Debunking the myth that you must always lower AM dead key on your CB when using an amp.
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- Опубликовано: 14 дек 2022
- This video is for entrainment value only. CB radios are only legally allowed 4 watts AM and 12 Watts sideband. The purpose of this video is to debunk the myth that you will blow out your amp running 4 watts from the stock Uniden 980 SSB into the amp. This was performed using a dummy load instead of an antenna.
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Thank you for the time and work you put into this video. Setting up a base , using the same radio and been reading different blogs and watching other videos on this matter. I've come to the conclusion as you did that I believe thi go will be fine. Once again thank you for your time, and 73s sir!
Thanks for the feedback. I have had no problems with my amp overheating and have been making great DX contacts. The 980 is a great base radio. I made my first contact with Australia with the 980 yesterday. The amp gets warmer quicker using AM but by no means hot to the touch. I have a computer fan that I hot glued Lego rubber wheels to, and it sits on top of my amp. I turn it on if I get long winded on a conversation. The fan is probably not necessary, but I tend to be over cautious, 99% of my conversations are on SSB. I also recommend the RM Italy 27/586 Low Pass Filter which will remove spurious emissions above 30 MHz and helps to run the amp cooler. I have a video where I test the filter with the amp. The only downside with the filter is that you will lose your weather band as the weather frequencies are above 30 MHz. I'm so glad that I didn't make any adjustments inside the radio as I get nothing but great reports on both AM and SSB. Thanks for watching, 73s from 595 Northern Nevada.
You hit everything right, when I was in high school my electronics teacher taught me all this and I would assist him in building antennas for cbs! And installing equipment for his customers. And everything you said is correct. Thank you for the math I had forgotten some things since this was over 40 years ago. I am back in the hobby now. Your doing fine.
There is quite a bit of misinformation out there. I fairly new to radios again after a long break of several decades. When I was studying for my ham license, I picked up a lot of information on antenna theory that made me question a lot of the information from videos I was watching. Thanks for watching and the comments. 73s from 595 Northern Nevada!
Nicely explained. I have that same combo here along with others. 73's from Northern Indiana.
Thanks for watching! 73s from 595 Lake Tahoe Nevada.
Hey I am from N Indiana also (Goshen)... will be kicking this similar setup shortly.
- Uniden BEARTRACKER 885 Hybrid, Solarcon A-99 Antenna, RM Italy KL 203P (base)
- Uniden PRO520XL Pro, Wilson 1000 (mobile)
Way-maker "out". - See ya on the flip side Chris!
@@bobbrownintruth Right On Man! I'm up here on the east side of Mishawaka! 73's
Finally someone who makes sense on these amps
Thank you for taking the time to think about a subject before making rules for the rest of the world
I still get comments that I’m wrong and will blow my amp. It has happened yet! Thanks for watching, 73s from 595 Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
You speak the truth in a world of make believe and hype, how refreshing. I have never used 1-2 watts to drive an amplifier. The RM's I have, the 203 and the 503, are made for regular power cb's, which means 3 1/2 w to 4 w. With 4 watts carrier and 100% modulation you are good to go and with a decent microphone you will sound good and easy to understand, rather than loud and proud and have to repeat everything you say so that they can understand what you are saying. Ever hear a guy yelling into a D104 trying to give out a phone number or street address? Right, he has to say everything over and over. What you are doing is correct and makes good sense, but, that makes you in the minority. This is the day of yell and splatter. Thanks, a good video. I hope some people will listen and learn.
Yes people think that a 300 watt compared to a 100 watt has a big difference. But again I learned a long time ago to double the power you have to multiply by a factor of 10x. So if you want double of 10 watts it is 100 watts if you want double of that it is 1000 watts and so forth. Yes you can get a little more going from 100 to say 250 but it only increase 25% not what some have argued that it is 2.5 times more. That is incorrect. I think for those that want a little more power the 100 watt amp is enough without breaking the bank for 1000 watts. Lol plus the amount of power you need to run a 1000 watt amp is ridiculous! Thank you again for sharing the correct information. 73’s
Sounds reasonable!
Love your video I also have a Uniden 980 and tc300 radio is stock and run that input switch on high. That’s high drive in low is for Side ban.get good reports.talked all over the world.
Hi Steve, I’ve been very happy with the radio. I’ve noticed that it’s a popular radio with contacts I’ve made. Thanks for the comment! 73s from 585 Northern Nevada.
