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Needing Help With A Home Made Power Supply Please

blake25537

Active Member
Mar 10, 2019
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I traded for a home made power supply which works very well. It's pretty heavy and looks to be very well built. Well any way my question is how can I check and see how many Amps it is? I tried it out with a Galaxy 33 and a 250 watt amp and it ran both of them with out any problems, but still like to know how to check and see what the Amps are. I don't have any high dollar test equipment about all I have is a good Volt/Ohm Meter.

Could someone please explain and I go about checking the Amps?

Thank you...
 

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Since the wrapper is in Camouflage - which may or may not indicate the conditions it was originally used in - like damp locations...obviously they wanted to hide something even in a tree....

You say you used a T/S250 watt on top of a Galaxy radio and it worked fine?

Well how did you know that?

By radio checks?

You have to be careful with "assuming" that if it will hold up - to Presume "it will work" is not the sage-"est" advice I can give anyone. Unless you're McGyver and have several methods and parts the unit will need when it quits on you...

You will have to take it apart to find out that "rating" by physical inspection...

Else if you try to "overload it" you'll probably damage it and possibly accomplish more than that as "it's done" as in - making it Damaged beyond repair...
 
Okay, so call me a pessimist.

From the outside, no hint is visible that this thing is regulated.

I would start by putting a volt meter across the red and black posts, just to see what's coming out of it.

If you see 18 or 20 Volts (or more), this will be toxic for radios. A so-called "competition" amplifier built to run from this higher voltage may be what it's meant to be used with.

And if you can get pics of the inside, this would serve to explain things that the outside views alone can't.

An unregulated power supply is much cheaper to build, but most radios require a regulated operating voltage not much higher than 14 Volts. More than that can fry a radio before too long.

Identifying the parts inside would at least set an upper limit for the current they are meant to deliver.

73
 
I traded for a home made power supply which works very well. It's pretty heavy and looks to be very well built. Well any way my question is how can I check and see how many Amps it is? I tried it out with a Galaxy 33 and a 250 watt amp and it ran both of them with out any problems, but still like to know how to check and see what the Amps are. I don't have any high dollar test equipment about all I have is a good Volt/Ohm Meter.

Could someone please explain and I go about checking the Amps?

Thank you...

You can get a panel ammeter and shunt from Amazon for peanuts.

Lab quality? Nope. But for our purposes perfectly acceptable.
 
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