Alex wrote in
:

I just purchased a Cobra 19 DX III and a 36" base loaded magnet mount
antenna. So far I'm picking up pretty good, and transmitting well
also. I don't think I'm getting out there as far as i can.

How far are you transmitting? On a clear channel, or busy one?


Most likely
this Friday I will be purchasing a Wilson 1000 Magnet Mount to replace
the antenna I have now. Is that going to get me out there a little
more (the wilson 1000) No modifications have been made to this radio
and have not been able to find any either. I purchased it brand new at
a Pilot Truckstop, and am sure it is only putting out 4 watts (fcc
required). Will the Wilson make me receive further or transmit further
or both, or neither? I'm new and feel it all has to do with how much
your getting out ( 4 watts doesn't seem to good )


4 watts is actually a great deal of power. The first mistake a newcomer
makes is believing power determines range.

The Wilson antenna will increase both your transmit and receive range.


Maybe I don't need a new radio, maybe the wilson 1000 will do what I
want it to do. I get so sick of losing communication once I'm not
close to truckers anymore. What do I need to do? I want to make sure i
am getting out as far as possible.

Is your radio tuned to your antenna? Again a newcomer mistake... not
adjusting the SWR of your system. Just dropping a radio and antenna into
a vehicle and operating is not all that is required. You must make sure
the antenna/radio/vehicle combination are matched up with one another.
You can search on the web for how to adjust SWR.

Also, antenna location is important. Placing the antenna right in the
middle of the roof of your vehicle is the optimum place to mount an
antenna. Especially if it is a car.

To make it simple.... the metal in your vehicle will act as a "guide" for
radio waves. Wherever the most metal is is the direction the radio waves
will be directed. The center of the vehivle will direct your signal
equlally in all directions. Placing an antenna, say on the roof of a
pickup truck will actully direct the signal BEHIND the vehicle, since you
have the whole bed of the vehicle to guide the signal. Mounting your
antenna, say on the driver's side mirror of a car will actually direct
the signal to the left, side and rear of the vehicle, while sending a
diminished signal to the front and left. Hope that makes sense.


My other dilemma:

I've been looking here http://www.wilsonantennas.com/cobracb.shtml at
some of the radios and the three that have caught my eye a

Cobra 29 LTD Night Watch Classic

Cobra 25 LTD Classic

Cobra 148 GTL Classic

To be honest.... any and all radios will perform for the most party, the
same. They differ in "bells and whistles" only. I had one of the first
generation Cobry 19 Plus radios.... best sounding radio I ever had...
perhaps the newer generations are similar.


The site also offers two tuning options before shipping. Which one
should I go for? Seems like the Mega Tune. One more question below as
well. The tuning options a

The Mega Tune 29.99
....

The True Tune 10.00
....

If you want to stay legal, stay away from this stuff. The only legal way
to operate a radio is out of the box. I have yet to see a peak and tune
that doesn't sound awful, or bleed over.

To be honest, most radios ARE undertuned. You CAN get set up to run at
the full legal 4 watts, and not exceed modulation limits. Just go to a
trustworthy shop.


Last question: The one that bugs me.

I purchased a SWR Meter from Radio shack. It was the cheapest one they
had and I am on a budget here, because some they had were way to
expensive. The one I got was
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...&product%5Fid=
21-534 I took it back because nothing seemed to make much difference,
or I wasn't operating it right, seemed to always fall in the red. The
antenna I have the only way to adjust is to move antenna up and down.
Maybe I wasn't in a good location. I finally got it to 2.3, and just
left it. My question is was I operating it right to finally get a 2.3
or is that just a cheap ass SWR Meter?


In the red is VERY BAD.... A factor in your range for sure. 2.3 is not
too bad... you want an SWR under 3. See my above on antenna location. I
figure you have your antanna tuned as good as it can be. Your SWR meter
was working properly. All it does is tells you the truth. Some
vehicle/antanna combinations don't agree with one another.

I really hope someone has the time to answer and help out a newbie as
I am very interested in Cb's since i finally broke down and got me
one. I just want to be able to transmit and receive as far as possible
without breaking the law to bad. Not ready for a amplifier or anything
like that.

Good deal.... best way to be.


Hope I helped.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:25:28 GMT, Legal Radio
wrote:

To make it simple.... the metal in your vehicle will act as a "guide" for
radio waves. Wherever the most metal is is the direction the radio waves
will be directed. The center of the vehivle will direct your signal
equlally in all directions. Placing an antenna, say on the roof of a
pickup truck will actully direct the signal BEHIND the vehicle, since you
have the whole bed of the vehicle to guide the signal. Mounting your
antenna, say on the driver's side mirror of a car will actually direct
the signal to the left, side and rear of the vehicle, while sending a
diminished signal to the front and left. Hope that makes sense.


