[TenTec] Centurian data points.

[Bob D.]

New to me Centurian.
I was a bit surprised to find a 15A and a 25A fuse.
20 A x 2 is specified for 230V so I replaced them.
Total is the same :-)

Here is what I see with a 50 Ohm dummy load and the Centurians meters.
The LED peak reading varied from 1.2 * to 2 * the "wd" meter.
Drive varies from 50 W to 100 W with lower on the higher bands.
Drive is Eagle via 18" coax and a 6' piece of RG213 to the dummy load.

Band(CW end) m, Ig mA, Ip mA, fwd Watts?, Pin
10 260 390 600 1100
15 260 430 900 1200
20 230 420 1100 1180
40 200 500 1200 1400
80 230 600 1200 1700
160 250 600 900 1700
 Ep 2.8 kV at 600 mA

Things don't add up.
10 m 1100 W in 600 W out is not unreasonable
15 m 1200 in and 900 out seems rather good but not impossible.
20 m 1180 in and 1100 out is nonsense
40 m 1400 in and 1200 out is  unbelievable
80 m 1700 in 1200 out is not unreasonable
160 m 1700 in and 900 out is a bit low but how efficient is this amp on 160?

Yes, the dummy load gets very warm.
Anodes glow nicely on 10 m so the input power is going somewhere :-)

I suppose I'm going to have to dig out and check calibration on my RF
voltmeter and measure at the dummy load to have a good number for the
output. Will also have to study up on the metering circuitry to see why the
results are so weird.

The manual says no more than 800 mA Ip. They must have used a different
transformer to get 800 mA!

73, -Bob ah7i


-do not look into LASER with remaining eye!