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Hamer's TS500


Well the radio (brand new) took a dump, sent it back to AES Milwaukee and they are sending a new radio back but it is coming from AES Las Vegas because the radio is discontinued and they had the last one in stock. While the radio was working I was getting 525 watts drawing about 45 amps from the RS-70M power supply with only about 25 watts drive on SSB. Weird thing was though when I shut off the Dial A Watt on the amp I would get 650 watts drawing about 55 amps. That seemed weird to me but I havent played much more with it since the radio went back to AES. I will let you know more when the new radio arrives.
 
Happy_Hamer said:
Weird thing was though when I shut off the Dial A Watt on the amp I would get 650 watts drawing about 55 amps.
Click to expand...

Pressing in the Dial A Watt button also inserts a 75 ohm 4 watt metel oxide resistor "pad" for protecting the variable power pot.
This accounts for your drop in power when the Dial A Watt button is depressed.
Also your power readings are right on the money.

-Ray
 
I bet your radio sees about a 2:1 input swr, right? You can get a little more power out of that amp if that is corrected.
 
Moleculo said:
I bet your radio sees about a 2:1 input swr, right? You can get a little more power out of that amp if that is corrected.
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I bet he doesn't and bet you're just reposting what you've read. He should see a flat match with the Dial A Watt button out and about 1.3:1 with the button in. I have tested several off the assembly line and can tell you without doubt that you will not ever see 2:1 input swr on any TS unit with good coax and connectors. In fact if you ever have a new untouched one in your possession that does I'll send a UPS call tag for it just so I can see. Then if what you say is actually true I'll repair it and ship it back for free.

-Ray
 
confirm this for me,

radio connector to swr meter to amp input then from amp out put to a dummy load will give me amps input swr?
 
I bet he doesn't and bet you're just reposting what you've read
Click to expand...

This has nothing to do with anything I have read, and you would have lost that bet. I am speaking from personal experience since I had a brand new, out of the box TS500V about a year ago, as is evidenced by the pictures of my shack in the Pics section. Too bad I didn't take pictures of the SWR meter on my Icom 746 Pro while I was at it as well as the PL239's on the coax that I personally soldered. My HF rig starts to cut back the input drive when it sees a 2:1 SWR or worse, which is exactly what it did. I have since corrected it and the amp is long gone, so I can no longer show it to you. That said, perhaps not all of these amps do this. However, I have personally witnessed it on more than one. I still like them and think they're a good value and a good amp. I just chalked up the tuning issue to one of the things you need to do when converting the amp.

BTW, Hamer, if you still have the CW board that you took out to convert the amp, it makes a BITCHEN jammer if you drop in a TX crystal and solder a bridge. Let me know if you feel like messing with someone ;P

DSCN0219.JPG
 
I really enjoy reading your postings Justin good/bad/indifferent and you can always hit me up on email with any ideas you might have as I'm a pretty open minded person. So send me that rant via email when you have time. :)

-Ray
Ray@GalaxyRadios.com
 
I missed the post but I would agree with Mole, most of the 5 Texas Star amplifiers I owned had small SWR issues, like 1.5-1.8. I do like Texas Star but the comp style amplifiers I have tried like Davemade, Joker, X-Force, and AM Power all had 1.1-1.3 SWR's. Just what I have seen thats all.

If Peakaboo ever starts working on amps again more then part time you might send it to him. Not sure what all he does but I think he regulates the bias, tunes up the input / output matching alittle, adds a fan, and probably some other little tricks. Everyone is always quite pleased when he's finished.
 
i run a t star right now, i had one boo had worked, but noooo i had tyo sell it.. biggest mistake iv'e made next to selling my old messenger m 500, that was all i erver needed. i like texas star amps since they are the best as far as mass produced for what they are used for. now i've been waiting for the return of the joker, at least the money is there now i just need the amp so i can buy it.
 

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