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Santa's Best CB Gift List

The holiday season is here again. It came quickly didn't it? If you're like me you haven't started your shopping and probably won't until the last minute. Buying for someone with a hobby sometimes makes it easier. At least it narrows the possibilities. It's even easier if you're buying your own gift.

Well, Santa's going to give us some gift ideas for our CB friends and loved ones. The list covers some of the best gift ideas from stocking stuffers to big ticket items. Leave this where your better half will be sure to see it. Maybe even mark some of the items you want Santa to bring you.

Stocking Stuffers

Medium To High Price Gifts

Prices in this article are average prices and the actual price may vary. These should give you an idea and help you decide what's in the price range you have in mind. Bob's CB may be able to help with an item. Some of the products listed are in stock and almost everything else can be ordered in time for Christmas.

The CB do-it-yourselfer is easy to buy for. Connectors, batteries, solder, wire cutters and wire strippers make great stocking stuffers. Radio Shack has a butane powered soldering iron for use where power is unavailable. It's Part # 64-2182 and costs' $34.95. 1 have one and it works quite well. It doesn't get used often but it's saved me on a couple of occasions, once I was able to repair my CB while on a trip to Florida.

A CB radio is a good gift for someone that travels a lot. It serves as piece of mind for a newly licensed driver and their parents. Someone with a heath condition may get quicker assistance from a passing motorist with a CB than a cellular phone. You can purchase an inexpensive reliable CB radio with cigarette lighter adapter and magnet mount antenna for less than $75.00. Beware of the cheapy radios, the mics are lucky to last the 30 day warranty period. If a radio is used as an emergency radio, chances are it will be packed away after long trips and sometimes this puts more physical wear and tear on the equipment.

recommend sticking with Uniden. Their low cost radios are high quality and give good service for a long time. As for antennas, Wilson is the best but the Hustler IC100 is decent .©^CBWI

Bob's CB Reopens

On January 27, 1996, Bob's CB closed the door of its retail store in Malden, MA for the last time. It took the promise of a substantial amount of sub-contract work to make this happen. It was to allow me the time and resources to develop other products while marketing the SP-la speech processor. With CB Radio Magazine as my advertising vehicle, the promise of contract work, my lease running out, and more space available for less money it seemed logical to pack up and move.

Although sales of the SP- la are good, the contract work turned out to be about 25 % of what was promised. Resurrecting my old research from the CB World Magazine days, I decided to publish this newsletter. I had two products in the development stage. Developing and bringing new products to the market takes a long time. The demise of CB Radio Magazine put an abrupt stop to the development of an external SP-1 and a voice enhancement amplifier for receive audio. While hoping for a breakthrough with the contract work, I proceeded to look for a location where I could reopen the store and that would be well suited for all my needs.

After months of searching I finally secured a location that will accommodate all my business needs. Overhead in the CB retail business is an important factor and can kill the best of businesses. Mail order is stiff competition in this field. Customers don't always realize that retail space is much more expensive than warehouse space. Also setting up displays and demonstrating or explaining products to customers takes time. As they say, time, is money. What I'm doing this-time is using second floor office sp ace for my manufacturing, retail, publishing and service operation., This will reduce the overhead to a reasonable level.

Located in an area that has a high volume of truck traffic it offers better possibilities than the previous Malden store. It's one block in off Route 99 not far from route 16 and easily accessed from Interstate 93. See the map on the following page.

I've always been fair with my pricing and always maintained prices well below the local competition. I will continue to keep my old philosophy of providing the best possible service for a reasonable price. The SP- I a and CB World Informer will still be available as always. I will add more products to the inventory. Complete service will be available on CBs, 10 Meter radios and accessories including amplifiers. All products and services will be available mail order as well as on a walk-in basis.

Our open house will be on Saturday, December 7, 1996, from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. We'll have free coffee and doughnuts. There will be specials on every radio and accessory. If we don't have it in stock, we'll order it at a special reduced price! ©^CBWI

Midland SSB Mobile

I don't have much on this one. I did see it at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this year. I was able to get some unadvertised extras while playing with the display prototype unit. We weren't sure this one was going to be available. They are in the States and I've included a HOT SHEET on page 5 ©^CBWI

Swap & Sell

EchoMax 2000s are in again @ $129.95 limited time. Also Uniden PC 122 & Cobra 146 Channel kit completely assembled as covered in October issue. $19.95 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. 1-800-473-9708 ©^CBWI

