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Post by oldgeezer on Apr 5, 2021 13:12:57 GMT -5
There are 1000s of SS CB radios. Prices are all over the place. Some are great and others not good. I had a cheap tiny CB with just a volume and squelch control. It was so noisy on receive it was about useless except very stong signals and even strong signals had a lot of distortion on the receive. You cannot go wrong with the better CBs such as Uniden PC78 or President Adams , but you will pay $100+ used. One CB that stood out is the Radio Shack TRC-484. The TRC-483 is new enough (1990s) that the capacitors inside are still in excellent condition- no repair needed. The receive is crystal clear like a tube CB with a very quiet receiver with adjusting the RF gain. Frankly, I would not buy a CB without a RF gain control and a noise limiter. It has the standard 4 watt swinging to perhaps 10 watts. Clip one diode inside (look up on internet), and the radio dead keys 4 watts and swings to 16 watts. That is 100% loud modulation. The internal speaker is fairly large and sounds good, but an external speaker is better. I find these radios in new old stock for under $50 on eBay, some are $30 new. Here is a new TRC for $26. Link:
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Post by cbrown on Apr 8, 2021 11:58:47 GMT -5
Please don't clip the limiter circuits on any radio.
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Post by vanlifeson on Oct 9, 2021 11:18:07 GMT -5
Please don't clip the limiter circuits on any radio. Sometimes you just have to. If you put a D104 on a radio and it still sounds Like a stock mic even after turning up the audio Pot, then you simply have to get out the snipper. I’ve had radios that even after you clip the limiter, they still Don’t sound as loud as some stock radios. |
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
Posts: 6,247 
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Post by Sandbagger on Oct 9, 2021 16:17:35 GMT -5
Please don't clip the limiter circuits on any radio. Sometimes you just have to. If you put a D104 on a radio and it still sounds Like a stock mic even after turning up the audio Pot, then you simply have to get out the snipper. I’ve had radios that even after you clip the limiter, they still Don’t sound as loud as some stock radios. Clipping the limiter doesn't give you any more audio gain. All it does is allow your audio amp to be driven to saturation and distortion. The end result is a harsh sound and splatter. If you can't achieve respectable loudness without removing the limiter, that likely means that the modulator is underpowered for the carrier level you are running. Try backing the carrier down to 2 watts and see if you get the loudness you want. You can always boost power with an amp, and most standard power amps like lower drive anyway. |
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Post by vanlifeson on Oct 24, 2021 11:20:37 GMT -5
Sometimes you just have to. If you put a D104 on a radio and it still sounds Like a stock mic even after turning up the audio Pot, then you simply have to get out the snipper. I’ve had radios that even after you clip the limiter, they still Don’t sound as loud as some stock radios. Clipping the limiter doesn't give you any more audio gain. All it does is allow your audio amp to be driven to saturation and distortion. The end result is a harsh sound and splatter. If you can't achieve respectable loudness without removing the limiter, that likely means that the modulator is underpowered for the carrier level you are running. Try backing the carrier down to 2 watts and see if you get the loudness you want. You can always boost power with an amp, and most standard power amps like lower drive anyway. Unless you don’t want to run power. I actually just picked up a TRC 482. It needed to be clipped to sound decent. Just wasn’t cutting it stock (even with a d104 and wattage turned down and swinging up it was a dog) Clipped the diode and the radio sounds great and gets great audio reports from everyone that hears it. I think it’s just a fact that not every radio built can be made to sound good without being clipped. Sometimes it’s necessary in my opinion. After clipping you also don’t HAVE TO run the d104 wide open to sound like a jerk lol. This radio is now usable after being clipped. Again, just my opinion that sometimes you have to clip that sucker. |
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Post by oldgeezer on Feb 9, 2022 18:12:44 GMT -5
The diode clip in the TRC482 does not add distorted audio, but increases modulation swing from 8 watts to 14 watts with the stock microphone or 16 watts with an amplified microphone. Any radio with a 4 watt carrier and 16 watts peak is 100% modulation. 100% modulation does not produce distortion, so dismiss those distortion statements above.
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