Great Mic Sound for your CB or Export Radio-part 1

[Shockwave]

I also wanted to comment about those who think Hi-Fi on 11 meters creates an interference problem as a result of wider bandwidth. Hogwash! This is the least of your problems in terms of wide band signals on this band. With 10 KHz channel spacing it's not going to be the Hi-Fi guy giving you bleedover.

Those that run Hi-Fi are concerned with quality transmission and almost never drive their audio into RF cutoff. It's the guy with the 16 pill and clipped AMC with a power mic that causes the real bleedover issues on this band. It's more complex on 75 meter AM. To those who are offended there, I invite you to move away from the AM window and stop complaining like the so called net on 3872.

I do have some sympathy for those who complain about Hi-Fi SSB on 80 meters. SSB was never intended to reproduce Hi-Fi do to it's restricted bandwidth. While it does improve sound quality, SSB receivers have much narrower and sharper filtering. Making much of the effort wasted unless the receiver has a wide filter. At least with AM the wideband operation is mostly confined within a 20 KHz slice of spectrum on 75 meters.

 

[TonyV225]

Well said!!!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I do have some sympathy for those who complain about Hi-Fi SSB on 80 meters. SSB was never intended to reproduce Hi-Fi do to it's restricted bandwidth. While it does improve sound quality, SSB receivers have much narrower and sharper filtering. Making much of the effort wasted unless the receiver has a wide filter. At least with AM the wideband operation is mostly confined within a 20 KHz slice of spectrum on 75 meters.

Agreed 100%. IMHO you should strive for good clear audio on SSB .Tweak it a little bit if you want but forget about the HiFi stuff. It's like trying to stuff 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag.It doesn't fit, some is bound to leak out, and it's gonna be messy. :laugh:

AM is another story. Then again most AM operators (I'm talking hams) have a different approach to operating and prefer to have a laid back conversation rather than a quick and dirty contact. Most of them have gained the knowledge over the years as to what works and what does not.

Note: I said "most" and not all.

 

[unit_399]

I also wanted to comment about those who think Hi-Fi on 11 meters creates an interference problem as a result of wider bandwidth. Hogwash! This is the least of your problems in terms of wide band signals on this band. With 10 KHz channel spacing it's not going to be the Hi-Fi guy giving you bleedover.

.

Shockwave -

You said that right.

If anyone believes that hi-fi audio causes interference problems, I suggest you listen for MOTORMOUTH MAUL on cb channels 15 or 28. This guy runs a Cobra 29 equipped with a MAULDULATOR (he's the designer). His station's audio is the cleanest, loudest, and most natural-sounding I have ever heard on-the-air without any bleedover and splatter. Google him up, go to his website, check out his equipment, and you'll understand why.

I'm not posting this to be a shill for the mauldulator. Initially, I was very sceptical about the claims made for this thing, but the proof is in the pudding, and after hearing one on-the-air, I've had to reconsider. He says it uses an NPC circuit to accomplish this, but I just wish he'd been more specific about how this thing works.


- 399

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

Shockwave -

You said that right.

If anyone believes that hi-fi audio causes interference problems, I suggest you listen for MOTORMOUTH MAUL on cb channels 15 or 28. This guy runs a Cobra 29 equipped with a MAULDULATOR (he's the designer). His station's audio is the cleanest, loudest, and most natural-sounding I have ever heard on-the-air without any bleedover and splatter. Google him up, go to his website, check out his equipment, and you'll understand why.

I'm not posting this to be a shill for the mauldulator. Initially, I was very sceptical about the claims made for this thing, but the proof is in the pudding, and after hearing one on-the-air, I've had to reconsider. He says it uses an NPC circuit to accomplish this, but I just wish he'd been more specific about how this thing works.


