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619
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 8:18 pm: | 
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i have a 949 and really do not care for it. its works great on AM but the SSB is lacking and the speaker is not good quality. i hope the 296 is better. I think ranger makes both the 949 and 296. the 949 has board ept014811z and the 296 has board ept069610z is this a better board? |
jyd
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 9:21 pm: |
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296 |
619
| | Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 9:44 pm: |
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thanks for input jdy, i just got my tr-296 from copper! it blows the 949 away. AAAAUDIO!!!! |
jyd
| | Posted on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 12:45 pm: |
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good radio,i think its better.i just got my vr-9000 and done the mod to it.its a real smoke blower,it will key 1watt and swing 45. |
619
| | Posted on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 9:01 pm: |
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have fun with your new vr-9000, man maybe i should have spent 50 more bucks! i'm going to sell the 949 at a ham fest next week. maybe they will like it. i will be glad to unload it. 73's |
Highlander1588
| | Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2002 - 5:47 pm: |
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Hey JYD, did you do the NPC to your VR? I did it to mine and can only get 35 watts swing, I tuned the cans, are you useing a power mike? My lo power adjust won`t make any changes in the dead key and am going to get a new pot and see if that does it. |
Wareagle
| | Posted on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 2:38 pm: |
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619,the 949 & the 296 are one in the same ,who ever told you different is fullof it!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
jyd
| | Posted on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 5:12 pm: |
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yes i did the mod,and did no tuneing and got a 1watt key and a 45watt swing. with no tuneing. i also changed tr-51,i put a nte37 is a 12 amp and 100watt, the old one was 8 amp and 60watt it lets your radio run cooler and better swing and the voltage is more stable no blinking lights |
ss8541
| | Posted on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 10:55 pm: |
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wareagle,
the 296 and 949 are NOT the same radio. the 296 is a copy of the 148gtl. the 949 is a hybrid version of the ranger 6300/6900. both ARE made by ranger.
jyd,
the nte devices are the last ones to put in a radio. they are the devices that can't make it as the "sb" marked devices. for instance the nte37 is a trans that couldn't make it as a 2sb817. so it is remarked as the nte37. the "on" resistance is usually higher causing the radio to -not- run cooler (sometimes even hotter). you are taking a huge gamble by replacing the stock sb754 with one of these. if you are going to replace the stock reg (which i only recommend on the dual final radios) do it with the true 2sb817 device.
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jyd
| | Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 9:36 am: |
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well it works great,until i have any problems i wont change it.i can keep the radio keyed for 10 minutes and it wont even get warm.i will put a 2sb754 but not till i have any problems,and i was told ecg producs wer the not to standards they are the odd ball nte makes quality parts and ecg are the odd balls and not worth a crap. i was told this by a radioshak manager |
bruce
| | Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 2:17 pm: |
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ecg and nte devices are comsumer grade stuff nothing wrong 99% of the time now radio shack has little room to talk i work in public safety and all our repair parts are to that level so i see the diffrence in what is out there if you want good stuff buy a marked part by a name company but 99% of the time your radio will not I have done the mods to my ranger and find some diffrences but only enough to make it worth tring them for myself. The channel guard has been tried in 2 2950's, 2 radio shack htx-10's several other multimode 10 meter rigs and my dx-959 and it works just as stated. |
ss8541
| | Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 2:24 pm: |
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i see from another post that you have volted your finals. that means that only the driver is pulling current from the 37. you also have only a 1w carrier. so a 37 will work ok since the current draw through it for only the driver with the radio at 1w carrier is less than .5amps. i'm sure it doesn't get hot with that small amount of current. infact, since you volted the finals, there was really no need to swap to the 37.
