H E L P ! ! ! Question About LSB & USB

[redmonds]

I have recently purchased a YAESU VR-500. I have had a VR-120 for the past 8 years and wanted to upgrade to a different radio with more options. My question is, I now have a radio with LSB & USB capabilities, but I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Can someone explain or point me in the right direction so I can learn about these? I have heard a little bit along the way in regard to CB talkers using LSB & USB in order to get out further. H E L P ! ! !

 

[fineshot1]

I have recently purchased a YAESU VR-500. I have had a VR-120 for the past 8 years and wanted to upgrade to a different radio with more options. My question is, I now have a radio with LSB & USB capabilities, but I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Can someone explain or point me in the right direction so I can lean about these? I have heard a little bit along the way in regard to CB talkers using LSB & USB in order to get out further. H E L P ! ! !

If you are just programing vhf & uhf freqs into memory then you can forget about them as
you will never use those modes. If you are programing some hf utility freqs then you may
need to set them up using one of these modes.

Single-sideband modulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Utility World

 

[N0IU]

Amateur radio voice communications are almost entirely carried out using LSB or USB. There are a few crusty old die-hards out that that still use AM and a growing number of hams are using digital voice, but SSB is by far the mode of choice. For 160, 80 and 40 meters, voice communications will be LSB and 60, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters use USB. Another reason to monitor using SSB is that most of the amateur digital modes use USB with the one notable exception being RTTY which is LSB. (Some of the more sophisticated amateur rigs actually have a RTTY mode which is too detailed to get into here, but you can still monitor the RTTY on LSB regardless of how it is transmitted)

Clear as mud, eh?

 

[W2NJS]

Here's some more condensed info you may find helpful. A normal AM radio signal consists of a carrier, an upper sideband, and a lower sideband. The intelligence is contained in the sidebands, so the carrier gets a free ride and takes up unnecessary bandwidth. The LSB or USB transmitting process suppresses the carrier and one of the sidebands, and this results in a signal with a much, much narrower bandwidth requirement which saves spectrum space, among other things. The books you can get from ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page do a good job of explaining about this kind of stuff.

Tom, W2NJS

 

[SkipSanders]

There is a small amount of VHF/UHF SSB on amateur frequencies, but it's pretty minimal, compared to NFM voice.

 

[kb2vxa]

You've apparently never worked a band opening, for DX CW and SSB are where all the action is. FYI, narrowbanding doesn't affect frequency agile hams, our bands are not channelized so we'll be using standard FM +/- 5KHz deviation for the foreseeable future.

 

[DickH]

I have recently purchased a YAESU VR-500. I have had a VR-120 for the past 8 years and wanted to upgrade to a different radio with more options. My question is, I now have a radio with LSB & USB capabilities, but I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Can someone explain or point me in the right direction so I can learn about these? I have heard a little bit along the way in regard to CB talkers using LSB & USB in order to get out further. H E L P ! ! !

Since you are not familiar with those terms, LSB and USB,.they are the Upper Side Band (USB) and Lower Side Bands (LSB) of an AM signal (Amplitude Modulation). SSB is the entire mode, Single Side Band.

 

[redmonds]

T h a n k s

Thanks to everyone. This is really helping me to understand what I have been missing out on. It is still going to take me some time to figure this thing out though. Last night I plugged the CB frequency range into my scanner and set it for USB. This is going to be a long weekend for me and I will have some extra time to play with this. Anyone have any other suggestions on another areas to play with where I might be guaranteed to get some action at?

Thanks,

 

[N0IU]

Here is a link to one of the better amateur radio frequency charts: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/Hambands_color.pdf

The sections in green are primarily the frequencies where you will hear voice communications. You will probably find it a lot more interesting than what you will hear on CB and you will be able to have your kids or your wife in the room when you listen!

 

[LostSignal]

sooooo, SSB for CB is legal in the U.S. then?

First off, sorry to revive an old thread, but even old threads need to be rejuvinated instead of starting ANOTHER thread of the same/similar questions!!! I think most people would agree with that?

Anyways, I think I understand SSB for CB usage and IF you have a CB that has SSB capability:
1) You would use either the LSB or USB for that particular channel then. Again, assuming your CB radio has that capability?

2) So, IF your CB has that capability, is LSB and/or USB on ALL of the 40channels or just some of the CB channels?

3) Finally, whether LSB or USB, you can legally output slightly more wattage, I believe it is about 12W max for either LSB or USB, correct?

I do NOT know how to better ask the questions? Thank you for your input people.

 

[ka3jjz]

It's been a number of years since I did SSB on CB, however at least when I did it, only channels 16 and 36-40 were being used (legally) in SSB. Yes I believe the rules still allow 12w PEP on SSB - of course when you go freeband (above channel 40) all bets are off :.>> Mike

 

[krokus]

First off, sorry to revive an old thread, but even old threads need to be rejuvinated instead of starting ANOTHER thread of the same/similar questions!!! I think most people would agree with that?

Anyways, I think I understand SSB for CB usage and IF you have a CB that has SSB capability:
1) You would use either the LSB or USB for that particular channel then. Again, assuming your CB radio has that capability?

2) So, IF your CB has that capability, is LSB and/or USB on ALL of the 40channels or just some of the CB channels?

3) Finally, whether LSB or USB, you can legally output slightly more wattage, I believe it is about 12W max for either LSB or USB, correct?

I do NOT know how to better ask the questions? Thank you for your input people.

You may use SSB on any channel, but 36 to 40 is where the serious operators hang out. If you use SSB anywhere else, you are likely to be interfered with, by AM users, who have no idea you are there.

You are correct about the power, 12W PEP is allowed.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[LostSignal]

WOW

It's been a number of years since I did SSB on CB, however at least when I did it, only channels 16 and 36-40 were being used (legally) in SSB. Yes I believe the rules still allow 12w PEP on SSB - of course when you go freeband (above channel 40) all bets are off :.>> Mike

Thanks so much for the quick reply!!! I've been wanting to try SSB for quite some time now, but want to do it legally! I LOVE my walls NOT to be less that 5ftx5ft Finally, believe me, I TRIED "googl ing" my information and even a "thread search", but was NOT having very much luck until I found this thread by chance and it seemed to be somewhat similar to my questions, but my quesitons were a bit more specific! Maybe, by my asking/posting and you replying, it will answer someones questions in the future!!! Thank you again Mike for your help!

 

[LostSignal]

LOL, damn you guys are AWESOME!!!

You may use SSB on any channel, but 36 to 40 is where the serious operators hang out. If you use SSB anywhere else, you are likely to be interfered with, by AM users, who have no idea you are there.

You are correct about the power, 12W PEP is allowed.

Sent via Tapatalk

I just replied to Mike's reply, send, another reply, LOL!!! You guys are AWESOME!!! It is very much appreciated for sure!!! As my knowledge expands in the radio world, I am definitely the type to teach the new guys. I know enough to be "dangerous", but still have LOTS of inexperience for sure!!! Again, thank you people!!!

 

[Comp-100]

When i did CB 35-40 were often used for SSB, but since SSB existed long before 40 channel radios existed so of course SSB within the original 23 channels was used often. Other than staying off of 19 an and channel 9 we just used a free channel. Each region had sort of local AM chat and call channels that one would avoid by just agreement. By the same token, there were popular SSB channels in the lower 23 that AM operators tried to avoid, but can't remember what ther were in my region. Of course extra 'a', 'high', and 'low' channels were very popular.