A Beginners Guide To CB Linear Amplifiers.
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- Опубликовано: 9 авг 2019
- The single most requested video. For some reason everyone wants to know about CB radio linear amplifiers, So i put together a video that covers the history of CB amps here in the states. I also break down the way these amps work, how to hook them up and if you hang on til the end, how the multiplication of power works to show why a 400 watt amp isn't as powerful as you might initially think.
NOTE: I don't advocate the use of illegal amps on the CB band here stateside. I know that in other places more power is legal, but here in the states the FCC allows 4 watts AM and 12 Watts SSB.
Using more than that is like speeding. You can get away with it for a while, heck maybe even a long time, but when you get caught its going to cost you. 
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I remember my auto mechanics class in high school back in the late 70s the instructor had 4 or 5 of us guys stand close to the cb antenna on his car holding fluorescent bulbs and when he keyed the mic all of em lighted up...being teens we were suitably impressed!
I remember the fluorescent tube trick. I took auto mechanics in junior and senior year in HS 1970 & 1971.
We did that in the Air Force before climbing on fuel trucks to check levels for our generators on radar sites. They’d tell us they blocked out transmission to that sliver of a spot. We had a tube duct taped to a broom stick that we’d hold high up. Definitely saved us from radiation a few times.
If found your bit about the next door getting the telly wiped out brought back memory's for me from the early eighty's, i lived at home with my folks in North east Scotland and had a Sirio 3/4 wave 27ft antenna on the house , those days were magical for me skip talking around the world but man the Italians were on every band and they must have been running big power some of them .Canada and Usa were my furthest contacts .I still have all my qsl cards in the garage in a box and every now and then i take them out for a look happy days back then for me.
I am in NY, USA, I had the Sirio 3/4 wave 27 ft antenna. they still make it. new version. I have talked on that antenna from NY to Scotland on CB . was Lockerbie Scotland . just got the UK the past weak in the AM. Manchester , Derbyshire ,London ,all on CB mostly SSB . and portable in a park on battery and coax RG 8X antenna. just a Radioddity QT 60 radio and 20 Ah LiFePO4 battery. sat at park bench . antenna was the T2LT made out of RG 8X .
Mid 90s I had a Cobra 25 ltd classic through a 350 watt Hurricane. We discovered that if we pulled the Wilson Trucker 4' stick up next to the electronic coin/control box at the car wash and keyed her up it added free minutes on the display. Always had a clean truck in those days.
haha what a story
i live in Crisco i had a super penetrator on the roof. I got a knock on the door and a pastor was standing there. he invited me to church.. it seems like i talked threw he pa systen. so on Sunday morning i cooled it.. did not want to inter fear with the lord
As you mentioned, the issue of outboard signal amplification in CB, using linear amplifiers means little when all the necessary conditions are not established.
I still have a small linear tube amplifier that works fine, which I turn on from time to time to check how it behaves.
But in fact the most effective contacts I've established at 27 MHz throughout my life have been made with the conventional configurations of each of the transceivers I have and not with linear amplifiers.
Perhaps this is one of the healthiest ways of taking advantage of this type of communication, that is, studying the issue in depth, taking care of all the elementary aspects of the installation, waiting for the propagation conditions to be favourable and being able to use the little power available in the transceiver in a balanced way, managing to get very far with communication.
Greetings from Portugal!
73
Had a lot of great childhood memories of my dad 'shooting skip' on Saturday nights. Would talk to folks in Nova Scotia from Arkansas and they sounded like they were next door. Ran a huge Maco 'Laser Beam' antenna with a 500 watt linear (can't remember the brand). Had to be careful and not point the antenna at the church on Sunday morning due to coming in on the P.A.! You'd key the mike with the linear online and the lights would dim in the house.
gotta love it good times.
500 watts wont dim your lights lmfao. are you smoking crack brother? I have a modern air conditioner that pulls 1500W when it runs and it barely dims the lights,
@@Runescape. RF is a bit different than AC or DC, the guy is transmitting AC which frequency is 27 MHz, so it is high frequency, sometimes if your lights or tvs or any electronics with crappy RF shielding can be affected by RF (even with good RF shielding), for example sometimes when i key up my 5 watt ham radio HT, it freezes a digital tv right next to it, that is because of a high RF field.
Being a CBer with a "ticket" , having a clean signals is better than strong distorted signal. Put the money were it should be, in the antenna system. The radio is only as good as the antenna system. High wattage isn't always the solution to communications, but the mode used (SSB, FM, AM or CW) is part of the answer to the problem. Just another tool in the toolbox. Personally, I still enjoy SSB on channel 38 running a stock out of the box Cobra 148 GTL. Old school. Always have enjoyed your videos and your "style" of presenting information, kinda like FDR ' s fire side chats during the Great Depression.
I absolutely loved the late 70's , Early 80's only CB , AM over here in the UK was illegal back then , But that made no difference to us 😁 , I was 10 in 1977 the height of the CB boom here in the UK , In the mid 80's I got ' Busted ' by the Buzzbies , Home office ( FCC in the US ) , Had my Hygain 5 confisgated , And my mains linear Amplifier , And told to take down the 3 element Yagi ide made ..... But within a week or so I was back on the air .... CB though soon went down hill when FM was legalised ( 27.601-27.991 MHz ) ... I hated FM , Eventually I decided to go in for my Ham Licence , That was in the early 90's ... I still use CB ,But it's very quiet and very underused compared to what it once was ... Anyway , Regards from Wales ' Gw0wvl ' waving the hand ✋.
Hehe, same happened to me too. Had an old mains powered 500 watt burner lol.
@Curtis Sherwood We've now had ' Legal ' AM, FM, SSB on 26.965 to 27.405 for a good number of years now , But that hasn't helped CB here in the UK , Legalization of AM and SSB just came to late to save CB in the UK , Sure there are a few spots around the UK where CB is used a fair bit , but on the whole it's basically dead , I say this as a CBer myself , I can turn the CB on and tune through the channels here and not hear a single voice for hours on end , Or even for days .... These days if you want to talk CB in the UK you have to go portable on high ground to get the range to actually be able to work these distant pockets of CBers ... Also the foundation ham radio licence is so easy to obtain a lot of CBers have gone down the ham route , and not bothered to come back to CB at all ... I use both , Mainly ham radio as CB is so quiet .
