[Randy Hawes]

I have very little experience with a CB other than on the Wing. My understanding of squelch is that its a filter. If I'm riding alone, set the squelch on a low number to get maximum range and coverage. But if I'm riding with a group and only want to hear the transmissions within say 500 yards, then I should go to a higher squelch level to filter out all the others. Is this correct?

Another rider is telling me I'll get the best reception if my squelch is at the same level as his. I thought my squelch setting only affected what I hear, not what I send. That is my squelch setting would have no effect on how well someone else hears me. Nor would his setting have an effect on how well I hear him. Whose right?

 

[Dandy Dave]

Your understanding is right on. I would characterize the squelch more as a spring loaded gate than a filter, only allowing signals with enough strength to come through.
His squelch has nothing to do with your reception, and vice versa.
Correct, if you want to hear more, lower the squelch. For maximum reception without background noise, raise the squelch until the noise doesn't break it, and stop.

=Dave=
Old Dog Moto works

 

[crownfire]

Just adding my support for Dave's answer. It's just a filter that cuts out some of the noise which is mostly weak signals.

 

[BEVMAN]

Randy,
Your thoughts on the squelch control are correct. Your settings affect what you hear and have nothing to do with your transmission, it is predetermined by your internal radio capabilities, SWR number and by the federal government.
Turning your squelch control to a lower number increases the sensitivity of your radio to receive signals from further away but at the same time you will get weak signals and or static the lower you go, ergo the higher the number decreases sensitivity and allows only stronger/closer signals to come through to your headset. The volume control is the same way, the lower the number volume goes down in your headset, higher the number the volume increases in your headset. But again your volume and squelch do not affect your transmission or anything that another bike would hear from you, those are determined by the settings that the other bike is using as far as his/her volume and squelch control settings.

I have been told that Gold Wings are notorious for having very short range on transmission or reception because of the poor ground plane, it works fine for group riding because all of the bikes are fairly close together but your will never be like the big rig truckers that can transmit and receive for miles.

I keep my squelch and volume control turned up fairly high on my bike because many of the bikes that ride with us don't have much transmit range and I want to be able to hear them as best as I can but don't want to have to listen to truckers or base units that maybe close by, however if we happen to pass close to another radio somewhere that is transmitting, I often will hear other transmissions for a short while but it will fade away after a few minutes as long as I am moving.

PS- I heard you fine on Sunday's ride with the chapter

 

[Randy Hawes]

Thanks to all. Time to ride

 

[Terryj]

CB operation on a Goldwing is poor at best, one can expect a range of 1/2 mile and maybe 1 mile. This is due to the type of antenna, it uses a counterpoise antenna which requires a ground plane to be effective, these bikes, or any motorcycle, just doesn't have the area required for a ground plane. One way around this is to go to a non-ground plane antenna which will increase your range to about 2 miles, that hardly seems worth the cost.

 

[budoka]

I'm currently researching NGP antennas as my Sierra dual function antenna doesn't fit the stock antenna mount base (thread size issue). Was hoping to avoid drilling another hole in the trunk and armrest plate but....

 

[Terryj]

I'm currently researching NGP antennas as my Sierra dual function antenna doesn't fit the stock antenna mount base (thread size issue). Was hoping to avoid drilling another hole in the trunk and armrest plate but....

Have you check out this one from Firestik: http://www.rightchannelradios.com/firestik-ngp-antenna-side-mount-kit-right-channel-radios.html

 

[Randy Hawes]

Terry, I recently went to Clay's CB Shop in weatherford because I was creatin static for everyone else every time I transmitted. Along with cleaning the switch and all connections, he also added about 6ft of coax coiled under the seat and relocated the ground coonection to an unpainted part of the frame.

Man, what a difference. On a group ride Sunday with eleven other CB equipped wings, I was picking up a conversation with two base operators. This lasted for about four miles. I was the only one in the group that heard it. Also, we had some slower riders in the middle and some traffic lights. More than once the second half of the group got at least 2 miles behind. Even though I was the second bike from the front, I never missed a key from the tailgunner.

Big D, you're on your own son. Definitely out of my league.

 

[Terryj]

Terry, I recently went to Clay's CB Shop in weatherford because I was creatin static for everyone else every time I transmitted. Along with cleaning the switch and all connections, he also added about 6ft of coax coiled under the seat and relocated the ground coonection to an unpainted part of the frame.

Man, what a difference. On a group ride Sunday with eleven other CB equipped wings, I was picking up a conversation with two base operators. This lasted for about four miles. I was the only one in the group that heard it. Also, we had some slower riders in the middle and some traffic lights. More than once the second half of the group got at least 2 miles behind. Even though I was the second bike from the front, I never missed a key from the tailgunner.

Big D, you're on your own son. Definitely out of my league.

I know just how important a good ground is on any communication system and I have done the same on my 1500 and it talks pretty good, I can get about 3 miles on my CB.
Having worked in the communications industry for 35 years I've seen allot hap-hazard systems. I was an RF design engineer for a major communications company, I designed the transmission systems for allot of cellular towers in the northwest. One has to have the right antenna for the right job, and Honda (Goldwing) just didn't get the message, maybe they were using their own CB systems, LOL.
I'm planning on changing my system out to a NGP antenna this winter along with allot of other work on the bike.

 

[Randy Hawes]

Wow, now we all know where to turn with these questions. Thanks for the input.

With the range you're gettin now, what will the NGP antenna do for you?

 

[budoka]

I've looked at the Firestick and the Everhardt NGP's too close to cal for me. I've sent an enquiry off to BikeMP3 to hear their input on it. The two NGP antennas come with about 16' of co-ax so I don't know that I want that much coiled 'rope' tucked away somehwere to get chaffed or cause a fit issue; things are tight enough all over already. I like the idea of the Everhardt likely not needing too much of a tweak on the SWR to get a good match. If I can get 2-4 miles out of the radio I'll be thrilled.

 

[Terryj]

Budoka, the thing with NGP antennas are that they are a complete tuned circuit, what this means is the coax and the antenna are tuned together, this is why you can not substitute coax lines. On a regular 50 ohm system such as a counterpoised antenna you use 50 ohm unbalanced line, the length of the coax doesn't really matter as long as the antenna is tuned correctly. Both ends of a unbalanced coax are terminated with center conductor going to the antenna and the shield going to ground. On a NGP antenna the coax is in a balanced configuration with only the radio end of the shield being connected. This is what makes it a tuned circuit and why the coax is so long.

Bentwing, by installing a NGP antenna, it just makes it more efficent for the type of install.

 

[Shoehorn]

On my yamaha xs11 I had an old midland that put out more than the cobra I repalced it with. A good ground is important be it on a house or mobile. Used to reach out quite a ways but that was probably due to the 110 kicker lenear amp. Glad they matched yours up so well.

 

[budoka]

I got a reply from Pete at BikeMP3 last night and part of the reason the NGP's work so well is that co-ax is matched to the radio already (oversimplified but that's the gist of it) and that's what gets the low SWR. I'm going to have to figure a way to deal with the extra cable somehow, I cna't cut and splice it or the match will go out the window. Meh, she always has too much stuff in the trunk anyways