CB guys, Hams and Other electronic people. Explain

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I have a CB radio. Galaxy 959.

http://www.galaxyradios.com/cb/959.html

Galaxy does make 10 meter radios but this one is a legal CB and not a 10M modified to work on the CB band.

I found this site that says by cutting a couple of wires and adding a couple of switches that my CB can get many more channels.

How is this possible? Does this mean that the radio has extra channels in it? Or does this mod somehow "Confuse" the crystal and it just so happens to get more channels?

http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/galaxy/dx959/dx959_freq-mod_1.htm

http://www.cbtricks.com/radios/galaxy/dx959/dx959_ch-chart_after_mod.htm

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That radio is a Phase-Lock-Loop Synthesizer rig. When you "modify" it the freq that the synthesizer looks at (for dividing/multiply) is different when one of the switches are thrown and comes up with a different out of band illegal frequency. Most of these mods will mess up the finals because of antenna mis match and they were not designed for these freq.

Take care, Bill
 
You have to have an fcc license to broadcast on 10Meter.
CB Freq's are known as 11 meter.

You have Side band, upper and lower.. you have lotsa channels to squawk on.

73's to you
 
Originally Posted By: EricF
You have to have an fcc license to broadcast on 10Meter.
CB Freq's are known as 11 meter.

You have Side band, upper and lower.. you have lotsa channels to squawk on.

73's to you

Ya I know that.
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Everybody has gone to 27.425 here which is only 4 channels above ch40. I still have a great SWR there.

I usually run a Galaxy 99 which is a 10m radio but this little 959 is my favorite radio and it doesn't drift on SSB like the 99 does. The 99 is useless on SSB.

I've been trying to get the guys (they are not Hams either) to come back to the CB band but they won't listen.

Can't beat em join em I guess.
 
Most of the modern CB Radios (especially Galaxy) are actually designed as an Export CB or a 10-meter Ham Radio. Certain other countries are much more open in the available frequency range CB'ers are allowed to operate in.

They often use Jumpers or internal switches to make it 'USA Compliant' - which is normally 'cut this wire' or 'flip this switch underneath...'

These days - if you're not causing a problem or interfereing with a public service, the FCC could care less. Even the Ham Radio bands have become like CB (80-meters) and the FCC does nothing and could care less.

I'm not promoting out-of-band operation, i'm against it. However, you have to really TRY to get into trouble doing what you guys are doing - 99% chance nothing will ever come of it.

PS - check your SWR! As Bill stated - that's one of the biggest problems here in the USA with that type of operation (antenna cut for a different frequency range). But at only a few KC's above, should be fine also.
 
Can't you tune some antennae with a little lock screw at the base? If you're always at "43" you can set it up right for that.
 
I run a Galaxy DX93T which is a modified 10 meter radio. I can use it right from channel 1 on the 11 meter band right up to the 10 meter band without making any antenna adjustments.
 
Some CB operators modify their rigs to work "out-of-band" or to do what they call, "free-banding." But it is not legal.

The CB radios, even the Galaxies, don't have sufficient filtering circuity after the finals to work on the 10 meter Ham bands. The FCC requires a specified amount of filtering to reduce harmonics and they are not type accepted or registered by the FCC.

I think as long as you stay away from the Ham 10 meter band you will be ok.

I became a ham to get away the poor operating procedures, poor equipment, and foul mouth language on the 11 meter CB band.

Study for your Ham license, pass the test, and get equipment that is useable for speaking to the world. And you will learn some electronics along the way.

And BTW, the FCC is taking seriously interference and other infractions to the Amateur Radio bands.
 
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I was not aware that amateur radio equipment had to be type accepted. Amateurs that build their own radios do not need type acceptance. Maybe it is different up here.
 
Originally Posted By: xxch4osxx
Amateurs that build their own radios do not need type acceptance.


We could always go back so using Spark-Gap Transmitters.
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Talk about a nasty signal with ungodly harmonics - now that's wide-band interference.
 
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I was not aware that amateur radio equipment had to be type accepted. Amateurs that build their own radios do not need type acceptance. Maybe it is different up here.


Maybe I should clarify.

You can still build your own equipment down here. In fact, I homebrew quite a lot. One of the things we try and insure is that our homebrews are clean.

Linears sold here have to pass harmonic and IMD specs and they can only be set up for 10 m operation with a valid ham license.

I do know that the FCC type accepts CB radios in the sense that they can only operate in the 11 meter band and not be readily converted. However, there are shops that will modify CB radios to work on other frequencies or hot rod them.

And every CB I have heard converted to 10 m sounds terrible in terms of audio and spurious emissions.

I would love to build and operate a spark-gap transmitter but FCC part 97 does not allow that anymore. I and my school pal did have one when I was in gradeschool but we would take out televsion set reception for half a block when we did CW.
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Originally Posted By: MolaKule
And every CB I have heard converted to 10 m sounds terrible in terms of audio and spurious emissions.


One thing that I noticed was the audio quality (RX) of a CB - being built for AM, they seem to sound better (on AM RX) than a lot of Ham Gear i've ever heard (in AM mode). TX Quality - absolutely MolaKule - no comparison to Ham Gear.

..--- ...--
 
Agreed helix.

Especially since CB is mostly an AM medium, the receive audio is pretty good. If the CB has a synchronous AM detector instead of the simple diode detectors, audio can be really good.

On the ham side, most tranceivers (especially the riceboxes) are optimized for Single Side Band (SSB) and not AM.

That is changing slowly (IMHO) such as with the Kenwood TS-480 series, as many hams are rediscovering AM.

Even an ICOM-706 can be set for decent TX audio if you turn off the compressor, lower the mic gain to about 1/3 and reduce the AM output power to about 20 Watts.

If you really want to get through the noise and static, learn CW or go with one of the digital modes.
 
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"Linears sold here have to pass harmonic and IMD specs and they can only be set up for 10 m operation with a valid ham license." Up here, anybody can walk into a radio shop and pick up a 10 meter linear and hook it up to a 11 meter radio and crank out the power, even though it is not legal to do so. IC (equvilent to the FCC) seems to turn a blind eye to it, as it is very rampant here and I have never heard of anybody getting busted for it. The only time IC really gets motivated is if there is a serious problem relating to Amateur radio bands being pirated by unlicenced users.
 
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
If you really want to get through the noise and static, learn CW or go with one of the digital modes.


I did that (went to 90% CW operation) when they dropped the Code Requirements..

My old tower was in pretty bad shape and had to come down, this coming Spring i'll put something up to hang a couple of wires from.

Besides, my old Kenwood TS-520 needs a good cleaning/alignment/tune-up anyway.
 
I checked my antenna match using my 10m radio. I can safely go 30 channels above CB ch40 and 30 below CB ch1 before the SWR gets close to 3.0

Of course at a 3.0 match my coverage will be very limited. This week everybody is using 27.425 which is only 1 channel above cb40.
 
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