QRM eliminator

[nicklus]

Are the QRM eliminators that they sell on Ebay and Amazon for $ 50to 60 bucks any good for SSb cb radio? I read some of the reviews and some said yes some said no. I dont know of anyone in my area that has tried one so I thought maybe someone on here has. I have a lot of power line noise that the power co is working on but I also have other noise I can't identify. I am running a Anytone AT 6666, Any help greatly appreciated

 

[dlwtrunked]

Are the QRM eliminators that they sell on Ebay and Amazon for $ 50to 60 bucks any good for SSb cb radio? I read some of the reviews and some said yes some said no. I dont know of anyone in my area that has tried one so I thought maybe someone on here has. I have a lot of power line noise that the power co is working on but I also have other noise I can't identify. I am running a Anytone AT 6666, Any help greatly appreciated

there are various entirely different types. You need to be more specific.

 

[rivardj]

there are various entirely different types. You need to be more specific.

Check out this link:

CB Radio Generic Mobile Transceiver RFI/Noise Reduction Kit

I have purchased kits from them and have had very good results.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Check out this link:

CB Radio Generic Mobile Transceiver RFI/Noise Reduction Kit

I have purchased kits from them and have had very good results.

May work for vehicle generated QRM. But if the QRM is not caused by the vehicle itself, that will not help. He did say it was power line hist and the link will not help if it is.

 

[rivardj]

May work for vehicle generated QRM. But if the QRM is not caused by the vehicle itself, that will not help. He did say it was power line hist and the link will not help if it is.

Based on the information below from the website and my personal experience in fighting power line noise and noise in general, I beg to differ.

"A side benefit is a reduction in noise floor in your receiver depending on the amount of noise being introduced by common mode currents (which are blocked/reduced by the chokes in this kit)."

Adding ferrite chokes to my station has lowered the noise floor in my receiver to a level than I have ever experienced at my location in the 35 years I have lived here. I purchased and installed the Yaesu 991 Transceiver RFI Kit with 8 RFI/Noise Reduction Filters and saw a dramatic reduction in noise.

He also states he has other noise he can't identify so this kit might help.

For $19.95 plus shipping it might be worth his while to try it.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Based on the information below from the website and my personal experience in fighting power line noise and noise in general, I beg to differ.

"A side benefit is a reduction in noise floor in your receiver depending on the amount of noise being introduced by common mode currents (which are blocked/reduced by the chokes in this kit)."

Adding ferrite chokes to my station has lowered the noise floor in my receiver to a level than I have ever experienced at my location in the 35 years I have lived here. I purchased and installed the Yaesu 991 Transceiver RFI Kit with 8 RFI/Noise Reduction Filters and saw a dramatic reduction in noise.

He also states he has other noise he can't identify so this kit might help.

For $19.95 plus shipping it might be worth his while to try it.

True power line power line noise (not just noise on the power line) is something different. It generates radiated noise by arcing and corona discharge that is received just like any other signal and can be a real problem. That problem appears as actual signal at the antenna (something a common mode choke cannot fix), needs to be fixed by the power company, and he says the power company is working on it. Sometimes this kind of noise can be located by listening and hitting the pole hard with your hand and hearing it change. I had a case on a military base where hitting the pole with my fist would turn the noise on and off (and give me many splinters from having to demonstrate to people up the chain including the power company). That noise was on a pole not far from an aircraft ground UHF aircraft band transceiver. Such chokes as you mention can help reduce other types of noise on your in house power line (and I recommend them for such) but that noise is not quite the same thing.

 

[slowmover]

There are reviews on eHam of QRM devices. I’d try one with a base station experiencing problems.

The “related” advice of P-E kits is a help (difference noted above). An easy first step to get after the hash noise.

.

 

[dlwtrunked]

True power line power line noise (not just noise on the power line) is something different. It generates radiated noise by arcing and corona discharge that is received just like any other signal and can be a real problem. That problem appears as actual signal at the antenna (something a common mode choke cannot fix), needs to be fixed by the power company, and he says the power company is working on it. Sometimes this kind of noise can be located by listening and hitting the pole hard with your hand and hearing it change. I had a case on a military base where hitting the pole with my fist would turn the noise on and off (and give me many splinters from having to demonstrate to people up the chain including the power company). That noise was on a pole not far from an aircraft ground UHF aircraft band transceiver. Such chokes as you mention can help reduce other types of noise on your in house power line (and I recommend them for such) but that noise is not quite the same thing.

Note also, his post does not indicate his radio is in a vehicle and implies it is a base unit.

