I was made aware of a thead on another board (that I cannot access) by another ham. The gist of the thread is the use of FM for chasing DX (or "shootin' 'skip'" as is the CB term) as opposed to AM. Certain of the fellows flatly state, according to the ham that told me about it, that FM does NOT "skip". :drool: They sincerely believe this, and the thread apparently *almost* deteriorated into an argument. Actually, I've seen this bit of cludge on other CB forums. The truth IS................., it has NOTHING whatsoever to DO with FM, AM, CW, or SSTV. It is the FREQUENCY of operation that determines, in the main, the ability of a signal to travel thru the ether RATHER than the MODE. Frequency Modulation is simply a MODE of transporting intelligence (voice, data, etc)! Generally, and to keep it simple, the LOWER the FREQUENCY, the LONGER the distance. The HIGHER we go in FREQUENCY, the less likely our signal to "skip" (and we who use the higher bands generally do not use the work "skip" to describe the phenomena of long-distance radio signals). IF you use AM on 27 MHZ and the station you are talking to is 120 miles away, AND you switch to FM, you should be able to STILL converse and, actually, the QUALITY of the FM transmission should be better (generally).
Where the people become confused is, they associate FM with FM broadcast AND the police transmissions they hear on their scanners and it doesn't GO as far. The reason is NOT the "FM", but the HIGHER FREQUENCY of operation that is causing this! It is understandable since those who only operate ONE band, namely 11 Meters, have no experience with the behavior of other bands and frequencies. They only have that ONE realm of "expertise"! Of course, FM is ILLEGAL on CB!
For those who absolutely insist (like the MYTH that one MUST use 18 feet of coax cable ) that FM will not "skip", I invite you to listen to 29.620 FM (and others) on the 10 Meter band when conditions are favorable, and the repeaters are running. Today, I was listening (South Carolina) to the W1OJ repeater in Boston, Mass. There were stations in SC, VA, CT, TN, and GA---ALL, of course, using FM and very understandable. If FM doesn't "skip" and the MODE was the determining factor instead of the FREQUENCY, we couldn't hear Boston from SC!!!!!
CWM
Where the people become confused is, they associate FM with FM broadcast AND the police transmissions they hear on their scanners and it doesn't GO as far. The reason is NOT the "FM", but the HIGHER FREQUENCY of operation that is causing this! It is understandable since those who only operate ONE band, namely 11 Meters, have no experience with the behavior of other bands and frequencies. They only have that ONE realm of "expertise"! Of course, FM is ILLEGAL on CB!
For those who absolutely insist (like the MYTH that one MUST use 18 feet of coax cable ) that FM will not "skip", I invite you to listen to 29.620 FM (and others) on the 10 Meter band when conditions are favorable, and the repeaters are running. Today, I was listening (South Carolina) to the W1OJ repeater in Boston, Mass. There were stations in SC, VA, CT, TN, and GA---ALL, of course, using FM and very understandable. If FM doesn't "skip" and the MODE was the determining factor instead of the FREQUENCY, we couldn't hear Boston from SC!!!!!
CWM