a rshack manager told you that did he... oh well i'm just a former motorola tech, so go figure. its funny he told you that when rshacks commercial division salse the ecg parts not the nte parts as "substitute" parts. he evidently has no idea that all those are made by the same company and that company is not ecg or nte. they both buy the ones that don't meet specs and mark them as ecgxx or ntexx in other words, they are both in the same boat. the the ones that meet specs end up marked as the "2sbxxx". btw, nte bought out ecg. |
jyd
| | Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 4:23 pm: |
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well,put it this way it helps.cause it stops all the light blinking when i audio into the mic no more diming mor stable. thats all i needed.good day |
Warlock
| | Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 7:27 pm: |
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Yep, every $.30 saved means alot in your favorite radio. |
bruce
| | Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 3:09 am: |
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warlock as many parts as i use that would buy a 6 pack each week .... just dont let the wife find out |
jyd
| | Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 9:32 am: |
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needless to say,the radio gets so many complements i am just going to add all the toys and wistles i can.first thing channel gaurd,second sp-1 speech processor.and i have already done a lot.good day |
bruce
| | Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 10:21 pm: |
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jyd go for it i sware by the channel guard it makes a world of diffrence in my radioshack and i have several sp-1's but never put 2 in the same radio hey never hurts to try. |
jyd
| | Posted on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 4:07 pm: |
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bruce,you dont think both will fit. |
ss8541
| | Posted on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 6:55 pm: |
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jyd, the sp1a is nice. 2 may be better. i have installed many of these, but never 2 in one radio. let us know how 2 turn out. you may want to try 2 ch guards also. why settle for 100db of adjacent ch rejection when you can have much more. a double npc might be nice also (i have actually seen this done). |
bruce
| | Posted on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 10:14 pm: |
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agree on the channel guards i ( just for kicks )put 2 10.695 meg in series in my rad-shack cb and the 455 khz one a zillion db of rejection but at 35 bucks each a bit much for a 50 dollar radio but neet experiment anyway. |
Colt
| | Posted on Monday, February 25, 2002 - 10:56 pm: |
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Have any of you had a problem with the channelguard causing engine noise to not be attenuated, especially on SSB? If so, were you able to do anyting about it? Can the channelguard be put on a switch so you can leave it off until bleedover occurs, so it won't be so noisy when you don't need it?
Any info apperciated! |
bruce
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 7:40 am: |
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colt if you interfere with the noise blanker ( by loading it or worse changing the rise/fall time of the pulse) it will cause the problem the trick is to put the guard AFTER the blanker i have not had the problem but several people have e-mailed me with just that problem. Remember on a ranger/galaxy you have a SSB filter AFTER you put the channel guard and some problems with that radio could happen but it realy beats the hell out of no filter at all the rad-shack does not have the problem. Now as to a switch i dont see why not but it would require some real good thought as to how to wire it so you didnt cause other problems all i can say is on my ranger 2950 my radshack htx-10 and several other multi modes it works just fine. just for kicks i wired 2 of them in series and tossed in a 455 khz one thats 3 filters fokes and it was so good that .1 VOLT into the radio ( 100,000 uv) was rejected at 2 cb channels away but like i said the filters cost more than the radio. |
jyd
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 8:29 am: |
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i am sorry when i said enough room,i ment for the channelgaurd and the sp-1 speech prossecor.i installed a golden eagle squal in it yesterday,and people think i am on a browning.its funny and it really sounds like one.one guy said that is a good sounding browning you got there.i just laughed.the 10.695 is what my vr-9000 uses i think? |
junk yard dog
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 10:34 am: |
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where would be the best place to hook one up in my vr-9000? |
jyd
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 10:47 am: |
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why does my ssb put out so much power? it is turned half way up,and i get 65 watt swing. |
bruce
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 11:55 am: |
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jyd
i dont own one but if you have the schmatic look to put it past the clamp point for the noise blanker on the ranger it is between L-8, L-9 and L-10 i run 2 guards back to back on my radshack and it realy cleans up that radio all modes on fm it is so sharp the slightest over devation and that station either chops or is gone. Since fm is illegual on cb and i know you would not be using a mode like that dont worry about it.... FM IS my mode however. SSB will go crazy if you clip the limeter... a realy stupid thing to do this is why it is there if you want better audio compress it.