- 399

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[jazzsinger]

With 10 KHz channel spacing it's not going to be the Hi-Fi guy giving you bleedover.

that may well be the case with hifi audio on AM at 10 khz spacing,i'm not disagreeing with that in any way,but if your on ssb working 5 or less khz away from a hifi audio guy then he's gonna splatter on you.

granted its nowhere near as bad as an overdriven amp or maladjusted amc but it could be the difference between working or losing a very weak ssb station in an exotic location,and to my eyes thats very inconsiderate of others.

my opinion is simple,on ssb your signal should be as narrow as possible while still allowing reasonably clear audio as its a mode that is very often used to work the faintest of contacts.

all the points i made on this matter only ever reffered to ssb.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

that may well be the case with hifi audio on AM at 10 khz spacing,i'm not disagreeing with that in any way,but if your on ssb working 5 or less khz away from a hifi audio guy then he's gonna splatter on you.

Exactly. The bandwidth is related to the audio frequency response of the signal sent to the modulator. If someone feeds HiFi audio containing frequencies up to 8 KHz into his radio that has been modified to accept that high of a frequency then his TX bandwidth would be at least 16 KHz on AM or a full 8KHz on SSB. I DO hear some stations on SSB doing that and they sound like crap on a normal receiver and splatter like hell.The term is "buckshot" and it can be heard up to 20 KHz away in some cases and that's on a Kenwood receiver with a 2.3 KHz filter with steep skirts.

 

[Robb]

I also wanted to comment about those who think Hi-Fi on 11 meters creates an interference problem as a result of wider bandwidth. Hogwash! This is the least of your problems in terms of wide band signals on this band. With 10 KHz channel spacing it's not going to be the Hi-Fi guy giving you bleedover.

Those that run Hi-Fi are concerned with quality transmission and almost never drive their audio into RF cutoff. It's the guy with the 16 pill and clipped AMC with a power mic that causes the real bleedover issues on this band. It's more complex on 75 meter AM. To those who are offended there, I invite you to move away from the AM window and stop complaining like the so called net on 3872.

I do have some sympathy for those who complain about Hi-Fi SSB on 80 meters. SSB was never intended to reproduce Hi-Fi do to it's restricted bandwidth. While it does improve sound quality, SSB receivers have much narrower and sharper filtering. Making much of the effort wasted unless the receiver has a wide filter. At least with AM the wideband operation is mostly confined within a 20 KHz slice of spectrum on 75 meters.

Thank You.

This article is for those who want to experiment with their CB's when using 'pro' sound gear.
You can do better.
Even at 3khz wide on SSB, any CB can still sound MUCH better than most -if not all- stock or popular power mics. That is; when using a real professional mic instead of a toy mic. As well as using a real professional preamp instead of a noise maker mic preamp that come in all CB power mics.

AM users will really hear a large improvement. Since some run the NPC mod that runs at 125% modulation(?); this mic and preamp upgrade might sound better but at the cost of splattering. But no worse than another mic would either. However running the modulation at 100% with the proposed setup will sound great and w/o giving off any more splatter than using a stock mic. No 'downsides'; except for the cost. If the extra cost isn't a problem; then congratulations . . .

 

[Shockwave]

If you're on channel 38 LSB and someone is running Hi-Fi AM on channel 37, their signal would have to be over 14 KHz wide before it got in the passband of the SSB receiver. Wider if you were on USB. At 10 KHz bandwidth you can reproduce the fidelity of AM broadcast stations in the USA. You can do Hi-Fi AM on 11 meters without adjacent channel interference to other AM or SSB stations. You cannot do Hi-Fi SSB (wider then 3 KHz) on 11 meters and still fit a LSB and USB QSO on a single channel.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

good info here.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Still a good read.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Biannual Bump

 

[dave457]

Good audio always starts with a good microphone, just curious what mic your running with your hifi gear?

 

[Justme]

Hi Fi gear? not on SSB just Yaesu MD-1 i had for over 40 years, running the EQplus from W2IHY shaping low/high's a bit use the compressor expander/limiter and downward expander and no effect processor, in the FT991 A the equaliser is set straight through no compressor used, te one of the EQplus is better.
For local qso's 3KHz setting, on the FT2000 D i had 4 KHz setting.
For Dx back to 300 to 2700 Hz.
AM on the FT991A after altering the factory settings to get it right only the EQplus is used, sounds good according my QSO stations, fine enough for me.

We are communicating, not running an BBC talkstation.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Good audio always starts with a good microphone, just curious what mic your running with your hifi gear?

I am using a $40 dynamic studio mic. It doesn't take much to make a big difference.