bought a kicker and have some ?'s

What do you mean by a high drive amp? If you are talking about like a 1x4 or something from FatBoy davemade or xforce they call them high drive but all they do is pad the piss out of the input. Do yourself a favor and do your research and ask questions.

What radio do you run and what does it put out? If you run one of these big imports you might be able to run a straight four. Looking at the data sheet for a 2879 40 watts average would drive a straight 4 nicely. I run a Galaxy 55 into a straight four. Works great.

Now I also have a 1x4 but I run that with a cobra 29. 13 watts average and a 1 watt key. I would never even consider driving it with my 55.

 

Those are good transistor BUT expensive to replace IF you can find genuine replacements. Several reputable dealers have them but they want around $50 each. Even the Chinese ones on Ebay are $25 or more and you have to hope they aren't fake. Newer, cheaper units with mosfets, which are much less expensive to replace, are available. The tradeoff is that the Mosfets are less tolerant of issues like elevated SWR. Also the 2879's are best if matched and this can cost even more.

 

Start with ARRL handbook. I've got the 2014 and it has some info on combiners and amps.

I would also search out on the used book market Motorola's RF design book, it is pretty packed with designs and a lot of examples. The last one I got had MOSFET info in it. Most of the amps being made and sold are from two people at Motorola and there are a few application notes on them that are floating around.

There are a bunch of college texts on eBay that have a lot of info on amp design.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to buy them and experiment with them.

By the way to those who are buying these POS amps. they are poor quality. I can look at that picture and see that some monkey assembled it. The wiring and components are cheap, surprised it even works.

 

Thanks for the info... Have the ARRL handbook. Will be combing throght that, Believe it or not every few years I toy with getting the ham license again. Was going last year and I started monitoring more. Low amounyt of traffic dissuades me again. I score very high with the online tests and the prep books, so it's not fear of failing. Have the professional background for the electronics part but the lack of traffic these days is disappointing. I will be moving to a fantatastic spot in the future, when I get married. The new misses has a house right on the beach of LI's North Shore. Way out east. Sits on a bluff about 120' above the sound. From a mobile I have talked to Mass stock. I assume skip over the water. There is no land mass between Mass and where the house sits. Connecticut can be visible seen from the beach so that's too easy to reach. Have no base there... yet so I haven't really monitored for skip.... I can see Atlantic Ocean to the east.... wide open. Have wondered what skip would be like there. BTW Mass and Connecticut are reached bone stock, all contacts were at night, clear channels. Not alot of traffic but fairly decent contacts.