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Cobra 29 direct injected squealing problem

Jan 18, 2017
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Central KY
I have a cobra 29 that I've direct injected. When the radio is barefoot with no extra power, it works fine. As soon as turn on even a 2-transistor linear, I get a major squeal in the audio. I'm thinking it could be my variable dead key I have installed in the radio (tip29/25v 220uf cap/potentiometer), I'm sure you've seen that variable power mod before. I'm scratching my head in frustration! I thought maybe in was a grounding problem as well but I checked that as well. I have no standing wave what so ever. It's a perfect 1:1 match on 27.205. I'm injected through c37. Any help would be appreciated.
 

had to go look for C37. Now I get it . Didn't I have a conversation about this this afternoon ?
 
Direct injection is coming from a Digidesign Mbox 2 and protools. The reason I'm running this radio is because my 142 quit on me and I just want something to use until I get it back up.
Yes they are on separate power supply's.
 
Here's what we use to prevent problems from ground-loop feedback. It's a 600 ohm isolation transformer. 600 ohm audio input and output, both.

OxCJiz.jpg


It has RF filtering on the input side. Might help, might not. Can't hurt.

j4Bfj4.jpg


Biggest single thing it accomplishes is to couple your audio signal without creating a current path between the radio's ground circuit and the audio system's ground circuit.

FESirg.jpg


Yeah, the bottom side has a 'bodge' wire on it. Small error in the board's artwork. But this toy works.

It's a prototype, not on the market. If you want to try one, shoot me your snail-mail addy in a PM. Gotta send Dozerman a relay I promised him a week ago. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stop at the post office.

73
 
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Got it packed up and addressed. Should get to the PO in the AM, barring disaster.

The hookup is pretty straightforward. Two pads marked "in" and two marked "output". You'll need a 1/8-inch hole in the chassis to mount it, The mount screw provides your RF ground to prevent stray RF from sneaking into the radio from your audio input cable. The mounting post must get bolted to chassis metal.

Might work without it. Never have tried.

The two output pads are easy. One of them gets a wire to C37, the other one a wire to a ground foil near C37. The nearer the better.

You're probably using the "unbalanced" output from the Mbox, the quarter-inch socket. It also has a balanced output. That's the 3-prong socket on the rear. Two of those pins are both "hot" audio, neither one is grounded. The third pin is chassis ground. Best bet for minimum feedback trouble is to use a shielded 2-wire cord plugged into that 3-pin output socket. Don't connect the shield at the radio end. Only the two audio wires, to the two input pads on the isolation board. Of course, the shield should be connected to the ground pin of the 3-pin plug on the Mbox.

Must be getting old. Can't remember which two pins of the 3-pin "XLR" plug are the audio. A continuity test will reveal this. Only one of the three pins on the rear of the Mbox will show continuity to its cabinet ground. The other two pins won't. Those are the two pins your two shielded audio wires should go to.

And if you want to keep it simple and use the quarter-inch "phone" plug with the single shielded wire, that should work just fine. Won't matter which of the two input pins is ground and which gets the center wire.

The idea is to keep "ground" in the Mbox and "ground" in the radio separate, with no direct connection between the two.

73
 
If I'm not mistaken, the only XLR on the mbox is an input. I'll double check to make sure. I had been using both 1/4" jacks on the back ran parallel into my cap and c37 then ground to ground. Like I said, I'll check it out. I got aggravated last night with it. I recently had an AL-80B blow on me, my main computer that I use for everything I do on a computer went down on me (PSU and caps on the motherboard), so I've had a heck of a time. My day job is maintaining IT equipment so the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is to see my computer dead as 4:00 on a summer Sunday. Thanks nomad. I appreciate it!
 

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