I asked my Nephew who is into Monster car stereos just what he's seen concerning Monster Mobile CB. His reply is below.
Regards, Jim Candela WD5JKO -----Original Message----- From: tonyandtoni [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 8:48 PM To: Jim Candela Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Illegal 27 MHz dealers I haven't seen any of it around here. When I lived in Little Rock, I saw my fair share of it. The crowd was mostly men and they supposedly put $1,000 each into a pot to "enter" these keyoffs. They'd set up a base a mile or so away and everyone would key up at the same time on a designated channel. The guy with the strongest signal would drown all others out and thereby take the pot. Of course, I never actually witnessed these events. I did however see my fair share of 1Kw and up Linears in some of these guys cars. Some of the systems had MANY (up to 7) alternators that were any where from 200 amp and up EACH. Unlike us car audio guys, they didn't believe in using auxiliary battery banks to maintain voltage -- they accomplished this directly from the alternators. I remember one guy came in with about 3Kw in a late model Buick. He had a single 300 Amp Les Deville alternator (like you'd see strapped to the motor of a BIG firetruck) and two runs of 4/0 power cable run underneath the car to the amps in the trunk. If memory serves me, he did have one additional battery under the hood. He also had all the ECM harnesses under the hood wrapped in some kind of lead shielding to keep the car running when he was on the highway! He popped the trunk and had equally large braided ground straps from the frame of the car run up to the amps as well as the ground plane of the antenna. I was floored. He keyed this thing up and the base of his antenna (at LEAST an inch diameter at the base) was glowing RED in about 10 seconds. You could FEEL the RF in the hair on your arms. That shit CAN'T be good for you. We got in pretty good with them and sold them LOTS of 1/0 gauge wire, gold plated battery clamps, distribution blocks, and all the other stuff that they needed to install these wild systems. I also saw my fair share of "upgradable" linears. Some of them were built for 1Kw operation and had empty slots where you could plug in extra Motorola TO-3 devices to double or even triple power. From what I understood, it was NOT illegal to sell these amps. It WAS however illegal to install them. Most of the guys installing these BIG systems were quite talented but not licensed whatsoever by the FCC. I guess that's how they got around it. Hey listen, us Car Audio guys ain't that crazy! Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Candela" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Tony & Toni Candela" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 6:41 PM Subject: FW: [AMRadio] Illegal 27 MHz dealers > > Tony, > > Is this stuff still going on? > > Uncle Jim > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Charles Ring CSRE > CBNT W3NU > Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 9:01 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Illegal 27 MHz dealers > > > > > Ed Sieb wrote: > > > Hi Brian, > > > > It's worse than you think! > > > > In the last few years, a new type of CB activity has become very popular - > > the "Keydown Superbowl". > > A group, or club of CB'ers will organize a meet where the participants get > > together to compete over who has the biggest linear, with the most power. > > Amps with power levels of anywhere from 10 KW to even 50KW are operated, > > (often into ruggedized vertical antennas). > > > > > > I have heard of these events and the subculture that supports them, and I am > guessing that the FCC hesitates to go after them for the same reason as cops > hesitate to go after a well-armed biker gang - the real possibility of > violence. > > Also realize that their claimed power levels are most likely very > exaggerated, > not that it isn't enough to make them the world champs of harmful > interference. > > On a more normal scale there is never a hamfest where i dont see a selection > of > awful looking illegal CB amps. At the last one I saw one painted black, > which > reminded me of this (written by Rod Newkirk?) from an old QST: > > A CB with mind full of static > thinks Uncle is undemocratic > He daily demands > a dozen new bands > for his secret black box in the attic > > > 73 de W3NU > > > > _______________________________________________ > AMRadio mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio >
