Just when you think a thread has finally been laid to rest it comes back to bite you on the... neeeeck.
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Just when you think a thread has finally been laid to rest it comes back to bite you on the... neeeeck.
Since you have a ham license why not just get on HF and talk around the world ? You have 160 through 10 meters at your disposal + a variety of modes, SSB, AM, FM, Digital, etc. Plus you have VHF, UHF, and more.Quote:
Originally Posted by N2NH
Uh oh, I see somebody looking for trouble.
In my case all the radios are GOK where. I am looking into a IC-7000 or a FT-897 in the future though. A dipole, a nice new key and maybe a keyer.
CB is still viable for road conditions and when getting a response on the local repeater is not happening.
Sounds nice. Maybe we can talk on 160 or 75 meters one night. On 75 and 160 I generally put a very strong strapping signal into the Catskill area and throughout upstate NY and into Canada. On 40 meters I tend to skip over that area. If you can put up a flatop dipole or an inverted vee doublet we should have no problem hearing one another. Except for my Kenwood receiver and my vhf HT my station is a throwback to the early 1950'sQuote:
Originally Posted by N2NH
Good point. I've never operated CB radio from a mobile but I guess its good for road conditions when the local repeaters are quiet. back in the late 1980's I remember a friend of mine has a converted 5 watt CB set up to operate on 10 meters mobile. One afternoon I was chatting with a station in England as we were driving around. The band conditions were so awesome it was as if he was right around the corner. And that was just with < 5 watts output from a mobile.Quote:
CB is still viable for road conditions and when getting a response on the local repeater is not happening.
BTW if you can reach the 145.130 repeater in Carmel from your area I can probably work you on vhf when I head upstate a little ways. There are also a few repeaters across the Hudson that I could probably reach you from my home QTH. If you can hit the Alpine, WECA (147.060), or Pearl River I can probably reach you on VHF with no problem.
I've tried hitting the machines in Westchester and the City, but with no success; 5 Watts isn't cutting it. I do seem to be able to hit some of the Mt. Beacon machines. When I lived in Brooklyn, and before they went nuts building skyscrapers in the City, I used to be able to hit the WECA machine in Valhalla and was even a member for awhile. I could sometimes hit Mt. Beacon, but no audio. Not bad for a 5 Watt Alinco. But from here, not so much. If I get the multi-mode XCVR, that shouldn't be a problem even with a vertical or a small yagi.Quote:
Originally Posted by n2ize
I think I can reach the Harriman repeater if I stand in the right spot. Haven't been able to hook up to the APRS system here so far, but I keep trying. The Highlands are an obstacle to me as they block a lot of the signals coming here and are mostly made of iron. We barely get maybe 2 or 3 FM BCB stations and 4 or so AM BCB. Oddly enough WINS doesn't make it but WCBS does.Quote:
Originally Posted by n2ize
When I was a CB'er, back in the first golden age ('60s), I was able to reach up to Stony Point, which is about 35 miles south of here, near West Point. Under the 150 mile rule they still have too.
2 nights ago I grabbed 2 old, non-working Uniden PC-66XL that my nephew gave me out of the closet and got them working. I was gonna sell them but the railroad has closed 2 railroad crossings for repair and it is messing the truckers up bad. We have 2 major US highways that intersect here (US-67 and US-136) and they are both blocked. I've hooked the older one up here in the shack and I'm running it on my 10M dipole to help some of these drivers through this mess.
I was going to sell the newer one but John, KC0TPI decided to give me a 5 foot Wilson Silver Load and it is the same color as my truck so I think I'll put the newer one in the truck so I can talk to these drivers while I'm out and about.
I think in the next few days I'm going to connect my studio mic and EQ to the one in the shack....Aught to sound good.