MIDLAND
Model 79-290 AM-USB/LSB-Weather Transceiver with Detachable Control Panel
	There Isn't Anything This Midland Radio Can't Do! 120-channel operation (40 AM, 40 USB/40 LSB) and monitoring of N.O.A.A. and Canadian weather channels is impressive enough. But that's only the beginning of the 79-290 story. There's also such performance. features as Dual Watch, four memory channels and full-stage noise blanking. And there's still more...
SPECIFICATIONS: Size: 2"H x 61/4"W x 7"D (48 x 159 x 178mm) Receiver Sensitivity: AM: 0.8 µV @ 10 dB S/N WX: 1.0  µV @ 20 dB S/N SSB: 0.5 µV @ 20 dB S/N Receiver Selectivity: -6 dB @ 2.5 kHz, -60 dB @ 10 kHz Output Power 12 Watts SSB, 4 Watts AM Frequency Control: PLL Controls: On/Off/Volume, Variable squelch, Weather/CB selector, Last channel recall. LOC/DIS, Mic Gain, Four CB channel memory buttons, Dual Watch, Frequency/channel selector, Frequency Fine/coarse adjustment, Channel 9 memory, WX/CB channel selector, Detach release. CB band (AM/USB/LSB) selector  Power Requirements:  13.8V, DC. negative ground Accessories Included:  Full-size microphone w/4-pin screw-on connector DC power cord, Mounting bracket and hardware, User's manual. FEATURES:  BENEFITS: Detachable control panel For added security. Battery powered to retain data for up to 100 hours  Multi-function black matrix LCD display Indicators for channel/frequency (1/8" high), 12-segment RF output/signal mete. memory cannels 1-4. noise blanker, dual watch, RF gain, weather and operating mode Channel Number- or 'Frequency (MHz)' readout You have the choice Built-in I 0-channel weather receiver for the USA and Canada Keeps you up-to4he-minute on local conditions Four memory channels Instant access to any of four user-selectable channels Mic gain  Boosts TX output Dual watch Monitoring of any two user-selectable channels Coarse/fine tuning for USB/LSB Quick, accurate frequency tuning Full-Stage noise blanking system To reduce static and engine pulse to a whisper Local-DX receiver switch Reduces receiver gain for close stations High performance CPU For pinpoint channel selection and self-adjusting frequency operation Jacks for external speaker and antenna Added flexibility

Features and specifications subject to charge without notice.

Anttron 305 Super Base Antenna 

Everyone is familiar with the A-99, formerly called the Antron 99. Well, the original partners split up and the Antron name can no longer be used by Solarcon. You'll notice that the Anttron people have added another "t" to the name. Some of you might have been around long enough to have seen or heard about the partner split up at Browning Laboratory. It brought the birth of Tram. Instead of one ultimate radio, we were blessed with two Rolls Royce of radios. Each one would try to out do the other with their next model. It gave us some wonderful radios back in the old days. Something good came from the Browning split, and something good has been coming from the Antron split. Anttron has made -the highest quality low cost fiberglass whip antennas for a long time. I was never afraid to recommend them to truckers looking for something that wouldn't break their wallet. They also manufacture the 21K high power mobile antenna. It handles over 20,000 Watts of power.

I haven't tested the 305 yet but I've seen the one that will be going up at my store in Everett. The base section is heavier than the A-99. The quality seems to be much better too. The antenna comes with two U- clamps for mounting to a standard size mast. The KEMTRON™ radials are approximately 6 inches long and made of aluminum. Below see the list of data supplied by Anttron.

ELECTRICAL DATA

Omni-directional  Factory Tuned 27 - 28 MHz
Polarization - Vertical SO-239 Connection
0.64 Wavelength All Elements Active
Power - 2500 Watts PEP Electrically Isolated 
V.C.T.™ - Sleeve Tuning Impedance - 50@W Nominal 
Kemstar™ Radials To Broaden Bandwidth SWR. - 1.5:1 Or Less Across CB Band
Gain - 10.35 dBi/QWM (Same Test Method For A-99)

CONSTRUCTION DATA

1 1/4" O.D. Fiberglass Heavy Duty Bottom Section 3 Kemstar™ Aluminum Radials
3/4" O.D. Fiberglass Mid Section Overall length - 18 Ft. 
5/16" O.D. Fiberglass Top Section 1 1/2" Mounting U-Bolts Supplied

Independent testing was done by RF Testing, the same firm that tested the A-99 in 1985. They have received testimonials from CB and Ham operators. These comparisons, although not done under strict scientific conditions, show a 3 to 4 dB increase from the Ham community when compared to an A-99 in the same location. The CB community reported a 4 to 7 dB increase over the A-99 in the same location. Although these figures were not collected under laboratory test conditions, -the independent testing does show a 10.35 dBi gain for the 305 and a 9.9 dBi gain for the A-99. All leading to the conclusion that updating to an Anttron 305 will result in increased gain.

