TRIPLE THE EFFECTIVE POWER OF YOUR CB WITH THIS EASY MOD - JUMPING BACK IN TO CB IN 2020 - PART 2
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2024
- Got a CB and wondering why you arent getting that good performance? a lot of the time its just down to how the radios have been setup in the factory and the bundled antenna, in this quick video we look at a popular CB the Thunderpole T-800 and we see how easy it is to double the transmit power of the radio, you can then improve performance even more by ditching the bundled antenna and fitting a decent one with more gain, this will increase the effective radiating power even more it will also improve reception.
Check out the superb UK CB radio servicing channel featuring Richard Shireby for specific radio tuning and comprehensive CB radio range tests.
/ @ukfmcbradioservicingt...
If you like the look of this radio and the antenna then head over to Moonraker in the UK here for the antenna and hit Amazon for the radio.
www.amazon.co.....
Antenna
www.moonraker....
Lewis M3HHY also known as Ringway Manchester, has some great CB radio testing videos on his channel.
/ ringwaymanchester
The best way to talk further on a CB radio is to get the best antenna you can get 👍. A better antenna does more for you than adding watts
Yes but when you buy a CB expecting it to put out 4 watts and it's pushing just 1 or 2 it's useful to know how to tune it up.
@@knoxieman of course 👍
@@knoxieman And that’s exactly what I want to do, you need to do a video going more in-depth into how to tune these things for more power. It’s ok for someone like you, who’s experienced with this stuff, but a dead-beat layman can get lost pretty easily!
Well if you have a good antenna and still want more watts this is nice
A counterpoise on hand held units double the range! Cheers
Great that people are keeping CB radio alive! Fantastic video
Cheers I still love CB 🥰
I can confirm-Sirio M-145 works really well for length size!,
Bear in mind UK RF power on CB is rated at "ERP level" if look closely to the document wordings.
A base loaded whip will roughly HALF your ERP value, so 4w in 2w out erp!,so 8w into a sirio m-145,will get you legal 4W "ERP "legal.
M-145 is dc shunt coil fed for a 30-35ohms resonant match on a car roof, dc shorted-low noise with quality coil
,covers 26.5-28mhz easy, built in spring on whip!
Best avoid mag mounts ,cable failures, poor grounds ,water ingress issues.
I tend to use the Sirio Boot lip mounts with grub screws ,so get a good grounding to body of car
its pays to get good coax and Ariel system, otherwise wasting money.
fab vid
Rob P
Cheers Rob 😎👍
From the stats i could find the Siro ML145 is 56 inch long so the loading coil is substituting
the missing 48 inches of a 104in 1/4 wave. the best place for a loading coil is as far up
the rod as possible. from what i remember the centre loaded DV27 was about 56inches too
So, how do you up the wattage output? Those two pods, do you turn them clockwise? And do you need a special tool? And is this the case for all uhf radios? I’ve heard somewhere that you program the wattage output, is that true? Thanks.
Thanks for the tip. I did this always to my radio's in the past. Think it works great for FM (but can run hotter like M.K. says anyways..). But for AM or SSB its another story. PEP is more important in those modes. So i think best thing to do is don't fiddle with the output power. Still interesting video! Thanks very much and keep those video's coming.
Thanks for watching yes I did this to my very first CB back in 1981, it's a shame that the factory send them out well under the legal limit though, you might wonder that they do it knowing ppl will take them apart and void the warranty as most ppl wouldn't know they were running low.
Picking up Galaxy DX2547 soon cant wait
Thanks for all these videos.
Yes, my T800 lacks power. Can you suggest where i get the correct trimmer tool for the T800, please....?
Cheers.
2 points:
1.turning the power up may make the radio run hotter(this MIGHT cause problems)
2.does the modulator have enough output to fully drive the radio to full modulation at the higher power level-if not, then the extra transmit power will gain you little to no benefit.
Assuming high level modulation is used, then you need 1/2 the audio in watts to fully modulate the carrier.
For example a 4 watt radio needs 2 watts of audio to fully modulate the signal.
if you raised the carrier to say 6 watts, you would only get around 75% modulation.
You would need 3 watts of audio to fully modulate 6 watts of carrier.
Some of the best sounding rigs I've heard in the past were purposely tuned DOWN slightly.
Correct. Make sure you have enough modulation regardless of whatever your carrier is.
@@3butalcomp3 It's the other way around:the modulator can only deliver a certain amount of audio-so you need to set the carrier at the correct level to get full modulation-of course, if the carrier maxes out first, then let 'er rip.
@@m.k.8158 Thats what I said, not all modulators deliver, so you don't want too high of a carrier in that case.
