It's really depressing to read the comments by so called expert CB shops who
give advice on CB setups without so much as even asking the first question.
A person sees a CB on youtube that they like, and ask what antennae they
recommend, and gosh darn it, without knowing anything about how they plan on
using the CB, the radio shop instantly knows
the brand and type of antennae that would be best for their needs. I mean,
who cares if they planned on installing the CB in a car, truck, boat, house,
etc. Because according to
some of these so called experts, their whip antennae's will be perfect for
the average house, truck, car, boat, rv, 18-wheeler, or anything else you
put the CB in. Otherwise, the
shop would have been smart enough to ask this FIRST! But all their
interested in is looking like they know what they're talking about so they
can say "Hey we have the CB here, and if you buy it from us then gosh darn
it, we can tweak it out and tune it, and put any upgrades on it that you
want and then send it to you...." Sure, that sounds great, but if they're
not competent enough to know that no single antennae will work for every
job, how am I to believe they know what they're doing with the CB when they
claim to be tweaking it? It's been posted on many sites that the first
thing to do is check the output wattage before you let them tweak the radio,
then check it with the same meter once you get it back from them, so you can
tell if they did what they claim to have done. It's also recommended not
using their meter, as they might have modified it to look like it works
better.... Also it's recommended to ask them what they plan on doing to the
radio. A lot of shops simply download the information others have done and
solder a few mods in as the instructions tell them to, without the least bit
of understanding what they're doing. Not to mention, some modifications may
Sound like your outputting better on your end, but when you test the output
on a meter, and listen to the quality on another radio, you'll find out that
not all "mods" are worth doing! To the CB shops out there trying to get
rich quick off the new CB purchaser, shame on you! You shouldn't even call
yourself a CB shop! It should be mandated that all CB shops belong to a CB
group, and provide a list of members for customers to check on the knowledge
and quality of the CB shop's work. Reputable CB shops have nothing to hide,
as their work is the proof of their knowledge. Rip Off Artist would be
worried as they don't usually aim for repeat customers!

You aren't very bright - are you?

My dad has the best one liner in the business - " How Stupid Are You?"

Until you understand how communications works, and how your signal radiates - you will never get how it all goes together.

First off the radio.
I take it you are not talking about a LEGAL 3 Watt AM cb radio / or even a LEGAL 12 Watt PEP SSB radio.

Those days are over.
All of the quality has left the building with Elvis when Browning, Courier, Tram etc went out of business.

The only thing left is what they call the " IMPORT " radio's.
You know the ones, Galaxy, Ranger, Connex - that were designed to be used in the 10 / 12 meter portion of the amateur radio band, which are easily modified - AKA " ILLEGAL " for use in the Citizens Band portion of the bands.

The word ILLEGAL seems to make some sort of connotation of it being better.
Like if my radio puts out 5 watts and your radio puts out 50 watts - you are going to be able to talk over my signal.

Or if the factory stock Ranger 2950 puts out 25 watts AM, that if someone tweeks and tunes it and makes it put out 30 watts that it is going to be better then the 25 watt radio.

" HOW STUPID ARE YOU?"

All signals reduce at the square of the distance away!
All effective communications is line of sight!
In order to move the needle one S unit between S -1 and S -9 you need a Db gain in power received.
6 DB gain equals a 400 % increase in power.

5 watt box stock radio vs 25 watt Ranger radio.

5 x 1 = 5
5 x 2 = 10
10 x 2 = 20
20 x 2 = 40

You have a Wilson 5000 antenna on a Suburban - 20 miles away.
I have a Wilson 5000 Antenna on a Suburban - 20 miles away.
A third person has a identical Wilson 5000 on a Suburban. - stationary.

Your signal to the third party is S- 8
My signal to the third party is S - 7

Who is louder?
Can you hear the difference between a 5-7 and a 5-8 signal report?
NO!

Now to move the S meter one more S unit in the range of 1 - 9 - how much more power do we need?

40 x 1 = 40
40 x 2 = 80
80 x 2 = 160
160 x 2 = 320 watts

The difference between a 5 watt radio and a 100 watt radio is about 16 Db or about 2 1/2 S units to the third party radio.

Now - the greatest gains to be had between a 5 watt legal radio and what ever you could install in a mobile application is about 350 watts legal power.
Why?

Because to move the needle another S unit - you would need to increase the power another 6 db and that would cost you a significant amount of money.

320 x 1 = 320
320 x 2 = 640
640 x 2 = 1280
1280 x 2 = 2560 watts of power.

