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kenworth t680 install.

phantom309

Active Member
Aug 23, 2015
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I'm not completed with it yet but still works good.

Sirio 5000 trucker 3/8 shaft

Mini 8 coax (single lead not co phased)

Galaxy 99v2

Palomar 250 (soon to be replaced by Texas star 400)

Astatic 636L
 

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looks like it might get a little warm in there, is there any cooling installed?
that's probably the most impressive looking cb speaker I've ever seen.
 
Heat was becoming an issue, black truck wasn't helping much.

I have since moved the Palomar 250 to behind the driver's seat. Unfortunately I believe I may have moved it to late. Seems to develop a rather bad squeal when the box is on now. :-(

The speaker is actually factory installed by kenworth.
 
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Okay the radio you have is way too much for the amp. The palomar 250 needs a radio like a uniden 980 to be used as it doesn't require much power. If not mistaken your 99v2 is a dual final radio, pep wattage of 45 watts or more depending on who timed it. You can turn rf power back to get the desired AM carrier and SSB power maybe, but I would replace that amp with a TS500 or a TNT 600HD, the TNT 600HD being my choice first. If you can find a used one that works well that would work as well. That radio is plenty to drive a 4 transistor amp and not be over driven. You may have blown something in the amp that you're using already or will eventually unless you have the power on the radio turned back to like 1-2 watt DK and 8-10 watts pep on AM. On SSB 12 watts is all that is needed for that palmomar 250. I have the same amp and it does good with the uniden 980. I have my DK set to 2 watts and pep is about 6 watts. On SSB I have turned power back to about 8-10 watts pep. This keeps the radio cooler and pretty well any amp I own happy as far as input is concerned. I own an older TNT 600hd with Toshiba 2879's, red dot type, some say they aren't as good as the pre red dots, but with 40-60 watts of drive into the amp I see right at 4-500 watts. I can get more, I've seen it do 750 watts on a radio shack meter on SSB, but the voltage was a bit high at the time at like 15vdc. At 13.8vdc it does about 500 watts with my optima mk3 and about 300 or so watts with the uniden 980. Amp gets barely warm with the optima mk3 driving it at 50-60 watts and stays cool at 8-12 watts SSB all day!! Even 20-25 watts it won't get warm. At any rate, if your pep wattage on that radio is more that 8-10 watts on AM and 12 watts on SSB the amp is going to get hot fast and possibly blow something. JMHO on that. If you have control of rf power and can turn DK back to 1-2 watts and pep to 8-10 watts on AM, then okay cool and SSB power back to 12 watts then good deal, if not discontinue use of the palomar 250 immediately if you want to keep it working. Again JMHO. And as far as amps go, the x-force tnt 600hd is a good amp even on SSB it works well if you don't over drive the snot out of it. Mine will take some input due to attenuation but the extra watts I see by doing this is null and void to the receiving station and only decreses the life of the amp. I like to loaf it along at about 250-350 watts and it stays cool and happy and sounds clean as well. Also remember clean in equals clean out so get an amp that is at least bias B. The TS amps claim to be AB biased but use the same bias circuit scheme as the xforce TNT amps. So it really isn't a true AB biased amp from what a good amp builder has told me anyway. I like the Galaxy 99v2 and all, but you need to get a larger amp for sure. And like I said the TS500 or the TNT 600hd would be the 2 to look at first. Dave Made amps are well built as well but cost a lot of money, even compared to the xforce or TS brands. The last option and might be the most expensive or not I don't know what the going rate for a 4 transistor amp that is a real thermally tracking AB biased amp costs, but I do know who can build it, and he is a forum member here. If you are interested in going this route PM me and I'll get you in touch with him.
Also you could try a longer bottom shaft, like a 17-24" one and cut the top whip down some, this will help keep the antenna from leaning back to much at hwy speeds. Another member here has one of the sirio trucker 5000's and this is what he did and he said it works very well. The bottom shafts you want are made by Wilson and come in 12"-24" I believe. Even a 17" shaft would help with whip bending as it will be shorter. Not downing your mobile setup at all it looks very nice man. Just some things I know that will help especially with the amp. The other stuff is from others here that have posted on the other subjects as well. Search for sirio 5000 trucker install. His antenna is mounted just like yours is. So you get an idea of what his looks like. Hope some of this info helps as well. Sorry for the text wall. Good luck with whatever you decide and keep it between the lines!
 
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And how is the audio sound with the 636 mic? Just curious. I use the older uniden bearcat mic, silver face and red claw on front on my galaxy radio and it sounds clean and clear. Again just curious as I have a couple old 636's and might try one.
 