Too many lefts? :-)

To be honest, most radios ARE undertuned. You CAN get set up to run at
the full legal 4 watts, and not exceed modulation limits. Just go to a
trustworthy shop.

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

The manufacturer has to certify that none of the radios built will exceed
legal limits, so they are all designed to fall safely inside. If you think
that anyone sits and adjusts each radio for max output, for a $40 retail
product, you're dreaming, even if it's made in Pakistan.
On the high end, you MIGHT get this, but I rather doubt it.

Once you adjust anything internally, you've violated the certification.
These days, I'm not sure where the regs fall, but if you can have a radio
repaired legally, then it would seem reasonable that the same shop could
adjust it to as close as possible to the legal limits, legally..

But as others have said, you'll never notice the difference.
It really takes major improvements to make minor differences.
The antenna and feedline is the cheap and (sort of) easy place to make these
differences, and it's completely legal.

--
KC6ETE Dave's Engineering Page, www.dvanhorn.org
Microcontroller Consultant, specializing in Atmel AVR

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:25:28 GMT, Legal Radio
wrote:

Alex wrote in
:

I just purchased a Cobra 19 DX III and a 36" base loaded magnet mount
antenna. So far I'm picking up pretty good, and transmitting well
also. I don't think I'm getting out there as far as i can.

How far are you transmitting? On a clear channel, or busy one?

If I am not mistaken I am getting maybe 3- 4 miles at times on busy
and clear channels, but again i could be mistaken


Most likely
this Friday I will be purchasing a Wilson 1000 Magnet Mount to replace
the antenna I have now. Is that going to get me out there a little
more (the wilson 1000) No modifications have been made to this radio
and have not been able to find any either. I purchased it brand new at
a Pilot Truckstop, and am sure it is only putting out 4 watts (fcc
required). Will the Wilson make me receive further or transmit further
or both, or neither? I'm new and feel it all has to do with how much
your getting out ( 4 watts doesn't seem to good )


4 watts is actually a great deal of power. The first mistake a newcomer
makes is believing power determines range.

Yes, I did think that. I thought damn to actually get a good radio I'm
gonna have to be illegal. Now I think otherwise.

The Wilson antenna will increase both your transmit and receive range.

Thats what i was hoping for.


Maybe I don't need a new radio, maybe the wilson 1000 will do what I
want it to do. I get so sick of losing communication once I'm not
close to truckers anymore. What do I need to do? I want to make sure i
am getting out as far as possible.

Is your radio tuned to your antenna? Again a newcomer mistake... not
adjusting the SWR of your system. Just dropping a radio and antenna into
a vehicle and operating is not all that is required. You must make sure
the antenna/radio/vehicle combination are matched up with one another.
You can search on the web for how to adjust SWR.

The best i could get it. I finally got it to 2.3, but gonna recheck it
when I get my Wilson 1000

Also, antenna location is important. Placing the antenna right in the
middle of the roof of your vehicle is the optimum place to mount an
antenna. Especially if it is a car.

To make it simple.... the metal in your vehicle will act as a "guide" for
radio waves. Wherever the most metal is is the direction the radio waves
will be directed. The center of the vehivle will direct your signal
equlally in all directions. Placing an antenna, say on the roof of a
pickup truck will actully direct the signal BEHIND the vehicle, since you
have the whole bed of the vehicle to guide the signal. Mounting your
antenna, say on the driver's side mirror of a car will actually direct
the signal to the left, side and rear of the vehicle, while sending a
diminished signal to the front and left. Hope that makes sense.


My other dilemma:

I've been looking here http://www.wilsonantennas.com/cobracb.shtml at
some of the radios and the three that have caught my eye a

Cobra 29 LTD Night Watch Classic

Cobra 25 LTD Classic

Cobra 148 GTL Classic

To be honest.... any and all radios will perform for the most party, the
same. They differ in "bells and whistles" only. I had one of the first
generation Cobry 19 Plus radios.... best sounding radio I ever had...
perhaps the newer generations are similar.


The site also offers two tuning options before shipping. Which one
should I go for? Seems like the Mega Tune. One more question below as
well. The tuning options a

The Mega Tune 29.99
....

The True Tune 10.00
....

If you want to stay legal, stay away from this stuff. The only legal way
to operate a radio is out of the box. I have yet to see a peak and tune
that doesn't sound awful, or bleed over.

