lerk said:

I thought tuned length was more relevant to transmitting rather than recieving though?

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Spot on that man

Phew, sorry, I just re-read my posts, them's a bit long-winded aint they. I was very much into my cb up until only a few years ago. I still have a fairly large selection of spares for some of the older rigs, but a recent clear out saw about half a dozen old sets (beyond hope, bless them) thrown in the bin, I also tossed about a dozen old original microphones too.

I was lucky enough to be one of them there illegal AM cb'ers way way back in the good old late '70's. When they finally legalised cb in this country I was queing outside the post office to buy my license. If I remember correctly it was on the 14th of February they made it legal to use FM. The old AM was still outlawed but there are a great many old AM sets (mostly Midlands) in use in Ireland, and you often hear them on the M6 as they truck up and down the roads.

Edit: I just checked my facts, and found I am mistaken, cb was legalised on 2nd November 1981 NOT February 14th.

Like stated the twin ariel kit has to be 8feet apart tbh when fitted to my tractor many yrs ago was it was overrated as the setup was directional at times and when used with amplification tended to cancel itself out, also if one ariel came loose that was it, any less distance and the setup would modulate against itself..... This Is why I reverted back to a single coil sat right in the middle of my roof, gets out for miles, same setup on the disco, I use a rotel in the tractor and an Amstrad 901 in the truck ( the latter as the mic plug sits at the side and the Roger bleep for modulating,

My final word.

If you want to improve your transmissions, I would recommed getting a power mic. A power mic will compress your audio and punch it through better than a standard mic.

Power mics come in a variety of types, but to ultimate is an echo/power mic. The echo power mic is unbeatable in audio performance (they even out perform the worlds best standard power mic, the K40.) However, if you turn the echo level up too high, it makes the audio very difficult to understand at close range so if running in convoy, turn it down to almost minimum, or off.

As always, you get cheap echo mics (sounds like you have yer head in a bucket,) decent ones and grossly overpriced ones the same as the decent ones.

I do not recommend a power mic for a woman to use regularly. This is not chauvanism, it's fact. The higher frequencies of most women's voices punches through far clearer than the deep tones of a male voice, if a power mic is used, they often overmodulate and distort to such a degree that their audio becomes impossible to understand and it's painful to listen to (literally.) I have a sister who insisted on useing an echo/power base mic. When she keyed the mic at home, you could hear every background sound around her home, then when she spoke, the windows would rattle in their frames, I'm partially deaf now because of her, but she refused to change it so when her battery went flat, we just didn't tell her.

Phil_b said:

Like stated the twin ariel kit has to be 8feet apart tbh when fitted to my tractor many yrs ago was it was overrated as the setup was directional at times and when used with amplification tended to cancel itself out, also if one ariel came loose that was it, any less distance and the setup would modulate against itself..... This Is why I reverted back to a single coil sat right in the middle of my roof, gets out for miles, same setup on the disco, I use a rotel in the tractor and an Amstrad 901 in the truck ( the latter as the mic plug sits at the side and the Roger bleep for modulating,

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Yeah, I cannot stress enough, just how important the perfect tuning of Twin-Truckers is or else it's just a wasted signal.

Hang on to that 901, they are very very sought after. The RB can be a bit of a pain at close range, it's a bit fierce, though easy to tone down. I liked the 901 for mobile use because of the fairy lights, so much easier to read at a glance.

Clanforbes said:

I have to disagree, there is a major benefit in the directional signal. But for the reason Discoboy wants it, I would advise against it.

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I tailored my answer to suit the question - in his case there is no real benefit.

I appreciate in other purposes they are hugely beneficial (else why would they exist) but for use on a landy for CB comms there's no real benefit

Bump said:

I tailored my answer to suit the question - in his case there is no real benefit.

I appreciate in other purposes they are hugely beneficial (else why would they exist) but for use on a landy for CB comms there's no real benefit

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Ahh, in that case I apologies, you are of course correct then.

I used to use an 'astatic teardrop' that was a mint mic but the cable let it down and also it was wasted on anything less than a homebase as it'd pick up any electrical noise and overmodulate, also got a echochamber that was a good laugh for winding up the stokies with the tri-beep rb

I'm always on the lookout for 901's one of the most underated rigs tbh my rotels ok but lacks a mic gain and is way too boomy,

If you want reception improvement get a mobile pre-amp they are ace used to pick up Liverpool with mine which is way over 40miles as the crow flys

The astatic teardrop - that was made by K40 too I think - yeah?

As you say, a good solid mic, but a little too sensitive.