Is my philosophy correct and a thank you to everyone!

[saint7ds]

Hello all. It's me again. But this time my question is a bit more thought provoking than technical.



Thanks to the tremendous amount of help provided by this forum, some select individuals around my area, I've been able to really dig into some radios, peak and tune, install echo boards, minor repairs and so on. So now I want to make sure i'm on the right track to being a solid tech.



In my opinion, a peak and tune's purpose isn't to gain insane amounts of wattage out of a radio. Generally, they are not designed to do that. While it is possible to do final exchanges, components switching and so on, the basic premise behind the majority of cb radios is simply to talk. Yes I know some export radios will do more out the box but i'm talking in a general sense so bear with me please. When wattage is really a necessity, then amps are a more cost effective and safer alternative.



Now, I believe a peak and tune is useful for 100% "conversation" modulation. I like my radios to sound clean and loud. Just because I can scream "AAAUUUDDDIIOO" into a mic and swing to 20 watts doesn't mean a thing. Not all power gains are useful and actually cause TVI, splatter and general chainsaw sounding talk.



A buddy of mine tunes everything in his radios to get peak wattage out of them. And in the beginning this is what i thought a peak and tune was. But after doing it myself, asking questions, and getting experience, I've learned differently. For example, while nearly every mod site lists tuning the coils for maximum wattage, I have learned those coils actually act as a filter and although you may gain a watt or two, that isn't a noticeable difference to the reciever of the conversation. Like I read somewhere in this forum, the listener can't see your watt meter. You are marked by how you sound. And as a tech, I am marked by how the radios perform that I service.



I can't consider myself a tech, yet. I still have some basic fundamentals to grasp like freq adjusting and learning the stages of the radio and so on. But I pay attention to everything around me and I ask questions whenever I'm confused or want to know something.



Everyone on this forum has been incredibly helpful and answered my questions in every instance. For this, I thank each and every one of you for sharing your knowledge with me and allowing me to continue on to being a great tech. With some more time under my belt, I hope to be my local area's guru in cb radio repair and upgrades. Those that I have worked on so far are very happy and my work can be heard on the airwaves on a daily basis. Knowing I did that is the greatest amount of satisfaction.



Again, thank you all for your help and contribution and here's hoping I can contribute in the same manner here in the near future. And of course if anyone has anything to add to my little philosophy, please let me know.






</p>

 

[saint7ds]

Hello all. It's me again. But this time my question is a bit more thought provoking than technical.



Thanks to the tremendous amount of help provided by this forum, some select individuals around my area, I've been able to really dig into some radios, peak and tune, install echo boards, minor repairs and so on. So now I want to make sure i'm on the right track to being a solid tech.



In my opinion, a peak and tune's purpose isn't to gain insane amounts of wattage out of a radio. Generally, they are not designed to do that. While it is possible to do final exchanges, components switching and so on, the basic premise behind the majority of cb radios is simply to talk. Yes I know some export radios will do more out the box but i'm talking in a general sense so bear with me please. When wattage is really a necessity, then amps are a more cost effective and safer alternative.



Now, I believe a peak and tune is useful for 100% "conversation" modulation. I like my radios to sound clean and loud. Just because I can scream "AAAUUUDDDIIOO" into a mic and swing to 20 watts doesn't mean a thing. Not all power gains are useful and actually cause TVI, splatter and general chainsaw sounding talk.



A buddy of mine tunes everything in his radios to get peak wattage out of them. And in the beginning this is what i thought a peak and tune was. But after doing it myself, asking questions, and getting experience, I've learned differently. For example, while nearly every mod site lists tuning the coils for maximum wattage, I have learned those coils actually act as a filter and although you may gain a watt or two, that isn't a noticeable difference to the reciever of the conversation. Like I read somewhere in this forum, the listener can't see your watt meter. You are marked by how you sound. And as a tech, I am marked by how the radios perform that I service.



I can't consider myself a tech, yet. I still have some basic fundamentals to grasp like freq adjusting and learning the stages of the radio and so on. But I pay attention to everything around me and I ask questions whenever I'm confused or want to know something.



Everyone on this forum has been incredibly helpful and answered my questions in every instance. For this, I thank each and every one of you for sharing your knowledge with me and allowing me to continue on to being a great tech. With some more time under my belt, I hope to be my local area's guru in cb radio repair and upgrades. Those that I have worked on so far are very happy and my work can be heard on the airwaves on a daily basis. Knowing I did that is the greatest amount of satisfaction.