Think on this: in order to get just one extra S unit on the receive side in a town down the road or in another part of the country you need to increase your power output by 6 Db. For those who do not know, that is 400% times the original reference power. Thus if the original power was 4 watts then you would have to increase the power output to a full 16 watts aka 4 x 400%. To pump up a radio designed for only 4 watts such a boost will burn out the radio finals pretty damn quick.
Leave the radio alone and rather focus on an antenna aka BEAM that has at the very least a 6Db forward gain to focus your signal in a desired direction AND increase your hearing ability.
400 times!! You need to look at the DB scale again 3db = 2x, 4DB = 2.5x, 5DB = 3x, 6DB = 4x, 7DB = 5x, 8DB = 6.3, 9DB = 8x, 10DB = 10x. The rest is logarithmic, if a antenna has 13DB its 10x2=20x
3 db doubles and yields an average of 1/2 if 1 extra S Unit on an average meter.To get the next 1/2 unit you need to double the double or 200 x 2 or 400 watts to get the other half S unit aka for a total of 1 S unit. IF you are running 100 watts to begin with that is 4x 100 watts or 400 watts or 400% times the initial power. IF a amateur running max power of 1500 watts watts he would need more than that to get the full next S unit. IF IF IF he does it is because of atmospheric conditions not power. See ARRL Handbook and the ARRL Antenna Handbook.
Results requires without the help of nature massive power not allowed to radio amateurs much less "Legal" cb.
@@N5LRZ You're clueless.
Great video thanks for posting looking forward to the next one 👍
Could u buy linear amp to get more Watts if u don't wanna mess with the inside and what kind would u go for?
You're going to need to mess with the inside of the radio to use a linear amp. You have to bring the radio's wattage down to about half a watt to avoid frying it.
@@ObamaoZedong Is that why most if not all amps are 5watt to 10watt input on AM/FM 1watt to 20watt pep imput on SSB
so no you don't have to go inside the radio to make 1/2 watt .
Walcott Radio ( I have one ...👍 ) Cobra 29 LTD Classic CB With Peak Performance
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Is it possible to check your RF power without the dummy load? sorry if it's a stupid question but I'm just now trying to get back into CB after 40 years so not up to date with modern methods.
Hi, well you really do need to check it in to a perfectly matched load which you might be lucky and find an antenna that's is matched, cheapest option is to tie 2 of at least 2 watt 100 ohm resistors in parallel and connect them across the agenda socket.
@@knoxieman Thanks.
So when you say tweak 'trimmer pods', how is that done? with a screw driver? does is adjust by finger turn? I'm new to CB, sorry for this remedial question. Have note purchased a CB yet, but planning to do so and i'm trying to be ready and learned. Thank you!!!
Trimmer tools, no screwdrivers, ceramic trimmers are the best 😎
Honestly power limits high tier goofy, god forbid someone had a 20w cb station the world would explode
What about a Starduster Antenna that mounts onto the side of your house with a bracket.
looking forward to this mod on my thunderpole t800?
I’ve got a tti radio on my combine. Looking to get more out of it. Do I need any fancy gauges to adjust the watts or can I do it by just cranking the screws right up?
My opinion is there is no gauge that the public and by that is perfectly accurate. You would need to work for NASA LOL you can buy practically any wattmeter because what you want to do is Max out the amp hour and then back it down two or three watts. What most people do is Max out the modulation which might give you 20 W Peak power. Then you / 4 which is 5 Watts and you said the dead key at 5 Watts. In-theory this will give you 100% modulation. The point is I don't drive the power up to maximum because when the final transistor Powers up you need a little bit of Slam room or surge room. You don't want to max out at 10 watts because it will shorten the life of your radio you want to use half to three-quarters of your usable output. Confusing? Let's just say swing is everything. Swing is the difference between your dead key and your Peak output. Also the more swinging of the cleaners or signal in the stronger your penetration of the airwaves . It is better to have 5 W dead key with 15 or 20 W Max then to push 10 or 11 w with only 15 W Max. That would only be 30% modulation if you follow me. So the answer to your question is you need even cheap gauges to see where you are. If you crank everything up fall then you will definitely shorten the life of your radio. I would join a radio Forum online like CB radio Junkies they have lots of people to help you and the moderators are very experienced even though some people might be smart Alex and make snotty comments please ignore them and just listen to the more experienced people on The Forum board
Best not to use any Mag mount on 27MHz, even a 6 inch magnet wont have enough capacitive
coupling to ground. If you cant drill a hole in the middle of the cars roof and dont have a gutter
to put a gutter mount on, then a boot mount with its earth screw biting firmly into the metalwork
is next best
Yes can't go drilling holes in the cars though.
