From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.cb
Subject: Re: Linear Amplifiers
Date: 10 Oct 92 05:41:39 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA

odonnell@ocf.berkeley.edu (Shawn Christopher O'Donnell) writes:
: 
: I'm seriously thinking about building a linear amplifier. I have
: a good design, one that won't interfere with planes or televisions,
: its cheap, and it seems necessary to me. I'm not particularly interested

If it is cheap, then it will probably interfere badly with other radio
services - and splatter badly in the CB band. 

: in "skip", although at some point I might be, but for now, I would
: simply like it if people that I talk to locally don't constantly
: criticize me for running a "baby unit" that "only" runs 4W. The

So, is it necessary to communicate with people you can hear? Or is
it just that your ego is hurt because you do not have a "big" signal?

: Los Angeles area, where I live, seems sufficiently noisy during the
: day that 4W just is not enough. Furthermore, I haven't seen or met anyone
: that ran the basic settup-- a 4W tranceiver. I am the only one.

How much of that noise is splatter from people running some "not-so-
linears"?

: Obviously I'm not posting this simply to announce that I will build a
: linear for myself, I am writing because I want other opinions on
: how to accomplish what I want without having to spend a weekend
: buiding something that is illegal in the first place, and might not
: even work in the second: some people have said that increasing 
: the power from 4W to 60W will only make a small difference, if any
: at all. What's that all about? Why doesn't more power on a given
: settup translate into commensurately greater range on the same settup? 

The reason is that 11 meters is basically line of sight. So, if the
signal does not get to the receiving antenna, it does not matter how
much power you pump out - you still won't be heard.  In a city, it
is even worse, since there are all those building to block the signal.
A statiion running a linear may sound loud, to those close by, but the
chances are that he will not get out any further than a legal station.

: I feel that, being the only one who runs 4W I am unfairly handicapped
: by the rest of world. Proponents of NOT using a linear in the 9WATT
: war zone that is Los Angeles, what would YOU do?         

See above.

: Basically, I want to be heard clearly within a 30 mile radius under
: bad conditions. I was planning to build a Linear with variable
: output that would do from 4W on the low side to 150W on the high side.

You can forget that. Such a station is impossible - no matter how much
power you run.  Now, if you were on a lower frequency, then you could
easily manage 30 miles under just about any conditions.

: I figure, that will be enough for my purposes, and if its too much, I can
: always turn it down. On the other hand, I truly don't want to be
: an irresponsible person and if there is a "right" way to do the same thing
: that is somehow more sensitive to the insensitive people that surround me,
: I would definitely like to know what it is.

When I want to talk further, I just find the nearest hill. It pisses the
hell out of the "big boys" when I can talk to stations that they cannot
even hear. Of course, I do not tell them that I am sitting a couple of
thousand feet higher in the air than they are.

Bill
Newsgroups: rec.radio.cb