Ken Brown wrote:
I have a Hercules II and a 9420 power supply. I have never operated it
using any other power supply.
I have a Hercules II, but have never even see a 9420. Several observations.
The Herc II is quite well protected.
The Herc II will hit rated power with less than 70A. That suggests a
single Astron rated for 70A should work just fine.
The Herc II is happiest if it sees something close to 14VDC, because it
requires less current to hit rated power.
It is easy to run the Herc II with two 50A Astrons, using one Astron for
two of the Herc amp channels and the other Astron for the other two Herc
amp channels. The Herc II power connector is purposely split that way to
allow it. The Astrons I use have a voltage sensing terminal to tie their
regulators together, and I use it. That's what I've done.
Last fall, I loaned my Herc II to AD6E to take on a South Pacific island
DXPedition. He didn't want to drag heavy power supplies, so he bought a
light weight but rather robust switching power supply to use with it. Al
is an RF design EE, and his biz is big power amps. He said the Herc II
ran just fine for him. In appreciation, he gave me the power supply.
It's got a really noisy fan, so I'm going to stick with my Astrons. :)
Some guys run their Herc II from a big 12V battery that is charged by an
Astron, and they say that works very well too.
73,
Jim Brown K9YC
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