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Frequency question

Freightlinerbob

Freightlinerbob

Member
Mar 20, 2012
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A few weeks ago, I made my first DX contact in years since, just recently becoming interested in this hobby again. I was driving north through Saskatchewan and spoke with Dallas TX and Niagara Falls. We spoke briefly on 38LSB but it was really crowded so the guy asked me to got to 27.390 (?) if I understood him correctly. That's between 38 and 39, right? I have no such adjustability in my old 148gtl. Could we not just have moved to 36,37,38, 39 or 40? Do newer models have this ability or did I misunderstand him?
 

He had a radio with that capability. Some radios come with a full VFO that allows the user to tune to any frequency in the frequency range of the radio.

The better export radios have VFOs. The President HR-2510, the RCI 2900 radios, the Magnum 257 and it's improved clone.

I guess I should say better in my opinion.

All those radios are popular with the SSB crowd. As is the Cobra 148 and 2000.
 
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You can get a 148 to go to all of the even channels by having the clarifier unlocked and the slide distance modified. But there is a downside to that too. If it slides too much - say 6khz in either direction - it will be very touchy and harder to lock on to someone. IOW - you will most likely be somewhat off-frequency a bit. Many Export radio that can slide down to the even number/freq will often have both a coarse and fine clarifier adjustment knob. It is the fine clarifier adjustment knob that will permit to get an exact lock on another station with greater ease.
 
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27.390 is indeed, mid point between channel 38 (27.385) and channel 39 (27.395). He probably told you to go to "27.390" because there's a better chance that no one else was on that frequency, and so you could have continued your conversation w/o most of the riff raff being there.
 
Let the other party know what equipment you are running. I never asked a guy with a Cobra 148 to QSY to a frequency he couldn't get to.
 
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If you have the older style 148 with side mic there is an easy mod in secret cb manual to get the slide you need to go down 5kc. Have heard that the newer ones don't do that trick as well. And the reason is like others have said, much less traffic there so you can actually talk with someone.

I usually check 36,37, and 39 before I go to 38 to see if they are busy and if there are a few QSOs going on there I will hang out and see if I can talk with one of them when someone signs off. If they are dead like they are so much of the time then I will go on 38 and make a call and say that I am going to be listening on one of those and I always get two or three that came to give a shout for me. So I go back to the one that is the strongest since if he is loud to me then I should be loud to him, unless he is using power and then he might not hear me, but since he heard me on the other one through all that noise most likely he will hear me now for sure.

Have been tuning around when all the channels are packed and have heard several stations from Europe on the mid channels. So it is nice to have the ablility to slide 5kc and if you are going to unlock the clarifier might as well make sure it can do at least that much.
 
The pic I posted shows alot of slide. The channel on the rig is 27.205, the frequency shown on the PDC 256 is .195. The Grant XL has about 16kz of slide. The big knob helps alot with fine tuning. The PDC 256 is hooked into the rig (not in the coax) to show both RX and TX, not like the 356 on top. The mod I used forces the TX and RX to track together. No RIT.
 

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