2 Radios hooked in Series!!

[420Snowman]

This is a question I came up with last night while looking over at my 2 main radios.
Can you chain them together so you can listen on both of them at the same time, with the same antenna?? Obviously you cant key one with the other one on, but will it hurt to key it up with the second radio in the chain turned off??
All of this would happen PRE amplifier also, no big juice through them at this stage.

Snowman

['Doc]

Best advice is, don't do that. It'd only take one mistake and ...
- 'Doc

[420Snowman]

And that one mistake would be keying with them both on, I assume it would burn out the finals in the receiving radio, right?

[Night Crawler]

This is a question I came up with last night while looking over at my 2 main radios.
Can you chain them together so you can listen on both of them at the same time, with the same antenna?

To do it the right way you would need a 50 ohm splitter that would give 20db of isolation between the two receivers because of the varying inpedances and oscillator signals that can cause mutual interference and signal loss.
You don't want the two receivers to see each other.

Obviously you cant key one with the other one on, but will it hurt to key it up with the second radio in the chain turned off?

You better believe it.
The only that could be done with one radio receiving and the other transmitting is with the use of a duplexer and the two radios would have to be on different frequencies.

[420Snowman]

So in a nutshell I just shouldn't do it! Lol

[PRO151]

So in a nutshell I just shouldn't do it! Lol

Correct. It is not "if" you will forget and key one with the other on but "when".

I had a friend in the 70's that was determined that he was going to be able to monitor 9, 11, 19 and 26 all at the same time.
Used splitters and jumpers to tie all 4 radios to his base antenna and did not make it week before he keyed up with all 4 radios on.

[drdx]

Well, for fun, just use a few $5 yard sale radios and don't plug the mics in. I've thought before about putting together a bank of several old radios of the same model for that purpose. Even with the sound down you coul look over and check the meters, kind of a monitoring post deal.

-drdx

[Sporty Mike]

I've had two radios going in the shack before, each on it's own ant. and comepletely independent of each other but still their proximity to each other made keying op on either one useless due to the feedback it caused on the others recieve.

Mike

[drdx]

It is cool to have monitoring ability. In past mobiles, when radio was much more popular, I would run a uniden BCT7 scanner scanning cb frequencies on a separate antenna. Another cool angle, I ran a frequench counter on the dash with an antenna hooked to it. If you were behind someone or just picked up a close signal the freq counter would pick it up. I used one of those small cheapo ones that I think went to 200mhz or something, but it was neat. If you were underneath the antenna of the enemy and they dropped to another channel you could tell where if you were close enough. Other than that, just riding down the road, the counter would just dance around on random frequencies, kinda annoying but that's why they have an off switch.

-drdx

[721HACKSAW]

The RCI 2950's and 70's have Scan capabilities, you just program in the freqs and let 1 radio do the work.

[drdx]

True on that. I have a 2970 and forgot it does that. I love the scan on the hf rigs where it changes modes. On mine, I like to program the whole 40 in one bank, then make 36-40 lsb so it catches it all on a dead day. When the skip is rolling it is kinda pointless but if it is dead I like scanning.

In the early 90's I think or so, there were a few "dual watch" radios on the market. I think they were either junk or just didn't take off but they had them at the truckstops. They even had dual meters as I recall.

-drdx

[De_Wildfire]

This is a question I came up with last night while looking over at my 2 main radios.
Can you chain them together so you can listen on both of them at the same time, with the same antenna?? Obviously you cant key one with the other one on, but will it hurt to key it up with the second radio in the chain turned off??
All of this would happen PRE amplifier also, no big juice through them at this stage.

Snowman

I couldn't take that risk and I've been into radio for a long time. I have a lot going on as it is in the shack and all it takes is one mistake or if you are in some kind of rush. That is not for me. I've actually made a few mistakes in the past using an amp on the wrong antennas because of receiving on one and transmitting on the other for a split second and forgot to switch it back when the phone rang. You wonder why one may have to do this, well that's because I need the most bang on the higher antenna but the lower antenna cuts down on all the static crashes by over half if I receive close to the ground. Sure, you will reduce the other stations signal but at least you can hear them better without them getting covered up with static. I think if I tried doing the idea you were suggesting , I wouldn't be on the air very long. LOL..............

[Pistol_Pete]

My Ranger / RCI 2995 DX also has the scaning capabilities though I have never used them. Sounds like a good project for tonight.

[Pistol_Pete]

I also had one of the radios in my truck years ago that was capable of monitoring two channels at the same time. I actually really liked the darn thing. I do not remember it having two meters but it might have.
While coming back from Grand Rapids, MI one night with about five other trucks I started having trouble receiving. I got **Censored** off rolled the window down and tossed the darn thing.
I brought in a new radio the next night and much to my dismay I had the same problem. Turned out that my external speaker was shorting out.

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[420Snowman]

After all the comments and help from my CBRT brothers, I did not do this in my shack, I just have the other radio sitting there as a backup and I just run my 55v as the everyday talker.

Snowman