Fred/N0AZZ

Will try to help with those and any with obtaining an Amateur Radio License from study and class's to testing for the different license class's (3) levels.


I will attempt to help all but have my limitations also and ask for input from others who do on a subject of advanced nature as I still learn every day on many things. I'm not a "Know it all" and do not claim to be. Some of the above posts tell about me and some of the things I do.


Welcome to all!

Bugout4x4

Looking forward to this very much. Nice to have one spot to direct all the 2 way discussions into.


Thank you Sir!

Fred/N0AZZ

As they say from humble beginning 8-)

Ad-HocXJ

Alright i have one for you. I have a basic knowledge of CB's and kind of how they work. My setup in my Jeep started out pretty spotty with it only working half the time. The other half it would act like there was a short somewhere. I have found some disconnected wires in the mic, and have been using a another one. It seems to be working fine now. However, my 23 ch midland 13-882b has "dead" channels 17-22. I have looked inside and air cleaned the connections, and not found any blown capacitors. What would cause this problem?

Bugout4x4

I have to honest and tell you that even though I have been playing with 2 way coms since the 70's and have bypassed channels on a couple radios to run an external VFO circuit, I'm not completely hip to the true internal working circuits.


A bad crystal maybe? Fred or Blueridgemark could probably better point you the right direction on this.


Thanks for jumping in!

Fred/N0AZZ

I have no idea my friend for someone to even start on that radio he would need a copy of some old "Sams" manuals. Then you could start running down the circuits/boards/parts that were not working. You could take it to a CB repair shop or replace it for less than a repair if I had my guess new ones run from $29-up.


I'm sure this was not helpful but I am not even familiar with that radios boards and with a mic problem it may be time to scrap it for a new one.

Bugout4x4

I was reading around a bit this morning and it appears that even the proper crystals for the old radios are getting hard to find.


Upgrading to newer is a great suggestion.

Ad-HocXJ

Thanks for the help anyway. You can get the owners manual and schematic for every CB almost ever made at CBTricks.com. I studied the schematics and have thought about using a oscilloscope to test the capacitors and see if they match ith the voltage on the schematic. Question though: I have one, but don't know how to use it. How the heck would i use one on a CB? Do I use it while scrolling through channels, or when the mic is keyed?

Fred/N0AZZ

An oscilloscope is used for checking wave forms a VOM is used for checking the rest and values of them or go/no go's. A signal needs to be generated to use the scope and experience to read what your seeing to understand what to do then with the information.


You can play around with both of these meters on the CB and maybe gain some experience along the way. If it were mine I would put it in my junk drawer and hope to pull a few parts for a project someday...Maybe


I will share this with you when I decided to obtain my amateur radio licenses the Extra class was very hard for me having no electronics experience so I studied. Advanced electronics collage level and math books from a local CC for close to a year. I wanted to know the theory not just the answers to test questions, all in my mid 50's. I encourage anyone to study about things that interest them whatever it might be. I have done this entire life with books just wisk I would have had the internet back in the 60's.

Bugout4x4

was lucky, they had an advanced electronics class in my high school. I ended up taking it two years in a row because I had all my required class credits done and need to fill my day with elective classes. It helped me greatly with automotive applications and a better understanding of Radios etc. But I have to say I have forgotten a lot of the real complicated stuff. But what parts do and reading schematics I have still retained.


I like to work on computers now but they are pretty much modular and just a parts changing operation. Although I have enjoyed the last 6 years diving into coding and building websites. It is something I will still be able to do when I am unable to wrench anymore.


I went and did a few online practice tests for the lowest level no code amateur radio license last week Fred. With just a basic knowledge of electronics and antenna design principles it isn't to complicated at all. Probably not at all like it was when you took your first one?

Fred/N0AZZ

The Tech tests can be passed by 10-12 yr. olds and do quite often at my testing sessions. It is structured that way so anyone can get on the air and into the hobby without a huge burden of lots of theory to learn. The next 2 class's get more complex because of what they allow you to do in the hobby.

KevinC506

My friend and I have recently aquired our Amateur licenses. I couldn't be happier to get rid of our CBs and upgrade to a more mature setup if you will. We had been running VHF Vertex Standard 2200s for awhile, primarily as our race radio since thats typically what we do. Since we're in the HAM world now, we are looking into dual band VHF/UHF radios. I would love to see how you guys are setup in your XJs and what radio you run.

Fred/N0AZZ

Hello Kevin congrats on both of your license's! Just over a year ago I had to make a decision about what new radio I wanted for my XJ for a UHF/VHF setup. After some searching around for a while decided on a Quad Band 10/6/2/440 FM 50w with a remote control head the Yaesu FT-8900R. There is an antenna company that makes an antenna for this radio that covers all of those bands, each having its own tuning segment for an excellent VSWR on all these bands. This is a high quality antenna and performs very well if you take the time to tune it properly. With this radio you can find a repeater if any are in range as all frequencies are covered I use 6/2m most in my area for the largest range coverage where I wheel at. Use them all in larger towns and 10m FM is gaining popularity in a lot of area's.


If you wish and have a lot of repeaters/frequencies to input it can be programed with your computer and the list kept or added to removed when necessary. It can be done just using the radio alone if you wish but I have used a laptop for several years to do a lot of my mobile radios just faster.


I have the antenna mounted on a roof rack rail using a motorized fold up/down mount for this radio same for my WJ so it will fit in the garage. The main body of the radio is mounted on a swing out aluminum plate using a seat mount bolt (to floor under pass seat). The gooseneck mount is a U-Bracket on the end to fit under a seat bolt as well (it sits close to the console and back from where the photo shows it. The CB remote is mounted on the same plate under the seat.

KevinC506

Thanks! My same buddy got a Yaesu FT-8800 for his Tacoma and an antenna that he said covered all the bands we need (He's a smart nerd comm guy for the Marine Corps so he does all the difficult thinking and wiring for me lol). The Crossband repeat is what sold him on it. I too think its the bees knees. I think I'll be going with a Yaesu. As of right now I have 5w Boafeng dualband hand held which is pretty awesome for the price. I heard you can run a amp and bump it up to 35watts.

Your setup how I kind of guessed it would look. With the Yaesu you can remove the face so I might mount that on my overhead switchpanel.

Motorized you say? Thats pretty fancy! We use MMO mounts for our antennas so we can just screw it off and on flush with the roof.

Lookin good!

Fred/N0AZZ

I also use the cross-band repeat on mine as I carry an HT with me and it ups the range when away from the Jeep to use the 50w radio in it with the HT to up the power very handy. I have 5 or 6 HT's 2 of the Boafeng's that I use for tower work at home in case it gets dropped not much lost.


The motorized mounts are for lazy people when pulling in a garage or any low clearance place and not getting out to lower the antenna, they are only about $100 and use an NMO style mount on them. The antenna for the Quad band is about 3' tall so need to go down in a few places being its mounted on a roof rail.


Any Yaesu or Icom rig will give you excellent service I have both and have ran them for years without issues. When you buy one many places will give you the remote mount cables with them as they are extra on all but most have specials.


4x4's and Amateur Radio go very well together I have HF rigs in both of mine as well and enjoy going to the top of a mountain stringing up a wire antenna and working other ops around the world with as little as 5w QRP. I encourage you to go for your General license at least and explore the world of HF and high power operating up to 1500w in some modes.