gspence Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Just wanted to chime in and say I've been using the WHM for 2 years and it works great for me. I wonder if some units are just bad or it depends on your area. Either way it sounds like people should stay away from them if they are a risk. I just wanted to mention that apparently not all are bad. I did add the extended antenna but now it broadcasts about 5 houses down my street which at that point you can't even see my lights, so it's fine.I have mine located in my garage and I've just stretched the antenna out as much as possible. I never heard about the secret switch on the back until now. Anyone know what it does? Sounds like its just a power booster or something. Probably another change that makes it illegal so they don't tell you about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Hvasta Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 jstorms wrote:I picked up the 1/2 watt MBB, push the antenna all the way down and I get the street in front of my house nice and clear. Range is well under .25 miles which keeps the men in black from crashing through my door. If I fully extend the antenna I get about .75 to 1 mile.DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!! For those of you that are not in the "know".. meaning, you dont have a ham radio, or (gasp) CB background.. collapsing the antenna is like trying to cram 80 people thru a revolving door all at the same time. Its cramming 100lbs of stuff into a 10lb bag.. It is VERY VERY BAD for the transmitter. It causes a high Standing Wave Ratio (you've heard of SWR) to be seen by the final transistor which will do one of two things.. either cause the final to throttle back (if it's a low enough High SWR or a well designed radio) to the point where you wont hear it outside of the room, (let alone the house) or to the point where it will just fail completely (more often the case). If it fails, you're left with a brick. If it throttles back, it "may recover" if the antenna is fully extended to present a better match to the final transistor.20 words or less.. DO NOT COLLAPSE THE ANTENNA!! The total extended length makes it the proper length for the frequency, shortening it without CHANGING the frequency makes it work HARDER, and when it works HARDER, it WILL FAIL!!A lot of us have been using 2-way radios for longer than most of you have been alive. So when we say "dont do" something, we've learned it a long time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis p Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 +1 tj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts