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