On Thursday, December 13, 2012 9:22:46 AM UTC-5, Channel Jumper wrote:
;798163 Wrote:

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



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.









--

Channel Jumper

Not sure how I missed this response post by channel jumper but somehow I did. Some of us still get a kick out of talking worldwide DX on 11 and the freeband and channel 6. Yea, you can sometimes do it barefoot I know, I worked many countries barefoot on 11 meter and the freeband throughout the years but when that rare contact comes in and you can hear him and there are dozens of others hearing him and calling for him, guess who he's gonna hear? Sometimes the fire in the wire makes all the difference in the world over who's gonna get the contact. I still prefer DXing from my truck.

Twisted, Twisted and more Twisted ... STILL, working this sandpile and getting WAY up!