 

[merlin]

Living in QRM ville, I have tried all this stuff with marginal results. This can become a real spaghetti bowl.
Noise from service lines can be reduced with an industrial grade line filter. Then there is static discharge that can be reduced with a small bit of resistance across antenna input and corona 'hat' on the antenna. (often that ball on the end of a rod)
Cheap switching power supplies are notorious for generating noise and spurs all over the HF spectrum. Ferrite chokes only mask the source, get a clean power supply.
IN-band noise from the outside world is mostly the thousands of radios transmitting at the same time. best solution for that is some form of DSP filtering.
Now for bargain basement radios, they are not designed with best signal to noise ratio in mind. Remove antenna, short the input with squelch open, ideally there should be nothing at all. What you hear is noise from most stages in the radio itself. No cure for that. SSB demodulation complicates even that. Best thing there is high quality filters with tight bandpass.
I am just scratching the surface here, there is a lot more. The idea is to get the best possible signal with the least amount of noise.
Most CBers will turn RF gain to max. WRONG. Keep turning it down until the desired signal just barely drops, that brings the noise floor down.
Hope you get the guist here and achieve better performance.

 

[nicklus]

I thank everyone for their comments. I called DX Engineering and questioned them about the WiMo QRM Elininator that they sell and he said it will not work with the Anytone 6666 as it has to have a PTT cable connected to the radio somehow. I think they are more for Ham radios than what I have. A friend I talk to on SSB that is a ham operator also said they will also cut the receive signal. I'm sure what ever the power co does will probably help as they found several insulators that were emitting noise. The other noise I haven't been able to find is an intermittent buzz [4sec. on 4sec. off]. I have hooked the radio to a 12v battery and urned my main breaker off which kills everything and the noise prevails. We live in a rural area and the closest neighbor is about 600' away. No electric fences or anything like that. I think this is going to be a tough one. Once again, Thanks for all the comments

 

[Blueliner]

Have you tried walking your property with a portable tuned between BC stations but that hears the noise? Turning the portable as you go may at least give you a direction from which the noise is coming. On and off like that sounds like something the power company is up to, maybe a power monitoring system of some kind? (A wild guess). Try walking under the incoming power lines to your house, then walking away from them. How does that signal change if at all?

Keep a sketch of your land's layout and keep notes on signals, their apparent direction and a 1-10 estimated strength. It might also help to drive your area and see if there are power substations. Again, checking your portable radio for the intermittent noises.

 

[slowmover]

Most CBers will turn RF gain to max. WRONG. Keep turning it down until the desired signal just barely drops, that brings the noise floor down.

Advice used from beginning was go to a nearby quiet channel to get into the ballpark as above. Set SQ, also.

Go back to busier channel and don’t alter much the settings achieved prior.

IN-band noise from the outside world is mostly the thousands of radios transmitting at the same time. best solution for that is some form of DSP filtering.

MFJ products. They’re going out of business, but they’ve a range of choices still available.

As before, be willing to experiment.

I mistakenly bought a 9:1 unun years ago. Recently came across a way I might use it. So don’t sweat an expense in trying to get results.


.

 

[niceguy71]

Most CBers will turn RF gain to max. WRONG. Keep turning it down until the desired signal just barely drops, that brings the noise floor down.

Advice used from beginning was go to a nearby quiet channel to get into the ballpark as above. Set SQ, also.

Go back to busier channel and don’t alter much the settings achieved prior.

IN-band noise from the outside world is mostly the thousands of radios transmitting at the same time. best solution for that is some form of DSP filtering.

MFJ products. They’re going out of business, but they’ve a range of choices still available.

As before, be willing to experiment.

I mistakenly bought a 9:1 unun years ago. Recently came across a way I might use it. So don’t sweat an expense in trying to get results.


.

I always learn something reading Radio Reference and now I learned I have been wrong all these years!... your always full of great info Slowmover and I'm always appreciative of it. . I always kept my RF Gain to max trying to hear low powered radio's .... if I'm talking to someone that is close by or I'm in a caravan with others I turn it back so I just hear the people near me.

 

[merlin]

Noise on 11 meters is unavoidable. If your radio has RF gain control, all you can do is adjust it for best signal to noise ratio.
(see post 12)
ANL almost never works.
Some of the more advance radios have ajustable bandwidth, narrowing that a bit will help.

 

[niceguy71]

Noise on 11 meters is unavoidable. If your radio has RF gain control, all you can do is adjust it for best signal to noise ratio.
(see post 12)
ANL almost never works.
Some of the more advance radios have ajustable bandwidth, narrowing that a bit will help.

ANL almost never works???

