I purchased a uniden 520 pro XL from an online dealer. The online dealer also tunes the radio for $xx.xx claiming a 28-32 watt output. I paid for the tuning also. I received the radio with a card in it saying it was keying 5 watts and swinging 25 watts. 3 watts lower than the minimum explained in the description on the website. So I took it to a friend of mine to get the SWR set. Upon setup I asked to check the watts. He said keys up at 5 and swings to 11 watts. ** Problem starts here**. I called the online dealer and they scoffed at my problem and said it was because my friend was using a junk meter. I found this very ignorant. How can a meter be off 15 watts? I feel as if I got my leg pulled. Can a meter be this bad off? He tunes radios pretty often and has never had a problem with the meter. Its a sx 200. My friend literally tuned 3 cobras before mine and had them keying 5 and swinging 25. Is there any truth to the meter being junk? If so, how come its off 15 watts (unfathomable)? Any help would be appreciated! Sorry for the lengthy post.
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*New guy needing help on watt output
- Thread starter Redfox34
- Start date
All of those extra watts will not be heard by another cb radio. All of those extra watts are being transmitted into the 6 meter band. Sorry but you wasted the money.
Basically you paid for destroying that radio.
Every watt meter is different. And your friends meter that showed low watts is probably not a peek meter.
Low_Boy hit the nail on the head.
A true peak reading meter plugs into the wall because electricity is needed by the circuitry required for that measurement.
What kind of meter does your friend have?
Well aren't you just the most helpful user on here!
Plot twist, I have several friends pushing 25 plus watts which I hear on my cb. Y'all are something else. I really came here for help or some insight into the situation and it has been the exact opposite. You guys are about the rudest group I have ever been a part of. Very surprised at everyone's "help"
THANK YOU. An educated answer. Now, since I am new to CB (the reason I posted in this group, which others don't seem to understand.) Do you mind explaining that? He tuned one right before mine and was keying 5 and swinging 25. I'm not fully understanding how he can measure that wattage on that one but not mine? The radio he tuned was a cobra 29. Thanks for your help!
I don't think the Uniden 520 ProXL and the Cobra 29 your friend tuned have the same innards.
Sorry. But you got burned by a certified "Golden Screwdriver"!
It might be helpful to you to read through the thread linked below.
https://www.worldwidedx.com/threads...-a-peak-and-tune-is.254669/page-2#post-719566
Good Luck
73
David
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I don't understand how a well known shop can do something like this. Sell a radio that has been "tuned" but it actually isn't? Seems like they would be out of business already for selling a product that is not as described.
Welcome to the forum!
Don't get too discouraged by some of the replies here.
No, a good meter that wasn't manipulated should be 15 watts off on a low wattage scale.
Many CB shops will calibrate their meters to show a Peak to Peak rating which is essentially 2 times the power of Peak envelope power. (PEP). I experienced this before. While it can be misleading to those who don't know, it's just another way CB shops can show how good they can tune a radio.
Peak to Peak, RMS, and PEP are just different ways to measure power but are relevant to each other.
Example: a 120 volt AC outlet showing all 3 forms of measurement but is all essentially same.
The 120V is the RMS voltage. And the peak voltage for this is actually 170V. So the peak of this voltage is actually a whole lot bigger than 120V. And if you look at it from peak-to-peak, then the voltage from an AC outlet is actually 340V peak-to-peak
A radio like yours without trying to over hack it to squeeze every watt out of it should be 18-20 watts on full modulation.
30 watts on the CB shops meter seems more a Peak to Peak reading.
Excessive watts from over peaking will splatter and waste TX power on adjacent channels other than the one you're transmitting on.
Best to keep your TX power clean with no splatter.
A 4:1 deadkey ratio should ensure this meaning 4x your deadkey power.
Also don't remove modulation limiters. This leads to splatter. CB shops tend to do this because the excessive harmonics caused by over modulation will swing a watt meter more which makes customers more happy!
Better to just turn up the modulation control inside the radio and adjust for 4:1 swing at max power which again on a radio like that should be around 20 watts with a 5 watt deadkey.
Good luck!
Don't get too discouraged by some of the replies here.
No, a good meter that wasn't manipulated should be 15 watts off on a low wattage scale.
Many CB shops will calibrate their meters to show a Peak to Peak rating which is essentially 2 times the power of Peak envelope power. (PEP). I experienced this before. While it can be misleading to those who don't know, it's just another way CB shops can show how good they can tune a radio.
Peak to Peak, RMS, and PEP are just different ways to measure power but are relevant to each other.
Example: a 120 volt AC outlet showing all 3 forms of measurement but is all essentially same.
The 120V is the RMS voltage. And the peak voltage for this is actually 170V. So the peak of this voltage is actually a whole lot bigger than 120V. And if you look at it from peak-to-peak, then the voltage from an AC outlet is actually 340V peak-to-peak
A radio like yours without trying to over hack it to squeeze every watt out of it should be 18-20 watts on full modulation.
30 watts on the CB shops meter seems more a Peak to Peak reading.
Excessive watts from over peaking will splatter and waste TX power on adjacent channels other than the one you're transmitting on.
Best to keep your TX power clean with no splatter.
A 4:1 deadkey ratio should ensure this meaning 4x your deadkey power.
Also don't remove modulation limiters. This leads to splatter. CB shops tend to do this because the excessive harmonics caused by over modulation will swing a watt meter more which makes customers more happy!
Better to just turn up the modulation control inside the radio and adjust for 4:1 swing at max power which again on a radio like that should be around 20 watts with a 5 watt deadkey.
Good luck!
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