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Sparkomatic
Posted on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 9:05 am:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I know a lot of people around me that have export radios but never used the FM feature. I get absolutely no more distance with FM than AM...are there actually advantages?
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Mayor513
Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 1:18 am:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not really, other than that the quality of the audio is a bit better
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2600
Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 12:20 am:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The squelch works better on FM. Other than that, you get less "static" noise on an FM signal than on AM. A noise blanker in your receiver makes this a much smaller difference. Comparing "miles per watt", AM and FM come out just about the same. SSB will offer more miles per watt, but at the expense of operating convenience. Gotta keep it fine-tuned, or you can't understand a word they say.

73
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Orion
Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 2:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I used to play around on FM alot with the HR2510 with locals who had the same mode. Its a better quality of audio and stands up to being off frequency a few KHZ's better. Its nice to have but hardly an incentive to buy. Just a hair better, if at all for close local chat. Better off sticking to AM as its louder and doesn't need the deadkey carrier of FM. I reason DK'ing at 2 watts and swinging to 15 is less stressful on the radio than the FM equivalent of having to sit right on 15watts to get the same job done. I could be wrong but thats how I remember it.
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Highlander
Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 7:52 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

FM has a nice feature called 'capture effect' that is nice..If you are receiving more than one signal, the receiver will capture the stronger one, and the weaker one will not interfere as much as it would on SSB or AM, where the signals can interfere with each other more.

FM is fun to play with, and it is ubiquitous on the VHF-UHF ham bands. I was just goofing around listening to the 11 meter band on FM looking for Utility/ Broadcast Auxiliary stuff and ran across a couple of guys in canada, one on the west coast, one on the east coast, and me in Chicago on FM talked for about 1/2 an hour crystal clear.

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