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The radio dk is 1 watt on its lowest setting. However I am replacing the Palomar with a Texas Star 400 this afternoon.
 
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The 636 is my favorite mic, but again this radio sounds tinny with it, I now have an older road king 56 on it and it's been getting good reports.
 
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What is pep of radio. The Texas star 400 doesn't need much drive either. Just keep an eye one it. If it has the old Toshiba 2290's in it I would be very careful not to overdrive that amp. The pep wattage is what I am worried about more than the deal key or carrier. You can dead key a couple watts into the dx400 I'm sure, but the pep wattage is what will kill the 2290's. In reality that amp should do about 250-300 watts max. You can get more out of if I am sure 400 watts is attainable, but the amp will run hot and if it has DEI or Toshiba transistors you might have a hard time getting replacement 2290's of the same type without paying out the nose!!! JMO. Keep the pep wattage to 25-30 watts max and key amp at about 50-75 watts max on AM. SSB wattage should be about 200-250 watts max. Again JMO. Good luck and have fun with the new toy.
 
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That's a bit of power going into a ts400. See if you can get the power turned back to 25 watts max pep on both am and SSB. JMO. Or your going to be overdriving the amp and create a lot of heat which after time will cause components to fail as well as make you sound like crap when it does get hot. If it's an older amp I would be extra careful, a newer one I would keep the pep to 25 watts pep as well. They don't need to be pushed hard to sound good. With the amount of power you have a ts500 or TNT 600HD might suit your radio better. Again, JMO. Hope you have good luck with the amp, keep an eye on temps.
 
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Maybe some of the guys that have used a TS400 will chime in. Or one of the amp gurus. They'll explain it to you a bit more as to why I'm saying don't over drive it.
 
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Well as it turns out, even with the 400 in line I was still getting reports of squeal.... bummer.

So for now I have my 33 hml in line and that radio was tuned for the 400.

Sofar so good, though I'm not happy with it aesthetically. Oh well, at least I didn't blow anything up.
 
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That is a good thing though, not blowing anything that is. Have the radio looked at. May be just too much mic gain as well. This can cause squeal as well as RF coming back down coax or a bad ground. Not saying you have anything wrong and if it's working now with a different radio then good deal. I understand wanting it to look good, but having it operate correctly is probably more important lol. Glad you pulled radio and didn't keep keying it up. Like I said if that is an older Texas Star 400 with Toshiba 2290's then man don't over drive it!!! The Galaxy 33 is a single final radio and won't overdrive it for sure. If you want SSB, get yourself a uniden 980 off amazon for $107 dollars and you'll have a good cb/SSB radio that can work with just about any amp. Get the dead key turned down and modulation turned up. Leave SSB power at stock levels and add a heat sink or fan if heat becomes an issue. I would venture to say that with the 980 and the TS400 you have you could have a clean, clear sounding station and also have piece of mind knowing you won't blow the amp or amps that you have up by over driving them. JMHO. The Galaxy 33 should work well for now at least on AM. I've used a galaxy 55 with my palomar 250 and it worked well together. Radio was stock, no limiters clipped or anything, and I used a 1.5 watt dead key into the amp which keyed it at about 40 watts. Then let it swing to about 150 watts. Don't think because the front of it says 250 that you'll get 250 watts out of it either, 99.9% of the numbers placed on the front of amps or the claims made are exaggerated. Besides no one will tell the differnence on the receiving end between 150 and 250 watts or even 300 to 400 watts. It takes at just at 4 times the power to get an s-unit more receive with power increase. So you'd have to go to 1000 watts from 250 and to 1600 watts from 400 to gain anything. You wanna keep your amp cool use a good single final radio with the TS400 and keep the input wattage down. Especially the pep wattage. Key up amp at 1/4 total power. So if amp does 300 watts, max carrier of 75 watts with amp keyed up. I still think this is too much dead key for the ts400, try it at lowest rf power setting you can and get amp to key up. Speak into mic with a constant tone or work like "audio" and see what the amps pep wattage is. There are also phone apps that allow you to inject a proper tone into mic as well. Just some food for thought. Get the pep wattage and then set DK accordingly. Also like said before, may want to try a longer bottom shaft on that sirio antenna. Will keep it straighter as you go down highway. Get a 17" or 24" bottom section and try them. Also using a Wilson whip with the longer bottom shaft will make a stiffer antenna. The straighter and higher you can keep the center load on your truck the better in this case. I'll try to dig up the thread by fourstringburn that he made showing the install and review of the sirio 5000 trucker antenna. He seemed quite pleased once done with it. Anyway have a good day and have fun dxing if there is even any. Was dead as a door nail yesterday durning the day. Had to check my coax to make sure it was plugged in LOL. Again, good luck with whatever you decide.
 
