Linears: Tell me what I need to know before I buy

Keep SWR under 2.0......seems high to me.....i don't even touch the mic over 1.5.

 

I prefer to use a separate amp for a few reasons. If the radio craps out you still have the amp or if the amp goes you still have the radio.
100w will do what you want, but as with most things when you get a little power you want more.

 

The way i see it is unless you are playing with 500W and more the amps is not worthy of the aggravations, a solid 60-80W well tuned radio and solid antenna system will do the job.

I prefer investing in a good SWR meter and staying on top of my game than messing around with 2-300 W linear.

I have came to this conclusion after years of radios small & bigs and amplifiers as well.

 

I prefer having a separate amp as well but the input rating on the amplifier is slightly larger than the output rating on the radio so the radio really doesn't have to be choked back to use that particular amplifier.
In that particular situation that amplifier is four times the amount of power as the other amplifier in question which would require choking a radio back to keep from overdriving the amplifier

 

That's what I always thought as well but after reading up and seeing for myself how little power is lost, it's just not worth the headache to get a 1.1.

If you are using RX-8X coax, 18 feet, 27.205 frequency with 50 watts your output will be 46.172 watts. Same everything with a SWR of 1.5 it's 46.636. At an SWR of 2.1 it is 46.607. This is factoring in matched and SWR loss so you see, it's not worth getting a perfect match is it is a pain in the butt. Have a look for yourself.....http://www.qsl.net/co8tw/Coax_Calculator.htm

 

For real, good luck finding one because I haven't been on the road for 5 years! The guys over by the Ontario west TV in CA used to be really good, at least one guy was. I still have the Galaxy 99 he did for me years ago and it still works great......but I made sure it was tuned by the book, not by a watt meter.

 

I'm by no stretch a radio tech but I have been messing around with cbs for at least 40 years. I would strongly discourage you from using the stock antennas in a freighshaker. The coax is junk, and depending on if you have the actual antennas on the outside of truck or the one built into the roof, either way, no good. Wilson makes an adapter or the mirror bracket that all you have to do is unscrew two bolts, put adapter up, and then put bolts back in. Then get a good top loaded antenna or if you prefer the whip type antenna you have to make sure to get one with a long enough shaft to get coil past the cab upright. Stryker use to make a great antenna for this , but i've heard he retired and I don't know if the other guy in OKC picked up the line or not. Might want to find out about that. Cobra 29 is a good choice if you want to run an amp. If you don't plan on running the uppers or lowers, or for that matter ssb then the only difference between a 29 and a galaxy other then cosmetics is the galaxy has a channel kit and freq counter that's it. Inside they are basically the same radio. Palomar or Texas star are great amps that were mass produced. If you really want something to bump, then go with a Dave made amp. As the other poster stated your probably not gonna get much bang for your buck with just a 100 w amp. If you go with a texas star 250 with variable pwr knob I think you'll be alot happier. What it really comes down to is what exactly are you wanting to do with it. Are you wanting it for skip, or to tick off people in truck stops lol. If you are wanting to shoot skip or talk long distances I personally would recommend the 250 with variable power from texas star. That way if your close to who your talking to you can turn down the output manually so you don't over shoot them, but if your far from who your talking to turn it up. It is imperative that you get the cb matched to the linear. Contrary to popular belief you cannot take a virgin radio out of the box and just hook it up to a linear assuming that the radio has less then a 3 watt deadkey from the factory. By matching the linear to the radio you know the two are working together at peak performance and not have to worry about burning either up, which in turn requires an antenna system that is set up right to both of them. Sorry for drawling on about this, but just trying to save you money from the mistakes that i have made in the past. One final thing that you have to consider is the coax and ecm in your truck. If your going to run power of any wattage you have to make sure it's properly shielded. Alot of the "power" will be lost in cheap coax due to it leaving the coax before it gets to the antenna. Then you still have to route it as such that this loss or escaping power doesn't burn up your computer. An example of this is if you key up sitting still and your mph shows 100 lol. I know I threw alot of info out there, but just trying to be thorough. Power wire for the amp has to be to the batteries and make sure that you don't hook up the power lead to the battery that the computer is directly linked too also, this will cause all kinds of problems. Good luck and I hope that this has helped.

 

Just for laughs watch what happens when the tuned delay line is replaced with a random cable with this class c amp.

 

Amp----straight 4/6 or 8 ???? Take it that's a 955 not a 655 Stryker---Anderson connecters??? Amp ground cable ??? 3ft.even sounds retarded yeah I'm thinking no on that one.....

Doesn't matter 655/955 same power.... Bob's tried to tell me rg8 12ft. Jumper again I'm thinking/knowing------no.

 

Class C is a whole different animal and the waveform has to be artificially created and everything has to be kept synchronized a certain way otherwise the whole thing gets screwed up.
The waveform coming out of the first stage looks absolutely nothing like the waveform that comes out of the second stage.
In other words Class C amplification is nonlinear.
Class A/B is a lot simpler and more idiot-proof not to mention it is linear.
I think that's why the ham operators like A/B biasing so much on AM because it's much easier for them to understand even though it's less efficient on AM it's more versatile.
Very few people can make Class C even work properly. I have yet to see anybody else make a video demonstrating such a thing.
This would be completely useless to a ham who likes to change bands and this is specifically for a truck driver that stays on Channel 19 all the time