what am i doing wrong

[mitch96]

first of all i live on a hillside roughly 1200ft above sea level north inverness not in a built up area 1 street and a few scattered farms and houses but just outside a village so signal should be banging in clear views right down the coast maybe at night can see light of towns 60 miles down the coast even further laying my antenna on the ground should even be able to pick up something but getting nothing not even the trawlers in the morayfirth or local taxis across the water!!ive just restarted the cb but my knowledge gone a little downhill since accident few years ago and telling my son about the cb in the 80s and 90s was brilliant the eyeballs the banter none of the crap of daily moans and groans of facebook which is pondlife up here i must admit anyway back to my set up i started small bought a tti cbt 550 just for normal 40 uk but know and have scanned right through the different frequencies to find skip but nothing!!antenna half wave venom silver rod on a 6 ft pole at the bottom of the garden 10 m coax with pre soldered pl plugs nothing exciting the power supply 13.8v 5-7amp output is there no breakers up here anymore or is it me idk tbh ive not swr'd the antenna as its not arrived as yet but was said to have been posted 2 weeks ago and still not arrived but on the silver rods ive had back in the 90's the markings are usually 1/1 infact the highest was 1/2 thing is id love to go back to dxing and using the bands specially 27555 most people would sayyeah go for it but the local bobby lives on my 6 house street id be terrified of firstly tvi and secondly annoying my neighbours as i say its very panoramic views and very quiet(and please dont say move house )ive even read the instructions troubleshooter to reset parameters to factory settings done all that to no avail back in ther 90's was bang an aerial up plug in the box and breakers on all channels bought everything brand new too am is most breakers now gone on the bands or just gone pc mad be very greatful for any info im so tottaly baffled thanks in advance

[stampman]

cb has gone quite but im surprised your not getting anything at all it should recieve on a piece of wire try the midband on am later on and you should get the yanks or some signals.Although the hf bands have been rubbish there should be some form of chatter is it possible to try another set even an old am would do have a chat to your local pc cause a lot of them where into am cb we had a murder squad detective in our local club so you never know

sorry have not been much help

[mitch96]

thanks for the info on mid bands but i dont think the cbt550 picks it up tbh i dont know what i done with my rigs years ago i know i had to get rid of the colt excalibur gave tvi for miles my new qth back in the day was called the little g if you look on google map golspie!as the crow flies my old qth was the 3in1 balintore straight across the dornoch firth 6 miles even burghead across the moray firth 20 miles if that just nothing mate should be getting taxis lorries homebase stations boats etc but just nothing!!english skip used to hit most days on a 7-30+ and using just straight 4w output on an old amstrad!!even though i had a 50w kicker never needed to use it even on the hygain 5 and superstar dxing do you know of any breakers clubs in the highlands i used to be in the alpha bravo charlies club which disbanded years ago because of the dti and the ridiculous fines they were handing out i was fortunate enough to be away working in holland at the time they were knocking about as i stated earlier(on a thread i think)nearly everyone had one and thats how we communicated with our friends none of this nowadays just typing on the pc which im sick of hearing oooh feeling ruff today or ive a sore back im like errrrr right you are then thats why when i moved up here i was delighted i thought what a place for cb-ing thats why i came back i like to blether and speak to people from different parts instead of listening to local gossip that builds up like chineese whispers pardon the pun there could you please pm same as anybody else pm with frequencies where they find most skip running before i invest more!!stevies alright(local bobby)but im sure hed come in for a little nosey so staying legal eagle for the momment il invest in a frequency counter today and see what frquencies itl perform but i think on am its only 1w output (which i think would be as much use as a chocolate fireguard)im sure if i get in touch with a good buddy today hel have something tucked away i mean over the the uk the ammount of rigs that would be lying in attics(thats probably where mine might be cant remember)garages sheds cupboards would be staggering just gathering dust the mind boggles even though i cant communicate on the frequencies with you and the good buddys and ladys i feel such a hypocrite having to use this bloody pc lol anyway hope i can copy 1 day all the best from kilo whiskey 10
mich96 otherwise known as davy
kindest regards and have a great day all ten ten

[Dragonfly]

These are all the rage these days , They can be programed for the UK 40 via a USB cable and have variable power up to around 40 wats .
http://www.thunderpole.co.uk/10m-amateu ... radio.html

If all else fails then a big Linear should get the trip . http://www.thunderpole.co.uk/amplifiers.html