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Chief
10-08-2020, 12:44 PM
I’m looking to maybe get a replacement for my Dad’s CBs. He’s had the same ones for a while now. He can get out great, and from Cincinnati can get to Canada and sometimes Florida (on skip). He always complains though that his receive is terrible and he can’t always hear people come back. Can you offer me advice on how I can help him improve receive strength? Thank you.

The base unit is a galaxy 2517, with a Maco (Macco?) V58 omni antenna

Mobile is a Uniden PC66XL (Apparently it was built before I was born!) and a Wilson 5,000 antenna on it.

Does the addition of a linear affect receive or just output?

whiteastro
10-16-2020, 05:49 PM
If you get a amp with a preamp it will help your recieve.

Buzzweiser
10-20-2020, 12:36 AM
If he's having the same issue with the Uniden then it might be white noise more than anything. Im up near Dayton and have the same issue. Heck he is probably one of the guys down there that hears me that I cant hear back. Yes I have a bit of an alligator station. I've went thru my house and put chokes on all the wall warts, phone chargers and the like. Ive put in a field ground completely around my house. I run top of the line coax on everything but I still get noise. Im real close to the outdated power lines behind my house. They are less than 20 feet from my antenna. I get TVI from a paging tower a mile away. The best you can do is to filter out the wall warts and such around his house. Check and make sure everything is grounded well and go from there. A MFJ-915 right behind the radio might help with an S unit of noise and wont harm the swr or cause a huge loss. Check his coax and see if he needs new. Don't skimp on coax, get the good stuff. If it doesn't cost almost as much as the radio it isn't good. Im putting up a small beam in the spring just to turn away from my power lines. Hope that helps.
73's

Bobcat
10-21-2020, 03:09 PM
Might be dumb but I'll throw it out there....
If his radio is old/older and he has been using it for years ... you might see if you can find a tech that will run a good and proper alignment on it. Components drift and fail. When they do you lose efficiency in the incoming RF amp and IF strips. If that isn't right.. nothing else is going to matter. It will only be a band aid. I'd at least try an alignment.