Are you going beyond the power rating of the transistors?
Not a good idea to just turn things up regardless of the ratings of transistors. It might work for a while but more power means more heat. Can they handle it?
I'm re-designing my h.f. radio using two RD06HHF-1 rated for 6 Watts but I'll keep them to 5 Watts. They can be pushed to 10 Watts but no way would I do that.
Anyway 6 Watts to 10 Watts is nothing at the receiving end.
G4GHB
Why not get an amateur radio licence? Yesterday on 28 MHz Morse Code at one Watt out on an indoor dipole I worked into Bulgaria, 1500 miles! I got a 559 report.
I've been a licensed ham radio operator since 1991, the T800 is pretty bullet proof, out of the box most don't do over 3w and yes turning up the power can harm the finals so I don't do this anymore.
@@knoxieman Right, o.k. Thanks for the reply.
You didnt actually show how to adjust the pots.
Do you turn clockwise or anti clockwise?
Oh I'd have to check sorry, normally clockwise from memory
Doh..you turn it and watch your meter...if the output goes down...guess what...you turn it the other way.
Could some explain why it's illegal to go over 4watts...
Cheers 👍🏼
It was just the legal limit set in law, it's primary purpose back then was to help prevent television interference which on a poorly setup system was bad enough on 4W, really 4 Watts is just fine it's just many new sets come out of the box at 2.5W and low deviation, they just don't bother setting them up properly in the factory.
@@knoxieman ok mate cheers for your reply...I understand it abit better now 👍🏼
If you are forced to use that crap antenna, take silicone tub seal and smear it all over the magnet and on the edge of the magnet cup. Set it down on a piece of aluminum foil, preferably on a flat piece of steel and let the silicone set. Trim off any excess foil, replace the rubber guard and rematch the antenna.
The way that these magnet mount antennas work is through capacitive coupling to the roof or trunk lid. Without that foil as close as possible to the car's metal, the "ground" connection at the antenna is greatly diminished and the VSWR skyrockets.
I used to do radio and antenna repairs at a shop in Florida and for the crime watch in my neighborhood. When I started, they had a hammer and chisel mechanic working on their radios that didn't know what the hell he was doing. They only had a few weak radios and badly abused magnet mount antennas. Back then, the wife and I used to go yard sale-ing every weekend. I could pick up working CB's all day long for $2 or $3 each, every weekend. I bought up about 30 radios and antennas, peaked out the radios and refurbished the antennas and that crime watch went from having dead spots all over the neighborhood to being the loudest in the county.
Pro tip: if you have a problem with a mobile antenna where the RG-58U coax keeps breaking due to vibration, doors or trunk lids pinching it, replace the RG-58U with RG-58AU coax. It is also 50 ohm, the same physical size, has a slightly better velocity factor, is military spec, has better shielding, the center conductor is stranded rather than solid and thereby much more flexible. It's only a few cents more per foot and worth it's weight in gold if you are replacing the coax in a trunk mount situation 3 or 4 times a year. Use the same length as you would regular 58U.
I replaced the coax on all the crime watch loaner antennas just once and never had to do it again even after going from car to car and having people constantly slamming doors on it and wrapping the coax around the antenna base and back off again for use on another car. I tore the foil off from the magnetic bases, ripped out the old coax out, replaced it with new 58AU and replaced the foil with new as mentioned above. My kids were getting birthday and Christmas gifts from the crime watch, we were getting fruit baskets 2 or 3 times a year and, back when I smoked, I was doing it for cigarette money rather than paying that other idiot to fix the same radio 2 or 3 times or my competitor's shop full price. What other job that you love can buy your cigarettes for you?
True story: The shop that I worked at was owned by someone else. They were nice people who had 2 middle school aged kids. The husband used to be a trucker and was really into CB. His wife was a stay at home mom most of the time. One day, they both had to be at the shop so they sent a note to the kids school asking if they could ride a different bus that stopped in front of the shop. When the kids came in, the owner brought the kids back to my workroom and introduced them to me.
"Jeff, I want you to meet my children. This is my son, Michael Jr. and my daughter Crystal." I thought he was joking. I said leave it to a CB guy to name his kids MIKE AND CRYSTAL. He and his wife looked at each other and back at me and both at the same time said, "I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT." We all had a huge laugh over that one.
Can running the higher watts damage your radio
Yes however it depends on the radio on this set the RF amp can easily tolerate it.
I just want to connect it straight to the battery outside of the car. I want to take the battery out of the car and connect it. There are no articles on that?
