I am wondering if it is possible to boost the transmission power of a CB radio from .5 watts to say 1 or 1.5 ?
My end objective is to 'bug' an opposing teams HQ during a local paintball competition in order to listen in to what is being planned and to utilize a direction finding antenna to locate the HQ and capture the flag.
I have hunted throughout the web with no succes and I have checked the rules about survailance and such, we are allwed to use this kind of thing during the event.
Yes I know messing with the power is risky and contravenes FCC regulations etc however the unit will only be in use for about 24 hours after which it will be destroyed.
Any assistance or advice is welcome.
Thankyou

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Anarchists of the World UNITE....Ermmm hang on ...

 

I theory yes, but for someone with little or no RF experience this is not a trivial project.


At the risk of missing the obvious, if you need to DF the bug to find their HQ, how will you plant the bug in the first place?


I dont think the FCC (the USA radio regulatory authority) will be all that interested in any nefarious radio activities in Australia.
The ACMA may however take a more serious interest.

To draw an analogy, would the traffic police not bother if you were driving down the road at 200kph for only 1 hour?
I think not, they are a little mean spirited in that respect.

JimB

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Experience is directly proportional to the value of the equipment ruined.

 

200 mph ? fair point.
However I am providing first aid kits for both teams and they are huge boxes so I simply hide the radio in the box wapped in guaze.
If they do find it well they probably would be more concerned with using the guaze at the time and later on well we will lose a slight advantage.

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Anarchists of the World UNITE....Ermmm hang on ...

 

I think hiding a radio in the first aid box is a particularly nasty trick, and would certainly be considered cheating if it's found.

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As mentioned, this is certainly possible. What frequency do your CB radios operate at? If they are around 430 MHz then you are already working at a good frequency. If they are like in North America where CB is 27 Mhz, then I would recommend going another way. The problem is that much of your range performance will be determined by how good the antenna works, and it is much easier to build a good small (and hard to spot) antenna at 400 MHz than at 27 MHz.

Another way to look at the problem is to consider that boosting the amplifier output from 0.5 watts to 1.5 watts increases your signal level by 4.8 dB. You can get this kind of improvement just by using a better antenna. It gets a bit more complicated in your case though. If you take a standard antenna and hide it inside the medical kit, you may be degrading that antenna's performance by a few dB depending on how you mount it and what metals are nearby. This works against your range. If you put an antenna into the box in a way that doesn't degrade it, then you get the benefit of no degradation, which can easily amount to 5 dB.

We can give you tips on how to mount an antenna if you like.

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RadioRon

 

Nigel: You have a point, so I found a first gen ipod which was so completely useless it wasn't woth repairing and carefully removed the internal circuitry, I think that were I able to remove the transmission part of a radio I could fit it into the old case, which I would then seal and leave to be found.
Naturally upon finding it the ipod will be either 'aquired' or taken back to HQ to be added to Lost Property, either way we stil get a signal we can DF and potentially a bug.

RadioRon:
Yes help regarding the mounting of a subtle antenna to increase the range would be much appreciated.

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Anarchists of the World UNITE....Ermmm hang on ...