CB Squelch setting ?

[royalstar09]

I enjoy on occasion running my CB and chatting with some truckers, or even just listening in. Makes time go by. Problem is I get so much static. If I run the squelch setting up to stop static then the CB has to be within sight to talk or listen in. What is the range for these? I work with handheld radios that will talk 5 miles or more to each other. Just curious if possibly I have an antenna issue, or are they just like this?

[V7Goose]

I do not know what type of static you are hearing, or under what conditions, but your experience is not typical. Maybe you have the wrong plugs or plug caps on your bike? Maybe a bad condenser? Maybe a wrong or damaged antenna? Do you have the same problem with the engine off?

 

I have no discernible bike noise in my radio. In the mornings and when away from the main highways, the background noise can often be cut with a squelch setting of 3 or 4. Of course, when the general traffic is running high or the skip is bad, any radio will take more squelch to cut the background noise that is not intelligible. 3-5 mile range is very common, often more depending on the conditions of the terrain and radio traffic.

Goose

[royalstar09]

I do not know what type of static you are hearing, or under what conditions, but your experience is not typical. Maybe you have the wrong plugs or plug caps on your bike? Maybe a bad condenser? Maybe a wrong or damaged antenna? Do you have the same problem with the engine off?

 

I have no discernible bike noise in my radio. In the mornings and when away from the main highways, the background noise can often be cut with a squelch setting of 3 or 4. Of course, when the general traffic is running high or the skip is bad, any radio will take more squelch to cut the background noise that is not intelligible. 3-5 mile range is very common, often more depending on the conditions of the terrain and radio traffic.

Goose

 

It is not bike noise. It is other CB's. I have to run a minimum of 14 squelch setting to keep from hearing all the noises. Bike has 3,000 miles on it so it has not had plugs, wires, or anything replaced, its all OEM. Does not seem to make any difference if I am sitting in my garage (bike off) or riding it. Unless I see a 18 wheeler I cannot talk to them from having squelch settings so high. On occasion I can pick up bits and pieces of conversations so I know it is truckers talking, but unless they are in sight I cannot hear clearly.

[etcswjoe]

Terrain also plays into your range, the transmitters on these units only put out about 4 watts and as mentioned before antennas play into this quite a bit. I would suggest checking your VSWR to make sure your antennas are good and in tune. 3-5 miles is probally a good max range any further than that would be unusual. I have Firesticks on one of my Ventures and get a little more range than stock.

[V7Goose]

I do not know what to tell you - if the noise is from other radios, then it is normal. In fact, hearing so much traffic from other radios simply proves that your receiver is working very well. If you have a problem being heard by others, than that could be caused by a maladjusted SWR on your bike. If the signals are breaking your squelch, but you cannot understand them, maybe it is your headsets?

 

Having to run a squelch of 14 is not unusual in the afternoons on the superslab. But I have absolutely no problem hearing or talking to other drivers up to about 5 miles away (depending on the conditions, of course), based on their own identification of their 20. There is no way for me to know how many I do NOT hear, of course, but I have no indications that I am missing anything than I have with any other mobile rig for the last 40 years.

Goose

[V7Goose]

Is your CB antenna on the left side? Very occasionally these bikes are delivered with the antennas swapped.

Goose

[royalstar09]

I believe when I go to the dealer for its service Ill have them take a peak. It cannot be normal to be able to listen in only to truckers I can see. Heck if I can see them there would be no need for it if I were having trouble I could just flag them down. Dont see how it could be headsets. Radio is perfectly nice and clear and headsets are new, but it is possible I guess....... It may be something on the RX side of things since I can get out to them, but there traffic to me is broken horribly. If I happen to catch a truck coming at me and have just randomly asked if anyone can hear me I know they did cause I get static back. But it is not until I get the truck in sight that I can hear them reply and I have confirmed this by asking them when we pass each other if that truck was the one trying to reach me. Then once they dissappear from my mirrors same thing again, they hear me but all I get is static or extremely broken traffic in return.

So I guess to be more detailed I am having trouble hearing clear conversations, but can get out to them enough that they try to reply which to me indicates they are hearing me rather clearly.

[royalstar09]

Is your CB antenna on the left side? Very occasionally these bikes are delivered with the antennas swapped.

Goose

 

The antenna with the black thingie about half way up on it is on my left when sitting on the seat facing forward.

[Condor]

A lot of truckers run bi-linears to boost signal... RX.. and transmit a stronger TX. The squelch is there to eliminate background 'earth' noise. Getting rid of the truck chatter by turning the squelch up will not help when trying to communicate up and down the highway any distance. CB is line of sight transmission to the horizon. Buildings, mountains, a truck in front of you will kill your signal. Take you CB to a 'quite' place and turn it up till the background disappears and add one more. That's where you need to leave it. I know it's a PITA when trying to listen to the audio, but you need to do one or the other. If you wnat to do both do exactely what you are doing, but don't expect any response to your radio checks. They can hear you, but you won't be able to hear them. On a group ride turn it all the way up to just listen to the group. Sounds like your radio is working fine....

[royalstar09]

A lot of truckers run bi-linears to boost signal... RX.. and transmit a stronger TX. The squelch is there to eliminate background 'earth' noise. Getting rid of the truck chatter by turning the squelch up will not help when trying to communicate up and down the highway any distance. CB is line of sight transmission to the horizon. Buildings, mountains, a truck in front of you will kill your signal. Take you CB to a 'quite' place and turn it up till the background disappears and add one more. That's where you need to leave it. I know it's a PITA when trying to listen to the audio, but you need to do one or the other. If you wnat to do both do exactely what you are doing, but don't expect any response to your radio checks. They can hear you, but you won't be able to hear them. On a group ride turn it all the way up to just listen to the group. Sounds like your radio is working fine....