A few tuners I've talked to recommend for the RM 203 or 503 a dead key of 2-2.5 watts Dead Key and a swing (pep) up to 30?
4 watts in will destroy a low power amp, like the KL203 and KL203P. It will also damage you radio. I learned this the expensive way. Those little amps cannot handle 4 watts input. Not only that, but a lot of that power will be reflected back into your radio, burning out the finals.
I have the same Bearcat and hope to test a KL 200P. The radio is just a plain stock radio hooked to a Procom Patriot 12' antenna and the SWR on channel 3 runs 1.0 which is great. Hope I don't burn this thing up like some people say happens or damage the radio itself. I now understand why some people buy Galaxy radios or Strykers or President Walker 2 or 3 radios which have a an RF Power adjustment knob that allows the power to be reduced down to about 1 watt. Handy feature I suppose but you pay the price for that convenience. I was hoping that you also showed a demonstration of your rig with it on "talk back" so we could hear what it sounds like at 4 watts input. thanks anyway.
2:37 It should read RMS, not REM. PEP is peak envelope power. AM consists of a carrier plus 2 sidebands, upper and lower.👍
I'm not sure about your math here but it should work OK. Invest in an active peak-reading meter like the Daiwa CN-901 or MFJ 815D. A stock radio is too high for that amp but should not hurt it if it's kept cool and the radio is not modified. You can add a fan by placing 4 pieces of aquarium tubing or wire insulation between the fins and attaching with screws into the tubing. Ideally, your AM carrier input should be 2W or less. Where most people mess up is trying to get swing. One of the meters i mentioned or an oscilloscope is necessary to accurately measure it. At 100% modulation, the "swing" will be 4 X the carrier or 16W. If you mess with the radio and can't measure PEP, it's easy to go over the 20W max stated by the manufacturer. I added a 3dB attenuator to my KL-203 to cut the input in half but this isn't so easy to do. It will be slightly different for the many generations of the KL203 and KL203-P also. BTW, your meter is probably closer on SSB than modulated AM.
Thanks for watching and the comment. I need to invest in a better meter, that's for sure, but I feel that I'm in the ballpark for wattage output. I have a PC fan mounted on top of the amp, but I haven't needed to turn it on yet. On AM the amp will get warm if I'm long winded, but never hot enough to raise my concerns. On SSB, it barely gets warm to the touch. 99% of my time is on SSB so I don't worry. Thanks again for the comments, and 73s from 595 Lake Tahoe Nevada.
Agree with your assessment totally !!! some of these jokers that tweak radios give out too much bad information!!! Yes i am and electronics guy!!!😀 Here's what kills me why would a company selling amps, not build there amps to be fine with a bare bones stock radio!!! Most either get a power mic or just turn up your mike gain if your radio has it!!!!
My thoughts exactly, that would not a very good business model. My amp gets warm but never very hot running my stock Bearcat 980. I had to turn down the AM and ALC adjustments on the Cobra 146 GTL that I replaced the capacitors on. Over the years someone had turned them all the way up. The modulation adjustment was also way off. Thanks for the comments! 73s from 595 Northern Nevada.
Good videos sir.what antenna are you running with that setup.
I'm running the radio on my horizonal dipole. Thanks for watching! 73's from 595 Northern Nevada.
May I ask sir, how long is your coax from your antenna to the watt/power meter and your jumpers from the meter to amp and amp to your radio? I having problems with my setup, halfwave vertical, kl300p mfj meter and a cobra 29ltd classic at 2.5 watts deadkey. My coax are multiples of halfwave at 11 feet per halfwave which is 44ft, cut two 6ft portoins out of it to be my jumpers for cb to amp to meter. Without the amp, my swr is 1.3 but with the amp on, it's only resonant from channels 22 to 33 at 1.35 swr. Below and above those channels, it's more than 2 swr. Sure would appreciate it sir.
Hi Francisco, I'm using 3-foot jumpers between each of my devices. I also have the RM Italy 27/586 Low Pass Filter mounted after the amp and feeding into my SWR meter. The cheaper amps don't always do a great job of filtering. This means the amp is also allowing some of the signal getting out at the second harmonics of the 11 meters (CB) band. The second harmonic of 11 meters, would be around 54 MHz. Your antenna will not accept energy transmitted at 54 MHz and return it all back to the radio which will show up as higher SWR. The low pass filter will block any frequencies above 30 MHz. Watch my video on using the low pass filter with my Bearcat 980 and you will see the difference in SWR with no lowpass filter and with a filter installed using an amp. 73s from 595 Northern Nevada.