Put a fuse on at least one line, and be careful not to short your wires/terminals. The fuse type should be ~5-10 amps above common usage draw. If you can't measure that, start at a 10A fuse and go up until you don't get blown fuses after 10 Seconds of full power transmit. Best of luck!
These radios are designed to operate on a specified voltage. Using a battery will get you by for a bit but when the voltage starts to drop your output power will drop and your audio will become distorted. Connecting a battery charger will only introduce ripple from the charger that you will hear in the speaker.
A pair of electrolytic capacitors and a small "step-down" transformer from a surplus electronics dealer will fix you up when using a battery charger on the battery when you are using the radio. Cover the transformer secondary leads with wire-nuts or heat-shrink, so that they will never make electrical connection with anything. Hook each transformer primary lead to the "+" terminal of each of the capacitors. Hook the "-" leads of the capacitors to each other, and to the "-" of your 12V power cord. Hook "+" of power cord coming in to one of the "+" terminals of the capacitor. Hook "+" of power cord out to radio to the other capacitor's "+" terminal.
This should greatly reduce the hum.
To learn how this circuit works, run a Google search on the exact phrase: "pi filter."
That does nothing except make the radio run hotter. It takes 4 times the power to get 6 db of gain, 1 S unit.
I know for CB radio does not need a permit
But for VHF/UHF radios...
I know that for PMR the power is 0.5w and the antenna is fixed. Is it
prohibited on a device with a power greater than 0.5w and with a
detachable antenna to "listen" to PMR channels? Example. I buy some
Chinese mobile car device and place it in a car or at home, with an
external antenna. By law, I am not allowed to speak with such equipment
on PMR channels. But should I own such "listening" equipment? A mobile
device with an external antenna in the car or in the house, with the
antenna of course on the roof of the house or the roof of the car?
Drop the Hammer-- LOL 21 ion S.C.
By increasing the wattage by I few watts is not going to achieve anything. You want more power then drop the carrier watts down to a watt or two and get a good transistor mobile amp.
If you up the wattage from around 3 watts to 5 watts, that’s nearly double, it ‘has to’ make a difference!
Well you need to turn that radio back down to 4 Watts and drive the carrier to where it swings pep you get more efficient out of the radio alright 73
PEP? This is a AM radio not single sideband................
@@gordselectronicshobby3853 you need the dead key at 4 watts and get that am modulation to swing you'll get out better I understand it's not a side band radio but I've been doing it for 30 plus years so alright 73
@@gordselectronicshobby3853 Of course you can measure PEP on AM. The PEP output of AM transmitter is 4 x its carrier strength. So if you're PEP is rated at 16 watts in AM, your carrier will be 4 watts.
SSB is just the upper or lower half of an AM signal.
@@mosherj666 But AM wastes power as compared to SSB.
@@kevins4736 How do reckon that?
Don't fk with the insides. Want more power just buy a amplifier. Them 203s and alike are cheap as chips
Splatter box!🙄
Yeah, just go inside and crank up the power. Don't worry about the regulator getting hot and letting the factory smoke out of it and the drivers or finals when it shorts and sends direct supply voltage to them. Spurious emissions aren't a concern either...unless your neighbor is trying to watch TV while their toaster is talking or someone is trying to listen on the adjacent channels through your bleed over. Golden screwdrivers have ruined the airwaves...this video didn't help.
Yes those extra 2 watts at the antenna are going to do all that and more FFS 🥱, many of these sets from the factory are 2.5 watts out the box, I've a spectrum analyser which I sat this on afterwards and it was clean, if you are buying a set sold to you as being 4 watts then you should expect it to do just that, besides there is literally nobody on CB anymore for any of what you mention to be any issue and the people who are and who are running burners anyway and as far as damaging it goes well firstly it won't and secondly it's mine and anyone that opens the lid knows they run the risk of damage, thanks for policing the videos on here though 🥱
Probably doing 2.5 watts on 27mhz and the other 3 on 54 mhz.
I know for CB radio does not need a permit
But for VHF/UHF radios...
I know that for PMR the power is 0.5w and the antenna is fixed. Is it
prohibited on a device with a power greater than 0.5w and with a
detachable antenna to "listen" to PMR channels? Example. I buy some
Chinese mobile car device and place it in a car or at home, with an
external antenna. By law, I am not allowed to speak with such equipment
on PMR channels. But should I own such "listening" equipment? A mobile
device with an external antenna in the car or in the house, with the
antenna of course on the roof of the house or the roof of the car?
Don't sweat, as long as you are sensible you won't have a problem, really important any radios are programmed on the correct frequency, have fun.