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why do people....

KD2GOE

KD2GOE

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
May 30, 2013
952
220
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Buffalo
so my friend wants to get in to CB's and we where looking at some radios online. he found a galaxy DX2547 i told him that would be an ok radio for a base station..
I told him to go to a local shop and talk to the guy there he may have a nice older radio sitting around some one didn't pic up that had work done on them. so he gets back to me that he got a galaxy 22B witch I look up the specs and it looks like a nice radio.. well told him to bring it over we can test it out before your antenna gets in "imax 2000"..

This is where the crap load starts the radio is dead keying at 5 watts and swinging to 10??? stock is 10 watt dead key and swinging to 30..
I set it to side band and it is only swinging to 10 watts I facepalm that should swing to 30 watts PEP.
I open it up to take a look in side what do I see a diode cut "I think D112"

I feel embarrassed that this is the radio he got... I told him take this thing right back in to him

right now my uniden Washington has more power then this thing! :cursing:
 
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mkube396 said:
yeah I seen that I am not going to work on a radio that the guy claims is peek and tuned, it shod just work. on top of all that the knobs where all loose and scratchy and the CH selector was jumping all over the place..
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Sounds like a rag. I looked at the transmitter section on the manual. It only does 10 watts deadkey & 25 watts SSB
 
Sounds like that your local tech is going to be busy with this radio and your other radio too. Sometimes many problems are solved with an alignment. Been there; done that.

If you see a diode, transistor, or resistor cut on the chassis, it probably was done to boost AM performance at the cost of SSB performance. Best to reverse it. But let your tech do it, as he will probably have other things to undo as well and adjustments will be necessary at that time.

If you aren't seeing the peak watts that you think you should, my first suspect is the meter you are using to gauge the radio's performance is the cause. Most wattmeters cannot show true peak wattage; that takes a meter that has a peak reading circuit built into it. Most do not have such a circuit. They aren't cheap either. That is tech gear.

But back to your rant . . .
Why do people:

1) Think that they must have an amp on their base station - when having the best antenna available mounted at an optimal height will serve them better and not be illegal?

2) Think that having nasty modulation (cutting the limiter diode/resistor/transistor) makes them transmit farther - instead of having clean ~95% that could be better understood both locally and distantly?

3) Think that running a dirty station is not their fault and not their problem?

This list could go on . . .
 
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Robb said:
Sounds like that your local tech is going to be busy with this radio and your other radio too. Sometimes many problems are solved with an alignment. Been there; done that.
Click to expand...

I am scared to take my radio to him now....


Robb said:
If you aren't seeing the peak watts that you think you should, my first suspect is the meter you are using to gauge the radio's performance is the cause. Most wattmeters cannot show true peak wattage; that takes a meter that has a peak reading circuit built into it. Most do not have such a circuit. They aren't cheap either. That is tech gear.
Click to expand...

its a radio shack meter and yeah I am comparing his radio with mine stock uniden Washington and cobra 29 as a reference I did it on my antenna and on my 50 watt oil filled dummy load so I am mostly working on what it shod put out compared.
 
Robb said:
But back to your rant . . .
Why do people:

1) Think that they must have an amp on their base station - when having the best antenna available will serve them better and not be illegal?

2) Think that having nasty modulation (cutting the limiter diode/resistor/transistor) makes them transmit farther - instead of having clean ~95% that could be better understood both locally and distantly?

3) Think that running a dirty station is not their fault and not their problem?

This list could go on . . .
Click to expand...

Because the new Cber is uneducated about what a good radio sounds like and is quickly lead be the loud and proud and crappy sounding crowd. It's like “wow big bob is running a super crap 2000 at 1000 watts with a whos your dummy load now at 80 feet and see he is pinning the my meter five miles away”. So of course they try to emulate big bob.
 
Well; yeah . . . you are right and I pointed this out because it is the new CBers that think these mods are the best thing to do. They simply do not understand what is happening. It is best that they explore these questions and find out for themselves that doing those things doesn't get them what they think it does.

mkube:
Do you don't think that your tech doesn't know how to undo these mods or unfudge your mistakes? Couldn't be much of a tech if he doesn't. Face it; you would be better served in the long run if you let him get them all straightened out. So long as he is an experienced tech and has the gear and parts to make it right, that is what I would do. If he isn't a real tech but a 'golden screwdriver' instead; then avoid him at all cost and find a real tech to do the work.
 
Robb said:
mkube:
Do you don't think that your tech doesn't know how to undo these mods or unfudge your mistakes?.
Click to expand...

LOL I didn't do or touch any thing.. :p


Robb said:
Well; yeah . . . you are right and I pointed this out because it is the new CBers that think these mods are the best thing to do. They simply do not understand what is happening. It is best that they explore these questions and find out for themselves that doing those things doesn't get them what they think it does.

mkube:
Do you don't think that your tech doesn't know how to undo these mods or unfudge your mistakes? Couldn't be much of a tech if he doesn't. Face it; you would be better served in the long run if you let him get them all straightened out. So long as he is an experienced tech and has the gear and parts to make it right, that is what I would do. If he isn't a real tech but a 'golden screwdriver' instead; then avoid him at all cost and find a real tech to do the work.
Click to expand...