Other reports reveal that the antenna will tune from 40 to 6 Meters. Note the tuner must be designed to work on 6 Meters to tune that band. Also the E.R.P. (effective radiated power) was low on 40 Meters even though it tuned. You'll notice that the specification sheet only claims 20 - 6 Meter coverage.

Gain is a very important consideration when selecting an antenna. There are other factors that if not equally important are right up there near the top of the importance scale. Noise immunity is important. Gain is all well and good, if you can't receive due to noise interfering with your reception you've gained nothing. Noise reduction was a high priority in the design of the 305 antenna. Initial testing by Anttron indicated they did their job and are backed up by these testimonials.

Another consideration in selecting an antenna is its ability to maintain a good match under adverse weather. Snow, Ice and rain can raise havoc with an antenna's match. Snow and ice are the worse of the three because you must wait for it to melt and then dry off before your match returns to normal. This was a terrible problem with the Shakespeare PogoStick. It's exposed coil would fill in with snow and ice making the match go off the scale. The A-99 has this problem to a reduced amount. The tuning rings- affect the inductance of the antenna and are also exposed to the weather. The 305 sleeve is exposed to the weather but the folks at Anttron say the sleeve changes the capacitance of the tuning section and this isn't effected by weather.

Everyone wants their antenna to stay up as long as possible. I don't know too many people that enjoy heights and antenna installation work. This all leads up to the heavy duty bottom section of the 305 antenna. In high winds I've noticed the A-99 sway quite a bit. I have lost a top section of an A-99 and it's possible that this whipping action was the cause. I've also encountered customers that have had similar or worse problems including the bottom section snapping just above the adjusting rings. Shakespeare regained a few Super Big Stick customers for this reason. One bad antenna experience and customers suddenly feel that gain isn't quite that important anymore.

I can't wait to see or should I say hear how the New Anttron 305 works at the new store. By the way, they are available from Bob's CB. I purchased some for stock when I decided to go with this one for myself. My decision was base on a combination of specifications and knowing the owner of Anttron for a number of years. He's never steered me wrong. ©^CBWI

What's Happening To CB

As discussed in last month's issue, CB is on the up swing as far as numbers go. There seems to be a long parade of new equipment. What makes this so exciting is that most of this equipment is innovative and I haven't seen this amount of interest in new products for a long time.

More CBers and new equipment will make our hobby more interesting. But the increase of bad mannered operators will make for a different type of interesting. The kind we can do without. I had a subscriber write a note to me on this subject. He feels that many of these people turn out to be on some type of public assistance, have drug or alcohol problems and generally have no interests in life but to pass the time by trying to make others as miserable as they are.

In the past I've found the best way to discourage these individuals is to ignore their rude remarks. Never responding or arguing with them is the best solution most of the time. Arguing always encourages them to be more rude and foul mouthed. After all this has become their sole purpose in life, don't play into their hands. If you're talking to a friend and someone is interfering with your contact, don't let anyone know that your being disturbed. If you have the friends phone number give them a call and talking over the air the same as if you were communicating over the air but use the telephone as your ears. Nobody will suspect that the individual is covering you up, especially the one causing the interference. Every so often they will un-key to see if they're doing some damage. Never let them hear you say "come back again" or even worse, "that so and so is stepping all over you". Once they hear that they know their doing damage and they're in heaven and you'll never be rid of them. It's important for them to hear both parties carrying on a fluid conversation. You'll notice that they will un-key more frequently to check and see if you're just ghost talking. Then finally they will disappear.

I've used that phone method before even to conduct a club role call. After having trouble on our club night two weeks in a row with the confusion of 3 or 4 helpful members keying over one another to relay check- ins, I decided there had to be a better way. No one but the party on the other end of the phone new what was going on. I took down the check-ins I could hear and got the rest over the phone. I'll bet there were many members all set to relay calls sitting in front of their radios with their mouths open. In the following days many people asked how I could hear all the check-ins while they, being closer to some. of the station, were unable to hear. I never had an incident like that during role call again.