To be honest, most radios ARE undertuned. You CAN get set up to run at
the full legal 4 watts, and not exceed modulation limits. Just go to a
trustworthy shop.


Last question: The one that bugs me.

I purchased a SWR Meter from Radio shack. It was the cheapest one they
had and I am on a budget here, because some they had were way to
expensive. The one I got was
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...&product%5Fid=
21-534 I took it back because nothing seemed to make much difference,
or I wasn't operating it right, seemed to always fall in the red. The
antenna I have the only way to adjust is to move antenna up and down.
Maybe I wasn't in a good location. I finally got it to 2.3, and just
left it. My question is was I operating it right to finally get a 2.3
or is that just a cheap ass SWR Meter?


In the red is VERY BAD.... A factor in your range for sure. 2.3 is not
too bad... you want an SWR under 3. See my above on antenna location. I
figure you have your antanna tuned as good as it can be. Your SWR meter
was working properly. All it does is tells you the truth. Some
vehicle/antanna combinations don't agree with one another.

I really hope someone has the time to answer and help out a newbie as
I am very interested in Cb's since i finally broke down and got me
one. I just want to be able to transmit and receive as far as possible
without breaking the law to bad. Not ready for a amplifier or anything
like that.

Good deal.... best way to be.


Hope I helped.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 08:02:55 -0400, Alex
wrote in :

I just purchased a Cobra 19 DX III and a 36" base loaded magnet mount
antenna. So far I'm picking up pretty good, and transmitting well
also. I don't think I'm getting out there as far as i can. Most likely
this Friday I will be purchasing a Wilson 1000 Magnet Mount to replace
the antenna I have now. Is that going to get me out there a little
more (the wilson 1000) No modifications have been made to this radio
and have not been able to find any either. I purchased it brand new at
a Pilot Truckstop, and am sure it is only putting out 4 watts (fcc
required). Will the Wilson make me receive further or transmit further
or both, or neither? I'm new and feel it all has to do with how much
your getting out ( 4 watts doesn't seem to good )

Maybe I don't need a new radio, maybe the wilson 1000 will do what I
want it to do. I get so sick of losing communication once I'm not
close to truckers anymore. What do I need to do? I want to make sure i
am getting out as far as possible.


The most important part of any radio system is NOT the radio -- it's
the antenna. It's the antenna that converts signals to and from the
ether. If your antenna sucks, so will your communication REGARDLESS of
what kind of radio you have. That being said.....

The best mobile CB antenna you can buy is the 102" whip (it's also one
of the cheapest antennas). Shorter antennas are a compromise between
length vs. performance. The longer the better.

And if you want your antenna to do the job it's capable of doing you
have to mount it properly. Generally, the higher you mount it on your
vehicle the better, but it's much more important that your mount is
well grounded. Mag-mounts are mediocre at best. No-Ground-Plane (NGP)
antennas are worse, and thru-glass antennas are junk.


My other dilemma:

I've been looking here http://www.wilsonantennas.com/cobracb.shtml at
some of the radios and the three that have caught my eye a

Cobra 29 LTD Night Watch Classic

Cobra 25 LTD Classic

Cobra 148 GTL Classic


There are two things you can do to make even a cheap radio talk much
better: Get an external speaker and a better microphone.


The site also offers two tuning options before shipping. Which one
should I go for? Seems like the Mega Tune. One more question below as
well. The tuning options a

snip


Like Dave said, avoid the peak jobs. Especially one's where they claim
to get 30 watts out of your radio and not void the warranty -- any
warranty is voided when your radio is modified to exceed the legal
limit of 4 watts (which translates to 16 watts peak/PEP). Most of the
shops that offer peak-&-tune jobs are chop-shops that will tell you
anything you want to hear just to get your money. And yes, some of
their claims are flat-out lies, including the text you quoted in your
post. (The work is illegal, so it shouldn't come as a shock to find
out that their advertising is also illegal.)

The best thing you can do to improve your talk-power is to use a
quality mic. You can improve it even more with an audio compressor,
and don't exceed about 30% compression.


Last question: The one that bugs me.

I purchased a SWR Meter from Radio shack. It was the cheapest one they
had and I am on a budget here, because some they had were way to
expensive. The one I got was
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=21-534
I took it back because nothing seemed to make much difference, or I
wasn't operating it right, seemed to always fall in the red. The
antenna I have the only way to adjust is to move antenna up and down.
Maybe I wasn't in a good location. I finally got it to 2.3, and just
left it. My question is was I operating it right to finally get a 2.3
or is that just a cheap ass SWR Meter?