I truely am sorry for such delay in my response to your answer regarding my question for I just only saw this now. Having said that, thank you much for the tip and I try and do what you did. 73 likewise sir and all the best to you and your family.
You nerd with your arithmetic!!!! Lmao great video man!!!
Were can you by that amp
Hi Cary, I bought the amp a couple of years ago brand new off of eBay. I can't find my original invoice, but it was from a company in the United Kingdom. I don't see it listed anymore on eBay. I also checked Newegg.com which usually carries the RM Italy amps, but they no longer had them listed. As far as I know, RM Italy still produces the amp, so I would keep an eye on Newegg to see when they become available again. I used Newegg all the time years ago and they were a good company to deal with. Sorry I could be more helpful. 73s from 595 Northern Nevada.
What would you need to turn down in the radio to run a amp great video thank you for sharing
There are two versions of the 980. The AM power potentiometer is where you turn down the power. I’ve read that if you turn down the AM power, you might need to increase the AMC (Automatic Modulation Control). I would probably leave the AMC alone as increasing it too much could cause distortion. The potentiometers are very small and fragile so be very careful. I would also make sure you have the proper tools. I would not use a metal screwdriver. You can order the correct tools online. I’m not sure of the correct sizes of the tools. There are a couple of videos on RUclips showing the location of the pots. I would not touch any of the adjustments for SSB. Thanks for watching!
Can you adjust RF power on the 980? How can you avoid blowing out the radio with the amp?
Hi Gregory, there is no adjustment on the 980 for RF output. Running the radio stock with the amp, I dead key around 24 watts with the amp on. When I talk on AM, it never peaks above 60 watts which is well below the 100-watt maximum. It gets a little warm, but never hot to the touch. On SSB, I've never seen it go above 74 watts which is also well below the 150 peak watts maximum in the specifications. Thanks for watching, and 73s from 595 Northern Nevada!
Can you leave the amp off , even if it's connected to your cb
And still use the CB
Yes, you can have the amp turned off. Thanks for watching!
@@RidgeHikerAdventures so amp turned off, and you can still use your cb like the normal use , no difference in transmission?
Where can you buy that app at how much does it thank you
Newegg currently has them available for $99.00 with free shipping. Thanks for watching! 73s from 595 Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
An amp does know swing
Get a meter and watch your rma power swing backwards at that high of a dead key into that amp. You are totally forgetting about average power (which is usually what fries amps along with I high dead key). Bet it looks horrible on proper equipment. Been using RM Italy amps for years and talk all over the world. On my 203p 25watt dead key, 50-60watts average, 100-125watts PEP. Depending on the radio. But I keep them close as possible to the 1-4 ratio. Hope you don't fry it
Let me tell you why i know it is b.s.
Have you ever used fm radio and an amplifier.
Bam.
Now you know.
Go and figure it out.
PEP IS PEAK ENVELOPE POWER NOT PEFORMANCE!
4 watts your over driving that amp turn down your rf gain to about 2
Running stock, I'm putting out around 29 watts dead key on AM and swinging to around 59 watts while talking. The amp has always run fairly cool. 99% of my talking is on SSB where I'm running around 89 watts PEP. Thanks for watching, 73s from 595 Lake Tahoe Nevada!
@@RidgeHikerAdventures Good Video
You don't need that power, it's an illusion. The band is either open or it's not.
Friendly advice. If you are amplifying CB radios, take down this video. The FCC would love to bust people just like you, charge you with Federal crimes, fine you, maybe even try to put you in prison. Lawyers are very expensive. Tip: get a good antenna, learn how to tune it, get a D104 power mike, learn how to use it, check audio with talk back. I talk 45 miles easy leagally. With a 980 and little wil antenna. Who needs an amp? Get a ham license if you want more power output. FCC is no fun. They monitor all the time. Look it up. Best of luck.
Doesn’t sound friendly to me. Sounds like sad ham talk. FCC doesn’t care. You’ve got Mark Sherman clogging up channel 19 and posing a safety hazard for YEARS! Many reports to FCC. Even a petition. Nothing! Get bent.
Lmao 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Fcc has better things to do. Lmao 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@JamesBronson-hy3rb😂😂😂 👍i want to know who is tarzan on 38 lsb
Peter you are truly a fool 😂😂😂