After so much messing with it i gave up and got a radshack again (#3) my 2950 is retired since the radshack is so much beter YEA,YEA it dosent modify that is why i have a CB set too. |
jyd
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 12:20 pm: |
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i have been trying to find the test point to adjust the final and driver baise on my freinds 142 gtl.i could set it in the same place as mine but that wouldnt make it right.i cant seem to get any info anywhere or from anyone.i tuned his up but it sounds muffled,no limiter cliped just basic tune.so i turned it down and still sounded the same.i told him just to sell it,i am geting rid of mine cause i no longer have any use for it,nice clean radio but it dont perform like my vr-9000. |
ss8541
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 2:25 pm: |
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bruce the nb in the 2950 samples at l13 and clamps at l14. l8-l11 are all before the 1st mixer. there is no place after the nb to insert the ch guard so that it will work in all modes. if you go after the nb, you'll either have to replace fl2 in the am chain or c75 in the ssb chain, or replace both with cg's for all modes.
if you put it in the cg's recommmended c72 spot it still causes the nb to not work as well (especially in ssb since anl is inactive here). i know for a fact because i use a hp8640b rf gen with a built in pulse gen. before ch guard is added, i tune nb while in ssb mode (to assure that the anl isn't effecting the pulse attenuation) with pulses. i put in a level that can be heard well with blanker off and then turn the blanker on and tune for max voltage (noise is gone at this point if it wasn't already). after i install ch guard, the pulses are there no matter what tuning is done. usually not as bad as b4, but they are there.
colts 959, area here is almost identical to the 2950's (different part #'s) so he is in the same boat. and also why it is worse on ssb (since anl only works on am). |
Jyd
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 3:17 pm: |
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ss8541,do you know where the test points are for final and driver baise for a 142 cobra.i am trying to help a freind out but i cant find anything.i told him just to sell it,and get somthing diffrent. |
bruce
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2002 - 9:20 pm: |
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i ran SSB in the car only once maby i have a realy quite car very intresting and since i use fm it dosnt effect me well ill have to look at the schmatic but i did note the filters were not correct one being 10.7 the other 10.695 and i did flag that as a problem to myself at least from a tech's point of view now my rad shack the filters are the same and even with 2 guards in series didnt see any problems with it on any mode well i didnt like the ranger anyway it is baged up on a shelf along with my 959 which as you pointed out is almost the same the htx-10 walks circles around them. at this time i have 5 radios with the guards but im not a ssb guy and they work real well on NBFM.
bruce |
ss8541
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 12:30 am: |
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one thing that i should add is that the nb in the rci/gal radios are not the best in the world. i have had some tune up great on the gen, put it in the vehicle, and the nb does nothing just as before it was tuned. so i'm not knocking the cg. more like knocking the nb. sometimes the cg does cause a nb that did work -some- to not work as well later.
something else that is interesting is that these nb's are uniden clones. the hr2510/lincoln uses the same nb circuit but seems to work much better.
those filters really aren't wrong if you look into it a little deeper. the 10.7mc ceramic filter is used in the am/fm chain for the fact that am/fm is wider in bandwidth than ssb. the ceramic type (10.7) has a wider response curve than the monolithic quartz 10.695xtal in ssb(1 of the resons bleedover is worse on am). also the manufacture uses what is already around for these radios. when the 1st uniden exports came around yrs ago, motorola and other 2way radio producers were already using the 10.7if in their radios. so it was cheaper to design a radio using parts that were already available. so these 10.7 with the wider skirt were incorporated into the design of the am/fm if chain. of course i wasn't there, so this is my educated guess as to why they didn't use a 10.695mc ceramic type for the am/fm chain. btw, you can replace that filter with a quartz 10.695 xtal for better selectivity(but it may distort some fm signals that are at a full 5hz of deviation).
i was going to ask you if the sharper skirt of the the cg, especially 2, was distorting any of the fm signals since fm uses the widest bandwidth. but you already answered that. that is one mode that i really haven't tested the cg on since no one in 11mtrs really uses it. |
bruce
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 8:15 am: |
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im well aware that ssb is narrower than fm and the filter is sharper but still nbfm is only 3 khz maby 5 as is am. I also knew they were plenty wide but like you i tend to not want to run things on the edge and centering filters makes more sence. On my ranger i tested it before and after installing and did not find any loss of sensitivy but a big increase in +/- 20 khz rejection. The ranger is at best a so-so radio on all modes and the fm reciver is only fair as to limiting and since i'm a FM-a-holic that dont cut it. ON ssb and am the ranger is fair with limited dynamic range it is very pron to intermod and overload this applyes to the dx-959 although that radio for a cb set is just fine. Also 10.7 is a industry standard and has been so since the 50's one of the first 6 meter repeter i built in the early 70's used a old tube radio with a 1st if of 10.7 and a 2nd at 455 khz it would even in thoes days do .3UV and +/- 8khz at -6 and +/- 20 at more than 40 more than enough for 52.55. Now as for 10 meter fm i run it 99% of the time and have found no problems with even 2 filters on a rad htx-10 with both filters installed the radio cranks .17 to open squ and +/- 10 khz and more than -60 db and with 50,000 UV at 20 khz no signal at all this sounds like over kill but when 10 fm is open it gets VERY noisy. Well like ever mod you take your chances....