The meter probably works ok, and your location shouldn't make much
difference (unless you are parked inside a steel shed). It's more
likely that you have something wrong with your antenna and/or coax.
The antenna could be poorly mounted, the coax could be old (don't use
foam coax!), the connectors could be bad, etc, etc. My first guess is
that mag-mount antenna you are using is junk.


I really hope someone has the time to answer and help out a newbie as
I am very interested in Cb's since i finally broke down and got me
one. I just want to be able to transmit and receive as far as possible
without breaking the law to bad. Not ready for a amplifier or anything
like that.


Amps are not only illegal, they are expensive. The laws of physics
dictates that you need 4 times the power to double your range. That
means you need an amp capable of 16 watts AM. The problem here is that
most amps are rated for peak watts (PEP), which means you need 4 times
-again- as much power; i.e, a 64 watt amp. THAT's how much it takes to
double your range, but -only- during transmit, NOT receive (and that's
assuming you have an IDEAL antenna operating under IDEAL conditions).
Ok, so you get a 64 watt amp, and after a while you want even -more-
range. To double your range again you would need an amp capable of 256
watts. Double it again and you need over 1 Kilowatt! By the time you
reach that point you are in it for the big bucks -- to run that kind
of power you need two or three heavy-duty alternators (with all the
pulleys and other hardware), battery cables thicker than your thumb,
high-quality coax, an antenna capable of that much power, ....$$$$$
And here's the ass-kicker: if your range was 1 mile without the amp,
you have only increased your range to 8 miles!

On the other hand, a better antenna can do the same job or better for
-both- transmit and receive. It's also much cheaper. And it's legal.


I seem to like the site I am planning on purchasing from unless
someone out here tells me there is no need for another radio because
the Wilson 1000 will do what i want. I guess the reason i also like
them is that they will tune and get everything running just right
before they ship it. I know that wasn't done to the one I have now.


To get everything running right you need to install everything
properly. They can't do that through the mail.

Go to the library, find a book on CB or ham radio and read it. That's
the best way to learn how to do things right the first time, and not
pad the pockets of sham artists with your hard-earned money.






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On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:13:05 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:


The most important part of any radio system is NOT the radio -- it's
the antenna. It's the antenna that converts signals to and from the
ether. If your antenna sucks, so will your communication REGARDLESS of
what kind of radio you have. That being said.....

The best mobile CB antenna you can buy is the 102" whip (it's also one
of the cheapest antennas). Shorter antennas are a compromise between
length vs. performance. The longer the better.

Do you have a link to a trusted website that sells this 102" whip.

And if you want your antenna to do the job it's capable of doing you
have to mount it properly. Generally, the higher you mount it on your
vehicle the better, but it's much more important that your mount is
well grounded. Mag-mounts are mediocre at best. No-Ground-Plane (NGP)
antennas are worse, and thru-glass antennas are junk.

I would also like to know where to purchase a Ground Plane.

likely that you have something wrong with your antenna and/or coax.
The antenna could be poorly mounted, the coax could be old (don't use
foam coax!), the connectors could be bad, etc, etc. My first guess is
that mag-mount antenna you are using is junk.

Probably so, I purchased it for 20 bucks at a pilot truckstop. the guy
said it was a good antenna. It's 36" base loaded coil antenna I'm not
having much trouble at all receiving. I receive all kinds of stuff,
but not always able to talk back to the people I hear. Its the
transmitting, maybe I am just want more than any cb antenna can offer.
How far ( guesstimate ) if everything was just right would this 102"
be able to transmit. Please don't tell me the Wilson 1000 isn't good.
I've heard to many good things about it from about 30 different
people, owners of the antenna.

Alex wrote:
Please don't tell me the Wilson 1000 isn't good.
I've heard to many good things about it from about 30 different
people, owners of the antenna.

It's a good antenna, but it's also a compromise for the 102" whip
since the whip is so much longer. I have both the Wilson 1000 and
the 102" and the problem I have with the whip is the clearance
under trees and such. It has the nickname "tree pruner", but it
really can't be beat for performance.

They're both good antenna's.

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 07:23:40 -0400, Alex
wrote in :

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:13:05 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:


The most important part of any radio system is NOT the radio -- it's
the antenna. It's the antenna that converts signals to and from the
ether. If your antenna sucks, so will your communication REGARDLESS of
what kind of radio you have. That being said.....

The best mobile CB antenna you can buy is the 102" whip (it's also one
of the cheapest antennas). Shorter antennas are a compromise between
length vs. performance. The longer the better.