Like many people who gave up CB and decided to get their ham radio license. The FCC has removed CW requirement from the license.
Two meters is short range, 30-50 miles depending on the antenna and power.
Two meter single side band running 15-20 watts will get you 200 miles.
You have the 450 mhz band or setting up a station to talk to (OSCAR) Orbiting satellites carrying Amateur Radio.
I like to hand out on the high frequency bands such as 80 meters. We get on the air in the morning with a group that range all the way from Oklahoma, Dallas, Lampasas, Louisiana, Houston and San Antonio.
We talk about everything from flying airplanes, Drones, Radios, Antennas. The subject varies with what we are interested in.
One thing when all the cell phone systems go down ham radio operators will still be able to communicate.. '73es
In the early 80's I had a neighbour with an AM/FM radio on their toilet paper holder. One morning early the east side of Chicago was acting up and I cranked up my Yaesu. Needless to say my neighbour was sitting on the throne and now I come through his toilet paper holder. He has never let me forget that morning! I sure do miss the good old days!
Oh man that is great! ha!
Hilarious!
Everything fun is illegal.
Everything illegal is fun! 😁
Agreed!!
everything illegal is fun you mean..
Everything you like to eat is not good for you lol
If you can't have fun without breaking the law, you really need to reexamine your life. Flame me if you want, but I'm right.
more people care about the history than you think! thank you for this channel
thank you for the support- it does mean a lot
Thanks Eric for an excellent review of the good ole Linear. I started working CB when I was 14 years old. That was in 1964, a few years ago to be sure. Actually I had a 5watt walkie talkie at the time. But it performed great. What a wonderful time in a young boys life. Just listening to stations from all over the world was the highlight of the hobby. You had to have a license of course back then. I believe it cost $5. Those fines that you mentioned; a friend of mine lived about 6 miles from me and operated a pair of stacked beams on a 100’ tower with rotor. He began building linear’s and finally got up to 1,000 Watts. Everyone thought he was the coolest guy around-at least until the FCC showed up one evening about 11:00PM. By the end of their visit, they confiscated a set of Browning Eagle TX and RX plus the amplifier. Oh yes they also hit him with a $1,000.00 fine. In 1966 that was a lot of money! It really was.
Anyway, just for the education I purchased an RM ITALY amp a few years ago. It is the RM that produced only 20 amps. It’s a really neat item and the construction is nice. Never connected it to any of my radios. I am a General Ham and still enjoy radio at 70 years old. Thanks again Eric. Appreciate the work that you do for the hobby. BTW-I still play with CB’s. It’s very affordable and that makes it fun plus seeing the new rigs like the UNIDEN 980SSB. Do very very little talking on CB because of the ham.
Sorry Eric. That’s an RM ITALY KL-60 that I purchased.
I w
welcome back from work tomorrow and tomorrow I have
Yep
Yep I’m sorry to bother but I’m sorry you have a great day sweetie love love miss miss too miss y’all miss miss her happy mother’s happy belated congratulations to you
In Ecuador we had two hand held general Electric 40 channel cb radio we had bought to talk to our aunt at at their farm which was 4-5 miles away but we also heard truckers from Georgia, thats a couple of thousands of miles apart and we were in a valley with mountain range surrounding us and we can here them crystal clear.
I appreciate this video it was very informative i was on the CB back in the '70s and decided to pick it up again Thank you excellent video.
👍👍
Glad it was helpful!
Man your explanations are great and seem very logical. Thanks for taking me off the CB and Amp ledge. I’m just going to relook my cable and antenna.
1979 I started CB in the UK before it was legal with a hand me down AM,FM,SSB rig and a 600w tube amp and a home made 36ft wire dipole strung down the garden.
It was awesome...
I only caused TVI on a UK legal rig on legal power.
Same am and ssb power laws here Australia. Linear amps here are illegal, but can still buy them on line here. 🇦🇺
It seems worldwide that enforcement of the 4 watt limits are non existent.
I have made contacts in Australia many times on 11 meters from the US when conditions are good. (SSB)
Going outside in Australia seems to be illegal too lol
Very good video. Thanks for explaining the issues with CB amplifiers. I'm not so driven to chase one down now.
99 Nova Scotia here! I must've spoke to some of you folks because I've been talking skip since the early 80's.
I used to have a Palomar 225 HD (High Drive) for my Cobra 148 GTL (with extra channels via chip leg 1/0) as my base station. I turned down the AM to 2 watts dead key and SSB to about 8 watts top swing which worked perfect for the High Drive. It worked great then one day I decided to swap the linear to my car to another CB for a trip, but I forgot to turn down the AM power. I popped the linear. I held on to it to get it fixed one day, but I got busy and packed my base equipment up to the basement in a box while throwing the linear away. I listen to CB via the scanner once in awhile seeing that it's picking up. Maybe someday I'll get it up and running with a new heater, or without.
I am one of the last generations to have lived a pre-internet childhood. CB was our instant messenger. Spent lots of late night hours talking with friends across 2 counties. Seeing a CB mic brings me back to those days.
I was born and raised in a deeply rural area, reasonably far enough away from highway and interstate traffic. Loosely populated regions, so we rarely had issues with channel congestion. The majority of the channels were almost never in use, actually.
Nonetheless, someone would occasionally hop on with hundreds of watts. Bleeding up to 4 channels over. Then after about a week, they disappeared and all was calm again. I knew there was a pattern, but never knew exactly what it was. I also always thought bleed-over was normal and unavoidable with amps. Thanks to this video, I finally know better.
Ahhhh yes, the good old days for sure. My first radio was a RS TRC-24A that caused channel 2 TV interference 4 blocks away from my house. What a great time I had !
Great info, back in to radio after 18 year break, 1st on cb in 1980, am rig in brothers car, uk 😀👍
I hope to hear you on the radio!