bruce |
ss8541
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 11:48 pm: |
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bruce i'll do some tests for fm on the cg in the rci's (when i get time). nbfm (which in a broader sense would be nb nbfm) still uses a bw wider than am here. am is a total bandwidth of 6khz (in reality about 5kc as you said). so the -50db at 10kc that the rci's are rated at stock is fine for am. but nb nbfm(2.5kc max dev) uses a bandwidth of about 9kc. the actual carrier may deviate +/-2.5kc max for a total of 5kc, but the sidebands extend out further (9kc here). so the stock am/fm filter would kill some of the sideband power at the edges. when you add the cg that makes the problem much worse since +/- 4kc is -20db. and if you are using wb nbfm, with 5kc of dev, the bandwidth is actually 16kc. the cg would rip this a "new one". i have found this interesting for some time since the rci's ser.man. says to check for 4kc of dev. they also have no adjustment. so it looks as neither the rx nor tx section was really designed for fm. kind of like the "true" hf rigs that have am, but not true am. |
bruce
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 7:43 am: |
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you are correct but in all my use of them in the real world i have found because most radios on 10 meters are clipped and most realy have a limited range of deviation there is no problem. Intresting the rad-shack runs everything through a 10.695 filter before it goes to the other curcits so puting a CG in that radio works very well only a few radios give me a problem and most of them are old comercal units that are set too wide. Before we loose everyone on FM if you take out that pesty clipper watch out because your radio may go wide enought to cover several " CB " channels the harded you modulat a fm set the wider it gets if you over modulat on fm your GONE all the other station with realy good shaped bandwith curves will here is bits and peaces. Well someone clued me off the radio shack outlet site and i bid on a radio and won it so i got another new alinco fm toy comming.
bruce |
jyd
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 12:29 pm: |
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ss8541,what is the diffrence in a 2sa1869 and a 2sa1012? i have been trying to find this out,no luck yet. is the 2sa1012 better and how? thanks |
bruce
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 3:09 pm: |
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ss8541 i just pulled out the ranger schmatic your right the output is after c72 which would interfere by reshaping the pulse. When i installed the filter i put it in as instructed and found it worked as discribed in my radio for what i was doing. Strange and another thing i never saw was the blanker seems only to work on ssb... strange unless they feel clamping that port off the can would allow it to work on am and fm too well the rad shack does not suffer the same fate ill have to check out its blanker since i almost never use one. Now i waiting on a new dx-70 ....a boy and his toys |
jyd
| | Posted on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 2:09 pm: |
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i got my speech prosecor in and all reports are good,there is one of my freinds that i talk to in the day time and he is 15 or 20 miles away. he said now i come right through the noise |
bruce
| | Posted on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 8:48 pm: |
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JYD cool now you know why i dislike the diode cliperers the BEST sounding radio i ever heard was a hungagarn ham who had moved to the northeast and worked as a broadcast engeneer in the 50's and 60 till i met him in 1966 this man built a 2 meter 829 final transmitter that he did everything to to make the audio as clean as the station he worked for he used some audio clipping with negitive feedback and screen taped the modulators on the output transformers. You could hear the ticking of his station clock softly in the background as his deep booming voice came through sometimes when his carrer was only S1 or S2.I never forgot how he sounded and there are hams in new york who to this day like myself cannot remember his name but the sound of that station even after 35 years is etched on our mines this is how i would like to sound .. a tall order but when i get back on AM im going for it
bruce |
jyd
| | Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 10:36 am: |
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a tech told me that the npc-rc mod was a bunch of bull,what do you think? honest opinion. |
jyd
| | Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 12:16 pm: |
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bruce, ^ |
bruce
| | Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2002 - 8:50 pm: |
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jyd i m nor sure which one that is if it is putting a diode in the limeters curcuit or some other way of limitinmg the limiter fill me in what is this one? by the way im just getting home its 9pm here in florida |
