Big burners.? Why?

Hll
I don’t wish to offend anyone or step on people’s toes, but why do some people use such high power which inevitably makes it impossible for people close by to be unable to use the channels.?

I’m not talking about 10 or 20 watts but 200 watts to 3 kilowatts?

When this is on the uk40 for example it wipes the full 40 channels out for all the other local users!

 Sadly this is happening close by to me and like other things in life once one or two people start others follow!

Anyway just brought it up as a subject for those that use power to think about how and when as there are consequences for others too!

John

There is alot on UKFM that have a problem like let's call it "The Little Man Syndrome " ( I can talk being only 5'.4" lol) but you get my meaning you see to some of them 5w to talk to to your mate 100yrds up the road isn't enough for them , they think the more power the bigger they sound but TBH in that actual situation of 100yrds away or even 3 miles away 5w and 100w sounds no different  to the the person listening at the other end so really there wasting there time and effort, then they say " people can can hear me all over I'm a power station" all we and good but not much use if you cant hear the people who can hear you cos they are only using normal power in a word breakers like these are a word that rhymes with anchors (being polite) I use a amp for DXing on SSB mainly and sometimes on FM/AM but only if I know it's a very long distance copy and the other station is also using extra power ,other than that actually on UKFM  for local copies max of 10w is sufficient TBH I dont use UKFM that often but when I'm on Euro FM or AM the maximum I use for local stuff is 5w to 10w

Well said Martin and some damn good points mate!

Sadly John this is not just limited to the CB bands.

I have spent an eternity struggling to listen to 80m whenever the local Ham club runs their nets! They burn the maximum power then gleefully give each other 5/9 reports via Hackgreen SDR?!?!?!   Complete nonsense.

Luckily with 'lockdown' this hasn't been happening recently. Never have I heard so many QRP stations, 10W M7's, (new hams), and distant stations before! Flipping wonderful!

I have no problem with people running power when used properly, it can often gain that difficult DX for the log. On standard UK FM it makes no sense at all when the buggers are talking to their local mates. Martin said it well with 'anchors'  


They'd probably all do much better getting their antennas in check, it's only then that more power makes sense. No point being able to transmit further than you can hear! 


I must admit that I have a weird perversion of when making a DX contact I turn my power down to as low as possible whilst still making a copy. Big power to get over the pileups and low power for the QSO. Love it.

But often there's better ways and again back to the antenna point. I can hear 3 division stations, (Brazil), even on my bits of wire in the loft but can't quite get back to them. I could push more power and hope for the best or I can run a beam. The beam I'm currently constructing has an average gain of 6dB which would give me the same effect of running 4 times the power. All of that pointed in their direction instead of every which way! I'll probable hear them much better too!


Knowledge is the key here, but unfortunately there are plenty of 'numpties' and narcissists.......


All the best,
Victor

Thanks for the replies guys. 

At the moment I’m not too badly effected because they are at work during the day when I’m on the air. 
But as I say. It’s once one got a 100watt burn they all followed suit. Then they bought ham radios which also had extra power. 

Now it’s 1kw and 3kw burners. As you say it would be better that they started with their antenna set up and audio. 

I hear the buzz of the burners going up in power. Then one blows their light circuits out using the extra power. Madness!

Some of my mates can only go on a night so they seem to be getting the worst of the situation. 

Just going to keep my fingers crossed

John,

Lets go back about 30 / 40 years and take a lesson from our younger selves and we didn't know any better.

Nail in the coax comes to mind - Mwahahahahahahah...!!!!!! 

Oh if it was only that simple eh!!!

73's graeme

LOL Victor did you like my being polite bit ,I must be getting all P.C in my old age.......Nah definitely not , but it's true if some of set up the equipment better they wouldn't really need all the power there wasting, we have a few in my surrounding area that are always running nothing under 100w and these do know about radio and are actually Amateurs and they always just sit on the UK19 having conversations like they own it they've been doing for years so now most ignore them  and let them get on with it but lately they have been getting on the T5 doing the same so you miss some stations calling when conditions are ok ,I did say to them in my polite manner can you clear the calling frequency  there answer was there f**k all on it's all quite so shut up ,but what they dont understand is that they are well out of my area even though I hear them like locals and I can hear stuff they cant or dont hear and there blocking my incoming DX so basically they are anchors large battleship ones .

Red Fox wrote:

John,

Lets go back about 30 / 40 years and take a lesson from our younger selves and didn't know any better.

Nail in the coax comes to mind - Mwahahahahahahah...!!!!!! 

Oh if it was only that simple eh!!!

73's graeme

Oh yes I remember those days Graeme it was so much easier then ,trouble is there is too many nutters about now if you tried that now you might get stabbed or worse shot at especially in London

I did like it Martin

You've got to like an expletive replacement word

"Anchors, large battleship ones!" is gonna stay with me for some time!!   


Graeme, pass me the Tena will you mate...

Here's a different take on it. Home base stations in the city (Leicester) and surrounds seem to be plagued with 9+ of QRM, PLT's, LED lights, grow lamps (for you know what) etc. and even I have to use 100 watts to speak to someone 3 miles away else they can't hear me over the noise, any less power and I'm not heard at all. I'm sure it's the same in other towns and cities too.