I had a Robyn SSB with extra channels, a Palomar 200 under the seat in my pickup and a HyGain roof antenna .Lots of fun back then.
I've heard CB Radio traffic on pay phones at Truck Stop's back in the day. 10-4 Good video , Thanks Eric. 🇺🇸🎙️
I am so glad I watched this video over again Eric been a couple of years since I first saw it. But yeah I was thinking about getting a big old amp cuz I was getting frustrated that I couldn't get out and and shoot skip with all these big dogs but after listening to you I realize it might just be the fact that I've got a cheap antenna I'm just going to get me a better antenna and see if that helps forget the wattage I don't need the trouble with the FCC that's for sure. Thanks man take care and have an awesome weekend.
I used to build my own amps back in the day. If you know anything about tubes, I used two 4cx250b's. They were metal tubes that sat in chimneys with a blower pushing air thru. It would do 600 clean watts am and 1200ish ssb. Had a 4 element moonraker 80 feet off the ground. It was a good combo to reach out and touch someone. Ahh the old days. Now I'm more in to low power FM.
My grand dad had a 4 element moonraker on a rotor and a 201a tram it would blow the windows down
The moonraker, was THE legendary antenna, back in the day,,,GREAT name for it, too,,,,,,😎
In response to the history of these amps, this reminded me of an experience in the 90s (not CB, but overamped anyway). My understanding is Ham has a different wattage limit, but the guy who lived up the street from me ran a huge Ham setup. Every time he keyed up on that thing it would interfere with our TV signal. Channel 16 (the Disney Channel at the time) would get hit the worst. Fun fact about that, on all of the Disney Channel uploads I've made on Retrosyde Archive you can actually see the interference that was captured while he was keying up. Toy walkie-talkies and PC speakers would actually pick up some of the audio he was sending out. He's in a nursing home now, but my parents still live down the street from his place. His huge tower is still up, and I wouldn't mind getting my hands on it to build my own setup, though preferably not amped to the point of being a nuisance like his.
My first cb, was a lafayette, comstat 19, and it cost me 32 bucks, back in the late 60s,, brand new, from the lafayette store,,,took my 13 year old self, 7 weeks, of lawn mowin money, to buy that , badboy,,,and had a blast for many years with it,,,i was the CATFISH, base,,,,cause i LOVE fishin,,,,later,,,worked my way from novice, to extra class,,,WITH CODE,,,,in 9 months, at MIT, in boston,,call is NV1H,,,and have been hammin it up evah since then,,,,lastly,,,,2 years ago,,i finally found a comstat 19, at a local ham flea market,,,and in the process of revamping it, so i can be 13, again,,lol,,,,always LOVED CB,,,,,never stopped, in my 66 years,,,,,also have been an avid shortwave, scanner, and total cw freak,,,,cant get enough,,,,,also,,,what you said, about having to exponentially increase wattage to go up, a bar, or 2,,,,but you must also take into consideration, the solar flux!!,,,,at the top of the cycle, i have worked japan, and many european countries, on 5 watts, ssb, and a dipole!!, and have tons of qsl cards, to PROVE it!!,,,,with a balanced, grounded system,,,QRP, can be as much of an astonishing BLAST, as a 250 watt kicker,,,,aint mother nature great!!! 😎
No doubt! That old radio should bring a smile to your face every time you power it up.
I'm watching the heck out of your channels. Just had radios given to me. I want to learn all I can about them.
Thanks for the info, I’m learning lots from your videos , all the best.
The Bleed over coming out of church PA system was halarious.
I woke a friend of mine up who lived a block from me one Saturday morning by coming in over his clock radio and it was turned off! LOL
It's fun to do, however it's a GREAT example of what the Man and some other people mentioned here
Your WATTAGE/POWER is ALL over the place. In other words, WASTED also poor "PROPAGATION." The trusty old Cobra 29 Classic can be a super great, extremely reliable set up if done right. I've seen them pushing 60 watts of swing.
Not bad at all and tried and true,trusty Cobra model 29 Classic and all of the right accessories and Your good to go!! A Trucking Company, most, will tolerate that setup. Keep it on the Low Down!!!! If You don't always drive the same rig,screw it and save Your $$$and time. Another nice feature of this model is the N.O.A.A. weather bands. Yes,the model #29, who could forget the classic radio it truly is!!??
@@davidpringle8089 yes my neighbor a 1/8 mile away comes through on my computer speakers.
Great video man. As they say, "Height is Might!!" I'm all about trying to use as little power as possible to make contacts. The fun part about radio for me is doing the best you can with what ya got. It's also amazing what a difference it can make even having an antenna as high as the roof of your house compared to the roof of your car. Been using DXMaps to see when propagation is good and take advantage of the solar conditions. I still wouldn't mind too much if the FCC allowed manufacturers to make CB radios a little more reasonably powerful. Like maybe 25W AM and 50W SSB stock would be sweet and probably encourage more people to get in to radio.
I'd love to see some modifications to the CB rules. I agree that 25 watts AM and 50 SSB would be perfect. With the diminished use of the CB bands these numbers would be about perfect.
@@FarpointFarms Perfect for what? There are hams working DX with less power than that. More power just makes them a bigger nuisance for local operators.
@@loctite222ms , true
@@loctite222ms I'm with you on as little power as possible, in fact back in late 1959 or early 1960 I had a 35 milli-Watt walkie-talkie that I talked from NW Arkansas to a guy in Nashville, Tennessee. I got the handle (milli-Watt) bank then from guys around my area. A couple years later, I had a 100 milli-Watt walkie-talkie that I talked from my house to a mobile 30 miles east of me. He couldn't believe it, so he drove to my house just to see.
hi,for me its about talking to as many people as i can,sometimes i make full use of the icom,why make things difficult,thanks 73 from Rotterdam..
I enjoy your channel. Had a Laffayette with a power mic Turner 2+2 and a 3/8 ground plane back in the late 70’s good times.
I remember my dad had a Texas Star 250 watt amp when I was a kid in the 80's. He used his CB when he was out with his buddies running rabbit dogs and I thought it was awesome when he would let me talk on the radio.
