Palomar 250 amp

So to answer his earlier question, can he just hookup amp out of box?

 

Technically yes, if he used the stock cobra 29, since it’s output is probably around 3 watts like someone mentioned. Unfortunately he bought into the hype that you by a new radio and then pay some tech to super tune it. Back in the 70’s, you would by a radio and hook it up to an amp, and enjoyed working the skip. No one ever gave it a a second thought about taking their brand new radio to a tech to supposedly make it better. After all, its a cb radio that was designed for short range communication. People would spend their money on a good beam antenna, or buy an amplifier to try and talk farther, not take their expensive radio to a CB tech. I recommend the OP just use his stock radio and amp and be happy. No human ear is going to detect any little distortion that may come out of it.

 

40 watt swing does not mean anything, I would use my analyzer to see the audio wave form and a spectrum analyzer to watch for spurs. You want max clean audio and rf, if you exceed that your pushing the transistors to hard, and will not sound clean.

Low deadkey good swing is where I would start, aligning the radio. I find typically about a watt to 1.5 is about right for the low end, then tune for max clean. Loud and Proud and crystal clear. I use my Motorola and my IFR to see both audio and rf at the same time.

 

I agree, its not like he is hooking up a 16 pill, I have on several occasions hooked up 2 pills or Tex Star modulater ( 1 × 2290) without issue, make sure swr is good and input is not overdriving amp and signal should be clean and no issues should occur.

 

Retuning a radio to drive an amplifier correctly is not hype. Even in a repeater when I change out the finals I need to retune it because of the different properties of transistors, no big deal, the same all the way back to tube type radios. Your just tuning for maximum clarity, and maybe some can not hear the difference (seems like a strange thing to say) but most can hear the difference. Besides clean clear cuts down on interference to others as well. Its usually requires turning the 3 watt radio down not peaking to more , unless its a high drive, then it not enough.

 

Yeah but here is the thing, repeaters are one thing, there is a consistent load you can count on that the transistor will see, there is no turning off amps and turning them back on but cbs for the most part are seeing two loads when the radio is "tuned" to the amp, one is the impedance of the amp and the other is the impedance of the antenna/feed line. When the amp is switched off, then the impedance the radio sees is the one of the antenna and feed line and can damage the finals seeing it was "tuned" to the amp's input.

 

I've been messin with radios since about 1970 never had an issue. You never tune a radio past what the finals will handle amp or antenna .

 

Within a week you will have a radio hooked up, I cant go a day without one and most the time I dont talk much anymore ( neither do alot of new generation drivers, thats why) but its a valuable tool for receiving information.

 

Yes, you said what I was thinking earlier, but got side tracked in my thinking. After all, it seems to work for Meteorgray, so it should work for the rest of us.