Again, thank you all for your help and contribution and here's hoping I can contribute in the same manner here in the near future. And of course if anyone has anything to add to my little philosophy, please let me know.






</p>

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I echo Doc's words and say that I am glad to hear that you are at least thinking in the proper direction.The "all knobs to the right" mentality is not good nor is the "If I fiddle with this little coil thingy I can get a whole watt more out" way of thinking.

Garth 9VE01 PE993 CDX993 Learn from others mistakes.You can not live long enough to make them all yourself.</p>

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I echo Doc's words and say that I am glad to hear that you are at least thinking in the proper direction.The "all knobs to the right" mentality is not good nor is the "If I fiddle with this little coil thingy I can get a whole watt more out" way of thinking.

Garth 9VE01 PE993 CDX993 Learn from others mistakes.You can not live long enough to make them all yourself.</p>

 

[The Defpom]

HI,

It sounds to me like you are already a long way down the road to becomming a good tech, the biggest mistake made is the misconseption that more power = more distance, although it is true, to a point, my favourite saying is "do people listen to the carrier or your voice?", anyway, as has already been mentioned, buy some books, and service manuals, you are going to NEED them.



For reading material, my first suggestion is the range written by Lou Franklin of CBC International (www.cbcintl.com), buy them all, they will teach you a great deal, there are other books around by different authors, if you see anything, buy it, every bit of information that can be crammed into your brain will help, even if at the time it seems to be irrevelevent, as one day, you WILL need it.



One more important note, is just that, make notes, keep a record on every radio you work on, what is PCB, PLL and Serial Number's are, what you did to it, what you fixed, that kind of thing, as you will find that people will return a radio to you for servicing at a later date, especially if you did a good job the first time.



I also place a sticker on the inside with my web address and the date serviced on it, along with another on the outside which I use as a seal, there are people out there that want to see what you did, and a select few will also try and have a fiddle around afterwards, which can result in the radio coming back with the person saying "you didn't do it right", or "it aint working", even though the reason is that they had fiddled afterwards, protect yourself, use a seal or some other tamper evident device, that way, people don't tend to fiddle, and if they do, they want be able to try and blame you for what they did.



I am also into software development, and wrote an application for CB techs or people that want to learn more about how they work, or simulate modifications without trying it in a radio first, it is called "The Defpom CB Radio Simulator", please go to my software site and download it, I think it will help you to understand the mixing and frequency control circuits better.



The software can be found here: http://www.s-and-m-software.com



I wish you luck, and remember, it is on a metal box with lots of funny looking bits in it.




The Defpom



www.radiomods.co.nz/



www.TheDefpom.com



www.s-and-m-software.com</p>

 

[The Defpom]

HI,

It sounds to me like you are already a long way down the road to becomming a good tech, the biggest mistake made is the misconseption that more power = more distance, although it is true, to a point, my favourite saying is "do people listen to the carrier or your voice?", anyway, as has already been mentioned, buy some books, and service manuals, you are going to NEED them.



For reading material, my first suggestion is the range written by Lou Franklin of CBC International (www.cbcintl.com), buy them all, they will teach you a great deal, there are other books around by different authors, if you see anything, buy it, every bit of information that can be crammed into your brain will help, even if at the time it seems to be irrevelevent, as one day, you WILL need it.



One more important note, is just that, make notes, keep a record on every radio you work on, what is PCB, PLL and Serial Number's are, what you did to it, what you fixed, that kind of thing, as you will find that people will return a radio to you for servicing at a later date, especially if you did a good job the first time.



I also place a sticker on the inside with my web address and the date serviced on it, along with another on the outside which I use as a seal, there are people out there that want to see what you did, and a select few will also try and have a fiddle around afterwards, which can result in the radio coming back with the person saying "you didn't do it right", or "it aint working", even though the reason is that they had fiddled afterwards, protect yourself, use a seal or some other tamper evident device, that way, people don't tend to fiddle, and if they do, they want be able to try and blame you for what they did.



I am also into software development, and wrote an application for CB techs or people that want to learn more about how they work, or simulate modifications without trying it in a radio first, it is called "The Defpom CB Radio Simulator", please go to my software site and download it, I think it will help you to understand the mixing and frequency control circuits better.



The software can be found here: http://www.s-and-m-software.com



I wish you luck, and remember, it is on a metal box with lots of funny looking bits in it.




The Defpom



www.radiomods.co.nz/



www.TheDefpom.com



www.s-and-m-software.com</p>