A preamp microphone is the only thing I needed .
I picked up the road devil power mic, that has worked wonders for me locally.
@@explanger527 Turner +2 was my go to
It says on the FCC website that they are no longer enforcing CB amping. It says they have better things to do. RM italy's are designed to handle up to 20W dead key p to p. It is good in a truck to amp to about 50W as there aren't many on anymore and you need to be able to reach out and touch someone, especially in the mountains.
That is good to hear about them not enforcing it.
I had a base station from Radio Shack when i was in eighth grade. With SSB. As I recall these linear amps are 100 percent illegal. No questions asked.
Thank you 😊 very much you've saved me alot of money and problems being a 70s 80s. Linier guy use to run 250 car 400 home which I could what they said could cook an egg on and yes it got pretty hot. Will try running the old 4 and see how it goes seeing I'm moving to a rural area. Thanks
I was into cb radio in the early 90s and into about 2001. It was an awesome social network of people. I met so many people and had the time of my life! The good old days. Here about a year ago I decided to get back into it. To my surprise, there's almost literally no one that uses them anymore in my area. I'm lucky to get a radio check every couple of day's and that's if a trucker happens to be passing by. And then on top of it, no one uses a handle anymore. I get laughed at for using my handle and hear thing's like... No body uses a handle anymore. You can tell it was a huge bother to them to give me a radio check to begin with, let alone have any kind of conversation. In less then 20 years people have changed so much. Makes me wish Internet and cell phones didn't exist. People have no idea what kind of fun and social interaction can come from the wonderful world of cb radio.
CB is actually start to make a come back even with some young people. It depends where you live at.
I some a few ppl that have them at a house.
A little correction on history. The amplifiers were used right from the start of C.B. radio. Most people don’t know it but in the early days there were some frequencies close to the 23 channels that were used for commercial communications. Companies like Browning, Sonar, and Johnson sold radios and legal linear amplifiers for those services. It was quite easy to take one of those amplifiers and use it on the C.B. frequencies. So in the early days manufacturers sold linear amplifiers with the excuse that they were for those legal, commercial frequencies that were close to channel 23. The FCC ended that service mainly to try and get a handle on the illegal amplifier problem. It was the late 1970’s, not the 80’s that was the golden age of CB. Channel 10 was the highway channel back then. They went to 19 because of all the interference that linear amplifiers was causing on channel 9, the emergency channel. Most illegal linear amplifiers were total junk. Most of the later solid state units didn’t even run at true class “B”. They ran closer to class “C” because the manufacturers wanted to save money by not putting in a proper bias for the power transistors. (They are transistors, not “pills”) Class “C” amplifiers are for FM transmission. To use it on AM causes all kinds of problems. Among the best tube amplifiers made for CB include HEC, Browning and Sonar. Among transistor amplifiers the best were Triad-Utrad, and Hurricane.
Even into the mid 1980's React still used channel 9 in Texas and channel 19 was the truckers channel when looking for smokies, etc...
I was in CB back in the early 70s, so can agree with your comments. I'm trying to recall if the 11-meter band was originally for Ham use; I bought a used base station ground plane antenna that was apparently an 11-meter ham one, worked fantastically across the entire channel range even after the 40 channel expansion. Antenna Specialists made it, I think.
Along with linears a few people used actual ham gear, like the Johnson Vikings and Siltronix 1011 series. Those Siltronix units came from the factory only able to receive 11-meter CB, but cut one wire and transmit was enabled. Many 23-channel CB rigs had a gap on their 24-position selectors, cut a wire and add channel 22A (later assigned as 24). I don't know how many radios I fixed because people tried to do it themselves and cut the wrong wire! Similar to modulation limiters where they'd cut a wire or diode to increase modulation; if they didn't break the radio in the process, they'd cause over modulation and distortion, bleeding over multiple channels even with just 4 watts of carrier RF power.
@@bobblum5973 - That is exactly why Amateur Radio operators have more privileges, we have to prove that we know what we are doing by taking examinations.
@@bobblum5973 I am also an amateur radio operator and I own some vintage ham equipment that has 11 meters marked on the dial. Lots of CB guys used ham gear to operate. The biggest downfall is that the receivers on most of that old ham equipment are not very sensitive. My Browning Golden Eagle with a neuvistor front end is much more sensitive than my Yaesu FT-101. My 101 has 11 meters right on it’s dial by the way. As far as hams being smarter in radio theory, I guess that on the average that is true. But it sure makes me mad when I hear a fellow ham spouting a bunch of B.S. on the air that he is supposed to know better about. I swear that some of these guys didn’t learn a thing when they studied for their test! But I’m also a licensed electronics teacher, so I am a bit more critical about it. And the smartest guy I know in electronics and radio is a CB guy who has no desire to get his ham license. He spent his entire life repairing CB and commercial communications gear for a large company in the Midwest. He still educates me and we are both old, and retired. 😁
@@keithweiss7899 We're on the same wavelength! I was into CB long before the big boom basically ruined it (I did the same with the Internet, before it went nuts). All the tidbits like the 27 MHz radio control frequencies on what CBers later called the "A" channels (10 KHz above 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, and 22A, 22B). Multiple services on 27.255 for CB, RC, and some sort of business band. Diathermy equipment at a doctors office was around channel 12, I think, we had one that would occasionally disrupt comms for several minutes but luckily only for a very small area near it. Oh, and I worked on someone's old 27 MHz garage door opener, and an electronic dog training collar on channel 15A!
A few times I had to explain to people that, no, you can't use a guitar amplifier as a CB linear, even if someone said it would work.
Congratulations on owning that Browning Golden Eagle; that and a properly aligned Tram Diamond are some of the most solid performing rigs I've ever seen.
Great video loved the history
Great video ! Thank You , when I used to be very heavy into C.B. I had a Siltronox radio, that put out 100 watts barefoot. What a radio, I talked all over the world with that radio. I wish I still had it. I also had the Siltronix linear that put out a 1000 watts, I was afraid to put that linear on line.
I had a Siltronix 1011-C.