Ok, I have to ask. What sort of microphone and EQ? Have you played with using a compressor? A lot of Cheap CB's have clipping amps in the mic circuit to make them sound louder. I'm not certain if the PC-66xl is one of them. I might have to check the schemo.Quote:
Originally Posted by KA9MOT
Archie N8OBM
Hi Archie,
The mic is a MXL-990. The mixer is a Behringer XENYX 802. Currently it runs through the 13 pin DIN (ACCY 2) port on the back of my Kenwood TS-570S. The railroad crossings are now open, so the CB in the shack is gone. I may leave the one in the truck for when I am on the road.
Thanks for commenting. I considered that the pre-amp in the mixer might be more than the audio circuits in the CB could handle. It was an experiment that I was unable to find the time to try.
Howdy Steve
I run an old Valley People 400 channel strip with an AKG D1000 microphone. This runs into my old Icom IC720. I go in the mic input on the front. I built a little interface box that the TX switch connects to and it also houses a step up transformer as these things like a pretty high input impedance and they like a ton of drive. The Valley people 400 combines a mic amp, a three band EQ, a gate, and a compressor into one box. I set the EQ for a little roll off in the bass, bump the mids up a little and leave the highs alone. I don't use the gate. I set the compression so that on peaks I see about 10 db reduction and I see a little reduction most of the time I'm speaking. This keeps levels good and loud without being overly processed.
Believe it or not we actually had a net on channel 36 lsb until about a year ago. There is talk of bringing it back. I keep an old Johnson for these. I believe it's a 4270. The Johnson is a surprisingly well built radio. I haven't tried running my channel strip with the old Johnson yet. I suspect I would need to run a serious attenuator to use it with the old beast.
Behringer makes some OK stuff and some not to wonderful stuff. Most of there stuff seems to be based on other makers goods. Most of the Mixers I've seen seem to be based on Mackie's circuits but with lower quality components. Most of the Amps are based on QSC's RMX series. That said some of the compressors have been surprisingly nice.
the MXL990 is not a bad mic if you want something that's bright sounding. It gets strident quickly on things that have a lot of high end to begin with. If you rattle your keys in front of it you will likely hear what I'm talking about. It's really a medium diaphragm condenser even though they call it a large diaphragm. It uses the same capsule as the MXL603 in a little different holder. It's about a 3/4 inch diaphragm. A lot of mic builders use it as a platform to modify and It pretty easily can be made into something pretty wonderful with not too much work. The circuit is a time tested and proven one based on one first used years ago in a microphone by Scheops. There are a few parts that should be upgraded but, the basic circuit is first rate. The biggest weakness this mic has is the capsule. A common upgrade capsule would be an RK-47 from microphone parts. They sell kits to upgrade these mics as well. As you can likely tell, I really like playing with microphones. I've modified many and built several from scratch.
I suspect that we would be able to hear each other on 20 or 40 meters with out too much trouble. I have a pretty deep mic cabinet If you would like to hear the differences between different mics on the air, We could schedule a contact. I don't have an MXL990. From MXL, I do have an V67, 603, BCD1, R144 and a heavily modified V57 with an M7 capsule. I also have many other to pick from if there is something you would like to hear.
Archie N8OBM
I see no purpose in connecting a professional mic and EQ up to a CB or ham rig unless it's been completely de-hyellowfied. A stock rig has the audio amp tailored for voice communications, usually 300-3000Hz so no matter what you put in you'll transmit telephonium yawdio. Now if you're in an AM window talking to one of the AM Gangstas who has a modified receiver and good speaker and can actually hear hwi-fwi even a de-hyellowfied radio is wasted so don't expect a CBer to care how good you sound when all they're interested in is how BAD you sound.
"I think in the next few days I'm going to connect my studio mic and EQ to the one in the shack....Aught to sound good."
