shootin skip

[4LO 4.O]

I don't know much about HAM radio's, but I'm sure they are peak and tuneable.

A great mobile radio is a Galaxy 959, it's more of a 10 meter that will talk with best setups out there.

Make sure you get it tuned though, as the HAM crowd gets pissy when you bleed over on to them, also the FCC doesn't like it either

Just make sure you get a qaulity antenna and you'll be good to go, Firesticks are crap but most people will swear there the best.
Get a Wilson 1000 or 5000 and you'll be set.

 

[Shran]

Oh yeah, you have to tune any radio right or you can fry the transmitter.

 

[4x4junkie]

Is this brought about by weather conditions or another anomaly?
.

It's brought about by charging of the ionosphere by solar radiation, and is one of many forms of radio wave propagation.

Read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere

When conditions are right, you can easily go worldwide on the 27MHz CB band as well (using a single-sideband radio)

 

[Jim Oaks]

When I worked for the state, our northeast Ohio district transmitted and received on 44.82 and 44.98 mhz. (States on the real high 800+ mhz now...). When the weather was just right, we could hear the Highway Patrol in Wichita Kansas as clear as a bell. We could actually talk directly to them. We would have to switch channels so we weren't interfering with each other. Crazy stuff. It only seemed to happen in the summer though.

 

[AllanD]

I don't know much about HAM radio's, but I'm sure they are peak and tuneable.

A great mobile radio is a Galaxy 959, it's more of a 10 meter that will talk with best setups out there.

Make sure you get it tuned though, as the HAM crowd gets pissy when you bleed over on to them, also the FCC doesn't like it either

Just make sure you get a qaulity antenna and you'll be good to go, Firesticks are crap but most people will swear there the best.
Get a Wilson 1000 or 5000 and you'll be set.

Modern transisterized ham trancievers make between 100w and 200w right out of the box.

"peak and tune"? No. not necissary, it can help on some,
but not by enough to justify doing it in most cases.

Remember for Hams amplifiers are legal up to 1500w on many frequencies...
Ponder that for a moment....

Also remember that Ham amplifiers aren't sold by
the same type of "snake oil salesmen" that sell CB amps,
they are made by major manufacturers and produce the
quoted power.

but understand that power doesn't really help is the band isn't "open"
Also remember that Hams make it a point to use tuned antenna.

a typical 2m/70cm tranciever (144mhz/440mhz) will put out 45w/35w
and because of the nature of the FM "Capture effect" the receiver will
only hear the strongest signal (unless two signals are almost equal in strength then you get a "doubling effect")

So there isn't the constant noisy "hash" of interference.

Amateur Tranceivers aren't cheap junk like many CB radios.
But they are priced accordingly.

I originally paid $900 for my Icom dual band transciever.

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[4LO 4.O]

^^ Great reply AD, very informative.

From what I understand, you don't have to know morse code for ham test anymore... I have been wanting to get into the ham scene, I might just go for it.

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

lol, me too. I have a radio shcak cb that was given to me with an antennae, and coax. I just don't know where to get a good mount. Also seeing as I don't want to drill any holes I don't know what to do. My friend has the s/r meter once I get it in, but he doesn't know where to get a good mount either, the radio shack people are useless here. Last note we had a few cb "shops" around here, but they have gone the way of the do do..

 

[4LO 4.O]

Do you have any truck stops around? they useally have some universal mounts.

If not, then there's Sparky's CB shack, Clay's Radio sho, cistom Radios. com all on the net. Then there's E-bay.

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

Yeah thats all good, but i'm lost never done anything with cb so they could have 100 mounts in the store and i'd be scratching my head. I really have no clue on what i'm dping, besides mounting the cb itself and power and ground.

 

[AllanD]

^^ Great reply AD, very informative.

From what I understand, you don't have to know morse code for ham test anymore... I have been wanting to get into the ham scene, I might just go for it.

Yeah, the code test is gone.

I only ever took one code test for 5wpm Code back about 2 years
after I got my tech license to upgrade to the now defunct "Tech-Plus"
license.

Several years later when the 13wpm code requirement was dropped to 5wp for general I upgraded to general, they I was one of the "slow code" Extras
in the six week "window" after they dropped the code requirement alltogether
but before they introduced the new (allegedly harder) Extra theory test.

I've always been pure hell on multiple answer tests.

when I originally got my license I aced the Novice test,
dropped ONE question on the tech exam and even though
I only studied for the gen theory on the ride to the exam
(45min drive after a night of only 4hours sleep) I sat for
the general theory and dropped two only questions

I simply memorized the entire question pool.

They say it's impossible... mabey for them

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[5speedin2.3]

I run a Cobra 25 thats been peaked, tweaked, tuned and it has a swingkit. I also run a Boomer (Palomar) 600 one driving four and a Wilson 5000. All with Belden RG-8X coax.

I also have a very rare Astatic Minute Man II mic and a Road Noise 2018 echo mic.

I plan to get my ham ticket soon and get an RCI 2950 to run with my current setup.

 

[4x4junkie]

I also have a very rare Astatic Minute Man II mic .

Excellent mic. Hang on to that gem

It's too bad they quit making those (they were very popular 15-20 years ago), the one they replaced it with (D104-M6B) I don't think sounds as good (seems "tinny" compared to the old M6)

The holder for the little 7V battery was always a huge PITA on them though (years ago I replaced mine with a holder for a single "N" cell that I got at a Radio Shack)

 

[5speedin2.3]

Excellent mic. Hang on to that gem

It's too bad they quit making those (they were very popular 15-20 years ago), the one they replaced it with (D104-M6B) I don't think sounds as good (seems "tinny" compared to the old M6)

The holder for the little 7V battery was always a huge PITA on them though (years ago I replaced mine with a holder for a single "N" cell that I got at a Radio Shack)

Yeah, the battery is a pita. Its a 7volt mercury battery that costs around 7-9$ to replace.

I put an end on the mic when I got it. It was new in the box and I only paid $13 for it. I only used the mic for a few months, now I use the echo mic.
Its going to sit in the box again till I feel the need to use it. Or maybe sell it for some ridiculous price.

 

[5speedin2.3]

The radio is now mounted to the back wall between the seats.

 

[5speedin2.3]

Sorry for being a picture whore. Maybe I should make a thread for radio pictures/setups.

The Cobra 29XLR also has the works done to it. I use it as my base radio with a little Palomar150A and an Antron99 about 40ft in the air.