I owned several Siltronix radios, actually started out with the Swan 1011 and went up through the rest, still have one Siltronix 1011D Comanche left, waiting on so.e money to restore it along with a Tram D201 (hand wired/vox), a Lafayette 35 (wish I hadn't gotten rid of the 25B) Regency Imperial, Johnson 123, Citi-Fone SS and some others.
I ran a little Midland 13-892 on a power supply through a Palomar 300A to a PDL-ll in the early 70's. That one talked to anybody I could hear.
@@plugnalong2186 I had a Midland also, they were very popular.
Thanks, good info & good history. In the 70s I ran a 4watt Ratshack through a 25 watt marine amp, everything I needed between working in Houston and living in Montgomery county to stay in touch. Friends were running 100-400 and accomplishing not much more. One guy had built an adjustable tube in the toolbox of his truck, up to 10,000W , world wide but the huge antenna on his truck was a dead giveaway!
My base was a similar mobile on a car battery and charger with a Big Stick mounted about 60’ up a pine tree, gave me many pleasant conversations with British Columbia and Africa’s coast, while allowing local communications crystal clear out to three counties.
After nearly 30 years off the air I’m thinking seriously about taking some old Cobras out of the shed and seeing what’s out there these days. Anybody know if the little 25W marine amps are still available? 🤔
That's so fucking cool.
Yep, I was guilty of that in the 70's. Funny how much I've learned in 50 years.
CB in the 60's living in Hawaii. CB really got me interested in getting my Ham license in the 70's.
Talked to Australia 5 watt mobile everyday (AM CB) from Oahu. Great video on amplifiers as I am sure this education will go along way.
73
Jerry - KK6YO
WHAT!
Aren't 10 meter rigs ran on 11 meters still illegal even if you dial back the power? They aren't FCC type accepted for 11 meter operation.
Been out here trucking for a long time...lets just say for a time...was out here well before they changed our HOS to this crap we have now...that said. I've always had some kind of CB. From Corba up...Stryker is my favorite.
But I retired and my old radio gear got lost or damaged etc.
So...I came outta retirement. (Forced. Wife said get outta here...go back to the hwy)...
I did and been out here without my radio for over 4 months...
I stopped by a CB shop. Wanted another Stryker 955 or 427...they didn't have either.
So...in my crazed spending spree (over 900 bucks) I came out with a Connex 36 hp etc and a RM KL 300P amp. 1st amp I ever owned. After listening to this man. I think I've made yet ANOTHER boo-boo.
I just wanted a radio so bad... ...and now I have ... ...what? Can anyone with knowledge of CB radios give me some advice. (Other than throwing it all in the river)
With it I got a decent antenna and a Road Ranger Mic etc.
I like this guy. Seems to shoot straight.
Up til now...I'VE ALWAYS APPRECIATED "WOLF MAN RADIO" had my Stryker 955 and stopped by to get my SWRs set better. (You may think I'm crazy. But it's true. He sold me an antenna and grounded it...used my coaxial and when I pulled out...the high side of my SWRs were .89 and the low side was .59 ... ...it sounded great. (Stryker has the best receiver in the game. HANDS DOWN)
But...I could never get up I-85 when they were open.
Sorry bout the long story.
You know what I have now.
It's STILL IN THE BOXES. I want to carry it by Dodge City CB in Dodge City, AL and have them look at it.
But IF any of you guys (or gals) has any ideas.
Please tell an old man.
Like I said...been out here a looong time...and still make mistakes.
Thanks in advance for any help.
David McKinley
Those Stryker radios are some of the best for sure!
Some amps like the thouderboilt have a receive boost as well so it's like the other guy has a amp as too
The most important piece of equipment before any amplifier is a properly tuned antenna with a good multiplication factor.
I was a US Navy ET. Stationed in Charleston in the late 70s. The guys, we were CB nuts. North Charleston had a Army/Navy junk store. We ran across this tube 12 channel Johnson with a box of Tx/Rx crystals. We also found a linear amp 15 to 300 MHZ. 1000W. Make this short with help from the US Navy and our Division engineer. We ended up with this Flame Thrower. We never got caught. Drank to much Jack to worry about. I got out 1978. With some tuning we got 21w we ended up using a tunable attenuated load with a power meter. We could get 450 to 600w. We used RG214 even had access to run return loss on all the setups we made. I found you on Pinterest great video. I too live in WNC
Very interesting , thank you and keep up the good videos😁🇺🇸
I read an article (in a magazine, no less) somewhere back in the 80's that said the surge in CB use in the late 70's could be solely attributed to the movie Smokie and The Bandit. Makes total sense.
Just my 2 cents, great video. The history lesson was well delivered. Kudos!
EDIT: subscribed
No, that’s actually incorrect. Smokie and the Bandit came out as a result of, AFTER the big CB craze of 1975. The song Convoy was a bigger influence. I was there.
Smokie was a result of the rise in CB not the cause.
I enjoy talking all over the country, Morse code, with 4watts and SSB all over the world with 100 watts. Antenna design is the key and a ham license is not that hard to get. Most hams obey the rules and I’m not afraid for my grandchildren to listen to conversations.
As a RF tech who previously worked on CB and currently works on avionics and marine radios I concur with everything you said. Well done my friend.
Thanks for the kind words
Yeah CB was fun back in the day. And I also had built my own 100 watt linear. But those who love working skip and love running power should seriously think about obtaining an Amateur license. The Morse code is no longer required on the test. And the tests are all mutable choice. You can obtain all test questions online for free. Even though you may not understand the material, just remember the correct answers. There are several levels of licenses. Technician, General, and Extra. Most just stay at General to obtain the low band privileges for skip. And in most frequencies you are allowed 1500 watts. Tests are given by Amateur operators who obtain the Volunteer exam privileges. Check your local area for exam locations, date and time. It’s nothing like the nonsense you hear on CB. We as Amateurs would love to have you join with us in the fascinating radio hobby. And this is N2MIR. 73’s
I remember my uncle talking to his family in Arkansas from Michigan. I don't know what his equipment was, but he had a base unit with a 50' antenna. One time, he cranked it all way up, keyed the mic and said, "hello" and it echoed quite a few times. He said it was the signal bouncing back and forth from the ionosphere, but I don't know if that's correct.