Good only in your opinion, once you get it tweaked it'll sound smooth BUT they want PUNCH. So if you give them ear bleed they're happy, if not they'll tell you that you have low audio. That's not to say you have to splatter all over the band, punch means tailored to voice and a high modulation density from substantial clipping with a good low pass filter to remove harmonics that cause splatter. That's why my scratchy Apache cut through QRM like a hot knife through butter and don't say a word about 100W when that was QRP back in my CB daze. Maybe John NH remembers Artie Windjammer on channel 21 and his Johnson desk kilowatt run at half power who never did figure out how I was able to be heard through him... dayah da dayah dayah dayah. (;->)
As usual, no one can figure out what you're saying.
Stop being an asshole.
Quote function. Use it.
I confess to having no clue at all to what you mean by "de-hyellowfied". If you read my post what I do with the rig I run is to cut the low end, push the mids and roll off the high end a little. The whole point isn't to sound like broadcast but, to make the signal readable. Some stock hand mics are tailored to voice but, a lot of them are just plain cheap, low quality mics. Compression will do what a clipping amp does but with out the distortion. It makes for higher average levels and increased readability. I like to start with good quality to begin with before I start tweaking the sound. It's like digital photo editing. You should always start with the best source you can. You can subtract things that are there but there is nothing you can do to put something back that wasn't there to begin with. You don't need a Neuman U87 to be certain but, a Shure SM57 is a good place to start. The D1000 I use was AKG's answer to an SM57 but with less proximity effect. I was just offering to let him hear the difference between between a number of different mics on the air so he could trust his ears. I will admit that part of playing around with this is because I can. I run a small studio and I have a pretty good mic collection. My old 720 came with out the original mic so, I need to use some kind of mic preamp to make it work. Is the VP400 overkill? Likely but, it does work well and I already have it. Why not use it and try some of these other things to see if they make a difference. I had another 720a that did have the original mic and it was a foul sounding thing. The mids were so hot as to make it harder to read. When I let go of the radio that mic went with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by kb2vxa
Archie N8OBM
And here are some of the most basic parts of the hobby. Experimenting, using what's on hand, and helping/sharing with others. :clap: Works for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8OBM
My Flex 3000 and TS-850SAT respond quite well to microphone shenanigans.
I need to hook up my ARX Afterburner again. Wonderful unit.
What would you guess a fair price for a used Flex 3000 would be?Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
I welcome the possibility of a QSO. If only for the sake of a QSO. Checking out different mics and set-ups would only be a bonus. We can only learn by our experiments/experience and the experiments/experiences of others.
HELL YEAH!
How about this?Quote:
Originally Posted by K7SGJ
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...chase-required
Thanks Janet. I saw that one, and one on QTH for around $1500 or so. I just have no idea what a good price would be. Usually people that own a certain radio are more familiar with it's resale value than others that don't have one. Plus, I have no idea what is standard and what are extras/upgrades worth having. I'm just tossing the whole idea around, I don't even know if I'll end up with one, but SDR has always fascinated me.Quote:
Originally Posted by WU9G
Yea, $1300 or so is about the lowest I've seen. A new one is $1895. :dunno:
The 1500 is a cheaper, QRP, but the RX is almost as good.
Thanks. Like Sammy Davis Jr. used to say "I'll keep an eye out".Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
Flex 3000? Why don't you get a real radio.:neener:Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
I got a few of those too. Also, I can record and playback right there on the spot for other hamsters who are messing around with their audio.
