Need someone to test my radio. Portland area is dead.

[cmjonesinc]

A 1.1 (across the band?) with a firestick with practically no ground plane sounds a bit odd as well. What meter are you checking that with? Powering a radio off doesn't isolate it from the other one. I would be very cautious especially with your amp with that setup.

 

[jonwienke]

Your SWR reading is irrelevant in this case. Sharing an antenna between 2 radios with a T means only half your TX power is going to the antenna. The other half is slamming the other radio, and hitting a circuit designed for microwatt signals with more than a watt of power is a good way to fry stuff. And it doesn't matter if you turn the radio off, you're still hitting the receiver with thousands of times as much power as it was designed to handle.

 

[vansigint98661]

Sparklehorse, I recently had one installed when my wife and I were going on trips a lot. When last that I was into CB a lot (70s, 80s) here in the Portland area they did use 17 for I5 (basically N/S traffic) and 19 for 80 (E/W). Now listening to both of these I hear very little, except the odd base station with echo and/or effects. You mentioned these two in your reply to Dwitherspoon, so should I infer that truckers still use these? On the road I simply want to be abreast of traffic problems such as the copious accidents in the Kalama and Woodburn areas just as an example. They tie things up for hours as you know. When local I used to hang out on 10 back in the day when that guy out in Tigard overpowered everyone. Anyway, just wanting to know the affiliations. Company channels are great if your company has lots of rigs, but independents and small companies must want to communicate with each other as well. I'm finding, like Dwitherspoon that it's awfully quiet now that the sunspot cycles are quiet. Now with local LE mostly encrypted, hard to get a "heads up".

 

[Dwitherspoon]

A 1.1 (across the band?) with a firestick with practically no ground plane sounds a bit odd as well. What meter are you checking that with? Powering a radio off doesn't isolate it from the other one. I would be very cautious especially with your amp with that setup.

Yes, it’s 1.1 and stays there after calibration on both the 1976 model and the 2015 model. I don’t use an external calibrator.

 

[Dwitherspoon]

Your SWR reading is irrelevant in this case. Sharing an antenna between 2 radios with a T means only half your TX power is going to the antenna. The other half is slamming the other radio, and hitting a circuit designed for microwatt signals with more than a watt of power is a good way to fry stuff. And it doesn't matter if you turn the radio off, you're still hitting the receiver with thousands of times as much power as it was designed to handle.

I’ll disconnect the t when I get home and try each set individually and post the results, but I doubt a ground plane as large as the Empire State Building would result in me suddenly hearing dozens of connections I was missing prior. I’ll keep this tread updated however.

The reining consensus is that some metro areas are devoid of any, if not all cb traffic. Not that oregon was always hopping, but I could always find someone to chat with in late 2000’s.

 

[cmjonesinc]

If you've been doing much transmitting on either radio with them tied together you may have baked them both. That would explain the deaf ears as well.

 

[WA0CBW]

I would say after 10+ years your number came up! Using a "T" with two radios and an amp isn't going turn out well.

 

[jonwienke]

If you've been doing much transmitting on either radio with them tied together you may have baked them both. That would explain the deaf ears as well.

And the questionable calibration of the SWR meter in the radio.

 

[KB4MSZ]

And the questionable calibration of the SWR meter in the radio.

I agree. It would explain the flat SWR across the entire 440 KHz of frequencies on a loaded whip as the SWR bridge in both radios are likely damaged. The receivers where subjected to an order of magnitude of millions beyond their input limits.

 

[Dwitherspoon]

And the questionable calibration of the SWR meter in the radio.

Oh, ye have little faith!

 

[wtp]

one transmitter, one antenna.

scanners are a different thing, they only receive.

 

[jonwienke]

So? Your meter calibration is unlikely to be anything near accurate given the abuse you've inflicted on the radios. In-radio meters have never been particularly accurate, and yours is less likely to be so than usual.

There's no way the antenna setup pictured is below 1.5:1 SWR, even if it had a decent ground plane, given the metal objects in the vicinity, and totally inadequate ground plane. I would say that by itself is a pretty good indication your meter is wrong.

 

[Dwitherspoon]

So? Your meter calibration is unlikely to be anything near accurate given the abuse you've inflicted on the radios. In-radio meters have never been particularly accurate, and yours is less likely to be so than usual.

