I must admit that these guys building the amps aren't the usual CB mud
ducks. I think most CBers would kill themselves with that much power!
I funny story that reflects the way most CBers are was told to me a while
ago:
Back in the late 70s during the CB craze, the University of Illinois
radio club, W9YH was also in its heyday. They had twin 200 foot towers
and generally won most contests they participated in. The station and
towers were just outside the baseball field at the University.
Every Sunday a group of CBers would come and play softball at the field.
They'd all leave their CBs on in their cars all tuned to the same
channel. Being of "typical" CB type they had no idea what those big
towers were for. The W9YH club had a couple of wiseacres in its
membership (I personally know 2 of them now and they are wiseacres!).
The club also had an old broadcast PA they could tune up anywhere. So
they decided to tune up the amp on channel 19 or whatever it was that the
CBers listened to. I forget how many KW the thing put out, but after
tunning into the dummy load, they switched to the antennas and announced,
"THIS IS GOD!"
All the CBers went to their cars to check this out and couldn't figure
out why this transmission was coming in on every single channel on their
radio!
I laughed myself silly when I heard this!
Oh well, my biggest beef with CBers who run illegal power is that we hams
get blamed for it. Most of them have no idea about proper grounding,
SWR, etc. and run their amps maxed out and with their "power
microphones." They overmodulate everything and cause all sorts of havoc.
Cause we hams tend to have the bigger towers and more visible antenna
systems, we get blamed. And then the CBers come up into our band on 10M.
I had to fight off a bunch of them the other night while trying to work
ZK3CW on the low end of ten. I couldn't notch the carriers out either
cause every guys carrier was slightly off! They eventually left which
made it much easier to work the DX.
However, if the big amp guys keep their crap inside their bands during
the keydown events, I suppose I don't care. If the FCC catches them or
they fry themselves, fine. I have no problem with that. But if they get
away with it and don't interfere with me, I suppose I can loosen up and
let them have their fun. After all, we've all driven over 55 haven't
we????
73,
Jon
KE9NA
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The Second Amendment is NOT about duck hunting!
Jon Ogden
jono@enteract.com
www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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