In 1970 my cb radio was a johnson viking 500
Great video man. I like the way you just layed it all out awesome
I appreciate that!
Thanks for this video, super informative!
Love the way you keep it simple. Good ol' boy to good ol' boy
I tried to tell it in the simplest terms I could think of. Glad it came out OK.
@@FarpointFarms Better than ok. And now i see all the ham guys gitn' their big words out tryin' to muck it up! LMFAO they kill me
The 1970s.... when CB was fun!
Yes it was!😃
My Dad worked for Thetford (the potra potty people) back then and he would bring home the latest and greatest RVs of the day that were R&D units for the industry. Me and a couple of buddies would camp in the driveway and yack all damn night.
Good times😁
yes fond memories back then... use to meet girls on it too... made a lot of friends and stayed up all night!
Was a great way to find 'coffee breaks' (keg party), no ID required!
It was great times!!
Great video you explain it all exceptionally well and I even learn something thank you
Hey man I really appreciate this video. It help me settle my battle to buy an amp or not. After hearing this I’m sticking to stock from the box.
With a good antenna, you can talk to the world!
We had a neighbor, when I was growing up in Detroit, that had one of those high power CB set ups. I would be watching Bill Kennedy at the Movies on channel 50 during Monster Week in the summer, and then this weird interference would start happening and you could hear people talking to each other.
One was five doors down from us, and another was over on Southfield freeway service drive, about a mile away. It wasn't an issue until my Dad had his Monday Night Football interfered with every Monday.
A lot of that noise came from a fairly tall building just across the Ambassador bridge. Dude could own 85% of Detroit cb traffic any time he wanted.......lol
Funny that you say that. Me and old dean still talk every other day on 37. I live right off 94 and Southfield and he live just on the other side of Southfield service drive. We talk to guys up in Pontiac area. Really cool group of guys
Dropping hammers n splittin heads, fire in the wire, wattage from the cottage,let the mud ducks cry.
Portland Oregon around 98-99..... Squash Fest!! Find the high ground and a whip with a 12 pill box... I win,...or I stay home and key up the TS440 and wack the Henry 2K....
THX FOR SHARING..Lordy, lordy as long as you're having fun and enjoy it, that's the main thing.. be safe and stay well everyone ( Desperado 56 ) north of Tampa...73 EVERYONE
Thanks. I like your honesty and down to earth explanation
So nice of you, I try to make videos for everyone to understand.
YES!
Listen to channel 6 'superbowl' online. Five minutes of those turkeys is enough for a lifetime.
" You don't know the power of the dark side" bbi 50kw super bowl six.
You say that because you dont get your name called.
let me tell you something, it´s even better and much more fun then listening on HAM Band ... cq contest cq contest 5/9 tnx and so on and so on. And by the way i don´t know but is there no limitation for power in Contest. I thing there is, but is 1,5 kw not enough, no 5 or 10kw and a 6over6 msut do the job. Splattering the whole band, is this better ???
73´s gd dx
@@jochenkrebs9685 had my HF ticket and let it expire when it came time to renew, did field day and a few other contests on my own, always liked CB and the CB crowd better... just my .02
@@jochenkrebs9685 Damn, easy there snowflake, easy does it,......shhhhh....there there now.
Love your channel. Very informative and useful information.
Glad you enjoy it!
Ok. My uncle Harold had a Cb. My uncle swore a lot. He was a trucker. Get the picture? Ok. Uncle Harold showed up outside the church to pick up his mother who played the electric organ. “Sense where this is going?”😊
Well we were running a little long “baptist communion”. While we were silently praying for forgiveness, uncle Harold keys the mic out side to talk to a buddy going up the highway. The organ speakers says”. YA!!! I’m just over here at the church waiting for mother to get out!!! “. His mother scrambled for the off switch and get er shut down. Great times back in the 70s. God bless the funny side of it!!!
Ha, I am sure her face was bright red after that one.
I need a bit more juice to get through the woods on the logging road.
Hi there you do not need so much power what you do need is a top quality antenna up about 80 feet and top quality coax and a good tuned c b radio ssb say a 5/8 ground plane or a yagi beam and you will get a lot of d x and that is all you need l am from melbourne Australia
Agreed. A lot of my videos address setting up a decent station. With that you can talk to the world on 4 watts.
I recently put an Antron-99 on 20ft pole and question 1) is do all these guys putting theirs up 60 ft. or more normally pull them down and put them back up to adj. them for better swrs? And 2 ) where are these guys finding these towers to put them up so high and also how can they without trees interfering while putting them up? I have an early version of the Galaxy Saturn Turbo and without putting a99 up higher, I'm very limited on height in town to use this awesome radio the way it was intended to be.
Hi I'm keying all over you! Big big radio.
great info. keep up the good videos.
Good stuff Eric. Thumper 77- North West NY... best wishes
I love a good Linear, ain't gonna lie 👍😁
Roger that!
Yes, and the FCC will be glad to drag you through the Courts, and a Judge will be glad to take your Home and other assets to cover the huge fines.
Very smart. 😳
Also, the interference with other ( EMERGENCY ) Radio services etc is downright rude.
@@carminemurphy1275
Don't fear the alphabet agency's. But hey you do you Scooby-Doo.
I'm in the UK Murphy, I don't
give a crap
@@carminemurphy1275 and as was said earlier fcc doesnt do anything anymore..
Probably to many little crybabies for them to deal with and it doesn't interfere with things like it did years ago...Electronics and filters along with coax shielding have all improved tremendously since the good ole days...
Every amp I have owned easily handled the regular cb radios, 3-4 watts output. People who make these amps know what power is being used and build accordingly. 1/2 watt is ridiculous. The most basic keying circuits, using the 2n2222 transistors, yes, I have built many amps, just finished one with two 8950 tubes, will take the 3-4 watt level of power from a cb. If the maker of the amp says you must use 1 watt or less of drive, then don't buy it, it's crap.
Good to know!
