CB 2013

[K7SGJ]

Yea, $1300 or so is about the lowest I've seen. A new one is $1895.

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".

[w2amr]

My Flex 3000 and TS-850SAT respond quite well to microphone shenanigans.

I need to hook up my ARX Afterburner again. Wonderful unit.

Flex 3000? Why don't you get a real radio.

[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. :stickpoke:

[N8YX]

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:



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!

[w2amr]

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. :stickpoke:

Seriously, I've heard a couple of Flex radios transmitting on AM, that sounded better than many plate modulated boat anchors.

[n2ize]

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. (;->)

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 ;)

[n2ize]

Seriously, I've heard a couple of Flex radios transmitting on AM, that sounded better than many plate modulated boat anchors.

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.

[kb2vxa]

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. (;->)