Rule 1, never let them know they're getting to you. Rule 2, never let them get to you! ©^CBWI

CB World Informer Proposal To Improve 11 Meters

As we discussed in the October issue, CB is getting crowded again. Proposals of adding channels are surfacing as they have so many times in the past. More channels are needed. But do we just want to add channels to the existing band as a continuation of what we already have?

Remember when the FCC allotted more channels back in 1978. Before it happened many operators unsuccessfully appealed to the FCC for sideband only channels. We had to settle for a gentlemen's agreement. It was a nation wide effort and a remarkable one at that. Unfortunately, without one governing body to listen to all the input and compromise for the best interest of the majority, we wound up with a watered down agreement that changed from one area of the country to another. Some decided on lower sideband, others upper sideband. Then when it came to what channels were AM it was all over the place. This was OK in those areas, but when the skip was running we had every mode going on some frequencies. This drove more operators out of band. 

Back in the early days of sideband the radios were tighter. On sideband the transmitter and receiver intermediate frequency is run through a crystal filter. The early filters allowed a frequency of between 2.4 to 2.6 KHz wide to pass through. This is common for today's Ham radios. But to cut cost on CB equipment the manufacturers have opted to use 4 KHz  filters. This widens the bandwidth of sideband transmission using more space than necessary.

I don't know if any of you remember or new of Don Stoner. He designed and manufactured a sideband only radio. It was a remarkable piece of technology but it didn't sell for the lack of AM. This was the cleanest transceiver ever made for CB. Don had a proposal for CB back in the early 1980s. He proposed adding sideband only frequencies to the CB band and spacing them 5Khz apart. In this proposal, radios that were manufactured to cover this additional band would incorporate a compandor circuit. The compandor is a compressor and expander unit. The transmitted signal is compressed reducing splatter caused from peak over modulation. Then the signal is returned to its original form at the receiver when it's run through the expander.

This was one of the best proposals I've seen. It made better use of the spectrum leaving room for further expansion in the future. Well expansion took place, not legally and not efficiently either. With the advancement in radio technology there are better solutions today that could be combined with Don Stoner's idea. DSP (digital signal processing) could and should be incorporated for noise reduction. Auto clarification or rock solid stability could also be incorporated, then everyone would want to use sideband. On the following page you'll find illustrations of how the space is or could be used by sideband signals.

Figure 1		Figure 1 illustrates the space taken by both sidebands transmitted from radios with 4 KHz SSB filtering and the standard 10 KHz channel spacing. Notice the USB & LSB overlap at center frequency. This is the cause of splash.
Figure 2		Figure 2 illustrates the space taken by both sidebands transmitted from radios with 2.4 KHz SSB filtering and the standard 10 KHz channel spacing. Notice that the USB &LSB is at a lower level of splash.
Figure 3		Figure 3 illustrates the space taken by 4 LSB signals from radios with 4 KHz SSB filtering and 5 KHz channel spacing. Notice we have 4 signals in the same amount of space with less overlap.
Figure 4		Figure 4 illustrates the space taken by 4 LSB signals from radios with 2.4KHz filtering and 5 KHz channel spacing. There is no overlap and the only way there would be splash is by overdriving the signal.

Keep in mind that AM occupies the center channel area and out as far as +/- 4Khz. AM doesn't have any intermediate filtering. It's a hog when it comes to space. That's why adjacent channel rejection is far better on sideband than AM.

Figure I is a representation of most of today's radios. They have wide sideband filters and this is fine if you operate 1OKhz apart and on the same sideband as everyone else. But people operate 5 down to get away from the noise and congestion. And if their radio has two sidebands then they must get used. You can't blame them, we've all seen the radios advertised as 120 channels even though they are 40 channel 3 mode radios, as the first two illustrations point out. Figure two demonstrates that even with 2.4Khz filtering there is still an overlap of upper and lower sideband, although to a lesser degree. Also looking at and visualizing another set of sideband signals placed 5Khz between the two sets already in figure 2 you'll quickly realize that this isn't a solution either. The upper and lower sidebands of the adjacent channels would overlap causing bleed-over.

What I propose is the elimination of one sideband. Either one, it doesn't matter they're both equally efficient, contrary to popular belief. With 5Khz spacing we can double the usable channels. Figure 3 illustrates that one sideband with 4 KHz filtering and 5 KHz spacing is better than what we've ever had, but it's still not good enough. We need tighter filtering. Figure 4 illustrates lower sideband only with 5 KHz spacing and 2.4Khz filtering. This eliminates that overlap of signals. 2.6 KHz filtering would do the same.

