side band?!?!?!?

[oldslowchevy]

was out side a few minutes ago and a frieng of mine was showing me a cobra 148 that he just got telling me how much better is over his galaxy 949...... what the heck?...... why does everone sound like donald duck inhaling helium? omg these never makes me want a side ban radio.... ewwwwwww


is this really how it is suppost to sound or was he just messing with me?

 

[9C1Driver]

An old school 148 is hands down better then a Galaxy anything on SSB. If it's a brand new Cobra 148 it's a POS. As far as the funny voice quality all your friend has to do is clarify them in alittle.

 

[oldslowchevy]

it is a brand new radio, his galaxy sounded the sme to me...... i really do not see the apeal to side band at this point.......

 

[AudioShockwav]

If you have never used SSB it takes a bit more than just flipping the mode switch.
Yes, as already said, most of the time you will need to make small adjustments when switched over to a sideband, each receive signal must be "fine tuned" in with the clarifier or voice lock control found on the SSB CB radio.
As you move up and down the "tone or pitch" of the other stations voice will go up and down.
There are advantages to SSB over AM radio, the greatest is you can talk farther because of the way SSB works compared to AM.
You use less bandwidth, you have to deal with less noise, etc.
It will sound strange at first, but once you start using SSB and see it`s advantages, many never go back....


73
Jeff

 

[n0zna]

i dont like any c148 rados

I have only ran Browning ltd and Barrons,or a gal959dx or rci2950 and only run ssb....ham and 11mtrs...dont like the hetrodines on am,and realy get mad when a am station is on ssb freqs...I run a rci2950dx on 10mtrs in mbl and also have a gal959dx in car everynow and then on 10mtrs...the gal949 and gal959 also have the gnf also know as a notch filter...73 de JW

 

[Robb]

The amount of noise - alone - may get you into SSB and away from AM. That did it for me. When you have any more than one person talking on AM at the same time (even worse if skip conditions are present), then the noise gets downright nasty. With SSB, you can often hear 3 or 4 operators talking at the same time and none of these signals create AM carrier noise. Unless anyone is using AM on the SSB bands, it is clearer, less noise, and just talks farther.

Talked to Moscow, Russia and even N of Mongolia from CA on SSB. Many, many other places too. Not too many people on AM that can say they have done that. Not saying they can't, but noise becomes a bigger issue on AM than it does for SSB. But SSBers can catch a great skip wave and surf as many ways that wave is going.

 

[roadrage]

Im just getting started with SSB. It is more finicky than AM, but it keeps me interested. Your audio has to be cleaner, thats for sure. Some people have their radios cranked up too much and it sounds like they have a rag stuck in their mouth, lol. I like that I have to tune people in. I have only made a couple contacts so far, but I'm looking forward making more.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The only AM I ever did or do is on 80m. I never could see the appeal of AM way back when I was on 11m and only use it on the ham bands when a bunch of us get together and do it the way phone started with classic old boat anchors.

 

[TonyV225]

Hell, If they could build all my radios without AM mode and charge me less money Ide be in seventh heaven!! I use AM as much as Ide use an ECHO feature LMAO!!! USELESS!!! But they can just put that echoe in AM CB radios because it doesnt affect me and AM is where that stuff is loved and should be used 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

 

[K9GAS]

80,75,40,15 and 10. AM has a growing popularity. Those Collins etc.... Broadcast rigs sound sweet.
Full quieting when conditions are good. Surprising is how well the Flex 5000A and the Super senior solid-state rigs sound, beautiful fidelity. It's all good.

 

[roadrage]

It is easy to dump on the lowly 11m, but there are jerks any class. You know? my 11 year old can pass a HAM exam after studying for a week. Is that really what makes you think you are better than someone else? I think it is silly for anyone to be looking down their noses at anyone. Shame on all of you who do. You know, I played with a lot of radio freqs that are off limits to HAMs when I spent 6.5 years as in infantryman, and you know what? I still like playing with a CB. I like all radios. Sure there are jerks on 11M. Sure, when I hear so much echo that I can't understand what they are saying, it is annoying. I ignore them and talk to the clean stations. But to dog on the whole community because of just a few is ridiculously arrogant. On one side there are the crude CBers and the other side is the snobby HAMs. How childish that is. I thank God for all of the rest of you who just want to make some contacts and chew the rag a little. You make the hobby enjoyable for us all. My 2M mobile spends more time as a mobile scanner for public safety than anything else. Why? because there is hardly anything but static otherwise. HAM is a dying hobby. Why do you think the FCC dropped morse code? HAM provides a critical function in cases of emergcy and there aren't enough operators anymore to provide it. The FCC needs to lower the bar because no one cares about radios anymore. They are doing everything they can to bring more people in. Is that better or worse for you? The number of new licenses being issued are so far below those that are being lost. With these kinds of attitudes I don't wonder why. Stop scaring away and discouraging some of the would be "decent" operators. I am sure that most who read this will scoff at what I have said, but in 15 years when you turn on your rig and hear nothing but silence in your speaker; you can sit in and remember the glory days, when the bands were popping with activity, and how good it used to be.