I am just ranting and upset.
He came so highly recommended don't understand how this can happen. for the money he paid the radio shouldn't have messed up controls and be underpowered with cut diodes. maybe he just messed up and thought he had gone thru that radio and it was just a simple mistake we are all human...

I told him to take it back and explain what going on and give him a chance to make it right...


so end of rant
 
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Highly recommended is all relative to who is doing the recommending. Bad shops that are still in business are obviously making some people happy or they would go under. The way to find out is to ask what they will be or have done, specifically, to the radio. Ask what kind of equipment they use. You can use this information along with recommendations to gauge if that shop is right for you. Not all operators necessarily look for the same thing in a tune/alignment.

Saying that "new CBers" are all ignorant or "uneducated" is pretty inflammatory. It is also generalizing as absolute with an implication of "all". When you speak in absolutes it shows a degree of irrationality. There are many new and old CB operators alike, who operate very dirty and bad sounding radios. Just like there are many new and old CB operators who have very good sounding set-ups. This forum tends to cater to those of us who care about the quality of the signal we are transmitting. Making people feel uncomfortable or offended may steer them to other forums for advice. Many of the other forums contain the very irresponsible operators you speak of. We want more people getting good advice don't we? It would do the hobby more justice to just help without the derogatory statements. That way we can share the proper "education" to those who don't know. Then they will. We will all be happier on the air in the long run:D.
 
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Lil'Yeshua said:
Galaxy Radios DX22B Service Manual
First I've heard of the 22B but it looks like it was designed to drive an Amp
Click to expand...

it has dual final's in it from the other radios I have seen with the same board there getting 10 dead key PEP of 30 watts on AM, and side band swinging from 30 to 40 PEP.

he is going to a different shop to get a second opinion on this radio. The way I see it with all the controls messed up spending $300 on this POS he can get a Galaxy DX2547 for under $250 and have more power then this thing.
 
roadrage said:
Highly recommended is all relative to who is doing the recommending. Bad shops that are still in business are obviously making some people happy or they would go under. The way to find out is to ask what they will be or have done, specifically, to the radio. Ask what kind of equipment they use. You can use this information along with recommendations to gauge if that shop is right for you. Not all operators necessarily look for the same thing in a tune/alignment.

Saying that "new CBers" are all ignorant or "uneducated" is pretty inflammatory. It is also generalizing as absolute with an implication of "all". When you speak in absolutes it shows a degree of irrationality. There are many new and old CB operators alike, who operate very dirty and bad sounding radios. Just like there are many new and old CB operators who have very good sounding set-ups. This forum tends to cater to those of us who care about the quality of the signal we are transmitting. Making people feel uncomfortable or offended may steer them to other forums for advice. Many of the other forums contain the very irresponsible operators you speak of. We want more people getting good advice don't we? It would do the hobby more justice to just help without the derogatory statements. That way we can share the proper "education" to those who don't know. Then they will. We will all be happier on the air in the long run:D.
Click to expand...

Unless a new CBer is a Ham operator or an RF engineer; then -yes- it is more than safe to say that they do not know what is going on inside a radio. That is merely an observation and was not meant to be inflammatory.

These kinds of mods have been around a long time. It does not mean that they can be done without consequences. They do it because their friends notice that the radio has become louder or have more output. But at what expense? They don't see what the radio techs or radio hobbyists see on test equipment when these modded radios are on the air or on the test bench in front of them.

Never seen a radio yet that didn't have an awful waveform on SSB -and just as bad on AM- when the AM limiter has been cut out of the circuit. Another stupid mod is spreading the coils of the 54mhz trap circuit. These are not practical mods. The list goes on a bit. Are the original design engineers somehow wrong because the modders don't know what the difference of the end product is? They just think because it may sound louder or show more watts on a meter that it was the right thing to do and that they can do better than the engineers.

These modded radios have consequences. Spurious emissions are vastly increased and these artifacts transmit into the Ham bands and emergency services bands (police, fire, and ambulance) as well as military bands. It is a main source of interference and is also illegal to do for these very reasons.

The best mod isn't a mod at all, that would be having alignment done that is spot-on. Clean, legible audio while having clean wattage output that isn't riddled with spurious and harmonic watts in the mix.

If you can grip that, then there is no problem.
 
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Look guys the hole reason I started this was I sent my friend in for a CB Radio and the guy sold him a moded 10 meter radio that on top of that was in bad shape... I didn't want to start any fight.... But I guess some people are looking for one..
 
re old radio

I would just sell the radio on ebay and go out and buy a nice new radio and be done with it that way he is happy with it then spend a lot of money to get a old radio to work and sound good and still have a old radio when done for the price of a repair for that old radio you can get a nice new radio just my two cents
 

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