help me out please

[Joe_eddy]

I have a stupid question, new to the cb world. I have a general lee cb, Stryker sr10 antenna, and a small 100 watt amp hooked up to it. The cb has been modified to receive regular cb channels. Also I dropped my low power dead key to about 2 watts, for amp use.
I may have 2 questions to ask, 1st question, when I key up the mic, I see where my dead key is set at low and high. When I talk into the mic, is that meter supposed to swing up wards? If it is, do I need to adjust the modulation internally, to achieve this.
2nd question, how much dead key can u run on high power, without destroying the finals?
Any info into my problem is greatly appreciated, I've watched at least a 100 video's on YouTube, and I'm pretty mechanically inclined.
In the 2 months, I've learned a lot. I've only talked to 2 people, I hear some people talking. Some days its crazy how much people are taking, then somedays nothing. My says it's because I have a long island accent. For me, channel 6 is pretty funny to listen too. I get a lot of skip on somedays, I've heard people from down south on good days.

Like I said, any help will be appreciated, I have decent meter gauges, I have really low swr

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Your power level questions can be determined by a factory service manual. If you look on www.cbtricks.com and look under the Galaxy 33hml, you’ll find your answers.

With that said, you need to look inside and see what’s been clipped by some super tech. Probably TR32 has been clipped, maybe even R249. And at R238, some jack leg has probably added a diode.

If there has been a “swing mod” installed at R238 or on the solder side of the board, then don’t run the radio on high power, run it on low. It will swing everything it is going to do from that low key. If you flip the power to high with a swing mod, you’ll see the radio doesn’t modulate correctly.

If it’s been clipped or “modded” then it will most likely sound overmodulated unless you turn your mic gain down some, not wide open. And you will get 50 different opinions from people here and everywhere else about that mod.

While you are mechanically inclined, are you electronically inclined? If you go probing around and you’re not familiar, you’ll get a crash course quick if you blow it up, be careful. It’s not rocket science and you can learn but be careful.

 

[357magnum]

Like said you will get a lot of " Opinion's " here , there is a lot of knowledge on this forum and has helped me out a lot even after over 50 years as being a radio operator . I only drive with 1/2 to 1 watt , my modulation is set to 1/3 on my mic's . My relay's in my amp use to let me know when I was pushing it a bit hard by that clicking noise they made . I learned fast ( thankfully ) . Most of the time " Less is more " for a clean signal . I also run an Stryker SRA 10 in my mobile and have nothing but good comments on it . Good Luck and Welcome to the Forum . 73 and God Bless , Leo

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Well my opinion, here we go, is 1/2 watt of carrier isn’t enough. Now that’s my opinion and from various experiences with various radios. Sometimes it’s fine but I have had instances where it sounded muddy.

I don’t like that mod done at R238, I like doing it on the solder side at the other location. Some guys don’t like it at all, understandably. But if it’s done, my opinion, at least 1 watt of carrier is needed but I prefer 2-3. You can’t really go much higher than 3 watts or the radio fails to achieve 100% modulation.

If you’re gonna run an amp then you really need to look at what it keys and what the swing is, adjust the key accordingly. I’m being rather vague here cause most of us already know this and/or have our own way of doing it and setting up a radio. In no way am I saying my way is right or that my way is the only way. Just my opinion.

Some guys like to install a resistor with that mod, I don’t. I’m probably wrong for doing it without it but I like it like that. I’m not good with component locations either. I like to sometimes install a capacitor on the solder side near the front of the radio. I’ll attach a pic showing that, maybe someone can explain its purpose, I can’t, haha but I do it.

Also, there’s another spot to hook that mod to that gives a higher average power reading. Now, does it really work or is it a smoke show? Like Miyagi said, “don’t know”.

 

[Robb]

A 50w radio into a 100w amp?!?
If that General Lee is the dual final radio with mosfet finals; then it is NOT a good choice for a 100w amp. Not even close. That 100w amp is spec'd for a single final radio that has been turned down. Even if you turn the dead key down, it will still swing too many watts when modulating for that amp because of the dual final arrangement. IIRC, that amp requires no more than 10w/pep.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

I can show you more people doing it than I can people who aren’t or won’t. I didn’t say “hey, you need to put an amp behind that radio”. I realize you’re probably talking to the OP and not necessarily me though.

Those watt requirements are suggestions, like the speed limit. You follow that suggestion and you’ll probably be alright. You go against it and you’ll have repercussions to contend with. However, I’ve ran a dual final radio into a 2 pill without so much as a hiccup. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that’s an average power requirement and not a PEP one. That PEP reading happens so quickly, maybe I’m wrong but I’ve never had a problem doing it before.

 

[nomadradio]

Hmm.

A 100-Watt amplifier on a 40-Watt radio. Nothing good will come of this.

Makes me wonder if the ultimate "high drive" amplifier would require 100 Watts drive and put out about 110 or 120.

Or maybe 100.

73

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

100w amp... how do you even 100w? I was thinking two pill. I’ll retract what I said far as 100w goes but I’ve seen it and done many times with a 2 pill.

Hey OP, what’s the status now and keep us updated

 

[Robb]

I can show you more people doing it than I can people who aren’t or won’t. I didn’t say “hey, you need to put an amp behind that radio”. I realize you’re probably talking to the OP and not necessarily me though.

Those watt requirements are suggestions, like the speed limit. You follow that suggestion and you’ll probably be alright. You go against it and you’ll have repercussions to contend with. However, I’ve ran a dual final radio into a 2 pill without so much as a hiccup. Maybe I’m wrong but I think that’s an average power requirement and not a PEP one. That PEP reading happens so quickly, maybe I’m wrong but I’ve never had a problem doing it before.

Like most people, they just turn down the radio to X amount of watts because so-and-so said to. But if they checked the amp output against a dummy load (also not used by most) and a decent meter (5-10% accurate), they will see the amp top out. What they don't see - and the meter doesn't tell them - is the harmonic watts included in that number. Meters are dumb and cannot tell the difference between the watts that are on freq and the watts that are all over a wide bandwidth.

Trusting the spec sheet for the device in the amp is always the best determiner of how much any amp is going to put out. If you give the amp more input watts than called for by the spec sheet; then those same extra watts are going to turn into distortion watts, heat, and won't work for you on whatever channel you might be on.

Put a radio and an amp on a dummy load and a watt meter and then try turning down the dead key on the radio until you reach 1/4 of the peak watts for that amp (100w), which is 25w. You might be surprised when you check the radio output - on its own - into a watt meter and find the dead key of the radio is actually at 1w or 1.25w or even 1.5w. But that is a better quick and close method to get the amp/radio in the ballpark. More like 27w DK, since running an amp @13.8v and is going to have slightly more output and the amp will probably 110w instead of 100w.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

I’ll agree with that. I use a dummy load for all testing and tuning, never into an antenna. It drives me crazy listening to people on 19 during the day, tuning and fiddling.

 

[Eldorado828]

Heeeellllloooooo Heeeellllloooooo aaaauuuuddiiooo yeah it can get nerve racking. I always wonder what kind of a guy thinks that's OK on any way at all lol

 

[Jeff L]

A 1khz tone is more annoying

 

[Rwb]

Dont forget the long LOUD whistle calling lassie home

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Exactly. I don’t do everything text book style but at least I own and use a dummy load.