 

[Carl]

The number of new licenses being issued are so far below those that are being lost. .

quite the opposite actually, the numbers are impressive when you take in to account the amount of licensed ham that are expiring and old classes that are no longer valid.

Last month the FCC logged 700,314 licenses, with nearly 40,000 new ones in the last five years. Compare that with 2005 when only 662,600 people hammed it up and you'll see why the American Radio Relay League -- the authority on all things ham -- is calling it a "golden age."

"Over the last five years we've had 20-25,000 new hams a year," Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the group

number from last month (june 2012) have techs up 20% and generals and extras up 11% over the previous month. (may 2012)

 

[unit_399]

It will sound strange at first, but once you start using SSB and see it`s advantages, many never go back....73
Jeff

Jeff - You got that right. I used to be a hardcore AMer, but decided to give SSb a try. Now when I go back to Am, I wonder why I ever liked it.

- J.J.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

It is easy to dump on the lowly 11m, but there are jerks any class. You know? my 11 year old can pass a HAM exam after studying for a week. Is that really what makes you think you are better than someone else? I think it is silly for anyone to be looking down their noses at anyone. Shame on all of you who do. You know, I played with a lot of radio freqs that are off limits to HAMs when I spent 6.5 years as in infantryman, and you know what? I still like playing with a CB. I like all radios. Sure there are jerks on 11M. Sure, when I hear so much echo that I can't understand what they are saying, it is annoying. I ignore them and talk to the clean stations. But to dog on the whole community because of just a few is ridiculously arrogant. On one side there are the crude CBers and the other side is the snobby HAMs. How childish that is. I thank God for all of the rest of you who just want to make some contacts and chew the rag a little. You make the hobby enjoyable for us all. My 2M mobile spends more time as a mobile scanner for public safety than anything else. Why? because there is hardly anything but static otherwise. HAM is a dying hobby. Why do you think the FCC dropped morse code? HAM provides a critical function in cases of emergcy and there aren't enough operators anymore to provide it. The FCC needs to lower the bar because no one cares about radios anymore. They are doing everything they can to bring more people in. Is that better or worse for you? The number of new licenses being issued are so far below those that are being lost. With these kinds of attitudes I don't wonder why. Stop scaring away and discouraging some of the would be "decent" operators. I am sure that most who read this will scoff at what I have said, but in 15 years when you turn on your rig and hear nothing but silence in your speaker; you can sit in and remember the glory days, when the bands were popping with activity, and how good it used to be.

The FCC dropped morse code AFTER the ITU dropped it as a requirement for HF communications. Prior to that the FCC was not able to do so because as a member of the ITU the US government was bound by regulations. They dropped it because it was no longer a requirement of their regulations they had to follow. The bar does not need to be lowered,in fact if it were raised we would have operators that are more skilled and knowledgeable instead of operators that can't even solder two pieces of wire to make a dipole if they even know how long it should be in the first place. Trust me if a true emergency was to exist and amateurs were pressed into service it would be the oldtimers that would be the first on the air. In adverse conditions they would be pounding out CW long before some of the new hams could figure out how to connect their laptop to their rig to send PSK or some other digital mode. Before you jump all over me for that let me explain that. When you lower the bar you build complacency into the system. Don't have to know it to get the ticket so why should I learn it after. There are a great deal of hams that memorize the Q&A pool (biggest mistake ever publishing the Q&A's IMO) and then ace the exam and get their ticket. Six months later they know absolutely nothing that was on the test they wrote because they never LEARNED anything. It's like riding a bike. Once you learn it right it will last forever. If you constantly have someone drive you around you will never learn. People are becoming disinterested in radio in general because it is perceived as antiquated and why, in a day when people hardley even know their neighbors, would someone want to talk to a STRANGER (oh my God!!) on a noisy and open radio circuit when they have 200 friends in their I-Phone's call directory. People will shun radio regardless of the entry requirements so why not make those that are actually interested in it the best they can be by forcing them to actually LEARN something. The idea of instant gratification only appeals to those who do not think highly enough of something to actually put some effort into it.


I know you and I differ greatly on this but trust me. I am not a stuffy arrogant old fucker but I have been around long enough to see the demise of the quality of the operator and have seen first hand what it has done to the hobby as a whole. It is disgraceful when an extra class ham has to ask how long a dipole is for 80m and why he has no 75m band position on his legal limit amp. There are just some things a person should KNOW before getting on the air with a kilowatt and a half.

 

[Zman]

I love SSB. I can talk miles away better than AM. Some nights when it is super quiet i can talk well over 125 miles barefoot with my moonraker beam and a peaked up SSB rig. TRY THAT on AM!