confussed newbie question???

[chopcorejc]

ok, here goes another newbie question..........it seems like i only hear one side of the conversation all the time..........and when i hear people talking on the radio, it seems like they fade in and out...........anyone out there have any advice???????????

i guess i should tell you what i have........i know it's not the best of equipment, but here goes: cobra 29 nw st with a wilson 5000 mounted on a mirror of a 2007 century class freightliner with an astatic 636L mic......

[rayray1963]

Being new here too, I'm no expert but I have found that making sure the the swr's are set right makes big difference, and if your antenna is mounted on one side it will broadcast to the other side better, IE...mounted on the passenger side mirror it will go more to the drivers side and forward and vice versa. That's why it's best to mount it in the middle if possible. And make sure you have good ground. But the biggest problem my be that the receiver is out of adjustment, which is something that a good shop can fix, you might check into having it looked at by one of sponsors from this site,

Just my 2 cents worth.

[dozerpilot]

There probably isn't anything wrong with your radio. You just hear the guy who is the closest and/or has the biggest radio. The person he is talking to isn't putting out enough signal for your radio to recieve, they're too far away.

[WavMixer]

There probably isn't anything wrong with your radio. You just hear the guy who is the closest and/or has the biggest radio. The person he is talking to isn't putting out enough signal for your radio to recieve, they're too far away.

Yup, what he said.

[chopcorejc]

that's what i thought too............i'm probably hearing the guy with the big radio, and not hearing the guy with the little one............but the fading in and out has got me baffled...........

again, i know i got a little radio---for now----but, the voice fades up and down during the same couple of sentences that are sayed (like i'm turning the volume knob up and down during the 10 seconds it takes someone to say something).......is that just because of the signal??????????

[Phaze91460]

Well, remember that you are driving. Look at conditions where you are. If the road is strait and flat you will get a better contact than when there are hills and curves. Buildings, trees, power lines all alter the shape of the radio signal.

Better radios usualy recieve better and transmit further. The antenna is not a bad unit. Is your radio stock or have you had a peak and tune on it ?

[dozerpilot]

It could just be the other radio swinging. For example, a radio could swing from a 1 watt deadkey on up to 50 or more watts. The more juice, the louder. What does your needle do when someone is talking?

[Godzirra]

My old uniden pc78 used to do that, turned out it was a short in my mic pigtail! New pig on the end no weird fadin in and out! I dont think thats what ur problem is thou!

[stickman]

ok, here goes another newbie question..........it seems like i only hear one side of the conversation all the time..........and when i hear people talking on the radio, it seems like they fade in and out...........anyone out there have any advice???????????

i guess i should tell you what i have........i know it's not the best of equipment, but here goes: cobra 29 nw st with a wilson 5000 mounted on a mirror of a 2007 century class freightliner with an astatic 636L mic......

JUST A SUGGESTION BUT TURN YOUR YOUR SQUELCH ALL THE WAY TO THE LEFT AND SEE IF THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE! YES YOU WILL HEAR A LOT OF STATIC BUT MAYBE YOUR SQUELCH IS TURNED UP A LITTLE TOO MUCH!! JUST MY 5 CENT THOUGH.
STICKMAN

[chopcorejc]

yes i did have it peaked and tuned..............i'll have to take a closer look at the needle on tuesday to see exactly what that is doing while it fades...........

but the squelch thing-----i bet that with the combination of the terrain is my culprit............but i will take a closer look at the needle on tuesday and report back(i'm used some vacation days, so no work till tuesday----woohoo...lol)

[jessejamesdallas]

Hard to tell, but by what your describing, with only hearing one side of a conversation, and guys fading in and out. Sounds like what your hearing is "Skip".

If your on channel 28, or any of the other channels other than 19. This is the way Skip, or "DX" may sound...

You could be hearing someone in another state, talking to someone yet in a different state, but you can only hear the one...


Now trying to make a contact with the one you hear the loudest, may be hard to do, unless your running a little bit of Power.

It can be done using a regular 4w CB, but conditions have to be just perfect with a mobile, and somewhat quite....

Just going by what you said...I could be just way off base too!

[chopcorejc]

well i fiddled with it today and it seems like it was the squelch all along............i hear alot of static at times and turned it up so i wouldn't get a headache............when i turned the squelch down i heard everything fine............a little up and down, but those people must have been alot further away because the sound was coming through low.........i still heard some of just one side of the conversation, but that has to be the big radio guy i'm hearing..........all of this was on channel 19..........so i don't know about "skip"-----

which leads to my next question...........what exactly is "skip"??????????

[chopcorejc]

opps.........i just posted without reading "duh"........and forgot to thank all of you for your time answering my questions............so thankyou everyone :D :D :D

[troy]

I WOULD ALSO WONDER THE SAME THING.. WHEN HEARING ONLY ONE SIDE OF A 2 WAY CONVERSATION. BUT I ALSO WONDERED IF THE GUY THAT I CANNOT HEAR, IS BECAUSE HE HAS A SMALL RADIO & I ONLY HEAR THE GUY WITH THE BIG RADIO, THEN HOW COME THE GUY WITH THE BIG RADIO HEARS THE GUY WITH THE LITTLE ONE?. LOL. CAUSE HE SURE WILL ANSWER, SO YA KNOW HE HEARS THEM. LOL. I GUESS THERE COULD BE SO MANY VARIABLES TO THIS QUESTION. MAYBE I JUST NEED TO STOP BEING NOSY & NOT LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S CONVERSATION..LOL.. BUT ALL KIDDING ASIDE I HAVE A GOOD RADIO & ANTENNA & ALL IN PEAK WORKING ORDER.. SOOOOO... IF I CANT HEAR SOMEONE, IT DONT BOTHER ME. UNLESS THEY ARE REAL CLOSE. THEN I GOT PROBLEMS I NEED TO FIND.

[chopcorejc]

it doesn't bother me that i can't hear the other half of the conversation, it just had me wondering...........i mostly just listen for the bear reports and if someone needs help with some local info (being i'm a local driver).......

heck, most of the time drivers are just talking bs anyway........what cracks me up though is, you can listen for about an hour or so and you always hear some driver whispering that he isn't wearing any pantys----what's up with that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[troy]

LOL!!! I HEAR THE ( I AINT GOT NO PANTIES ON ) ALL OVER THE PLACE. IT MUST BE SOME TYPE OF RECORED MESSAGE CAUSE IT SOUNDS THE SAME WHEN EVER I HEAR IT. JUST SOMETHING TO BREAK UP THE DAY I GUESS.LOL. JUST LIKE THE TURNED UP TOO MUCH ECHO & OTHER TOYS LIKE THE TARZAN YELL... JUST ANOTHER GIMMICK. NO GIMMICKS HERE, JUST A RADIOACTIVE RADIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Phaze91460]

heck, most of the time drivers are just talking bs anyway........what cracks me up though is, you can listen for about an hour or so and you always hear some driver whispering that he isn't wearing any pantys----what's up with that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

LOL ! I Thought that only happened in my neck of the woods !

[chopcorejc]

lol................yea right...........apparently there are alot of drivers not wearing panties anymore..........man oh man, this is a scary world..........lol

[THUMPER]

sick ! lmao

[DAYDREAMER]

Same here in the Windy City. I refer to all of them as the Morning Moron Radio Station. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding the amount of money people put into their radios, amps, etc just to let more and more people see their stupidity! Something for everyone I guess.

I agree with Troy. Don't need any gimmicks, just my SWP radio.