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YOUR Opinion On Free-Banding
- Thread starter T23
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Captian Kilowatt you just sound like an unhappy radio operator or you just have a bunch of people living close to you using a lot of power that's a shame. I live very close to a Cosco warehouse and talk about bleed over and splash, the best part is that they close the warehouse about 6 or 7pm so I can use the radio at night. It is the radio and it's something we can play with for free, if the splatter bothers you that much just turn it off and go do something else.
I think CK is correct...It's a real shame that the CBers and Freebanders (Me being one) run such crappy equipment with no regard for others. There is nothing worse than some idiot screaming into a misaligned radio with some sort of splatter box amp and think he's putting out 1000 w on a XYZ meter when in reality he is only doing a hundred watts and bleeding on several different bands. I like freebanding and try my best to have a clean station and stay within minimal bleed over.
I have to say my neighbors are too close for me to run any power and I enjoy the radio too much to upset them to the point of calling anybody so we do the legel pwoer thing or what ever I can squeeze out of a 40 channel SSB radio, yea sometimes it's a whopping 20 watts with nothing cut, limiter circuit still in place and not causing problems for me or the neighbors, I figure if I'm not coming over my computer speakers I must be putting a clean signal according to the scope I am using anyway. It's nice to get along with the neighbors and I'd like to keep it that way
And you are clueless.
11M splatter-boxes, mistuned/clipped radios and over-cranked mics are the reason that many 10M operators can't operate there. These cranked-out over-driven crap boxes produce trash and spurious up well into 10M. We don't have to put up with it.
I know CK, and he isn't any kind of "unhappy radio operator". He's just concerned about 11M operators and some freebanders using scrap to talk on.
99% of hams could care less about freeband operations, unless they venture into 10M and that includes their spurious and trash.
Wait a minute. A Class C amp is only good for FM or CW. Worthless on AM or SSB. A Class C amp is only for Keydown Comps where power is king. You might try and overdrive a Class C amp to get some small amount of "linearity" but good luck. A Class C amp is an RF Switch and RF switches produce trash, when fed a modulated signal.
Happily, I'm finding more and more Freebanders using Ham gear. As well, I'm finding more and more Freebanders have their ticket, (especially in Europe).
Best solution is to just run a stock radio, you can shoot skip with 10 watts if the conditions are right no need for splatter box amps or cranked up modulation if your on SideBand, just talk and enjoy the radio. AMers are just a different breed around here, smoke blowing 1kw mobiles that do splatter all over my 40 channels if their close enough and being by the turnpike they do get close
AMers purposely run C class amps for the "swing" that gives them "loud audio peaks". I know class C amps were not made for a modulated signal but try selling a class ab1 linear that's actually linear to a "CBer'... It would be a clean signal but none of or very little "swing" and not those "loud audio peaks" that they go for on AM. But really I think that its a make do with what you have type of deal.
T23
T23
Actually you couldn't be further from the truth. First of all I am not unhappy, in fact I enjoy my radio time, that is except when some idiot with an over driven amp parks 2 KHz away from my freq. Second AFAIK there are no active hams on HF in my town and since I live in a rural area the nearest active ham on HF may be at least five miles away or more.The chances of hearing a "local" are almost nil. The problem I have is with people who either don't know how to run their gear or worse, don't give a damn. The first group can be educated by a few polite comments and suggestions while the latter group can only be dealt with by moving up/down the band further. Those are the idiots that over drive their amp and run lots of compression and splatter ten or twenty kilohertz or more away needlessly. With this kind of interference there is NOTHING you can do. Regardless of how good your receiver is you will still hear the crap because it is actually being generated on-frequency and the offender is actually transmitting an extremely wide bandwidth.
I have never run into a situation where I could not operate on any band due to a single idiot operator so I don't have to "just turn it off and go do something else" as you suggested. I have had to move freq more than once or twice however simply because someone didn't know or care about how to properly run his equipment. Properly run transmitters and amplifiers should not cause a problem to someone more than a few kilohertz away if they have a decent receiver unless he is right next door which as I have said is not my case at all.
I am an ex-Military Wireless Operator (British Army). In EU, "freebanders" can actually be a serious danger. I am referring to them operating in frequency bands which are used by the military and airlines. Both the latter use relatively low power communications, (yes, the military STILL use HF as backup to satellites) and aircraft also have low power.
Just because a frequency seems empty does not guarantee it is! An illegal QRO transmission can wipe out an ongoing legal communication. It must be realised that there no FREE frequencies; all are allocated to one service or another.
Just because a frequency seems empty does not guarantee it is! An illegal QRO transmission can wipe out an ongoing legal communication. It must be realised that there no FREE frequencies; all are allocated to one service or another.
I never did hear ANY CB-style freebanding above/below any of the lower ham bands much. And I used to check a lot. From the U.S. you will hear a lot of fishermen speaking Spanish boat to boat or boat to shore, which may-may not be legal for them, don't know, but English language guys just rag chewing or dx'ing like you have +/- the CB 40? Rarely hear it.
A 100% legal CB'er these days is quite an anachronism. Everybody is doing something against the regulations !!! Dammit boy. We should all be jailed. That's the life. 3 hots and a cot*
*Except in Maricopa County Arizona. Where it's 3 colds and a tent.
A 100% legal CB'er these days is quite an anachronism. Everybody is doing something against the regulations !!! Dammit boy. We should all be jailed. That's the life. 3 hots and a cot*
*Except in Maricopa County Arizona. Where it's 3 colds and a tent.
I hear a lot of fishermen on the lower end of 80m quite a bit. They use USB as their marine radios default to USB on marine frequencies.
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