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2970N2
- Thread starter Mudfoot
- Start date
That's the problem...
Just about every radio I have bought over the years have had crappy tunes. Then I had to send them in for factory service, cause these "awesome" techs won't honor their work.
There are hardly any retailers that will have their "techs" spend the correct amount of time to properly align a radio. If they did, it would take a few more days to get your order.
Most techs just turn the pots by eye balling them. Then they cut and clip shit that screws up a good radio. Then they shit their pants when u call and complain.
It cracks me up how some techs are exhalted on some forums. Hell, some dudes give more love and reach arounds to their techs than they give their own women.
Tis' what burns my ass about Sparky's. Claims to give a free complimentary peak and tune. Bullshit! that free tune is figured in the price. Then he'll piss his pants when u want it shipped without said tune. My first and last "free" tune had a cut trace to the ALC. WTF, I paid good money for that radio.
Yes, there are some good ones out there, but unless you have some knowledge of what he's doing and looking over his shoulder while he's doing it, then you don't know what your getting.
I'm just saying....
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Getting a good radio peaked and tuned just screws it up all the way around. The little added watts you get does almost nothing as far as getting out better. About the only thing it will do is shorten the life of the finals! Get a amp if you want more power It takes 6db to get a extra one s unit and you want even see close to that. Peak & tuning is the biggest rip off!
Good, professional and experienced techs are hard to find. The few that are out there take time and pride in their work. I am a profession technologist myself, with 37 years in the business, (mostly land-mobile radio, but have done my share of CB and amateur too). Neither I nor any other professional tech I knew, ever snipped, clipped or yanked any circuits to make a radio "work better". If tuning a radio, we all went "by-the-book" and tuned according to the service manual. In my experience, "peaking-and-tuning" a radio narrows it's bandwidth.
Most good, professional techs have, at very least, gone through a college technician/technologist program. I have a 3-year Electronics Engineering Technologist diploma, (specialty: RF) as do most professional Canadian techs. I can't speak for the U.S., or other countries but up here, you just don't get hired without this diploma. Yes there are a few good techs up here who may not possess that diploma, but they are few and far between. And yes, we too have radio butchers up here, unfortunately. You would not believe the number radios I have worked on to correct the damage these butchers caused. These butchers are looked on as gods to the local CB'er population.
Most good, professional techs have, at very least, gone through a college technician/technologist program. I have a 3-year Electronics Engineering Technologist diploma, (specialty: RF) as do most professional Canadian techs. I can't speak for the U.S., or other countries but up here, you just don't get hired without this diploma. Yes there are a few good techs up here who may not possess that diploma, but they are few and far between. And yes, we too have radio butchers up here, unfortunately. You would not believe the number radios I have worked on to correct the damage these butchers caused. These butchers are looked on as gods to the local CB'er population.
To be honest, my experience is with older radios that had higher Q (such as 23-channel jobs). A lot of those radio's circuits were "stagger-tuned" to allow wider bandwidth. I'm going to assume that today's radios have lower "Q" in their circuits which already allows for wider bandwidth. I also note that stagger tuning is never used in a modern radio.
OK- I'll concede. But what I don't understand is why "peaking-and-tuning" is required at all, unless the techs at the factory are incompetent. I thought the radios came already peaked and tuned out of the box? Who would have thought that radio was a "kit?" to be finished by the buyer?
I doubt a radio out of the box has ever seen a tech, I'd buy "assembly person" though, and a $300 export isn't likely to be assembled in the same manner as a $1300 HF rig. You and I both know that simply through component tolerances no two radios ever "tune out" the same, and radios off the line are "good enough" as perceived by the assembler. I don't look at a peak and tune as pushing a radio beyond it's intended purpose, but rather bringing it within a tighter tolerance. But I guess it has alot to do with what you consider a peak and tune to be, and some "tunes" should fall under the "mod" catagory.
factory tune
because the factory tune is only done on AM !
They don't include SSB so most radios need the SSB tuned because the factory doesn't do it. The don't have a procedure for SSB
because the factory tune is only done on AM !
They don't include SSB so most radios need the SSB tuned because the factory doesn't do it. The don't have a procedure for SSB
OK - let's get our definitions right, and I think we're both on the same page! What you call a "peak-and-tune", I call a "general alignment according to the manual".
As for dd18's claim,
I would dispute that, as that would mean uncalibrated (off-frequency) clarifiers and carrier oscillators all over the place. A basic SSB tuning must be done, or the SSB would be totally out of whack.dd18 said:
DXman
Yes, that's 3100 degrees F. Nine yrs of hard work.
VA3ES,
Not speaking of HF rigs, but for exports and Cb's that are massed produced at a fairly high rate, most of them never get the ideal alignment or tune that they need.
Why? Well it's just like the car manufactures, the engines are tested to make sure they run, but, is ever one of them tested to see what they will get for gas mileage or horse power - NO!
So they test just a few of them every now and then and call it good.
Most of the RCI radios are pretty good from the factory, but there are several others that are really wacked out from the factory and I think that most of them don't care either.
I have heard 5 brand new Galaxy 949 radio's, when out of the box, they would be 200+ cycles off on SSB and these radio's were from various places in N. America. So, that's why most of them need to be re-tuned, because they sure aren't getting it from the factory.
But, it's not just the Galaxy brand either.........
Not speaking of HF rigs, but for exports and Cb's that are massed produced at a fairly high rate, most of them never get the ideal alignment or tune that they need.
Why? Well it's just like the car manufactures, the engines are tested to make sure they run, but, is ever one of them tested to see what they will get for gas mileage or horse power - NO!
So they test just a few of them every now and then and call it good.
Most of the RCI radios are pretty good from the factory, but there are several others that are really wacked out from the factory and I think that most of them don't care either.
I have heard 5 brand new Galaxy 949 radio's, when out of the box, they would be 200+ cycles off on SSB and these radio's were from various places in N. America. So, that's why most of them need to be re-tuned, because they sure aren't getting it from the factory.
But, it's not just the Galaxy brand either.........
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Yes! I'm very well aware of how CB radios and their cousins are manufactured. In fact, my friend just bought a Voyage VR-9000, which was poorly aligned for SSB at the factory. Rather than try to align it himself, he just returned it to the dealer for a direct swap. The new one works perfectly. (My buddy is Mike, VA3MPM, who will install a new X2 reference crystal [15.360 MHz] to move the radio up to cover 10M.)