There's no way the antenna setup pictured is below 1.5:1 SWR, even if it had a decent ground plane, given the metal objects in the vicinity, and totally inadequate ground plane. I would say that by itself is a pretty good indication your meter is wrong.

starting to sound like sour grapes around here. Clearly it’s not a sky high SWR as I’ve used this mad mount setup since 2004 across a cobra 25 Ltd, a cobra 29 Ltd classic nightwatch, st and a colt base station with ssb. The SWR’s were all the same on those as well. Only I was able to talk to people.

Maybe not needlessly be hyper aggressive and just maybe realize you can do magical things with less.

As for the T thing. I got to reading more and more. Has anyone else in the history of the world did what I did? Maybe it works and everyone is just paranoid? Where is myth busters when you need them. All I can say is none of my radios have blown up because of it. Call it lucky or not. It’s just what I did for around 15 years.

I still can’t hear or raise anyone though. Across both radios. I have my old 25 Ltd in storage. Maybe I’ll swing by my storage unit and pick that up for kicks.

one thing I can say for sure. Either I have a lot of dead radios, or Portland is a CB wasteland.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Try this:
Disconnect the antenna from one of the radios. Set both radios on the same channel with AM and key the radio which still has the antenna. See if there is anything at all on the receiving radio. If it's receiver is still healthy there should be a good signal indication on it's S-meter.

 

[Dwitherspoon]

Try this:
Disconnect the antenna from one of the radios. Set both radios on the same channel with AM and key the radio which still has the antenna. See if there is anything at all on the receiving radio. If it's receiver is still healthy there should be a good signal indication on it's S-meter.

Now that’s brilliant!

I’ll do you one better. Along with that 25 in storage, I also have a small 3 ft small mag mount I used to use on my trans am. I’ll pick that up, set it up and have my wife give me a hand.

Beautiful! I would kiss you, but you’re probably a guy and I don’t know you that well. Now that’s constructive thinking! Why didn’t I think of that?

 

[KB4MSZ]

You will never know me that well.

 

[jonwienke]

one thing I can say for sure. Either I have a lot of dead radios, or Portland is a CB wasteland.

Your radios are likely both fried, TX and RX. And if the TX is fried, the SWR meter is going to read inaccurately low because it's assuming a specific RF level from the TX side. If you're putting out 1W instead of 4W, the SWR reading will only be 1/4 of the actual value. It's not a matter of sour grapes, it's just common sense and acknowledging the most likely consequences of what you've done.

 

[cmjonesinc]

starting to sound like sour grapes around here. Clearly it’s not a sky high SWR as I’ve used this mad mount setup since 2004 across a cobra 25 Ltd, a cobra 29 Ltd classic nightwatch, st and a colt base station with ssb. The SWR’s were all the same on those as well. Only I was able to talk to people.

Maybe not needlessly be hyper aggressive and just maybe realize you can do magical things with less.

As for the T thing. I got to reading more and more. Has anyone else in the history of the world did what I did? Maybe it works and everyone is just paranoid? Where is myth busters when you need them. All I can say is none of my radios have blown up because of it. Call it lucky or not. It’s just what I did for around 15 years.

I still can’t hear or raise anyone though. Across both radios. I have my old 25 Ltd in storage. Maybe I’ll swing by my storage unit and pick that up for kicks.

one thing I can say for sure. Either I have a lot of dead radios, or Portland is a CB wasteland.

"blown up" would be an exaggeration.... Deaf would be a better description. May be "sour grapes" as you say.... But I understand how rf works and I know my properly tuned radio in the same band will range from 1.2-1.5 swr from 1 to 40 and I can always find something to listen to. I'm certain someone "in the history of the world" has done what you have done and they have probably had the same poor results. Doing something for 15 years doesn't mean you've been doing it correctly. If you had been, you likely wouldn't have came here asking why it isn't working.

 

[Dwitherspoon]

I’ve got a sticking feeling that after the test tomorrow all of you will be eating crow. I can already see the posturing and distancing making. Well, this. Or well, that. Backpedaling is a beautiful thing. Also magical in its own right.

Clearly my cb system is in incredible and everyone is jealous. If it’s and bitt’s were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.

After all the seat has settled if you won’t to join the Portland area club your welcome to! That is before the FCC sells the spectrum for lack of use.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Do the test now. The receiving radio doesn't need an antenna and, in fact, doing the test without the other antenna is a better test. With the receiving radio in the same room with the transmitter there should be a good meter reading.

By the way, you might put some thought into possibly updating your wall phone. But that's just me.