jyd
| | Posted on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 9:15 am: |
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the voyage mod in the subscriber |
Jyd
| | Posted on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 10:28 am: |
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a diode and resister in front of tr-51 in subscriber,and having the limiter cliped to.by the way the speech prossecor,made my average and peak power better.also i put a browning eagle squal in,it fools alot of people.i made the roger beep longer and upgraded some voltage regulators i also have a bad boys noise toy to put in,and when i am all done. i am going to add the last thing a channel guard.never been tuned and it will key 1 watt and swing 45watts, thats pretty good. |
bruce
| | Posted on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 11:53 am: |
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so this puts more voltage on the finals or causes the to swing more? as long as your happy why not but to be honest i beleve AGC and ALC loops are there for your own good. As for putting more voltage on a output stage I've never done that .... yea right
bruce |
jyd
| | Posted on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 1:04 pm: |
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eaveryone tells me it sounds great,but galaxy radios told me i would be better off with out the npc mo, they said it causes problems with the galaxy radios.so i am going to take it out. |
bruce
| | Posted on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 9:15 pm: |
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Well anything that stresses the radio is a problem waiting to happen.... Hey when i was young and crazy in the 60's i built many 2 meter transmiters now my favoret tube was the 829b they were everywhere new for 2 bucks they ran 100 watts input on am and as a liner about 60 watts out. well like yourself not happy with CCS ratings i would run them ICAS.... more like 2xICAS so now i running a tube rated at 100 watts at more that 200 watts.... HOT did you say YEP and we used heatsinks that mounted on the plate caps blew air up the socket on the glass envlope. Even then i could allways tell when it was running just right watching the white hot grids behind the bright red hot plates.... nothing like the smell of a good output tube. |
ss8541
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 12:27 am: |
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when the volted npc is done correctly it really doesn't cause that much trouble since the carrier is so low. the problem is when the carrier is too high. with the finals volted, the finals become less efficient. so they pull more current, heat up faster, and are less forgiving to a mismatched load (bad swr). yes they are volted in ssb, but there is not constant carrier there.
but...even the volted npc when done correctly can cause a problem. the low impedance of the 100ohm resistor -can- cause the base-emitter junction of the 2sc945 to go out by the exessive current flow "pulling" the neg peaks back up.
what most don't understand is that there needs to be a good carrier/swing relationship. if a carrier wasn't needed, we'd all be using double sideband suppressed carrier (dsb). so a 1w carrier and 45w of swing isn't good on the rxing radio.
as for the ppe method where the limiter is intact, and finals not volted there really is no harm. there is no more modulation on the peaks than a standard 10w carrier at 100% mod. so the mod circuit is not being overworked. also a 390ohm res is used so the b-e junction on the sc945 is safe. and the finals are not volted, so they are running at factory specs. yeah the 754 may heat up, but do you know how many of these i see go bad? not that many. and with the reduced carrier, it is going to heat up even less.
so the galaxy techs are telling the truth. but this is relative to the high number of repairs that they see with the npc used wrong by techs/owners who do not really understand it. and of course, the ones that are done right, galaxy never sees.
when it is done wrong, you are in the same boat as clipping the limiter. infact there is some out there who claim to not remove the limiter. well they are telling the truth somewhat. the limiter isn't removed, but it is disabled by using an improper ppe (not the npc here since limiter is still there). the finals are also -not- volted. with ppe installed, the amc is then adjusted wide open. so you now have max swing from almost any carrier. waveform looks like $hi!. so it isn't removed, but disabled (same thing technically). and if any of you have read the ranger usa tech page, it specifically says that removing/disabling limiter is a void of warranty. |
jyd
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 8:23 am: |
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my radio runs cool,but i thought about taking the diode and resister out.and leaving the rest the way it is. |