Nice video, I started off needing a license and had and still have my 23 channel RCA tube cb with a vfo, needed to buy crystals for transmit also used a couple of linears.
I had a Cardon Spitfire back in the day, wonder if it's the same chassis as your RCA. iirc you could peak it for around 30w swing
Great clip ..I’m a trucker .,and need a little extra ..maybe 20-30 watts ..5-10 miles out clean ..some rural areas are trouble in the winter ..nice to know that my system can do that if needed ..
Good history lesson! besides bragging rights of mine is bigger than yours... I concur with you about the lack of need for amps... for the most part communication is a 2 way street... even if some can hear me, if I can not hear them it does no real good. l like qrp anyway even with my ham radios.... Good video as expected out of you! Good job! thx.......
Eric, thanks for doing this video. I know I've been bugging you for a few years now for this info, and I learned a lot.
When I was growing up in the late 70's to early 80's, my parents' neighbor across the street had a huge CB antenna in his backyard and would sit in his recliner all night talking on his CB. I was friends with his grandson and he showed me a tower of electronics that I knew nothing about, which turned out to be CB amps. This was in Western Massachusetts in the Connecticut River Valley and he would talk to his CB friends in Texas every night.
He ended up on the FCC's radar after costing people in the neighborhood a lot of money. Between 8-10pm, nobody in the neighborhood could watch TV because of his interference. One time my younger sister came running into the living room saying she heard a man in the house. My father heard the "man in the house" in the kitchen also. My neighbor's CB transmissions were resonating out of the heating element in the oven!
What finally pushed my father over the edge was when his amps cost him over $4000, and this was in the early 80's, so figure out what that would be in today's dollars. He burnt up two high end electric organs with his transmissions. You could hear his transmissions through the speaker in the organs. The whole neighborhood got together and complained to the FCC. He received a letter saying if their was another complaint against him he would have his equipment confiscated and was facing tens of thousands of dollars in fines. The antenna came down right away and he never keyed a mic again, even at legal power.
Glad you liked it! Sounds like your neighbor got the point. The FCC is hard to piss off, but will lay the hammer down on you if you push too far.
meangreen69Nova - the radio transmissions were coming through the speakers in the organs and fried the electronics.
meangreen69Nova - not a f*cking liar. His transmissions were coming through our TV set. Not only the sound but would cause static on the picture every time he keyed his mic. If the organ was being used, his audio would come through extremely garbled and not understandable, through the speakers in the organs. And as I said, it even resonated through the heating element in the kitchen oven. My father kept complaining to him and he would send his son over with filters to put in line with the antenna on the TV, which never helped.
We weren't the only ones in the neighborhood having the same problems. The other two houses in close proximity to his antenna (within 300 yards +/-) had the same problems with their TVs also.
Again, not a liar and I don't appreciate being called one.
@meangreen69Nova back in late 70s I heard of someone with 1kw and quad beam coming out of neighbors microwave.
@meangreen69Nova not bogus at all. There was a guy where I live back in the 60's that could key up and shut down Ma Bell.
When I got into CB at age 11 back in 1988, you were big with 400 watts. A few guys had around 1000 watts. It wasn't till the mid 90s that I really started to see the big amps doing several thousand watts being used by a lot of people. There was a guy that was building them in our area and several people got his 2x8 amp that did around 1500 to 2000 watts. They preformed very well, but were dirty splattering harmonics all over. I had his 2X4 and it caused all kinds of interference too. The amps I have now are pretty clean. This is what I found with linear amps with a good radio and antenna in a mobile.
200 watts will get you out of the static and give you a pretty good boost. You can easily talk 10 miles away
500 watts will make you preform as well as a good base station and will allow you to have a high deadkey which will give you a solid signal. 15+ miles.
800 watts you will be able to talk about as far as the curve of the earth will allow. You will be heard 20 miles away by some. These amps typically have good RMS wattage.
1200 watts will give you some good hammering abilities and you will be talking miles away to people. You will be heard 25+ miles away.
1800 watts you will be one of the stronger mobiles and few will get over you. You will be talking all over town.
Any more and you're making little difference on the meter and it's only to try and get over the few guys running a lot of power. You will not talk any further and will just make it hard for others to talk. You will also need to make major modifications to power those amps.
barefoot my radio would talk 15 miles mostly boxes say they're 150 lo
Or 2:50 high probably not more than 40 on the low and 80 on the high
@@joeylowery4566 When you say barefoot, do you mean a Striker 955 or other export or a 4 watt Cobra out of the box? The 80 or so watts a Stryker will do will get you out pretty far with a good antenna with quiet conditions. My examples are more real world with static some skip.
ahh the good ol days. im still big into cb have been for around 50 years. howdy from North Georgia maybe catcha on the skip.running a recapped Washington. here in my quad state area GA,TN, SC, NC cb is huge there always somebody on. we have a roll call/check in on channel 14 every Saturday night around 9pm and always get around 40 to 60 check ins and have seen as much as 125 people check in. 73s
*If* I had an amp in my truck it would be there strictly for emergency use in the N.W. Rocky mountains during search and rescue missions.
I still have my 11 meters Palomar Skipper 300
Great video. I learned a lot. Thanks.
thanks for watching
I remember a little differently, the amps I used multiplied the signal by a factor of ten...100 watts in 1000 watts out....so to keep it simple I eventually had a kicker for the kicker...all of this stuff was locally made as in the late 60s there was not a lot you could get...I lived out in the country so interference with anybody else was not a problem. If I heard them I could generally talk to them....I also had a set of five-element beams in the top of a 110-foot pine tree which helped considerably..When not using the beams I used a big stick mounted in another tree....its was a lot of fun back then but I had to give it up when I went into the military and transferred around a bunch....
Who remembers the "midnight cowboy". Man, that was the shizz. I heard him all over the east coast.
they call me the midnight midnight midnight... they call me the midnight cowboy in my diesel wagon and i just got down. i miss him alot. he was the best voice on radio and his soamming would fade in and out all night.
Bottomline.......I had more fun in the early days of CB then I ever did after I got my Ham radio license.