It's a shame tbh, but the amount of radio noise about these days has all but killed two way radio for a lot of people, HF is also greatly affected, so even licenced users don't fare any better unless we use higher frequencies, but I've got a problem on 6m so it's 2m and above usually. But not everyone we talk to has a ticket, so it's back on 27 and turn up the juice, put some fire up the wire so we can be heard above the rubbish.

Also, there's not a lot of folks on around here, and we all usually talk to each other anyway, so channel splatter isn't an issue. I don't think anyone has more than a kilowatt but at least a hundred is needed, fifty isn't enough. We didn't have this problem in the olden days, but since switch mode power supplies were invented, and put in everything electrical, it's got a thousand times worse.

@Mitch ,I  agree what you say , bloody ell  mate we ain't got it easy in London (I'm only about 8mile from the centre of London) sometime I  get noise/interference so bad I cant even hear one of my mates 1 mile down the road even using extra power ,but the one I've been on about have been doing for the purpose and always have they are just ar*eholes who want to cause trouble, TBH it's true if your lucky enough to have your antenna and good quality antenna up high and good SWR you dont need a lot of power in good conditions I know some dont have that luxury but using a amp doesn't always solve everything, back in the old AM illegal days of CB  and before all the interference we get now I use get copies of 50 mile away using 2watts and that can still be done in good conditions.

I know what you mean Martin,

I do remember the days when we could get away with things like that, not nowadays though.

The great thing about these forums is the memories you often recall, especially the funny stuff you had forgotten about but bring a smile back to your face when remembered.

My mates and I sometimes took it upon ourselves to track down the usual idiots that thought they were GOD, often hiding behind the mic and saying what they wanted, when they wanted thinking that nobody would ever find them…. Yes, you’re right, we were also young and stupid as well and never thought about the consequences, but back in the day, the worst you would get was a hiding from somebody that was bigger and uglier than you 
The odd pin in the coax often sorted them out and they thought twice about trying it again.

One that does spring to mind was a really obnoxious youngster, probably 12-14 year old that thought he was untouchable, often causing mayhem, playing music,for hours on end, keying over the top of folk and cursing and swearing at anyone who spoke to him.

Even back then, I liked to experiment and I decided to make myself a home-brew tracker of a mag-mounted 2 ft dial-a-match antenna with an old metal coat rail the type normally found in a wardrobe that you hang your coat-hangers on, slightly opened up along its full length and slid over the entire length of the whip with some tinfoil on the end. Yes believe it or not it worked great for direction finding with the use of the RF Gain and a swing needle meter – Oh those were the days.

It took about 20 mins to track the little beggar down and spot his DV27 on the gutter at the back of his house – Now that we had found him, we asked him nicely to stop his nonsense, his reply would have made us plenty of cash if we had a swear box on here.

As I was speaking to him, one of my mates sneaked through the back garden and climbed the cast Iron drain pipe, grabbed his DV27 and jumped back down to the grass.
I can still hear the little beggar yet as he screamed “mummy someone is stealing my CB” when his rig shot across the room followed by silence as I’m guessing his mike followed suit.

Just our luck   
His dad who looked like an extra from the wrestling on ITV came running out and we thought, OH Sh!t, we’re gonna get it now….. But when we explained what his son had been doing for the last few weeks, he simply said “Ok boys, let me sort it” and went inside. 

Never heard from the little beggar again... Now that was a night I’ll never forget. 

Tena Time for me as well Victor 

Oh God, now I'm reminiscing......

Brilliant story BTW Graeme. Definitely Tena time!


We had a royal PITA breaker in the area, king of the hill self centred type.
Rather than anything confrontational it was for the more electronically minded a much simpler solution.....

Colpitts oscillator centred on 27MHz, zener diode for a noise source, made to sweep from 26MHz to 28MHz. All housed in a tic-tac sized box with battery and 9 foot of thin enamelled wire as an antenna. 

Instant short ranged RF woodpecker!!!!
 
I hid it in the undergrowth of his property knowing that even though it transmitted a couple of milliwatts it would wipe out his reception for days on end. Flipping worked too!

I have never laughed so hard as I did at this guy trying to get radio reports and screaming out how he couldn't hear anyone because of this mysterious +30 'chicking' noise!!!!!!  


As far as I know, he sold up as we never heard from him again....


Dirty, dirty, evil bugger I was!

Of course I'm much more mature about such things now

Oh Victor,

You are evil.. but I like it 

John,

I think you have stumbled on a solution to your problem.

It's called ""VICTOR"" the EVIL ONE Mauhahahahahaha  

Get your soldering iron out victor, I'm sure John would love a gadget like that 

Ha, Ha, Ha!!

I was of course, much younger and naive to legalities back then

Heck, I need three pairs of glasses to get on with normal household stuff nowadays! My once dextrous fingers are reduced to bear paws

Still, was nice reminiscing and I've been chuckling on the sofa most of the evening!

Yup  

That’s the solution alright. 

