CB'ing and Ham radio in the 21st Century

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

4w fm 12w ssb, type approved equipment only but that's not really enforcable, if you want a burner check your gas stove, other than that linear amplifiers are not legal.

No they are not here either because most people run them on CB with cheap coax and it ends up splashing people like crazy!! (Plus the burner is dirty (Doesnt put out clean signal))

I LOVE FM.. Unfortunetly there is not many ppl who use FM here....... I have found many people who have FM that HAVENT EVER USED IT! (When I asked them to flip to FM it was the first they did (AND BOY DID THEY SOUND BETTER (Alot of them didnt realise what the hash was,they tried to use thier RF GAIN to get rid of it and I explained the hash is natural and it was BEST to set thier squelch on FM)))

Sadly many people on 11m DO NOT CARE what they sound like and its confusing.. Very unprofesional!


Ah well......... -- CB AND HAM .. The only ANALOGUE platforms left!! (They are awesome)

[Kymmy]

Just been rearranging the shack... Last count of radios was the following..

2 CBs - 80ch mobile and handheld
2 HF - Yaesu ft80c and ft450d
4 vhf\uhf mobiles - ft8800 x2, ft7800, ft8100 x2
5 vhf\uhf handhelds -vx5, vx1, ft50 x2, baofeng uv8d
4 70mhz radios -ascom550 x2 and wouxon 699e x2
1 dstar UHF ICOM id31
1 dstar gateway -RPi +dual band dvmega

I think I need to buy more ....

[Dude111]

Thats a good list Kymmy!!!

Maybe if the skip is rolling to england sometime we could arrange to meet sometime!! (Pick a freq)


Did you know there are a couple 11m repeaters that you might try listening for when the skip is in.... (All are FM of course)

27.600 (Input 27.800)
27.620 (Input 27.820)

They are in the carribean I think and I hit one of them full quieting one day!!!! (And I dont run any burners.... MAKES YA FEEL GOOD BEING ABLE TO TALK ROUND THE WORLD WITH STOCK POWER)

If you dont mind me asking,what kind of power do you run Matey??

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Dude111

If you dont mind me asking,what kind of power do you run Matey??

Careful.

[Dude111]

Well I wasnt trying to sound funny or anything,im just asking her

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by Dude111

Well I wasnt trying to sound funny or anything,im just asking her

No sweat, just so long as you know.

[Kymmy]

I only use cb for local so no point in hoping for a chat especially as I told you that you were barking up the wrong tree a couple of years back when you were harassing me..

As for power that is a stupid question when one of my last qso's was Australia with 10w on 20m with a basic home made cobweb. If the conditions are good especially if you time it along the grey line you don't need a lot of power.

[Uncle Peter]

Nice variety there Kymmy

I haven't really had a chance to do any radio recently (apart from monitoring the Russian naval aviation nets )

Current list of radios here is:

Yaesu FT1000MP Mark V with Collins mechanical filter and high stability oscillator boards
Yaesu FT857D All mode/band mobile
Yaesu FT847 All mode/band
Yaesu VX-3 VHF Handheld
Yaesu VX-8E VHF Handheld
Kenwood TS480HX HF + 6M quasi mobile
Kenwood TM-G707E VHF Mobile

Usually barefoot power only here unless running meteor scatter or the odd pile-up break:

Linear Amp Discovery 2 - 1.5KW* at full drive for 2M
Acom 1000 - 1KW* on full drive for HF and 6M

*never run at max of course

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

*never run at max of course

Except of course to overcome antenna and feed line inefficiency

I rarely run 100w on HF these days much preferring to run 5w on jt65..

[Russ]

Fired up my 148 this morning after giving it a good clean and dusting, pleasantly surprised to find my old Astatic Teardrop mic amongst the junk which I'd forgotten I had. It used to get me heard much further than with a standard mic running a 500w burner. I was always disappointed with the poor build quality but my audio clarity was outstanding.

Anyway I didn't have the time or inclination to put my old Antron 99 so I hooked it up to the Firestick mag-mount I found lurking in the garage, set it up in my car and went to the beach car park. I was surprised to hear loads of activity on 27.555, almost as busy as when I started out in the early 90s. The vast majority was mainland Europe, seemingly a lot from Denmark and Germany.

Surprised to hear a few local CBers on 27/81 as well - seems like CB isn't totally dead yet. I'll keep hold of my set-up I think. Perfect form of communication when law and order breaks down in the UK, the internet gets closed down and mobile signals are shut off

[Kymmy]

Remember though that 27.555 is not within the legal bands. Ssb is only allowed on mid band.. Should still though be lots of activity on there.

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Except of course to overcome antenna and feed line inefficiency

Only within the appropriate loss limits. I would never run flat-out, everything else aside good tubes aren't cheap to replace.

There are plenty of foundation licence holders on 20M as wide as the titanic with their 10W and G5RV's though :P

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Remember though that 27.555 is not within the legal bands. Ssb is only allowed on mid band..

Not as if that stopped many people in the past

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

There are plenty of foundation licence holders on 20M as wide as the titanic with their 10W and G5RV's though :P

Oh no, please don't mention the old M3/M6 arguments, I rarely go on the ham radio forums due to the oldies not shutting up about it.. Mind you the last time I was on a ham forum one of the G0's was still going on about the B class licences and how we'd all be M3's

Originally Posted by Russ

Not as if that stopped many people in the past

Probably not Russ, but one day the primary users of 27Mhz might want thier bandwidth back and I for one will not be arguing against them...

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Oh no, please don't mention the old M3/M6 arguments, I rarely go on the ham radio forums

Blimey I would never pop my head around the door in one of those places. The old uk radio amateur newsgroup was enough of a bad advertisment for the spirit of friendship in the hobby.

And neither are the bands themselves

The naughty boys net on 80m
Russians with their broadcast amplifiers and echomaster mics on 40m
Overdriven amplifiers on 20m and that Italian idiot who trolls the IOTA frequencies
Drunkenness and swearing on 2m..etc etc: The list of reasons to not be very happy with the state of the hobby at the moment is a long one.