Having problems tranmitting on SSB

[1Adam12CC]

I just purchased a new Uniden bearcat 980 SSB CB radio. I'm having problems transmitting on LSB AND USB. My my AM TX is perfect but whenever I key up the mic on SSB I'm showing little to no output, sometimes it keys up to 3 dbls and down to 1 or none. The same with my SWR cal shows little to none about 00.00 or 1.0 sometimes

Heres my setup:

Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB

1/2 Wavelength A-99 Solarcon antenna mounted on the side of my shed.


Any help would be appreciated.

 

[WA0CBW]

Remember that in SSB there is NO RF output unless you talk. The carrier is removed along with one sideband. That is why they call it single sideband. Use a two tone test signal and a Peak-to Peak reading meter to determine if the radio is working at its rated Peak-to-Peak output. A standard wattmeter using voice will indicate about 1/4 of the rated Peak-to peak output.

BB

 

[sdeeter19555]

If you speak into the mic, you should see output for the reason previously described...you don't have a "dead key" output on SSB.

 

[KC4RAF]

+1 with WA0CBW.

If you know some one with sideband cb, ask them to monitor a channel that you'll test on. AM is different than sideband, you found that out already. Be sure to set your antenna first using the AM mode, then have some one listen to your signal on the SSB.

 

[kb2vxa]

Here's a radio tech trick that works. First check your "dead key" output on AM and note the reading, numbers aren't important for reference. Then switch to SSB and with a steady volume and tone say 5 stretched out to fiiiiiiiive and note the reading, it should be a close approximation of the unmodulated AM value. Like the man said there is no carrier on SSB, just "audio". If the peak SSB value is little to none penalty, penalty, send it back to fac-tor-y.

 

[kc4jgc]

Echo everyone above. From your description, it's working perfectly. Really.

 

[W2NJS]

rafdav wrote above...

"...Be sure to set your antenna first using the AM mode, ..."

Someone please tell me what in the hell that statement means.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

rafdav wrote above...

"...Be sure to set your antenna first using the AM mode, ..."

Someone please tell me what in the hell that statement means.

Change the word 'set' with 'tune'... That's what the 'hell' it means...

 

[MeddleMan]

That's funny!

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)



Change the word 'set' with 'tune'... That's what the 'hell' it means...

Please tune your antenna as usual per manufacturer's instructions, and then simply change modes for the test. You may be surprised how well it works.

 

[gewecke]

Here's a radio tech trick that works. First check your "dead key" output on AM and note the reading, numbers aren't important for reference. Then switch to SSB and with a steady volume and tone say 5 stretched out to fiiiiiiiive and note the reading, it should be a close approximation of the unmodulated AM value. Like the man said there is no carrier on SSB, just "audio". If the peak SSB value is little to none penalty, penalty, send it back to fac-tor-y.

Warren, now I always heard them say "OOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAA, OOLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! :lol:


73,
n9zas