SEND IN THE VICTOR!!

Just looking through this thread and noticed the "nail in the coax" lol.
I remember it well when this burner competition started many many years ago.
What we did was we used a pin and cut the the head and the other end off made it very hard to find.
We did it to the same to guys 2 or 3 times before they got the message.
Happy days.

This thread certainly brings back some memories I remember one young guy from the C.B. had a kilowatt burner for a time it had a bank of 5 or 6 valves his favourite was keying on 19 with his favourite music playing although that didn't last long thinking back.
One of the lads had a directional antenna with a little meter we tracked an especially obnoxious youth down who was very bold until we pulled up outside of his mum's house at which point he was just about reduced to tears, begging forgiveness and promising never to do so again, which was very acceptable to us.

The pin through the coax was one I have heard of many times although somebody else suggested just cut a 6-foot length from it, it's not something I have had much trouble with personally other than some bedroom DJ on CH19 back in the '80s and I have had no real experience of it since returning to the airwaves. 
 
It was only when the skip carried people in on 19 from further afield that I even heard a bucketmouth on CH19 if you burn your bridges with the few operators where I live you are going to have a very lonely time of it indeed, all the idiots seem to have moved to the internet I am pleased to say and it has a block feature but it has certainly brought back some memories of the good old days!

We had a whistler on the South Coast net last night.
Unfortunately someone acknowledged it by asking them to stop, at which point it doubled up.
Best is to outright ignore and keep talking. They always stop as it is the irritation and subsequent retorts that they are looking for.

I guess if you wanted to knock them off air from a distance, a dirty homebrew spark-gap transmitter with a beam attached would do.
Aim. Fire.

Somehow  i dont  think there are many cber's running 1kw and certainly not 3kw  Most of the top of the range amps cost around 3K PLUS acoms ect and aint that easy to modify to work on 11 mtrs .Any folks running huge power will be Hams and a lot of them will not be licenced to do so 400watts is the legal uk limit unless you have a special licence .I know lots of cber;s use 200-300 watts  but mostly for dx but there are exceptions .Another thing most cb antennas cant handle big power .

I'm not saying it's not 100% what saltire is saying but , back in the old days my cousin use to run a old 500watt valve amp and his old original Avanti Sigma4 antenna  ( the modern copy now is a Vector 4000 )could handle it ok ,he use to use the power mainly on SSB because back then conditions were far superior to how they are now , but saying no CBers would be using a 1k amp I do know of one that does and that's as far as I'm gonna say.

There are exceptions as you point out Martin.

Sadly I've known several Hams that run huge amps, openly boast about it and quite often known to pop on the 27MHz band to obliterate local CB breakers. Happened back in the day, still happens now. Many will deny it defending the 'honour' of licenced radio users, but licenced users or not, there are always bad eggs. Old valve amps whether designed for Amateur use or otherwise turn up on the second hand market and often not as difficult to modify as made out. I know of one CBer running an old FT2100, that's an easy 1.2kW peak and relatively inexpensive to buy.

I dont know the situation of breakers in Scotland(where saltire comes from) back in the pre legalised days and very early legalised days of CB ,but in London there was CB operators who did have large powerful amps around that time ,channel 6 AM mids 27:025 in what the Americans call the Superbowl channel where really hardcore CBers pit themselves against each other with who has the most power mega power too, anyway there was a breaker around my area in London  who use to go on the Superbowl channel I knew who he was he was and he wasnt one of the idiots out to cause trouble he just wanted to talk with the Americans at there level of power,and he did the thing was he was running so much power sometimes you could hear him clear as bell three channels either side of ch6 when he was on and I know he wasn't running a little b300p that most of us use lol

H
Thanks for all the replies. 

There are two breakers not far from me. 
One with 1kw and the other as the crow flies at 22 miles with a 3 kw burner. He can put a plus 30 on my rig and blank 4 channel either way,!

Others near here have ham rigs or 100w but most use extra power too. 

Makes my little 4watts and 12 seem poor but if you can’t hear anything because of these guys me adding power would not help anyway.

I’ll keep plodding on. 
Guy blew the electric in hs house the other day so I can hope next time it’ll be his radio. 

Tonight I lost all 40uk again so stopped altogether. ‍�

Mad George from Glasgow openly showed off his 1kw Yeasu  amp on youtube  around 5 years ago along with his£ 10k 9000dxmp.But he was an exception to the rule in more ways than one !!!!!!.The top of the range Acom does 2kw max and at 5.5grand you would have to be a keen dx'r on 11 mtrs to drop that kinda cash .As for a 3kw well ive yet to find one sold in the uk from a commercial compay  i know the yanks build 8-10 pill amps  for cb bragging rights maybe this bloke imported one from the usa?, just check out bbi on youtube he is the boy when it comes to big amps .
If you live out in the sticks then by all means run big power if you can afford it !!  no harm done but not in the town you are asking for a chap on the door for messing up the streets routers ect ect .

Tristar
The legality works for both cb and ham.
If i had a legal cb setup and a ham down the road was running 3kw making it that i had to just switch off i know who i would call and it wouldn't be gostbusters.