The AM Forum

Expert: William Mullowney's passion for communications and radios began at the young age of fourteen. Although he has never gone to school or taken a class on this subject, he has studied many books intensely and learned all he needed in order to work in the field.

Visit the site, and click on any one of 15 videos.  I recommend this (http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/explaining-cb-radios.htm) one first.

Here is another good one:
 How to Use the On-Off Volume Control on a slopbucket oops! I mean CB Radio (http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/on-off-volume-cb-radios.htm)

I think I just heard one of the 2 meter electronics experts explaining radio's on a repeater this same exact way.

Jared - Cool, a fellow GPT-750 owner!  When am I gonna hear that bad boy on the air?

You've gotta be kidding me!!  I just played it.  Can you say duh?   Sure you can!  I knew you could!  I played the how to video clip you supplied the link to Don.  This is beyond information for dummies.  This is like info for people with serious learning disabilities.  Looking at the titles for the other CB clips this "expert" has, I'm sure the other ones are just as bad. 

And yes, there are some hams that are almost, if not as dense as the people these "instructional" videos are meant for.  I experienced this firsthand last year during Field Day.  I originally goofed around with Field Day, in the 1E class.  I got bored, so I went to the site one of the local clubs (a repeater club I had QSOed with during Field Day, who invited me to stop off at their site).  Since I'm an Extra, they asked me of I could help run their GOTA (Get on the Air) station.  Some of the people I supervised were pretty sharp operators.  But some of the others: I can understand non-licensees fumbling around a fair amount, but some of the No Code Techs, still couldn't get the hang of operating on HF, even after having me demonstrate, and talk/cue them through what to say through several QSOs.  They couldn't even zero beat a slopbucket signal (you would think it's self explanatory to tune for the most clarity).  They kept on overshooting the zero-beat freq.  It's like they had a case of 2m FM channelitis, because they were so used to the nice, easy 5 kHz increments/channels their FM rigs tuned in.  I don't get it, nobody showed me how to do any of this, and I learned how to do it.  Have people become that dumbed down? 

I also loved the comment made by one of the No Code Techs, who asked me if I had done "big time DX", by using the 2m Packet Backbone to work into South Dakota.  I had to stop myself from laughing and saying "so what, anybody who's savy with using the backbone can work into South Dakota (from Wisconsin), it's just a repeater system that's doing all of the work for you.  Try doing it on 2m SSB or CW (I've worked into North Carolina via Aurora).  On HF, South Dakota's nothing from Wisconsin."  It's almost like the guy had never even bothered checking into the fact that yes there are other forms of Amateur Radio, that are not 2m/440 FM based.  I had to patiently explain to this guy (who I think had been licensed for at least a few years), that there are other ways to work DX.  Go figure. 

73,
Ellen - AF9J

All in all, a very useful set of of instructions. This will help the people opperating a radio gooder. The auther is a knowlegable expert on CB RADIO. Hes got a big level wich heps him aline the radio . On the freqwencies the radio talks to.

Yah hey real good dere hey, wid da CB!  LOL!!!

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Hi John.

Unfortunately for right now, I live on a postage stamp sized lot. I tried a few different wires, but can't really get them high enough, or far enough away to keep the rf out of everything. With any luck, those conditions will be changing real soon.

I just finished the modulator recently,(5 foot bud cabinet to the left of the tx), did a sweep, and a few other tests, got on the air, and just blew away the close neighbors, and had rf coming back into the shack like a mofo.

Even at a few hundred carrier, those 833's monkey swing her WAY up past felony, so I still have some work to do, lol.

there is a guy on the gray hair new 1945 KHz running a 15 foot loop made from pipe and he straps so give a loop a try. You will need high voltage caps to tune it.
do the Frank AHE thing and QRO late at night.

Mine has a pair a 813s in a homebrew mod deck (where your R-390 is mounted  ;D).  I had a Fine Business RF-in-the-shack problem until I re-did all the grounds in the shack and ran the mike wires thru some hollow braid.  That did the trick, and no problems with TVI in the house even at full strap.

Ellen,

I can tell you from personal experience that 'No Code Extras' have the same problem.  Now say again how you avoid overshooting the zero beat??

Tom, AB1GX

Ok...

Well first you have to enable the DSP algorithm: Menu\Options\Control\Tuning, then go into the sub-menu: Center\Dynamics. Once you are there select the proper choice in the list for the exact % of centering overshoot/servo action that you want. Now Reboot the radio so that the choices are saved, be sure to go back up through the menu tree and select Menu\Options\Save, then under that check save current settings as DEFAULT. Then see if that is what you wanted... be careful, if you choose the wrong options, the radio may not work until booted again in "default mode."