I may be using my NB/ANL wrong too.... I have the button in ( on ) and my old President Grant has limited vehicle back ground noise/ interference... if I shut it off, the radio screams with interference and gets worse when I step on the gas pedal .... noise goes up and down with the gas pedal so loud it would be unusable .... I have a 12 AWG from the positive battery terminal with fuse to a relay on the firewall that works with the key so if I shut off the truck the radio loses power ( 10 minute delay).... I also have the radio grounded from radio chassis to the floor of the cab as close to the radio as possible and the negative wire also goes back to the battery.
I never looked into getting rid of the interference as just pressing the NB/ANL button did away with 90% of it... I use my radio whenever I drive my pick-up, ( 20 minutes a week) I'm very pleased with it's performance, I adjust the squelch and it's quiet.. if anyone transmits within 10/15 miles I hear them very clearly and can converse with them....... I can also turn the squelch all the way down and it makes the normal static back ground noise.... not the screaming interference..... I can hear very far off stations over the static.... sometimes I can talk to them sometimes not.
with the NB/ANL on, my radio works as well as any I've ever seen.

I've had other vehicle's and radios where the NB/ANL did absolutely nothing.
please enlighten me if I'm using this function incorrectly? thank you

 

[slowmover]

ANL almost never works???

I’d say it’s a matter of what is the advertised function versus the actual result.

ANL/NB are “okay” . . . until one moves from the Children's Band (gear quality) to the world of Amateur.

When I bought the W-M DSP Speaker it was based on dissatisfaction with CB (was running a new DX-99V2 and a pair of Wilson 2000 on an oilfield Pete), as I strongly felt or intuited that I wasn’t hearing as well as I should. Old-fashioned “large car” where RF Bond was far better than plastic fleet trucks.

I hadn’t run across anyone who’d tried it. But I couldn’t see any reason it wouldn’t work. Boy, howdy, did it ever. But I’d almost bought the radio a second time as to price.

— That’s where I started having conversations with men at a distance didn’t sound strained to me. And the men I rode with (same trucks) couldn’t hear to whom I was speaking.

That’s the difference Automatic Noise Limiter living up to its name should provide. Except that it was an outboard digital signal processing filter which filled the bill.

If ANL as a function term hadn’t been taken, it’d be a better sounding one versus Noise Reduction Circuitry.

Consider having this installed in the Grant if you do a resto job on it:



Some of the more advanced radios have adjustable bandwidth; narrowing that a bit will help.

You mean if I pay DukDik in the Desert $900 for a $350 radio with a two-year wait that his modifying for full-bandwidth usage wasn’t the thing? (Don’t answer that).

.

 

[niceguy71]

slowmover... I put that speaker you recommend on my list to get someday.....
but over $200 is just too much for a speaker... hell I only paid $260 for the whole Quad 5 radio.

every time I read your review of it; I think I need to get one.
well after reading the above post I'll get one very soon...... you sold me on the Quad 5 and you were so right about that great radio so I'm sure the speaker will be great too.

when I talk skip on my quad 5 base station. I keep a pad of paper and try to listen for peoples call signs... it takes me several times to get it.... if I can even get it correctly..... I can hear words ...locations...and even talk to people without straining.... but I just can't grasp the letters & numbers... I sit there tilting my head getting one letter or one number and jot it down on the pad of paper...30% of the time I get the whole call sign after hearing it a few times.... my hearing is TERRIBLE and I watch peoples lips when I talk face to face to help me and use closed captions on my TV....but it sure sounds like that speaker will help some

my work bench is a little crowded for space so I didn't rush to get the speaker... as the Quad 5 already the NR technology. and I have tried it off... and turned on.... setting one..... two, and three but it doesn't seem to help much... it gets rid of noise in the background but it hasn't helped me hear the call signs people say any clearer..... seems people say them as fast as they can.

so now I have to find a place for the speaker... maybe I'll hang it from above.... really not sure where to put it.. as you can see the radio is out of the way and I have the whole work bench for projects.... I put the radio on a computer monitor arm that clamps to the side of the workbench... the radio now swings out to any position I want..... ( I stole that idea from another brilliant CB guy)
slowmover you missed your calling the way you talk me into buying this equipment you should have been a salesman... no disrespect....
thanks for the help.

