SBE Console II, 16CB and Later 16CB/T QUESTION

[Jack Sullivan]

SBE 16CB gave: A.M. 5 watts input; SSB 15 watts input, while the later version,
SBE 16CB/T (the T version) gave A.M. 4 watts input; SSB 12 watts input.
QUESTION:
Electronically, what did SBE do, specifically, to get increased power input earlier, while later reducing power input later on the Console II model?

I AM LOOKING TO FIND AND BUY AN EXAMPLE OF THE EARLIER VERSION, SO IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHERE I CAN FIND ONE. LET ME KNOW. PRESENTLY, I HAVE NEITHER VERSION. THANK YOU.

 

[357]

sounds like the later version was confused with output. I remember the courier radios had a green sticker that said 25 watts.

I think there was a 40 channel console II for a few runs

 

[Jack Sullivan]

sounds like the later version was confused with output. I remember the courier radios had a green sticker that said 25 watts.

I think there was a 40 channel console II for a few runs

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The SBE may have been confused with SSB input/output power on their console II later versions, BUT they had a specification sheet on the back panel that said exactly what I quoted above., SSB power 0f 12 watts p.e.p. Confusingly too, I saw an old 1973 advertisement from SBE (Sideband Engineers) making a big announcement that the FCC, as of some month in 1973, BOOSTED the legal allowable SSB power to 25 watts, so SBE said their Console II, and Sidebander II and III now had 25 watts!

 

[freecell]

with 25WPEP "INPUT" @ 48% efficiency the ensuing "OUTPUT" would be 12WPEP.

 

[nomadradio]

In 1934, Congress passed the "Communications Act". It created the FCC and gave them responsibility to formulate and enforce rules that carry the authority of federal law.

Back then, Joe ham could afford to have a DC-current meter on the final tube in his transmitter. An inline RF wattmeter was an exotic lab curiosity that cost a good chunk of a working man's annual salary at the time. As a result, RF wattage was not spelled out in any FCC rules of the day. But if you multiply the DC voltage you feed to your final stage, times the current it draws, you get the transmitter (or amplifier's) INPUT power.

And this was the language of all FCC transmitter rules for decades. The rule for a CB transmitter when the rules first appeared was 5 Watts INPUT power. A tube final would get you about 3.5 Watts of carrier, more or less. A solid-state radio might be more efficient and show 4 Watts of RF output for 5 Watts of DC input from the power supply.

If you assume 50% efficiency for a sideband transmitter that gets 12 Watts PEP output, you would need 24 Watts peak input power.

Uhh. Peak INPUT power? A peak-reading DC current meter turns out not to be so practical or easily accessible. Sideband rules for 23-channel CB were a bit confusing at first.

When 23-channel regulations got retired, the new 40-channel rules got modernized. The AM carrier power was now spelled out as 4 Watts into 50 ohms. And sideband was limited to 12 Watts PEP output. No more of that bogus "INPUT" nonsense since them. But old literature of the era will reflect the schizy nature of the rules before 40 channels came along.

73