Im sure others will chime in but some of those CB amps are very useful on
ham bands.
BUT, they usually all need the following:
Rebiasing for true linear service.
Since the circuits are mostly copied out of manufacturers transistor manuals
it is easy enough to find the voltage requirements of a particular device
(and the REAL ratings). Many VHF ham amps that claim SSB ratings also need
bias upgrades to be linear.
Switched output filters for each band, CB amps are wide open. Most will
cover at least 40-10M; usually winding new transformers will get them down
to 80 and even 160. Filter circuits have been published for years. Ive also
converted a few to 6M.
I can guess what some of the terms mean but Im not going there!
Carl
KM1H
----- Original Message -----
From: <chasm@texas.net>
To: <amps@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:24 AM
Subject: [Amps] CB Amps or full spectrum???
> Hoping that you all believe that the only stupid question is the one not
> asked... I got a bunch of really good ones.....
>
> I am looking for a solid state mobile/portable/base amp that will perk
> along
> at about 1500 to 2kw PEP out. But I can still use it at ca 400W for MARS.
>
> I work mostly 75 and 40m and occasionally 20m ham, SSB..
>
> Wandering around the internet to include the bane of my fellow shooters --
> ebay
> I ran across a FATBOY amp 700W HF, Hidrive (WHAT????), base amp.
> being auctioned off. This eventually sold for half MSRP iow about $200.
>
> Now, that 700W out is about a nice mobile kicker but what in the devil is
> SWING and DRIVE and a few other things.??
>
> Also, is this what is called a CB Amp? iow, only good for 10m (of course
> that
> would never be used on 11m would it?? naaah!). or can these be used for
> the
> full amateur bandplan???
>
> I then searched on FATBOY and found several sites like Redman CB and a
> Mexican site called ALA or Amateur Linear Amplifier . The latter sells
> all
> kinds of brands to include FATBOY such as Texas Star, Powerplate, Palomar,
> RMI, Silverstreak, etc. I assume all of these are junk and very few of
> them
> meet FCC Class C or is that B?? specs ???
>
> Prices are good as well as those for some of their power supplies. but it
> is
> wasted money if the product is unusable on HF. ham bandplan.
>
> I assume that I should move along towards other amps instead but I have
> always
> had a prediliction for home built by talented hams in their garages. one
> such
> is the Skywalker by RF Electronics. any comments on that ???
>
> that is enough to get my education started SWING??? sheesh but then
> what
> the heck is a "drain line". ?? are these just slang expressions used
> instead of the proper English? HiDrive allows the amp to be excited by 3
> or
> 4 watts.... yeah, that is a tip off as to what it is going to be used for.
> hihi
>
> TIA and again, pardon my ignorance. just cannot find the Amps for Idiots
> book. on ARRL.
> 73/chas
> --
> K5DAM Houston EL29fu AAR6TU
> aar6tu@mac.com
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>
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