Radio Shop

cbshoestring wrote:
Truth be told....I have no clue.

The guy I bought the radio from had a receipt for the peak/tune install of a connex. ME, I just tried to keep the echo/reverb set at a level where I sounded clean without being in a tin can or echoing like a bad football announcer.

As for the wattage...I had the SWR meter fixed, and the CB GUY scoped it and said it was putting out 37ish. Whether or not he knew how to read the scope?????????? At least he fixed my meter light!!!

I just know I got a lot of comment on how clear my BIG RADIO sounded. Running a telex roadking mic, and having a voice like Jim Reeves probably didn't hurt.

Meter light, easy fix.

37ish, absolutely no way..

Perhaps he meant 3.7 ish (THREE POINT SEVEN)watts which WOULD be "correct" LEGAL output with no voice modulation..

The STOCK output RF transistor in the final is only good for 5W INPUT, output is ALWAYS LESS than the INPUT wattage.. Note, FCC rules may state 5W but that is 5W of power used by the final output transistor and there IS a loss in HEAT of 1W..

Now if you are talking about a SSB (Single Side Band) CB that is allowed up to 12W PEP (Peak Envelope Power) at full modulation ON SSB, on non SSB the final is limited to 4W OUTPUT.. There are some OLDER late 70's early 80's models of SSB CBs in which it WAS possible to "open it up" to about 10W on AM.. But not a real smart thing to do..

But in reality, CB is pretty much a dead means of communication and therefore NEW CBs can often be bought for as low as $40 and are A THROW AWAY ITEM since for a LEGIT RF RADIO repair shop to even crack open the case they WILL be charging at least $60 min just to break even for their time. Many of those "shops" are taking peoples money and TELLING them they have "peaked" it and giving us legit techs a bad name..

Back when I was in Tech school CB repair was one part of our hands on lab.. Got to play with lots of test equipment.. Had to trouble shoot CBs that were intentionally sabotaged..