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307 (307)
Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 8:41 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I have a lot of people that come to me with a seemingly highly confused question .... When my friend goes down to a lower channel , why can't I get there with my Sideband radio since sideband is extra channels ? or when I buy a new radio should I get it with Sideband so I have all the extra channels ? or last but least Sideband is extra channels right ?? Ok I will try to explain it in a simple way . Some radios have AM (amplitude modulation) only and some radios have AM and Sideband . Sideband has two modes of operation Upper Sideband (USB)and Lower sideband (LSB).
In simple terms when you are on lets say channel 1 AM for example , the frequency is 26.975 Mhz . When you switch the radio to USB or LSB the radio still stays on 26.975 (roughly) but is in a different mode of operation . When one person is on Sideband and the other is on AM you may still hear them but they will sound all garbled up , But at least you can say that they are on the same channel . Two people both have to have their radios on USB or LSB at the same time to hold a conversation and some tuning may be required by the Clarifier or Voice Lock to sound correctly to one another . So remember the mode of operation in a sideband radio is consistent with the channel . AM , USB and LSB are all done on the same channel . For Example ...If you are on channel 1 , you can use either AM , USB or LSB , channel 1 stays the same . Now the difference between extra channels and sideband is simple . Your normal radio (sideband) has 40 channels with 3 modes of operation....AM , USB and LSB , An Export radio that may be used out of the country has sometimes as many as 360 channels but still has the same modes AM , USB and LSB and sometimes FM . So when someone says they are going to the upper channels , they are not going to sideband but going where a 40 channel radio can not . 40 channel radio's start at 26.965 Mhz and stop at 27.405 Mhz . Export radios start at (typical) 26.515 Mhz and go to 27.845 which calculates out to 120 channels (3 bands of 40 channels each is 120 channels) .
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Hammunition
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2001 - 10:23 am:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

THANKS 307!! You just won an argument for me. A friend had argued that most companies embellish a radio's capability by simply considering the upper and lower sides of each channel as a separate channel. I also assured him that the upper and lower side of a channel were still within the same channel. THANKS!! I WIN!!

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