PDA

View Full Version : Power Deluxe 25A



Gerowen
06-16-2014, 11:33 PM
I've had this amp now for a couple months. It's a base station power supply/linear, and plugs straight into a 120VAC wall outlet. I got it used, and use it every day with no problems, no excessive heat, no distortion or anything of that nature, everybody tells me I sound great, by all accounts it seems to be working just fine, but I have two things that I'm curious about.

1) I have the radio running off a separate power supply to reduce the amount of draw on it. The linear has a built-in power supply, but I don't use it just because I want to distribute the draw a little bit. When I key up though and the linear is on, the voltage output on both power supplies, including the one running my radio will drop dramatically, sometimes as low as 5 volts. This is curious to me because I have tried running an extension cord and running the radio power supply on a separate breaker just to see if maybe I was overloading the breaker, and the drop still happened on both power supplies, even though they were running off separate breakers. The other reason it's curious is because my radio does not act like it's being severely under-powered when this happens. The meter bulb does not dim like it has in the past when using faulty power supplies that under-powered it, and the radio always gets good audio reports from others. I've had one or two faulty power supplies in here working on them and the first indicator of insufficient voltage has always been a dim meter bulb, and when I key up mine doesn't behave or get any dimmer. My voltmeter though detects a serious drop in voltage, and I'm curious about it.

2) If I have the linear turned off, but the pre-amp turned on, the linear indicator will come on very dimly, and I can hear the relays click in and out when I key up, albeit kind of weak sounding. Running the pre-amp and linear functions together offers no unusual performance, but I'm wondering why I hear the relays for the linear part kick on when they're turned off if I have the pre-amp turned on.

222DBFL
06-16-2014, 11:58 PM
That is weird? I know on my amp I have to power the amp itself for the pre amp to work. You probably have different setup but it never hurts to ask. Can you post s couple of photos of said amp? Might help with trouble shooting. Wish I could help more. I am sure someone knows the answer. Get a couple photos up. God bless.

Gerowen
06-17-2014, 01:05 AM
That is weird? I know on my amp I have to power the amp itself for the pre amp to work. You probably have different setup but it never hurts to ask. Can you post s couple of photos of said amp? Might help with trouble shooting. Wish I could help more. I am sure someone knows the answer. Get a couple photos up. God bless.

That may be the thing here, I've only ever had one linear that had a pre-amp, and it came on automatically when you turned the linear on. Since there was a separate switch for the pre-amp, I was thinking you could turn it on by itself without using the linear part of it.

So here it is with only the linear (top left switch) turned on.
1781

Here it is powered on, but without the linear or the pre-amp either one turned on.
1782

Here it is with only the pre-amp turned on. You can see how the light next to the linear part is half-way lit. When it is like this, I can key down and hear the relays click a little, but not nearly as loud as normal, and the indicator light next to the power output switch does not come on like it does when I actually turn on the linear function.
1783

222DBFL
06-17-2014, 02:16 AM
You may have a bad relay. It looks as if power is being let through when you turn the preamp on. If you can turn only the preamp on by itself, it should not power the tx portion of the amp as I see it's off. Maybe time to pop the top and check the relay. Check the wiring and then use your meter and follow the wiring to find out where the power is getting through. JMO. That is weird though I will say that.

Gerowen
06-20-2014, 02:03 AM
I took it apart and fixed one issue. The wire from the conductor on one of the coax connectors had broken loose from the board. It was touching, but not connected. I had noticed a few weeks ago one of the screws for that coax connector was loose, so I popped it open enough to get some pliers in there to hold the nut while I tightened down on the screw. Locals never mentioned anything, but there's a guy about 75 miles away who joins us every night and he said my numbers would fluctuate up and down on him. Well this evening I was testing one radio I'd fixed and when I hooked mine back up I, like always, double checked my SWR since my radio doesn't have an SWR light. SWR was a 3+, so I took the box apart, and there was just a hairline crack at the tip of the wire where it should have been soldered. I just replaced that solder and the guy 75 miles away said not only did my numbers stabilize, but that I sound louder and clearer on him. My SWR readings had generally been pretty good (~1.3) but that was just with the radio barefooted, so I'm guessing that occasionally that broken connection would move a little bit which is what caused my numbers to fluctuate.

I looked at the back of the board with all of the switches, and didn't notice anything terribly out of place, so I just put it back together and figured I'll live with the issue with the pre-amp since everything else seems to work fine.

222DBFL
06-20-2014, 05:41 AM
Good deal, thought I heard you on 38lsb last night, I know I spoke with 313 in Louisville. Glad to hear you got it fixed, I have an amp I have to look at as well as I think I have a bad so-239 connector, it's showing a short on the antenna port connector. Will have to wait though as I am working 6 day weeks right now. Oh well 50-60 watts will have to do for now lol. Have a good one and god bless.