Wideband Modification

Hi

What does Wideband Modification mean and what does it actually do.

Thank you

Gary

On an amateur HF radio it will only transmit on the designated amateur bands.
The wide band modification allows it to transmit on the full coverage of the radio.
Most users get it done so they can use the CB / 27.555 etc etc.
Depending on what radio you have, it can be an easy mod or quite difficult.

Paul.

Hi Paul

Thank you for the reply, I understand it a bit more now.

Gary

Everything you need is in here.

https://www.mods.dk/

You will have to log in. It's free.

Paul.

Wide-banding modern equipment is not a good idea. It can be viable with old equipment and above 144Mhz.

With modern/new equipment.
a) invalidates all warranty
b) in order to comply with regulations, legally sold CB and amateur equipment has to pass the CE tests which includes tests to ensure in-band use only. Some manufacturers build in protection against out of band use.
c) can affect re-sale value of equipment
d) Even though one can remove links and diodes to wide-band, the firmware can often without warning lock-up and "brick" the radio, especially on modern rigs like the 991a and 7300 - there is different firmware and motherboards for different regions.
e) The in-built filters are so sharp - one can, and people do burn-out the filters transmitting out of the bands for which the radio was designed and built for.

How can I say this? - I work in the industry and with the manufacturers. Often wide-banded HF radios are damaged needing a new main board. Even for a legitimate multi-region application (e.g. on a boat needing both European and US band capabilities), usually it means two separate regionalised rigs with different main boards and firmware.

Tut, tut, naughty boy. Widebanding?!

You'll be having the BR68ers choking on their egg sandwiches!

Nice to see the old scare stories still doing the rounds

Right, I'm off to play music, wide band FM on the old 27.7812....somewhere near as dammit, with me Yeasu!


(Before anyone spits their dummy from their pram, that's a lots of "LOL's" up there!)

I only widebanded my 818 for testing purposes as i do not have a analyser so on 1w i can tune to find the swr dip . I know technically not alowed but on 1w i dont think i would be a problem , and its only friefly key down .

I wouldn't even think twice about it Matt

So long as what you are doing is of benefit or interest to yourself and without detriment to anyone else, it shouldn't matter.

Heck, you can legally pipe your flipping internet around your mains wiring wiping out anyone with an interest in radio recievers chance of reception nearby! Now that's a "wideband" problem as many would agree!!

Well said !

Uploading a YouTube video but you will see how I use it for a analyser lol but wouldn't dream having a qso ... it's not enough power

Joking aside the 818 is a great reciever. That a kl203 and a t2lt on a hill be a great station .

I personally don't see a problem with the wide band mods. I've done lots over the years for myself and others. As long as you don't run high power out of band, the filters will be ok. Never had any problems with any radio I've done.
I know you're not supposed to use HF set for 11mts etc but most amateurs do.

Paul.

My Yaesu 891 was widebanded by the retailer who sold it to me with a full warranty. There are plenty of people on 11m on various tired old SSB rigs who are a hundred Hertz off frequency, carrier leaking, "other" sideband only 10dB down, splattering, overdriving their non-linear amp, etc (and a few with new "export" radios which are just as bad). None of the dealers are keen to talk about it for understandable reasons, and indeed a couple of them won't sell a widebanded rig, but at least a third of the market for HF radios is for 11m. Radios don't have ham band bandpass filtering, there is no issue. Just don't try and modify a radio yourself unless you know what you are doing.

Seen some real butcher jobs on you tube , modern smt boards especially .I watched TRX bench do one and he was using a £400 set of weller tweezer soldering irons and when you see it being done by a pro then he makes it look easy , using the right tools for the job .You need good eyesight and a steady hand for the modern boards .

I'm about to get my HAM licence (within 3 months) after being a 'freebander' for 40 years. My new rig is going to be a Yaesu FT-991A, which I ordered with the 'Full TX' modification. The warranty will still be in tact, just as long as I'm not butchering it myself.

Hey hell... the fact that I'm becoming a HAM doesn't mean that my love for 11m will suddenly vanish!

Order your new rig with the modification done by the supplier and everything will be fine. Over here (19 div) it will only cost as much as € 22,50. If you have any doubts about the warranty, just ask them what the terms are.

26TC62 wrote:

Radios don't have ham band bandpass filtering, there is no issue.

Yeah actually some of them do although they may be called pre-selectors. Entry level ones might not but when you start getting to mid and upper range they do. My Flexradio had filters for each individual ham band.

Using HF rigs for 11m makes absolutely no sense. They don't hear any better than a CB does on 11m, if someone is transmitting a wide splattering signal a HF rig can't magically get rid of RF from that on the frequency you're listening to. And given that many HF rigs being used on 11m are either old or entry level ones then the dynamic range at 5kHz or 10kHz spacing is no better than a CB. Also many CBs are more "on frequency" out of the box than most ham gear not fitted with a TXCO. TRX Bench has tested CBs that have been 10Hz or less off frequency out of the box. My TS480 needed a TXCO installing to manage that.

In fact when it comes to UKFM because HF radios use narrow deviation you sound quiet to those using CBs where they're normally wound up more than that.

oh I like a good wideband

Back in the day, when 5MHz was experimental, I obtained an NoV and had both my FT-847 and FT-100D wide-banded, at the time none of the Manufacturers would perform this for reasons of warranty, particularly so for 4m operation, since the FT-847 is seriously inefficient on that band, and does produce a spurious signal at ~45MHz, if operated in 4m at maximum power the components will overheat and fail, and current draw being extremely high, I never operated for more than a second or too, and thought better of it, and always used minimum power, which used minimal current.

There are modifications that can be made to the Transceiver to remove this spurious signal, but the overheating at high power would eventually cook the components.

In addition you can put the 4m output, which is through the 6m SO-239, into a Project Diplexer, to attach to both 4m and 6m antennas, I plan to do this, plus the modification to the internals.

However, I was operating on 5MHz, and was concerned about spurious signals on a primarily military band with 3kHz spot frequencies, so used an oscilloscope and a dummy load to look at the output, which was entirely clean at those frequencies, which meant I was seriously disappointed in the major distributors that they would not even entertain such a mod for an Amateur holding an NoV, so undertook the mods myself.

The FT-100D has no 4m capability, but was also clean when using it on 5Mhz for Portable operations.

As people have mentioned, for as little as £20 these days you can order a new transceiver wide-banded under Warranty these days, so things appear to have changed.

So it really depends on the transceiver, and how silly you are with your own equipment, and whether you care about RFI.

It's always worth remembering that running a HF radio at full power on 11 meters FM will probably fry your low pass filters. The mods can be done but operating out of design specification can carry risks to your kit.

73 Gary.

GaryWilson wrote:

It's always worth remembering that running a HF radio at full power on 11 meters FM will probably fry your low pass filters. The mods can be done but operating out of design specification can carry risks to your kit.

73 Gary.

True, hence buying the Albrecht for 11m here, although I understand it will do 10m and 12m, I won't be using it for that.  It'll be on an antenna switch and using the SG-235 though, since negotiation to erect the 5/8 Silver Rod I bought recently is still yet to start, I mean I have successfully negotiated erection of the Butternut HF-9V the other day, so not yet pushing my luck,ha.

Exactly the same here Wayne, I have a few different but dedicated CB radios for 11 meters and my HF set for the ham bands.