Think I figured out whats wrong with my CB

**languy99** · 11-28-2008 03:00 PM

ok, let me give you some background info, when I was at the Alpine invitational everyone kept telling me that I sounded garbled but on Aoshi's scanner I sounded fine. I have been thinking about this for a while and I think I figured out why. Aoshi's scanner can pick up all frequencies in the cb range, even if my radio is off alignment I would sound fine. A cb radio cannot do that, so if I am off frequency I would sound garbled. I should have looked at his scanner and marked down on what frequency I was actually transmitting on. Do you guys think this makes sense? I think sometime soon I will send it down to sparky's to have it aligned and tuned. I mean its a great radio and it peaks the 10 watt gauge and has a lot of nice features so I think it is worth fixing.

As a side note, right now I got a cobra 19 dx III and I would like to give it a few more watts, if I post of a picture of the board, can someone help me ID what I have to do to give it a little more power. I'm not looking for much but at least like 5 watts would be nice, I think right now I am at 3 watts.

**Google Adsense** · 11-28-2008 03:00 PM

**Stealth Stalker** · 11-28-2008 03:21 PM

Good critical, logical thinking, Lan! Your theory absolutely makes technical sense, and may well be the issue.

As for more power, I'd just get Sparky to take care of that while he tunes it. I think it's all part of the same package price anyhow. Even for a $30 dollar radio, tweaking is not something I'd recommend. And it'd cost you more for the test equipment to do it with than it would cost to get Sparky to do it for you professionally.

**AirMoore** · 11-28-2008 03:24 PM

Actually... With a high-end CB you can tune them (up or down a ways... this is normally all it takes)... Its called a Clarifier... and chances are most truckers have this, and should they care to listen to you: They simply would have done a minor adjustment to this... and viola.

I think it would be a good idea to see if the CB is a bit out of tune... and perhaps you described a great way to do this...

Another way is just bring it to a shop and have them look it over: OR find a person with a clarifier in your area on their CB.

What you are saying does make perfect sense though.

**languy99** · 11-28-2008 03:32 PM

I don't need more power out of the uniden it has already been peaked and is easily past 10 watts. It's the cobra that needs more power, I just teasted it again and I am putting out 2 watts how pitiful is that, not even to factory spec. Crappy. Anyway here are the pictures I promised. also, looking on the inside I actually got a 19 dx IV board but its in the III package kinda cool in my book.

**The Breeze** · 11-28-2008 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by languy99

ok, let me give you some background info, when I was at the Alpine invitational everyone kept telling me that I sounded garbled but on Aoshi's scanner I sounded fine. I have been thinking about this for a while and I think I figured out why. Aoshi's scanner can pick up all frequencies in the cb range, even if my radio is off alignment I would sound fine. A cb radio cannot do that, so if I am off frequency I would sound garbled. I should have looked at his scanner and marked down on what frequency I was actually transmitting on. Do you guys think this makes sense? I think sometime soon I will send it down to sparky's to have it aligned and tuned. I mean its a great radio and it peaks the 10 watt gauge and has a lot of nice features so I think it is worth fixing.

As a side note, right now I got a cobra 19 dx III and I would like to give it a few more watts, if I post of a picture of the board, can someone help me ID what I have to do to give it a little more power. I'm not looking for much but at least like 5 watts would be nice, I think right now I am at 3 watts.

Good call & good thinking. It makes perfect sense to me. That would work well I would think, for checking radios to see if they are on or off frequency, and by how much. That would be a good way to see if any used radio that you’re unsure of has been tuned & aligned as well maybe.

From what I have read, stock radios are off frequency to some extent. I have a couple old cb's around here that I know absolutely nothing about other than they are taking up space. I should power them up and check ‘em out.

**crazyVOLVOrob** · 11-29-2008 04:20 PM

One of the stock Cobra 29's i bought from radio shack would alert to channel 18-21 when I was transmitting. But it was still clear on ch 19 when i set each scanner to that channel.

To get a bit more power from the Cobra 19 try using a powered microphone. That should decrease the strain of the radio tryin to amplify your voice as the mic will do it for you

**AirMoore** · 11-29-2008 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by crazyVOLVOrob

One of the stock Cobra 29's i bought from radio shack would alert to channel 18-21 when I was transmitting. But it was still clear on ch 19 when i set each scanner to that channel.

What do u mean? The 29 would RX the same time it was TX? That kind of confuses me... Or do you mean you had a simple case of bleed-over?

Originally Posted by crazyVOLVOrob

To get a bit more power from the Cobra 19 try using a powered microphone. That should decrease the strain of the radio tryin to amplify your voice as the mic will do it for you

Good idea.

**crazyVOLVOrob** · 11-29-2008 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by AirMoore

What do u mean? The 29 would RX the same time it was TX? That kind of confuses me... Or do you mean you had a simple case of bleed-over?

No I had my Undien bc246t scanning all the CB channels I have programmed in it and the scanner would jump channels as I transmitted

And then i held(stopped the scanning and set it to listen to just 19) my transmission came through clear

**AirMoore** · 11-30-2008 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by crazyVOLVOrob

No I had my Undien bc246t scanning all the CB channels I have programmed in it and the scanner would jump channels as I transmitted

And then i held(stopped the scanning and set it to listen to just 19) my transmission came through clear

You can see (with a clarifier & numerical Freq. Counters) that sometimes when a CB is keyed up (especially at very close range) it will fluctuate up/down to the receiving unit... which the scanner might notice. Also any TV's around when doing that? I have heard that if a TV and CB are interfering sometimes, the resulting 'waves' can actually cause a 'mixing' between the two, which will result in a 3rd wave, which is altered from the original two, henceforth, it can skip around. (Just a thought).

Heck Rob when I key up with my 959 it will sometimes jump from 27.185>186 on my frequency display when TX'ing, and since the channels are all so close together on the CB (as you well know) bleed-over can always be an issue... Obviously mine does not present a channel jumping issue, with only .001 variance, as it takes me .011 away from 18, and .019 away from 20.

Thats rather odd with a stock radio (which is why you noted it was a stock Cobra). My 959 Will take over some TV's in my house if I am in the driveway.

At any rate, it could just be an anomaly.

**AirMoore** · 11-30-2008 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by languy99

As a side note, right now I got a cobra 19 dx III and I would like to give it a few more watts, if I post of a picture of the board, can someone help me ID what I have to do to give it a little more power. I'm not looking for much but at least like 5 watts would be nice, I think right now I am at 3 watts.

3-3.5Watts is common stock numbers with for those small radios.

You will not have any appreciable increase in TX going from 3>5watts. (Its not even 2X the power.)

So I agree with Stealth Stalker: You should just get it done by a pro, then you will be talking about ~15watts after a peak and tune (possible 18-20 if your lucky.)

With 5X the power, then you could see an appreciable jump in TX (Most likely the people who hear you now intermittently, will hear you with rather solid AUDIO.)