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I also have a 959b on the truck as well. Which is very similar in looks to the 99v2. (Can you tell I like galaxy?) That I might put in later today or tomorrow.

I do not run the linear constantly. It is mostly a terrain thing for me. In a month it might be turned on twice.

As far as the sirio antennas are concerned I read the other guy s post with great interest. That said my swr is 1.36 to 1.39 across the band. It doesn't change at speed. I have been upto 97mph no change. My fear becomes the wind load at speeds above 55 mph. I had predator 10k on here originally but they definitely were no stable. Then to the Wilson 5000's, not bad but still at higher speeds was a bit un nerving. Then Wilson 2000's much more stable but as low as my antenna sits on the mount I was bothered that the tip was a foot or more below the roof line. Then for giggles I put on 108 inch whips. Looked cool but..... I believe I hit everything within 5 miles and I never drove with them on. With the sirio antennas they stand about 3 inches above my roof line.

I don't worry about them laying back in the wind, I am not convinced that effects anything performance wise.

For example, guy has 102 whip and 6 inch spring and talking forever with good reports driving down road at 50-70mph that antenna is laid way back.

Example 2 Billy super trucker has his hot rod pete 379 and his antennas look like he is trying to spear low flying birds. Again he gets out just fine.

I have done tests on my own in an old freightliner. Started with the antenna straight up, had a friend park 6 miles away at a Wal-Mart, I adjusted the antenna from straight up to about 70 degrees. After tuning for swr he had little to no change on the s meter, 3 swinging to 5.

However when he moved to 10 miles the only position he hear me in was when it was set near the 45 degrees spot.

I don't claim to know much and after being in and out of the hobby for the past 30 years I am convinced I know less now then when I started. LOL
That is a good thing though, not blowing anything that is. Have the radio looked at. May be just too much mic gain as well. This can cause squeal as well as RF coming back down coax or a bad ground. Not saying you have anything wrong and if it's working now with a different radio then good deal. I understand wanting it to look good, but having it operate correctly is probably more important lol. Glad you pulled radio and didn't keep keying it up. Like I said if that is an older Texas Star 400 with Toshiba 2290's then man don't over drive it!!! The Galaxy 33 is a single final radio and won't overdrive it for sure. If you want SSB, get yourself a uniden 980 off amazon for $107 dollars and you'll have a good cb/SSB radio that can work with just about any amp. Get the dead key turned down and modulation turned up. Leave SSB power at stock levels and add a heat sink or fan if heat becomes an issue. I would venture to say that with the 980 and the TS400 you have you could have a clean, clear sounding station and also have piece of mind knowing you won't blow the amp or amps that you have up by over driving them. JMHO. The Galaxy 33 should work well for now at least on AM. I've used a galaxy 55 with my palomar 250 and it worked well together. Radio was stock, no limiters clipped or anything, and I used a 1.5 watt dead key into the amp which keyed it at about 40 watts. Then let it swing to about 150 watts. Don't think because the front of it says 250 that you'll get 250 watts out of it either, 99.9% of the numbers placed on the front of amps or the claims made are exaggerated. Besides no one will tell the differnence on the receiving end between 150 and 250 watts or even 300 to 400 watts. It takes at just at 4 times the power to get an s-unit more receive with power increase. So you'd have to go to 1000 watts from 250 and to 1600 watts from 400 to gain anything. You wanna keep your amp cool use a good single final radio with the TS400 and keep the input wattage down. Especially the pep wattage. Key up amp at 1/4 total power. So if amp does 300 watts, max carrier of 75 watts with amp keyed up. I still think this is too much dead key for the ts400, try it at lowest rf power setting you can and get amp to key up. Speak into mic with a constant tone or work like "audio" and see what the amps pep wattage is. There are also phone apps that allow you to inject a proper tone into mic as well. Just some food for thought. Get the pep wattage and then set DK accordingly. Also like said before, may want to try a longer bottom shaft on that sirio antenna. Will keep it straighter as you go down highway. Get a 17" or 24" bottom section and try them. Also using a Wilson whip with the longer bottom shaft will make a stiffer antenna. The straighter and higher you can keep the center load on your truck the better in this case. I'll try to dig up the thread by fourstringburn that he made showing the install and review of the sirio 5000 trucker antenna. He seemed quite pleased once done with it. Anyway have a good day and have fun dxing if there is even any. Was dead as a door nail yesterday durning the day. Had to check my coax to make sure it was plugged in LOL. Again, good luck with whatever you decide.
 
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