The RX on the Flex is outstanding. Especially on AM, using the "SAM" mode. :neener: :stickpoke:
I managed to snag the control head for one of these. It's the same radio as the CP-2000 but the majority of the electronics are mounted in an enclosure which sits in an automobile's trunk and is connected to the head unit by a 15-wire cable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gwWJhDq_88
There are two boards in the trunk unit which aren't present in the -2000: The Digital Receiver board and the Interface board. I have schematics of these and a general layout drawing, along with a couple junker CP-2000 base units. Given the fact that both boards are composed of plain ol' LS-series TTL and popular discrete semiconductors, I'm going to take a stab at building my own. Who cares what the trunk box looks like - it'll be hidden away regardless! :lol:
Seriously, I've heard a couple of Flex radios transmitting on AM, that sounded better than many plate modulated boat anchors.Quote:
Originally Posted by WØTKX
I remember him well. I also remember him coming in from Brooklyn stronger than my local stations up this way. Used to talk to him and some of the Gangstas from down that was...Westchester to Brooklyn and beyond. Come to think of it I didn't have too shabby a signal on that band myself. 100 watts ? I never ran QRP... For the record, none of this ever happened ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by kb2vxa
Yes, they can sound better. They don't have all that iron to contend with. My Viking 2 used to saturate somewhere in the midrange frequencies once I de'hyellified it. I used to have to notch down that frequency range via the EQ to get it to sound decent. All in all it sounded pretty good though. Also ran the audio throgh a broadcast quality AM compressor/limiter. The rig used to look great on the scope, plenty of nice clean positive peaks. The Valiant was another story. Nice when it was working but it used to crap out on me quite often.Quote:
Originally Posted by w2amr
HAH! Who could forget Artie Windjammer? Funny how I forgot the other half of channel 21, the guy across Raritan Bay in Keansburg, NJ with the "Val yan tay". Artie showed me the reason why he ran the desk at half power, at full power the supply flagged and he sounded like mud. The extra 3dB simply wasn't worth listening to crap audio and as you heard he was one who knew how to put out POWAH without sounding like garbage and splattering all over the place. He didn't know how to set up a good antenna system though, transmit from atop the apartment building, receive from a lower roof down by the courtyard. Why not T&R with the same one high up with a Dow Key relay I have no idea, that's why he was an alligator.
I ran a broadcast quality compressor/limiter too, a home brew copy of the business end of a Gates somethingorother, and an AGK mic still kicking around here someplace. Once in a while I attach my one and only air check where you can hear it pumping and swishing up background because I was welding galvanized pipe with my breath, it gives off deadly fumes. I never used an EQ, never needed one and always got good reports. My best guess is if you have good stuff to begin with you don't have shortcomings to make up for. <toot> <toot> OK, I wouldn't be Golden Boy if I didn't blow my own horn once in a while. (;->)
"For the record, none of this ever happened."
You don't have to play like James Earl Jones in The Hunt For Red October, the Statute of Limitations ran out long ago. Between study and experimenting back in my CB daze, all I had to learn to pass my exam were frequency limits. I was a bit worried about that but all it took was 15 minutes to get 100% and walk out with my CSCE.
If your V2 saturated in the mid-range you didn't properly de-yellowfy it. The weak link in all Johnson audio chains was the driver transformer. Change it to a phase splitter and limit the modulators to AB1 is one way, another is take the DC off the primary and you can squeeze a few more watts out of the modulators with AB2. Just take both ends of the winding off where they were and feed B+ to the driver through a 10K 10W resistor, ground the B+ end of the winding and feed the plate end from the driver plate through a 2uF 600V "Orange Drop" cap. Since they're all the same you can do the same with all the popular Johnson AM transmitters.
IMO, the only "AM" transmitters that can't be de-yellowfied are new commercial all mode rigs because the transmit and receive audio are tailored for voice 300-3000Hz with a presence rise and nothing is modifiable without hair pulling, simply not worth all the aggravation. Simply put, no sense using an EQ when it's already EQed and all you can do is louse it up. When I still lived up north with a pretty decent antenna farm I've heard "wi-fi SSB" groups with each one trying to out "hi-fi" the other and all sounding like crap. One on 20M got more complaints than the newly formed at that time "313 lid net" and the FCC got out the trench broom, bye bye hi-fi QRM. Now we get to the good part and the heart of the matter, no matter what the mode or how a signal is generated, it can be made to "sound" good if you know what you're doing and don't think like a CBer. Digital ops know why I put that in parentheses. (;->)