inside or out

This is the place to discuss any general CB radio related topics. Getting started, installations, operation etc.
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The Collector
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Re: inside or out

Post by The Collector »

I floored it in 2nd tonight and no problem, but when I floored it in 5th at low rev's, it went into limp mode. When I pulled over to turn it off/on again, the rev's were bouncing around, so it could well be the air flow mass filter as we discussed as it went on my old Volvo V40 and did exactly the same thing with the rev's.
My Volvo one was £440 new, so sod that I thought. I got a used one for £20 on ebay and swapped it over in under 10 minutes. I doubt the Renault's will be as easy to get to though, as easy to swap over or be as cheap!
As long as I dont put the car under load it'll be fine, plus I walk to work most of the time as it's only 25 min's away anyway.
original45
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Re: inside or out

Post by original45 »

Could be. Remove elec plug from it so totally disconnected. Remove and spray the sensor plate well with electrical contact cleaner ,let dry.
On some cars you can run the car to test with this disconnected to see if it happens disconnected ,not sure 're yours .
Generally works, done several in past sorted all.

Could also be coil or potential plug breaking down ,air leak not sure but we start cheapest
para999
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Re: inside or out

Post by para999 »

hi somebody talking about me,wondered why my ears were burning. I've managed to get contact with the handyman he's had a few problems but hopefully he can get to mine in the next couple of weeks.
now I'm glad someone mentioned radials.getting totally confused and as I won't be able to access the whip when its fitted on the tv mast I need to make sure I've got it right first time as I'm beginning to wonder if I will get it sorted.anyhow do I need radials or do I need ground plane ?
as for fitting the other things you said kl 203 and a power reducer fraid that went right over my head.
original45
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Re: inside or out

Post by original45 »

Rm kl 203 is a 12v powered linear amp. Cheap and effective if driven low input.
They state max 10watt in am fm ,20watt ssb max input.
But most recommend running 2/4watts am fm and 15 max ssb or less or can pop.
I get about 70watts fm and 150 ssb out ish.
Simple to use.

The zetagi power reducer fits inline and has two settings,to reduce your radio output to level hopefully low enough to input to the amp.
25%&50% reduced output.
The amps get warm to hot so people add a small psu cooling fan couple quid on top again most are 12v to help keep cool.I have mine at rear ,raised at angle blowing cold air over top.works a treat.
Do a few Google's and YouTube reviews.

Allows me to chat to a mate with strong signal audio far away that without the 203 he can't hear me on either mode at all.
para999
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Re: inside or out

Post by para999 »

thanks for your reply .at the moment to be honest I really don't want to spend anymore money until I can see some sort of improvement by raising the height of the aerial, but it's certainly food for thought.
108EH002
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Re: inside or out

Post by 108EH002 »

para999 wrote: 19 Jul 2019, 15:03 the thing is an aerial contractor would charge about £60 ish to mount it on the pole and i wanted to make sure it was worth it against a loft mount which i can do myself.i live in a rented property so i'm restricted as to what i can do.
Have you tried a CHEAP homebrew wire dipole in the loft/outside yet ?

A halfwave vertical CB homebase antenna,onto a small pole in the back garden,needs no planning and your landlord will not evict you.

You have a loft and a garden,so you could be restricted far more than you are at present = make the most of it.
Plenty are talking worldwide on 27.555 usb,
Some are too far up their own @rse to admit it,
Many happen to know otherwise dx-ing test free,
Showing a complete lack of respect for the law.

27.555 Usb
para999
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Re: inside or out

Post by para999 »

hi to be honest I havn't simply because I had encouraging results from the tank whip and was hoping that would be it, especially when I heard foreign stations plus the scots etc last week.unfortunately it appears that the favourable results I had were due to skip and not the effectiveness of the aerial I am using.because I am not getting many results at the moment, surely as it is mounted, ground to tip, some 25ft-30ft ish from the ground I would have to have a dipole + scaffold pole of similar length, or more, in the garden ?my other reasoning is that as I have realised the aerial signal is being blocked, at the moment by a wall and part of the roof, paying £15 for the handy man to reposition it onto the tv mast.is a cheaper alternative than the outlay for another aerial plus pole plus fitting.but your suggestion is definitely worth considering and may in fact be what I do if I'm not satisfied once the aerial is repositioned. so thank you again.
original45
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Re: inside or out

Post by original45 »

Your situation is a difficult one . Don't give up but as you are aware getting the whip install right first time if that's what you choose up on the chimney will be important.
Again a wire diapole in loft could work and be cheaply made diy but will it work any better than the whip up higher however I made one for portable and whilst out its receive was fantastic but not great on tx.
Again it was good in a inverted v on the lawn .
It's one of those ,it needs to be tested to know and compared yo the whip .

Frustrating it must be. But it could be worse ,you could be up this was surrounded by twits playing music,arguing, keying mic over sensible conversations where ever you go on bands.

But I understand you not wishing to spend more if results arnt as expected.
Personally I buy used equipment ,look on sales sites .
I would ebay the Excalibur antenna to recover some cash.
If you have a car ,I would look at boot sales used sites for a decent sirio 3000,4000 and go mobile when I wanted to use radio.
Take a flask ,corned beef n onion sarnie and make a day of it.
I do now ,not as often as I did.