Do you have a link to a trusted website that sells this 102" whip.


I think Radio Shaft still sells them. Just about any truck stop will
have them.


And if you want your antenna to do the job it's capable of doing you
have to mount it properly. Generally, the higher you mount it on your
vehicle the better, but it's much more important that your mount is
well grounded. Mag-mounts are mediocre at best. No-Ground-Plane (NGP)
antennas are worse, and thru-glass antennas are junk.

I would also like to know where to purchase a Ground Plane.


You should have read a post I wrote a week ago.... The ground plane
for a mobile antenna is the vehicle and the ground below the vehicle.
Regardless of what antenna you use, you already have a ground plane.
What you -need- is an "RF ground" for your antenna mount. The center
conductor of the coax goes to the antenna, and the sheild goes to that
RF ground. It can be the car body, chassis, bumper, roll-bar, or even
a bracket bolted onto any of those parts. But it must be a GOOD
connection -- a magnet does -not- make a good ground connection.


likely that you have something wrong with your antenna and/or coax.
The antenna could be poorly mounted, the coax could be old (don't use
foam coax!), the connectors could be bad, etc, etc. My first guess is
that mag-mount antenna you are using is junk.

Probably so, I purchased it for 20 bucks at a pilot truckstop. the guy
said it was a good antenna. It's 36" base loaded coil antenna I'm not
having much trouble at all receiving. I receive all kinds of stuff,
but not always able to talk back to the people I hear. Its the
transmitting, maybe I am just want more than any cb antenna can offer.
How far ( guesstimate ) if everything was just right would this 102"
be able to transmit. Please don't tell me the Wilson 1000 isn't good.
I've heard to many good things about it from about 30 different
people, owners of the antenna.


Good is relative. The Wilson will work to a given extent. You could do
worse, but you could also do better. A cheap 5' fiberglass whip from
RS will work just as well as a Wilson 1000, as well as some of the
other brand-name, premium-priced antennas on the market. There is
nothing magic about antennas, and just because it bears a popular
brand name doesn't make it perform any better. On the contrary, I have
built a few antennas from scratch and all of them work BETTER than
their manufactured equivalents.

Like I said before, hit the library and read up on the basics. It will
answer most of your questions both now and in the future.

(Brian Griffey) wrote
Absolutely in agreement...

Professor
www.telstar-electronics.com

hey poopfessor, how come the 10 meter amp you are selling on your web
page has no provision for CW. That part of 10m is always very active,
arent you afraid you will lose sales to 10m hams you are marketing it
to?

On 5 Oct 2004 21:13:04 -0700, (I Am Not
George) wrote in :


www.telstar-electronics.com


......oh brother. Since when did 10 meters cover 26-29MHz?

Your amp is rated 180 watts RMS and 350 watts PEP? Why is this issue
so confusing, Brian? If the amp is rated for 350 watts PEP it's rating
for AM will be 87.5 watts RMS dead-key. So where do you get your
figure of 180 watts RMS?

Your confusion seems even worse when comparing AM, FM and "PEP". If
the input can take 20 watts PEP it can take 20 watts FM. Even if your
power dissipation can't handle a steady 20 watt carrier, it should at
least be able to handle more than an unmodulated AM carrier or you
couldn't use AM. Haven't you learned the basics YET?

And what's "compression"? If you overdrive an amp you get CLIPPING,
not compression. It may be hard-clipping (typical of solid-state amps
such as your's) or soft-clipping (more characteristic of tube amps),
but it's still clipping and it still causes harmonic distortion.

On that note, let's look at those distortion figures: -33 dB with 100
watts CW..... aw, Brian, haven't you learned yet that you are supposed
to do those tests under modulation? Otherwise they don't mean squat
(and those are pretty crappy numbers for an unmodulated carrier!). If
you modulate the carrier you can test it at your rated 350 watts. But
I don't think you want to do that. In fact.....

Did you ever look closely at your input/output graph? Do you know what
the word "linear" means? And didn't you notice how the graph starts
curving more sharply at about 10 watts input? That's an indication
that your amp is clipping; i.e, causing distortion. Now we know why
you didn't measure distortion above 100 watts..... because it's a
noisy critter!!!


Brian, your amp is a cheap hack, it sucks, and you are so ignorant
that you even provided the proof. Your amps will always suck until you
finally decide to sit down and educate yourself about RF electronics
from the beginning; i.e, starting with the basics. Maybe then you can
build a decent amp and capitalize on the -legal- amp market instead of
trying to prey on hapless CBers that have been misinformed by
voodoo-techs like yourself.






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