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ERF2030 Final & Driver 148 GTL

Redbeard U812

WDX-1030 / U812 South Texas
Jul 14, 2018
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4,009
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Has anyone come across tech on using ERF 2030's as the final and driver? Blew my 148, no RX or TX, friend brought me another one out of a wreck to see if it may work for me......worked just as good as my blown 148. Couple days later he said he read an article about using the 2030's as final and driver and "That you get 60 watts dead key" from the conversion.....right, ok, ......

Any thoughts here on this?
 

I don't recommend it as a worthwhile project.

You'll never get enough additional power to justify the expense.

The radio won't be as reliable after the mod, and that "60 Watts" claim is total snake oil.

My experience has been that anyone doing MOSFET mods only gets good at doing it after three or four of them. The first few are effectively "practice".

Feel free if you just want to satisfy your curiosity or learn more about modding radios. Nothing wrong with that.

But don't expect a practical benefit from the first one.

73
 
I don't recommend it as a worthwhile project.

You'll never get enough additional power to justify the expense.

The radio won't be as reliable after the mod, and that "60 Watts" claim is total snake oil.

My experience has been that anyone doing MOSFET mods only gets good at doing it after three or four of them. The first few are effectively "practice".

Feel free if you just want to satisfy your curiosity or learn more about modding radios. Nothing wrong with that.

But don't expect a practical benefit from the first one.

73

Read somewhere here that the 1969's still exist through RF for about $17 ea. My 148 used to dead key at 7 watt and swing to 23. Think I'll order 1969's and turn down dead key. Bought it cranked up and knew better before I paired it to a Palomar LD 450.
 
Agree, I would fix it with a 1969 and then tune it to a more realistic lower power level. Let the amplifier do all the work and your 148 will loaf along and stay cool.
 
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Looking into placing a dual pot at the dynamic location. Mic gain/ Pwr gain. I'm missing dialing in the LSB with the clarifier. This Stryker 497 just won't do the LSB thing, but straight AM gets me contacts from south TX to Chicago, St. Louis, TN., OK., and over to the Eastern seaboard, with a 102" atop a homebrew starduster @ 36'. 497 is great but I really like the clarifier of the 148.
 
Before HG came out with the 1969, I had no replacement for a 2000 final, so I converted over to a 13n10 and it did slightly less power but it worked as a replacement, lots of rewiring took place. Not something I’d do again but he needed it back up
 
here is the only page I have ever seen for a 148 radio to the mosfet. it states the newer 148GTL only. so you can look at it and see if you could make it work on yours.

http://www.cbtricks.com/miscellaneous/fet_papers/ekl/graphics/erf2030_148gtl_mod.pdf

Thanks Sonoma, checked it out. Might be the one Kav was referencing. I copied it so we can mull over in one our deluded drunken discussions. Much fun trying to keep him on track and on subject, tends to get things a little mixed up and contradicts himself. He's the smartest person in the world ......and nobody can change his mind. We all know those folks that need a 2x4 upside the head every once in a while.
 
Sounded like snake oil and ghost watts to me. With all the parts and work needed to do that conversion, I believe paying $17 for the 1969 and performing the work needed is cost effective. Won't be doing that to mine, but Kav may be dead set to mess up a 148.
 
Well, I can say it is possible, I'm just not into gut-wrenching surgery by removing all the parts then reinstalling the MOS ones to replace ALL the ones once worked for Bipolar and have to use new pots and their values and same profile install with these new parts - gets' a little rarer each time...and more hairy.

Once you do it, you realize that it's time intensive - each one afterwards just makes you want to simply keep the Bi-polar approach for the effort going into the conversion - you get less out of it each time - just in the effort.

Now, if you are doing it so SAVE your own equipment - then the one-shot to make it work necessity - is more of a labor of love, not in works - just in saving the nostalgia.

Now call me sentimental - if you wish, BUT this isn't for the Original Poster (OP), this is for those that think upgrading means more power. Think of it this way...Did you buy that radio for performance or for power motor mauling?

That's the crux of my view - do not buy a radio to modify to get more power out of it and make it do things it was not sold as intended - you can buy radios now that can suit your every desire - you'd be far better off owning and using those to pummel the listeners ears than to try and rework radio sections of equipment that was not designed for high-power applications.

A little goes a long way.
 
"Do Your Research First, Then Decide..." Think that is posted around here somewhere? Hmmmm....where did I see that? (n):unsure::whistle:;)

Have read into the swap more and there are some different ones and different opinions, I just can't see any point in stressing out other components doing this mod.

Like my Step Daddy used to say...."If it ain't broke don't fix it". Problem was I just had to see how things worked, then most of the time they darn sure didn't after I was done with the exploratory surgury
 
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