[Amps] Revisited: Power Combiners, cheap amps.

[Phil Clements]

Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 3:09 PM
Subject: [Amps] Revisited: Power Combiners, cheap amps.


> I perused the ~19 meg archive for "power combiners" --
> from my read, the suggestions were mixed for trying to
> sum the outputs of two HF amps. Has anyone tried the
> following?:
>
> Take two relatively-inexpensive amplifiers, say,
> heathkit sb-220's. Make sure that they both work
> reasonably well. With the hybrid combiner available
> from CCI (make sure to use those resistors in case of
> failure of one amp!), combine their outputs.
>
> Again, WITHOUT having done this, it seems to me that:
>
> With SB-220's at about $0.57 a watt (700 watts) or so
> OUT (CW), $~400 recent prices used (conservatively))
> they are seemingly inexpensive...
>
> Tuning would have to be done individually, then the
> amps switched into the network.
>
> Has anyone tried this?
> Brian, N9ADG

An easier and cheaper method is to put up another antenna and feed each one
with a seperate amp. OH2BH does this at his contest station. Another beam is
cheaper than a combiner unless you have a closet full of big carborundum
resistors.

(((73)))
Phil, K5PC