Now I mentioned DSP earlier as a form of noise reduction. The most common is the audio type, but there are types that work on RF frequencies. Today I don't know if it's economically feasible to incorporate the RF type. For now let's say it's an audio type. These units take the audio signal and convert it to digital information that a special DSP CPU (computer) analyzes looking for information that resembles voice patterns. The information that doesn't resemble voice patterns is extracted while the voice information is passed through to the digital to analog converter which converts the digital information back into audio. The result is lower noise level and a more readable communication. This is much more pleasant to listen to. A good DSP unit eliminates the need for a squelch control.

Now my proposal in full. Open up 27.415 to 27.610 and allocate this for CB lower sideband with 5Khz spacing. It could be either upper or lower sideband, but I chose lower sideband to be consistent with the illustrations. This would take up less than half the space used on the existing 40 channels and adds and another group of 40 channels to the band. Any 80 channel radios manufactured would have standard 40 channels and channels 41 - 80 would be 5Khz apart lower sideband only with 2.4 - 2.6Khz IF filtering. Some form of compandoring, DSP, and auto clarification or total stability of +/- 3OHz would be in the specification.

These specifications may seem tough. They need to be if we want to make the best use of what's available. As you can see we can squeeze close to another group of 80 channels out of what remains before we reach 10-meters. Maybe all of this space above 40 should be allocated at one time giving us close to 160 channels. I would opt for the elimination of the clarifier or only a +/- 10OHz receive only clarifier for this new band. Most operators don't use sideband because they can't clarify properly. Some people are tone deaf. Others are afraid of being ridiculed for improper operation. I know this is their problem and I'm not usually one to cater to the few. Case in point, I disagree with the CPSC regulation pertaining to CB antennas. This law punishes the majority to protect the few. If you're not smart enough to put up an antenna, don't do it! Maybe this is why we have an increase population of idiots screwing up the air waves, they survived the installation of their CPSC approved antenna! Now back to earth. With 5Khz spacing where else do we need to go? We all got our clarifiers unlocked to get on frequency or drop 5Khz ... didn't we? Maybe we could try for an increase in SSB power while we're at it, say 25 Watts PEP output.

The biggest hurdle to overcome is keeping the existing equipment off the newly allocated channels. I don't have a solution. If we had licensing and an actively funded FCC we might have a chance. One way is for this new equipment to be so superior to the old style that everyone would want to upgrade. The two areas of improvement that can't easily be incorporated in the old equipment are increased receiver sensitivity and signal to noise ratio. The new radios will be quieter with the narrow sideband filters and the use of low noise components would increase this signal to noise ratio. Also the receive audio amp should be of hifi quality but tailored for voice range. The DSP will enhance this further making it desirable to most operators. The price tag may be higher than conventional technology, but not as high as you might think. And the ease of use, much quieter operation and extended range would be worth it!

Another idea would be a registration fee. The reason I suggest a registration fee is that licensing citizen's band operators was found to be unconstitutional. But I believe that charging a registration fee or, I hate to say it, a tax on CB radios at the manufacturing level that would go directly to enforcement could be passed. I'm not too sure about the latter, once you open the door for taxation it's usually too easy to increase it. The registration fee would be best. To encourage registration I would give those that register a voice in the decision making through yearly ballots mailed as part of the renewal form.

That's it ... what do you think? Drop me a line. No calls please, I won't have time and if it's a good idea I won't remember to publish it in a future newsletter. I'm also looking for club activities and related announcements to publish monthly. Send to the address above, as the FAX number will be changing. ©^CBWI

Cobra 2000/148 & Uniden Grant XL ALC & AM Modulation Modification

Half of the following modification increases the AM modulation swing. It allows you to reduce your carrier to around 1 Watt while maintaining a swing of up to 18 Watts. This is good for those of you want to blast out on AM. This will also drive any amplifier to sound like an RF modulator. Setting the AMC can reduce distortion.

The other half modifies the ALC circuit allowing finer adjustment. This will allow higher peaks while staying in the ALC range. Set properly the mic gain can be wide open without the total distortion heard when the limiter is completely removed.

The changes are similar for other chassis using the 8719 PLL chip. You may be able to locate the same components by tracing the circuits. ©^CBWI

Reference shaded areas on drawing above.

Remove R166

ADD

8.2 K from the emitter of TR26 to 8 volts constant.

CHANGE

R228 from 560W to 33K

R159 from 18K to 33K

CHECK

C109 for 10µf