 

Thanks for the input. I had a suspesion that with the squelch setting so high it was blocking input RX signals from reaching me. I will try as you suggested and see how that works. I have never run a CB at all. I am used to radio equipment relating to the fire service which is completly different.

[BuddyRich]

CB is Short-Range radio. 1 to 2 miles is about average for intelligible and reliable conversations. I'm usually around 16 to 18 on the squelch.

[V7Goose]

I sure hope you have a good dealer, as the problem you describe will be completely beyond most of them. I would suspect at least 95% of bike shops would simply blow it off by saying it is normal operation. If that is what they try, you best chance might be to get together with another RSV rider and have both bikes there together. Use the speakers on both bikes and transmit from yours, waiting for a contact to try and get back in touch with you that you can hear only on the other bike.

 

Of course, that test would be easier with a THIRD bike (anybody with a radio, not just an RSV) that could ride away until they get to the limit of your communication range.

Goose

[V7Goose]

The squelch is there to eliminate background 'earth' noise. Getting rid of the truck chatter by turning the squelch up will not help when trying to communicate up and down the highway any distance. CB is line of sight transmission to the horizon. Buildings, mountains, a truck in front of you will kill your signal. Take you CB to a 'quite' place and turn it up till the background disappears and add one more. That's where you need to leave it.

I am sorry to contradict you, but I feel this is incorrect information, especially the part I highlighted in red. And yes, I was trained in this specific technology as an avionics communication specialist.

 

Mountains and other rough terrain will affect the local communications distance of HF radios, and big cities too; although, individual buildings rarely, and virtually never any interference from a single truck.

 

More importantly, a proper understanding of the squelch function is valuable to your use of a radio. In short, the squelch is simply to shut the radio up below whatever level where the incoming signals are intelligible. Basically, you cannot "hear" any signal that is not stronger than the background noise, no matter what is causing the level of the background noise, so you adjust the squelch to just cut the noise. That way only a signal that is a little stronger than the noise will break through, and you are not forced to listen to all the unintelligible stuff. With a CB radio, typically the background noise will be much lower in the mornings simply because there is less use of the air waves in those hours. Proper use of the squelch does require you to re-adjust it either up or down as the background noise changes.

 

Furthermore, if an incoming signal is strong enough to break the squelch setting, but you do not hear the modulation as you described, this DOES indicate a problem. do a side-by-side test with any other radio to see if there is actually a difference. For that test, using another RSV is best to eliminate any major technology differences between the two setups.

Goose

[Condor]

I am sorry to contradict you, but I feel this is incorrect information, especially the part I highlighted in red. And yes, I was trained in this specific technology as an avionics communication specialist.

 

Mountains and other rough terrain will affect the local communications distance of HF radios, and big cities too; although, individual buildings rarely, and virtually never any interference from a single truck.

 

More importantly, a proper understanding of the squelch function is valuable to your use of a radio. In short, the squelch is simply to shut the radio up below whatever level where the incoming signals are intelligible. Basically, you cannot "hear" any signal that is not stronger than the background noise, no matter what is causing the level of the background noise, so you adjust the squelch to just cut the noise. That way only a signal that is a little stronger than the noise will break through, and you are not forced to listen to all the unintelligible stuff. With a CB radio, typically the background noise will be much lower in the mornings simply because there is less use of the air waves in those hours. Proper use of the squelch does require you to re-adjust it either up or down as the background noise changes.

 

Furthermore, if an incoming signal is strong enough to break the squelch setting, but you do not hear the modulation as you described, this DOES indicate a problem. do a side-by-side test with any other radio to see if there is actually a difference. For that test, using another RSV is best to eliminate any major technology differences between the two setups.

Goose

 

Hate to differ with you Goose, and I don't want to get into a pissing contest, but what I posted stands. I've been messing with CB radios for damn near 50 years... know a little about atmospheric skip, running illegal linears, and trucking. Normal CB transmissions are line of sight, to the horizon. Buildings will effect performance. You say it has a problem, I don't. Let's leave it at that.

[adventurer 08]

What would you set your squelch on to talk just to another bike in a close group riding?

[Condor]

What would you set your squelch on to talk just to another bike in a close group riding?

 

Since you don't want to hear anyone but the group, crank it up.

[V7Goose]

What would you set your squelch on to talk just to another bike in a close group riding?

I personally would not set it any different than normal - just enough to kill the background noise/chatter.

 

Although setting it at max would probably still allow anyone from the close group to blast through, it has two big drawbacks - first, if someone falls behind, breaks down, or makes a wrong turn, you will quickly be out of range to hear their calls for help if your squelch is too high.

 

Second, you may not hear other fairly close users on the channel, so you might "double" with them (both people keying the mic at the same time). While that won't directly affect you, since you are the one talking, for the other riders in the group, they may only hear loud squeals due to you and the other station transmitting together. So if your squelch is set just slightly above what it takes to block the background noise, you will hear anyone else on the channel that is close enough to the group to cause problems from a doubled transmission. Not only will that allow you to be polite and share the frequency, it will improve the communication within the group 'cause everyone will actually hear what you have to say!

Goose

[Condor]

[adventurer 08]

Thanks for the info. I plan on going to MD with a group from michigan and I want to have the squelch right. I've had truckers breaking in on my cb lately.

[Freebird]

When I'm riding with a group and that is all I'm interested in hearing (which is normally the case), I just put mine all the way up on 20 and it seems to work just fine.