Alternately, use the mechanical overshoot damping adjustment on your tuning knob. When the radio "hears" a sliding tone of a "zero-beat" the mechanical overshoot daming control will cause the tuning knob to "bounce" side-to-side of the zero-beat, coming to rest after about 30 seconds or so at the zero-beat point. Be patient during this operation, as the mechanical overshoot damping is slower than the DSP/Servo controlled system. If the final resting point is not dead on zero-beat, then gently adjust the "offset" knob on the rear apron of your rig, while watching the display on the front... repeat the process until the best adjustment is found.

I hope this explains how to handle this situation?
Now how difficult was that!!!  :o

Otoh, you could just turn the friggin knob until the tone slides down in frequency and stops. Of course you'd have to turn on a BFO or pop the receiver into SSB mode. Consult your manual for those instructions... Geez.  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

               _-_-WBear2GCR

     

LOL!!  :D

Ellen - AF9J

John

That's pretty much how I wanted to do it. But the mod trans is too big, and WAY to heavy for the drawer to support buy itself. Forget about the mod reactor and giant cap. I used what I had around and stuck it all in the bud cabinet, but it's still evolving. I have a pair if nib 810's and a reactor that will fit in the drawer nicely. Eventually I'll dig up a nice mod tranny and a bit smaller cap, then it will all come together in the center drawer. It is a bit unsettling having the 3kv coming out of the back of the rig for the mod rack. :o 

This tx was the C model that had the XFK rtty box in the middle drawer. When I took that out, it just seemed natural to stuff the hole with the 390a. (That's an Amelco 390a too, rare one with real low serial.)

I like the remark by Robert Poff, that showed up on the AM Reflector, regarding the site:


Could be. This (http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/microphone-cb-radios.htm) one might appear in the new Extra class question pool.

Now, I'm  feeling sorry for the guy..... he is trying (operative term) to do some good for his hobby and his gumbas on chanel # ??......   There, I feel much better...   klc

Don,

My first CB radio was a Montgomery Wards base station with a strapping 100 MW of cool power. It was essentially the same as the Archer Space Patrol device shown below which came out a little later. Anyway, my buddy Duane and I used these to send modulated CW between the quarter mile spacing between our houses. We learned the code on these CB sets.

The locals were not impressed by the CW practice on Channel 14, especially when we figured out how to improve our signals with better antennas.

Mike WU2D

CW on CB now that's the balls.

Hi Mike,

I learned code in a similar manner, when I was studying for my Novice.  There was a beat up Realistic CB walkie talkie (It had a single channel in it - Channel 13, and was the typical 100mW kids model) laying around the house, that had a built-in code key. It also had a small chart with the Morse Code characters for each letter of the alphabet, on its front face.  It also had a built-in sidetone for the key.  I used it to learn the the Morse Code letters, and practice my sending (still required back in the late 70s, to pass your test).

Ellen - AF9J

Can't wait for the video on transmitter neutralization, deer in the headlights alert! Deerfield Olympics first event, CB radio toss, before you leave home.

I wasn't licensed until the age of 22 which was back in 1982.  Long before getting the novice license, at that time I didn't know amateur radio existed. When I was a kid my two younger brothers and I were messing around with the code.  We always heard about Morse code on cartoons and other places so we investigated it.  At first we started out tapping on the wall that separated our  two bedrooms.  Copy was tough because we couldn't easily distinguish between a dit and a dah.  After giving up on that we built telegraph keys connected by 4 conductor phone wire my father bought for some project. He wasn't happy that we took his wire but we built these key sets anyway and used them. We built them out of wood blocks, sheet metal, nail, screws, a couple of Erector set buzzers and D cells.  We ran the sets between the bedrooms and would send messages during the night.  We actually got pretty good at copying the code. We eventually graduated to wireless using Archer Space Patrol walkie talkies and sent code that way too.  A couple of friends in the neighborhood had these walkie talkies as well and we would have roundtables going.   Many years later I found out about ham radio. The rest is history.  Neither of my two younger brothers have an interest in radio.

That would be a fun event at some hamfest frequented by the 75m knuckle-draggers.  Have a "slopbucket radio toss".  Find a fairly recently manufactured slopbucket rig that  looks good but has been trashed by lightning or has otherwise become worthless (like it never was a worthless p.o.s. to begin with), and charge a buck a throw.

At the end of the event, display the remains as a trophy.

This guy has other instructional videos:
http://www.gdd.net/bkholiday/index.php