ONLY ONE MOD

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When you buy a CB, in particular, a SSB CB, what "mods" should you do?

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The question should be:

"What MOD should you do?"

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IMHO (And Uncle Charlie, don't leave me off your X-mas list this year for it), the only mod you should do is the clarifier mod**.

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A single-sideband radio without the ability to minutely track tx/rx together is only good if you're talking to one other person. But when more than two people are in a conversation it's a real pain to have to move the clarifier for each one - thus the clarifier mod: "everyone is on the same page".

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Adjusting a radio from 3 watts to 4 watts will not do a thing on the other end.

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Clipping the modulation circuit will make you "King of the airwaves" (briefly). It will also make many enemies, because in truth, you will be the "King of splatter".

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Adjusting the modulation? Well, they're pretty well adjusted from the factory. Usually the biggest issue with modulation is not how loud it is, but the quality (too muffled, too tinny, too much bass, etc.). This is where you buy another microphone. I know I've told this story many times before, but I purchased a Uniden PC-122XL about 10 years ago as a backup rig. One day I needed this to fill in for my usual rig, so I threw it on the passenger side seat, plugged it into the cig lighter and off I went. Because it was a backup rig I didn't want to spend any extra $$$ for an after market microphone so it had the original mike with it. Later that day I ran across my radio 'bud "Doug" (currently semi-retired from radio operation) and he wanted to know what I was talking on. When I told him a "stock" PC-122, he came back with:

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"You've never sounded more natural"

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(Guess I didn't need any "MOD's", eh?)

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I know, you're wondering about extra channels. I categorize this mod as "Borderline", and leave it up to you. Usually, when there is any activity going on, you'll find the brunt of it on channel 38, thus no freq. mod's required.

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If you were paying attention, you noticed two ** after the clarifier mod. I did this because some rigs will sound like crap after it's done and would sound much better by having a shop put the rig center-slot rather than do the mod. If you've been talking SSB you know what I mean - those rigs that tend to have modulation with a warble, or flutter that makes them hard to understand. Usually, these are rigs made in China, and usually it's due to crappy/cheap components.....

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'Nuff Said

Woody