- Joined
- Jun 1, 2001
- Messages
- 7,897
- Age
- 63
- Vehicle Year
- 1987... sorta
- Transmission
- Manual
FYI CB amps are now illegal in many states. Many of the frequency's interfere with cable TV.
CB amplifiers violate the law in ALL states because they are agains FEDERAL LAW and always have been.
THE problem with CB is NOISE and most of that is because amplitude modulation (AM) is used.
An amplifier would only make it worse.
Call it "Alligator effect", Big mouth, no ears.
HAM radios OTOH generally use either Single Sideband (SSB)
or Frequency Modulation.
FM in particular has something called a "Capture effect" where
unless two interfering signals are nearly perfectly equal the
stronger signal will "capture" the receiver.
If you hear a signal with no noise and no interference it is
called "Full quieting" and is like a good cellphone signal
once you can talk that way....
as for range? under most circumstances a 2meter (145-148MHz)
radio can talk 50miles or more "Simplex" but most 2meter communications
are "Semi-duplex" and via a repeater (an automated relay)
And the range is significantly increased, because the repeaters
are usually placed on hilltops, exsisting broadcast towers,
water towers, tall buildings, etc...
IT's called "semi-duplex" because while both parties transmit on one frequency (the repeater input frequency) and listen on another
(the repeated output frequency) only one person can talk at a time.
Now for bands similar to CB? there the 10meter band which is at
a slightly higher frequency, CB is 26-27MHz, the 10meter Amateur
band is at 28.3-29.95Mhz. The thing is if the ionisphere is cooperative
(the band is open) you can as the saying goes "talk around the world on 5watts and a rusty coathanger"
I'm not sure about that, but I've talked to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Russia, Tunisia and South Africa all on the same day when the band wasn't actually supposed to be "open", but I was using a Good base antenna and 150watts.
AD