PRESIDENT McKINLEY FM DEVIATION.

Hi all,

had my McKinley for a while now and been getting some pretty good reports on the audio both on FM and SSB. A lot of reports people are giving me are saying that the AUDIO is a bit quiet compared to the signal,more especially on SSB.

I have expanded the radio and it now puts out just over 20 watts on FM and SSB.
I am only using the standard mic but I am thinking audio could be improved on FM by increasing FM deviation a bit. I think it's set between 1.5 and 2khz so maybe would benefit by increasing it to 5khz and widening the bandwidth a bit more.

Not sure HOW to improve the SSB?

Also I have recently tried a little KL 203 linear,with mixed results. Doesn't sound too bad on FM, driving it with about 4 watts.   On SSB.....USB I  am getting reports of SPIKES on the audio,and sounding "scratchy" ( driving it on 8 watts)so not sure but some RF maybe creeping in from somewhere. I have to say that the power leads on the linear are VERY short and are pretty close to the radio.

Anyway any advice would be appreciated.

redsprite

Steph.

The reason why its spiking as you put it is,first of all are you 100% sure you know your are on putting 8 watts in on SSB ,because if your not you could be over driving the amp or even the opposite not enough to drive the amp which can cause these problems, also do you  realise that on SSB when you key up it's not like being on AM or FM which is a dead carrier which put power straight into the amp on SSB its your voice that makes the carrier and does not put any power through the amp until you speak so if the mike is not  powerful enough  it be driving the amp ,its also your voice if it's a strong deep voice if a softer quiter voice it's the same thing ,you asked about this before in another thread and a lot of us told you about the two settings on the Mc Kinley for the microphone there is one for electrec (which is what comes with the radio) and the setting is Dynamic which is normal microphones plus normal power microphones if I was you I would go and get a KPO power mic which seem to suit the newer radios from Knights switch the radio to Dynamic setting and you'll see a difference.

Nubster thanks for your input.

The McKinley does not have a NUMBERS scale it has an RF GAIN BAR scale  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- consisting of 10 BARS as you see with 2 dashes in each bar. On FM  ( with NO linear ) if I set the BAR scale at 1, which shows as 2 dashes, on my power meter this equates to 4 watts dead key.

It's hard to tell what each section of the BAR scale represents but if I put it on SSB with the BAR INDICATOR on FULL  scale ( no linear ) it will PEAK about 15 watts with a whistle, so not sure.

Unfortunately Knights and all the others are sold out of the KPO mics and have been for a while with no indication of when the will re stock.

Steph.

Have you tried Thunderpole  https://www.thunderpole.co.uk/
they do KPO too, by the way there is a microphone that looks exactly the same as all the KPO products 
but they have the name MAAS on them some say there the same but they are there mics have a totally different board in them and are not as good .

Nubster, thanks for the Thunderpole link, I just emailed them just to check they ARE in stock.They are showing up on the online shop.

Nice one you set that mic up right you wont be disappointed for the price there a pretty good mic hope my advise works OK for you .

Had an email back the SALES dept. Thunderpole.


Unfortunately we are sold out too.
 
However they are on order, so should hopefully be with us in a few weeks.
 
If you keep checking our website, it will be automatically updated once they are in stock.
 


Crazy really, not sure who their suppliers are or where these mics are made but someone is missing out on a LOT of potential SALES here.

Redsprite

That's a gutter Steph, the thing is TBH first of I think it's a bit of the situation the world is in ATM ,dont think anyone is stocking up on stuff and especially CB/Radio type stuff it's not exactly a booming business TBH , shame really cos Thunderpole and Knights are about the only true CB shops still just about surviving you'll just have to keep an eye on there sites to see when they get stock in , if I think of another supplier I'll post it on here .

I found this if your interested Steph

https://www.radioworld.co.uk/second-hand-kpo-nm-532-cb-radio-power-microphone

Cheers Nubster, i,m on their site now. Just asked if the KPO 532 was STILL  available. Unfortunately it's GONE  appreciate you flagging it up though.

Looks.like you'll have to wait till some come it stock somewhere