In order to generate enough electric to run the 2500 watt amplifier, you would need a 500 amp alternator and several 1000 cca batteries - mobile.

Now - in order to move the needle beyond 10 / S-9 1 S unit, you need to increase transmit power 100 times.

So if you were 10 / S- 9 with 100 watts and you wanted to move the needle one S unit, you would need 1000 watts of transmit power.

If you wanted to increase your transmit power to 30 / S -9 into the same radio, you would need 10,000 watts of transmit power.

By that time, you would have graduated from alternators and car batteries and moved up to a 15 KW generator and a trailer to haul it on.

Because people are so stupid and uneducated, they do not realize that all transmitting is the same. The only thing that changes is the way you transmit - the frequency, the length of the antenna, the height of the antenna above ground, the soil conductivity of the ground beneath the antenna, what kind of ground plane you use etc...

Amateur radio people and employed electrical engineers can easily take advantage of any stupid person that walks into a CB shop and wants to buy a ILLEGAL CB radio. It is so easy even a cub scout can do it.

You take a simple SWR meter and turn it on to the power and you measure the average power transmitted.
You then " " tweek and tune the radio and put the meter on Peak instead of average RMS power and whistle in the mic. The meter will show a increase of about 50%

Lets say power RMS equals .707 of the peak
A 120 vac electrical outlet actually puts out 170 volts or 340 volts peak to peak.

The RMS is measured in any AC current by using a known resistor and how much power it takes to produce a certain amount of heat.
You don't know this - because no one has taught you this.
All you know is that your wall outlet is rated at 120 VAC - because that is what you have been told and because when you measure it with your VOM it reads 120 VAC.
http://www.ultracad.com/articles/rms.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square

This is the reason why anyone can talk on the CB radio, and why no license is required to operate, or any knowledge of how it works.

This is also the reason why everyone who legally acquires a amateur radio license has to learn this stuff before they are given a license.
The CB mentality does not kick in until after the person has been granted a license and finds that their dipole antenna does not work and they want to " " Talk over every one else.

The amplifier people accommodates them accordingly.

Mr X in Kansas is using 100 watts on 28 mhz and Mr Y in Georgia wants to talk over him, so Mr Y goes out and buys a 1000 watt linear amplifier.
Only Mr X in Kansas has a 16 DB gain beam antenna and Mr Y does not.

Who is louder?

Do the math!

On Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:14:19 +0000, Channel Jumper
wrote:

You aren't very bright - are you?
Apparently brighter than you are!

I take it you are not talking about a LEGAL 3 Watt AM cb radio / or even
a LEGAL 12 Watt PEP SSB radio.
First off, a Legal CB radio is 4 Watts, not 3, not 5, but 4. And
yes some people do prefer to do things the LEGAL way. Not everyone on
the CB is an asshole. Granted, apparently where you live folks are if
their only concern is talking over people.

This post was to inflame the mentally stupid and to incite a riot at the local CB shop.

Back in the day, a long time ago, when the Citizens Band was practically new and the world ran on tubes.

A legal CB radio with brand new tubes put out about 5 watts of legal transmit power.
As the tubes aged, the power would level out somewhere around 3 watts.

The same holds true with solid state technology.
When brand new - it is as good as it is ever going to be.
Once it has been put through a couple of cycles - on and off and transmitted through a improper match antenna - put it back on the Bird meter with a dummy load ( 50 ohms ) and see how much transmit power it still has.

Now - take that same radio, put it on the service monitor and tune it until you get every last ounce of power out of it and it might show 8 watts of power - if you crank up the deviation until it sounds like kids playing with two tin cans and a piece of string.

The reason why the stock radio is rated at 4 watts is because most power meters has a tolerance of plus or minus 1% for a good power meter and 10% for a cheap Radio Shack. 10% of 4 watts isn't even a half of a watt.

Import radios on the other hand - typically has a output power of somewhere between 25 and 100 watts - depending on your power budget and where you desire to use it. They also cost 200 - 400% more then the cheap Cobra 29 LTD Classic that you can buy at any old Walmart for $79.99 on sale.

By including the term - IMPORT, it is possible to make someone believe that what you are getting is something that is illegal for use in the USA - which it probably is - if you could get someone to enforce the Part 95 rules and regulations of the FCC.
Riley Hollingsworth retired a long time ago and that dog don't hunt no more.
http://www.arrl.org/news/riley-holli...-end-of-an-era