Good luck,don't give up & keep pushing on
108EH002
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Re: inside or out

Post by 108EH002 »

para999 wrote: 10 Sep 2019, 09:06 I would have to have a dipole + scaffold pole of similar length, or more, in the garden ?
Not if the dipole is =

1) up and over your roof or fixed onto the highest facia.
2) inside the loft,either in an inverted V = looks like ^ or in a horizontal position.
3) tied at highest point possible on the building and sloping down at an angle.

All you need is a decent length of coax and a pl259 plug,you can use whatever copper wire you want for each dipole leg,but the thicker the better = this is a cheap and easy antenna to make yourself imo.
Plenty are talking worldwide on 27.555 usb,
Some are too far up their own @rse to admit it,
Many happen to know otherwise dx-ing test free,
Showing a complete lack of respect for the law.

27.555 Usb
para999
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Joined: 18 Jul 2019, 12:07

Re: inside or out

Post by para999 »

sounds interesting. let me give the raising the whip first a try and if not satisfactory will get back to you on that one.would have to be outside as not much height in the loft. it would have to be the option of over the roof because there is a conservatory that takes up most of the width of the house at the back and unable to get an upside down ' v' ' in the room available.
Last edited by para999 on 10 Sep 2019, 22:52, edited 1 time in total.
original45
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Re: inside or out

Post by original45 »

A thought hoping more knowledgeable will jump on and advise.

I understand copper is a better material than stainless steel for antennas .
This being true would it be reasonable to assume if a copper tinned braid was removed from any suitable coax and slipped over the stainless whip stretched out to tighten it maybe, soldered top and bottom to the full length of whip would it make improvement
The Collector
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Re: inside or out

Post by The Collector »

original45 wrote: 09 Sep 2019, 21:34 Rm kl 203 is a 12v powered linear amp. Cheap and effective if driven low input.
They state max 10watt in am fm ,20watt ssb max input.
But most recommend running 2/4watts am fm and 15 max ssb or less or can pop.
I get about 70watts fm and 150 ssb out ish.
Simple to use.

The zetagi power reducer fits inline and has two settings,to reduce your radio output to level hopefully low enough to input to the amp.
25%&50% reduced output.
The amps get warm to hot so people add a small psu cooling fan couple quid on top again most are 12v to help keep cool.I have mine at rear ,raised at angle blowing cold air over top.works a treat.
Do a few Google's and YouTube reviews.

Allows me to chat to a mate with strong signal audio far away that without the 203 he can't hear me on either mode at all.
Remember you'll need either a car battery or a 20amp approx. power supply to run it though, adding more expense.

Ref the ground-planes/radials, they're the same thing. From the part of the bracket that clamps onto the pole, hang some 108 inch long wires down, or ground to the earth/soil as mentioned before with a single longer length if a few jellyfish-looking dangling wires will look a mess.
108EH002
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Re: inside or out

Post by 108EH002 »

para999 wrote: 10 Sep 2019, 16:48 sounds interesting. let me give the raising the whip first a try and if not satisfactory will get back to you on that one.would have to be outside as not much height in the loft.
Hopefully for you the whip higher up works better,but if its still poor you could have been using a dipole of some kind for the last few month.

My homebrew dipoles (lower down than vertical) that cost me next to nothing to make,can sometimes hear what a decent 5/8th wave homebase antenna (costing over £100 new) can't at 30 ft up.......just so you know.

Last 3 verticals against dipoles = Sirio gain master / Sirio 827 / Imax = these should beat your whip on rx imo = but they sometimes can't hear what a cheap homemade dipole in the right place at the same time can ;)
Plenty are talking worldwide on 27.555 usb,
Some are too far up their own @rse to admit it,
Many happen to know otherwise dx-ing test free,
Showing a complete lack of respect for the law.

27.555 Usb
The Collector
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Location: Bristol-ish

Re: inside or out

Post by The Collector »

Well I've been doing a bit of tarting up, fixing, not fixing and general farting around.

The Midland 2001 has officially gone deaf and will only pick up strong signals. It'll be sent off for repair with a few others I'm sending to Nick (Black Spirit) in the very neat future. Nuts.

The car's Commtron Nato/CXX doesn't seem to TX on AM and for some strange reason the sound on AM sounds like FM and vice-versa, so when I clicked it onto what I though sounded like FM, it wasn't and then wouldn't TX because of the aforesaid AM issue. Double nuts.

The Midland handheld's battery connection issue has been sorted and is now all good. Minus 1 nut.

I thought I'd tart up my new/used amp too while I was messing around. I've extended most of the wires inside and turned the front and back panels upside-down, so that the heatsink is now on the top where it needs to be and the panel is the right way up. I don't know why they were made like that, other than it was probably for hanging upside-down from underneath a car's dashboard. I also resprayed the original black heatsink with the dregs of a spray can of Ford Aztec Gold that I had left over from respraying my 2nd Nato 2000. I'm not supposed to mess with paint and solder fumes, so I double-masked up and carried on anyway, holding my breath as long as I could too!
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The Collector
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Re: inside or out

Post by The Collector »

Any news on an aerial-fitting date yet Danny? Once it's up we'll try again one night.

I used to have my aerial connected straight to the radio when I didn't really use it. Now I have the radio, a frequency counter, my amp, a low-pass filter and the swr/matcher meter. It looks like spaghetti junction behind the scenes!
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