is already very heavy handed and will easily distort and splatter your signal as it is.

Not sure what you would gain from adding something else.
 
Been thinking about adding a processor to one of my radios, VoiceMax Speech Processor w/ Noise Gate - eBay (item 260442686814 end time Aug-06-09 10:57:46 PDT)

that one caught my eye, sounds interesting, its certainly a whole lot more impressive then the CBC or SP1... No idea how it works, but would like to try one....

Thanks all for the information and interest.

I find the VoiceMax very impressive and more sophisticated as well (on "paper" anyway) too.

I just don't want to go through the time, money, and trouble in trying them all out to see which one is the best.

As far as my Kenwood, the modulation is good enough, but I've never been too impressed with the stock, onboard processors of the older HF rigs for some of the obvious problems mentioned. It would be more of an experiment than a necessity if I should install any of the after market processor modules. If the addition of any one of them would give me that "extra punch", then it would be worth the time and trouble.
 
Is the processor in your 440 broken? The Kenwood factory processor is already very heavy handed and will easily distort and splatter your signal as it is.

The part about easily distorting is certaily true. The TS-440 processor is not an R.F. processor or clipper followed by a filter like some other processors. It is only a crummy audio compressor. You also get a different feedback loop on one of the speech stages to change the tone. Worst processor I've ever tried. The rest of the rig was a breakthrough when it came on the market.

A better quality compressor could work wonders if setup properly. The SSB transmit filter is not so good for articulation either. Look at AG6K's webpage for info on that.
 
If you really want a proper SSB processor that is powerful, the Ten-Tec RF processor box really works. I'm assuming you know not to use a processor for AM, it ruins the sound quality.

The Ten-Tec unit is a true RF based processing circuit.

Ten-Tec: 715 RF Speech Processor
 
Update for CBC Dynamic Speech Processor

Lou Franklin told me via e-mail that his processor (CBC DSP) will not work on the Kenwood TS-440S.

From what I gather (reading the manual), the VoiceMax Speech Processor seems to have a more "universal" and sophisticated design.

Thanks to SR385 for the info and link for the Ten-Tec 315 RF "outboard" Processor. Impressive unit as well (and quite a few $$$ more).

I was thinking of possibly mounting a VoiceMax board separate from the rig (like the Ten-Tec) and, maybe, "gutting out" an extra desktop power mike and replacing the electronics with the unit and some mods (such as mounting the modulation LED on the board with an externally visible one). Putting the board in a separate enclosure should work too but would be a bigger job.

Again, I'm an experimenter.
 
I was eying that ebay processor too!

BTW, if you don't have the internal antenna tuner in the 440 there is plenty of room inside the rig for more stuff.

Maybe consider piping the processor output to the AFSK input to bypass the first speech amp chain.
 
I was eying that ebay processor too!

BTW, if you don't have the internal antenna tuner in the 440 there is plenty of room inside the rig for more stuff.

Maybe consider piping the processor output to the AFSK input to bypass the first speech amp chain.

Thanks for the advice!

Which processor are you referring to? Both the CDC-DSP and the VoiceMax are on ebay. I would think the CDC-DSP. If so, it just may work as you suggested.

I’ve (tentively) decided to internally install the VoiceMax in the Kenwood. With this unit, I'm sure there is plenty of room inside (even with the internal auto tuner that's in it). I've done several mods to the rig already so it looks roomy enough inside.
 
voicemax speech processor

I have installed the voicemax speech processor in a stock cobra 25 and compared to a stock cobra 25 out of the box. It brings the audio up and makes thing more understandable. I havent bypased any of the internal amp stages but that sound like a good thing to try. I think these are the only guys left making these things. the noise gate is nice if you are in a noisy inviroment too. I was pleased with what it did for the money. I think i bought 3 of them and installed 2 in customer radios and on in my own. No complaints and they seem to work well.

MIKE

shop owner/ general radio telephone class tech
 
CBC SPEECH PROCESSOR

The CBC processor is pretty much a copy of the Uniden speech clipper circuit used in the Cobra "XLR" series of radios as well as others. It is the primary reason that these rigs sounded so loud and clear on the air. The circuits in the AM and SSB models differ in that the SSB units have a low-pass filter following the clipper to clean up objectionable audio harmonics. An excellent explanation of how the circuit works can be found in "Understanding and Repairing CB radios" by Lou Franklin, pages 168-170. The SUPERSCOPE CB640 (also built by Uniden) had this same clipper circuit on a seperate "Mike Amp and ALC board" (Sam's #239 ). I installed one of these boards out of a junk CB640 into my RCI 2950. It REALLY pumped up the audio.

I think that the specs for the voicemax unit selling on Ebay are pretty exaggerated. I just don't see how you can boost the audio power by that many dB without adding tons of distortion. But...the board works, and that's the bottom line. I would really like to see a schematic of the circuit.

- 399
 
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Thanks for the advice!

Which processor are you referring to? Both the CDC-DSP and the VoiceMax are on ebay. I would think the CDC-DSP. If so, it just may work as you suggested.

I’ve (tentively) decided to internally install the VoiceMax in the Kenwood. With this unit, I'm sure there is plenty of room inside (even with the internal auto tuner that's in it). I've done several mods to the rig already so it looks roomy enough inside.

I was looking at the VoiceMax. Last time I went mobiling with a TS-440 I used a Fostex MN-50. I was happy with it but it quit.

If I were going to give up audio quality for punch I'd look for another Drake SP-75.
 

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