Keith Hosman wrote:
When using SSB there is no carrier unless you modulate
(talk).

Actually, there is no carrier, even if you do talk. The carrier is not a
result of modulation. It is created in the circuitry of the radio. It
is the sidebands that are a result of modulating the carrier with the
audio from the microphone. After modulation takes place the carrier and
one of the sidebands are removed before amplifying the remaining
sideband for transmission.

Scott

--
"You don't go out and kick a mad dog. If you have a mad dog with
rabies, you
take a gun and shoot him."
-- Pat Robertson, TV Evangelist, about Muammar Kadhafy

Joe wrote:

Under ideal conditions what kind of range are we talking?
AM = 4-5 miles?
SSB = x miles?

Your range is really dependent more on your antenna than on your mode of
transmission, differences in legal power output aside.

Although there are height limitations for CB (20 feet above existing
structures at the antenna sight), there is nothing stopping you from
putting up an antenna that concentrates its radiated signal in one
direction, or in two directions.

Most CB antennas are omnidirectional. They radiate power equally in all
directions. Beam antennas, such as are used in outdoor TV antennas,
concentrate their power in one direction and also suppress reception of
signals coming from directions other than where they are aimed. They
also amplify signals received from the direction they are pointed in.

This results in a greater signal-to-noise ratio in the receiver and much
greater concentration of your signal in the direction of transmission,
greatly increasing your effective radiated power.

Scott
--
In buying horses and taking a wife shut your eyes tight and commend
yourself to God.

"Scott Bicknell" wrote in message
ink.net...
Darkhorse wrote:

BTW, has a raser (radio equivalent of a laser) been invented yet?

Yes, its called a beam antenna.

no. . a beam antenna is more similar to a lens.
lasers have an excited medium, that is made to dump out photons in sync.

masers do this in the microwave region, but i'm not aware of anything
reaching down anywhere near this far.

Dave VanHorn wrote:

no. . a beam antenna is more similar to a lens.
lasers have an excited medium, that is made to dump out photons in
sync.

masers do this in the microwave region, but i'm not aware of anything
reaching down anywhere near this far.

Granted, but what is the point of asking such a question. The properties
of radio frequencies below UHF prevent focused beams of energy as
narrow as a maser. Even if there were a way of generating radio waves
in the same fashion as masers, they wouldn't propagate the way maser do
anyway.

--
tax office, n.:
Den of inequity.