 

[niceguy71]

slowmover... I put that speaker you recommend on my list to get someday.....
but over $200 is just too much for a speaker... hell I only paid $260 for the whole Quad 5 radio.

every time I read your review of it; I think I need to get one.
well after reading the above post I'll get one very soon...... you sold me on the Quad 5 and you were so right about that great radio so I'm sure the speaker will be great too.

when I talk skip on my quad 5 base station. I keep a pad of paper and try to listen for peoples call signs... it takes me several times to get it.... if I can even get it correctly..... I can hear words ...locations...and even talk to people without straining.... but I just can't grasp the letters & numbers... I sit there tilting my head getting one letter or one number and jot it down on the pad of paper...30% of the time I get the whole call sign after hearing it a few times.... my hearing is TERRIBLE and I watch peoples lips when I talk face to face to help me and use closed captions on my TV....but it sure sounds like that speaker will help some

my work bench is a little crowded for space so I didn't rush to get the speaker... as the Quad 5 already the NR technology. and I have tried it off... and turned on.... setting one..... two, and three but it doesn't seem to help much... it gets rid of noise in the background but it hasn't helped me hear the call signs people say any clearer..... seems people say them as fast as they can.

so now I have to find a place for the speaker... maybe I'll hang it from above.... really not sure where to put it.. as you can see the radio is out of the way and I have the whole work bench for projects.... I put the radio on a computer monitor arm that clamps to the side of the workbench... the radio now swings out to any position I want..... ( I stole that idea from another brilliant CB guy)
slowmover you missed your calling the way you talk me into buying this equipment you should have been a salesman... no disrespect....
thanks for the help.

CLRspkr ClearSpeech® DSP Noise Reduction Speaker - West Mountain Radio

$219.95 and it's out of stock until September 30 2024.... slowmover stop telling people about it... you're driving up the price and they can't even make them fast enough! ( just kidding)

 

[slowmover]

That sure looks like a bench where problems get solved.

I was acquainted with an audiologist many years ago. He clued me in on difficulties in hearing. It’s not simple. The links provided earlier to Jay in the Mojave are about someone with severe hearing loss tackling the qualities of sound, not just volume.

Don’t forget the DRX-901 + W-M outboard module as a combination. The inclusion of tone control is why I’d like to try it. A friend of mine with hearing loss after years of competition shooting went this route and couldn’t be happier.

CLRdsp ClearSpeech® DSP Noise Reduction Processor - West Mountain Radio

Speaker and headphone amplifier with ClearSpeech adaptive DSP noise reduction for voice and CW. Recognizes intermittent nature of CW and allows it to pass noise free. Continuously adjustable noise reduction. Contains 11 watt (into 4 ohms) power amplifier. Sturdy aluminum case - Ideal for mobile...

www.westmountainradio.com

Driver Extreme (DRX-9010) - DX901 4" Premium Wedge Designed External Speaker, Black Finish with Chrome Mesh Grill, 15 Watt, Communications Speakers

Driver Extreme (DRX-9010) - DX901 4" Premium Wedge Designed External Speaker, Black Finish with Chrome Mesh Grill, 15 Watt, Communications Speakers in Communications Speakers

www.bobscb.com

This has been the best-sounding speaker — as a speaker — I’ve used in CB. DSP/NRC ahead of it is a great thing.

.

 

[slowmover]

so now I have to find a place for the speaker... maybe I'll hang it from above.... really not sure where to put it.. as you can see the radio is out of the way and I have the whole work bench for projects

Having a wall behind or next to.

Ceiling, another.

Corner placement might help.

A partial enclosure (behind and on one side). Maybe a third panel (leaving open one side and bottom). Can move it around speaker and change distances.

Attach wood to included speaker bracket and use rope/pullies to raise/lower once suspended. Move it “around the space” via guy lines. (Adjust enclosure after).

— Speakers (as audiophile) need a ground plane, a surface or more to enable reflection to work its magic.

1). Distance from wall
2). Possible aid of a panel or panels on 1-3 sides.

Reflection is time-based. Reason for speaker cabinets. “Sound” emanates from speaker cone outer “edges” (these are things I keep in mind as I try locations). Very small changes in axis can be profound.

A set of best stereo speakers used forty years ago (Klipschorns) was that they almost sounded better from an adjacent room . . . till the realization dawned that the recording had moved from pure sonic accuracy to the experience of concert hall.

How I felt versus parsing content note-by-note.

Yes, men do not consider the weight of words. Walter Cronkite trained himself to speak at about 110-120 WPM after noting that Americans tended to speak at 160-180 WPM. (He was also a HAM).

They don’t breathe well, nor do they use their voice as an instrument. (Well, it’s rare enough to be noticeable).

EG Marshall, actor, was an outstanding voice for those who recall CBS Radio Mystery of the Air.

I will always miss that familiar voice present in my first thirty years of life of hearing Douglas Edwards news sign-off for the CBS Radio Network while crossing America by car.

Be the right influence.

.