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Originally Posted by
Any tricks to hookin up a sweet 16 in a big truck??? Thinkin about one to put behind my 2970n2. No substitute for horsepower, sorry Amps....Thanks BEER CAN. 244 Diesel Car
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Amplifiers are only used when all other attempts at using a more efficient antenna set up has failed.
It does not increase range - as per receive, only transmit, and even then - only when the other persons antenna is efficient enough to be able to hear you.
Range is dependant upon location and upon time of day and upon the atmospheric and solar conditions...
On 11 meters - when the band is open and you have a efficient antenna system - 3 watts could talk half way around the world and when the band is closed 1000 watts might barely talk across the street.
Just the fact of the sheer number of units still in operation today attests to the fact that you can hear someone babbling most any time day or night on the CB radio.
The intelligence level is so low - it's almost necessary to have an amplifier according to how those people acts and the urban mydth that you have to have more power.
The question is - who are you going to talk to?
I live 14 miles from I 80 and I monitored the CB radio for years and almost never heard anyone mobile driving along the interstate...
Too many mountains and valleys for it to work.
At the same time, I have talked to people with legal 3 watt AM base stations 40 miles away - due to the fact that they had a efficient antenna system.
The same is true for 10 meters.
I am a amateur radio licensed operator and I have a 100 watt transceiver - Kenwood TS 590S and a Solorcon A99 and I only ever talked to someone locally one time in two years.
That person was located near Youngstown OH and his array of towers is clearly visable from I 80 - multiple beam antenna's.
It isn't that he was using an amplifier, it was that his antenna system exhibited forward gain in one direction and rejection in another...
Doing all that work to put an amplifier in a big rig is ludrichrist since you can do the same thing with a cheap $40.00 a month cell phone.
Talk to other people...
Amateur radio is actually the place to be if you want to talk....
Even with that - there is hardly anyone to talk to on 10 meters except when there is a contest.