Have to agree. Im a general class, bought an hf rig, and it just wasnt the same. Sold it, still have my cb equipment! Still use 2m and 70cm though.
I'm extra class but I prefer CB. Especially those fringe noise floor groundwave SSB contacts from over 100 miles away. Seems like more of a challenge.
same i'm a ham but i use my cb more for that reason. most cb users run hf amateur gear on the cb bands why not deregulate the ham bands and allow these unlicensed opperators on the ham bands to create more traffic.
@@VK6FCRC I am a radio amateur and while that might work in Canada in the USA it would be insane although the ham bands is more and more like a glorified CB for the last 15 years, or so. When you have to take a test at least it shows you currently know wth you are doing and would never throw a FM amplifier onto AM/SSB unlike a lot of CB operators do now. Just no, don't make the Amateur bands deregulated.
@@generalawareness101 Multimeter test of a lump of coax, setup a cb with a swr meter, talk bs on air this is the amateur practical test in VK i think a cb user can do this.
I was 10-15 years old in the 70’s & early 80’s CB era and enjoyed listing to the lingo on friends base stations. I never had a radio of my own but do recall a neighbor, who’s system was so hot, his voice would bleed over into our microwave oven. Now in my late 50’s, I’m just beginning to get into the whole CB thing. Thanks for posting these helpful tips and sharing your knowledge which is valuable stuff for newbies like me.
Anytime, I have heard many people talk about neighbors who like to run their units hot- so hot they could hear it while turned off
Had a lot of fun in the 70's with a Moonraker 4 antenna and a 4 tube "Baby" Phantom linear with receive pre amp.
Yes you need power nowadays. Hardly anyone is on the radio. In my area there is 4 people in 50 miles that talks. To be able to talk to them you need power.
Nice point!
No, you don't need power. You need repeaters. Several years ago, during the peak of a 11 year sunspot cycle, I made a contact with a guy in Maryland from my desk in California using a hand held radio that was putting 1W into a rubber duck antenna. I was working the 220 MHz band, going through a repeater that had a remote base on 10 Meters (29.6 MHz.)
There is a lot of good stuff out there, but people need to stop just thinking that they think they know what is right. If you got rid of your CB and your automatic transmission, you would be well on your way learning how to be competent.
Good video . I myself always run a little power . It’s frustrating driving on the interstate and needing info with a 15 watt PEP swing and there’s ALWAYS that one you have to talk over to find out what you need .
I remember back in the early to mid 80’s I had a really nice setup in my truck. I had Cobra 29 hooked up to a Texas Star modulator plus driving a 300 Grey. Had my radio guy tune everything. That radio would talk! Had a RK-56 mic and got to noticing that when I would key up with power on it would shock me! Come to find out had a loose antenna connection! The only reason we had this was to try to talk over a base station in Ft. Worth, TX. I finally quit running all that stuff because I could talk over the p.a. system in the truck stop and had to park a good ways from the public phones because I could be heard thru the phone! Almost got one of my buddies in trouble with his wife. Still have aCobra 29 and a General Lee I think. Haven’t used either one in over15 years but when I got out of my truck both of these radios would talk.
Those were the days! Lights dimming, voices coming over the TV. SERIOUS CB setups!
I run a big RCI 400w radio in my semi truck, I don't run it often at that power, as I can flip the switch and do 50w. My big advantage is that while most guys can't talk to me until they get closer, when I start hollering at the opposing direction of traffic that there is a wreck, or emergency up ahead, they hear me long before.
14:30 Well, if from one S Unit to the next S Unit (let's say from S7 to S8) would be a 6dB Step, than You would need even _four_ Times the Power with every S Unit and _not_ just two Times the Power.. I heard, some S Meters use 6dB Steps from one S Unit to the next S Unit. But there seems to be also S Meters that use more like 3dB Steps and that really would be two Times the Power per S Unit.. So it seems to also depend on how accurate the S Meter is.. I do not know if S Meters are accurate at all..
Yeah, i always thought it was 4x too.
Yes sir, I do believe you are correct. Doubling your output power the person at the receiving station would be hard pressed to notice any difference.
You have to triple your power output to increase 1 s unit on the receiving end. So 4 x3 is 12 watts = 1 s unit and so on. You quickly hit a wall where you have minimal results. The practical choice is then a 350 watt amp. 350 watts gives you 4 s units increase. After that it gets very expensive and impractical. Your better off like the man said to invest in a good antenna, coaxial cable and a tower or method to increase antenna height. 32' high is a base line for best performance and gets better with more height. Use rg 8 or better 50 ohm coax on a base antenna. Rg 8x is only good for jumpers or mobile applications as it has high signal loss on long runs. 9913 flex is the best choice for long runs of coax but it's expensive. 213 u has alot of signal loss on long runs too. I've personally never seen a 440 vac powered amp. Usually the big boy amps are 220 vac. The reason why most amps on eBay are parts or repair amps is due to the fact that people don't know how to properly operate or set up their radios and damage them or they steal parts and put there old bad parts in and try to return them. There are several sellers that know there item is not working and just try to scam you too. If they don't know anything about the item or can't verify proper functionality expect the worse. It's not illegal to own a amp just illegal to use or manufacturer or import or export with out proper license. Tube amps are the best sounding when operating properly but there are trade offs in ease of use and cost of replacement tubes etc. The most common problem running amps is improper power supply. Use wiring that can handle the current demands. Make sure you swr is low and doesn't raise to improper levels when amp is used as it naturally will rise with increased power output.
Hi power is good for alerting drivers of various "dangers" on the roads, hwy.
I seen an Elkin amplifier in there like the third pic. I have one of those and a couple of those were audio amps though. Those little Palomar’s are great to run in the house if you have like a 35 amp power supply or a trolling motor battery in a solar panel works fine too. Most of those cobras and galaxy amps if you open them up they looked exactly like a Palomar. I have a cobra 350 also that’s a sweet little amp also. A good 3 or 4 element beam and good clean and strong radio will do wonders.
Now I know why my Palomar linear amp went out. Wish I had this great information beforehand
Is that RCI first generation?