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Yaesu or Palomar

1iwilly

Sr. Member
Dec 7, 2008
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would a Yaesu FT2100B do more watts than a Palomar 300A on am mode ?? i might of found one for a good price but I'm still hesitance
as to yae or nay for the yaesu
 
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Just stick with your cb amp. The 2100b is poorly designed and has many, MANY fatal shortcomings. Also It is not designed to be an am amp. 150w-200w absolute max at 50% duty cycle and thats pushing it. Do your homework on it. Google is your friend. You will find it is NOT a friendly modern day amplifier, and is just a museum piece/door stop by today's standards. Its a relic
 
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I need to find the animated GIF with Samuel L. Jackson saying "He's right, you know".

Comparing those two amplifiers is an apples-to-oranges comparison, just to start.

The 300A has a power gain factor of 10 or 12 to one on Low side, and way more on High side, somewhere between 20 or 30 to one.

Just comparing the output of two amplifiers leaves out half the picture. The drive level needed should match the radio you'll use. And that's where they're different. The FL2100 is designed for a drive power of about 100 Watts PEP, and less than 50 Watts average.

The 300A is a 1973 design meant to match a 1973 CB radio. A three or three-and-a-half Watt carrier, maybe 16 Watt peaks downhill with a tailwind.

People do use newer radios that are larger than that, and that model is unique in one way. The "Low" side takes the two driver tubes out of the picture and drives the four final tubes directly.

If we goose the factory's 35-Watt anode rating for the four tubes in the 300A, that totals 140 Watts. Pushing your average power a lot past that is hot rod territory. The tubes in the FL2100 are rated at 160 Watts on the anode. Total is 320, more than twice what the four finals in the 300A add up to. The 300A is a hot rod, the FL2100 more of a pickup truck.

But yeah, the Yaesu is built for a larger drive level in the first place, and will get you around eight-to-one gain factor.

Oh, and you'll need one of two things for the Yaesu. Either a radio that has a linear-keying relay in it and a jack on the rear panel, or a foot switch to key it.

Apples and oranges.

73
 
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when i got the Palomar with my 2k the input on the high side was like 1.5 SWR
i got it down to 1.1 SWR on the low side with the ft-101e from 1.8 best i could get is 1.3 SWR with a dead key of 50 watts now with the Yaesu at 50 watts dead key 1.4-SWR and at 75-watt dead key 1.6 on a dummy or antenna best i can get it too.
thanks, guys for your honest input I'll keep looking maybe a heath kit sb220
 
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when i got the Palomar with my 2k the input on the high side was like 1.5 SWR
i got it down to 1.1 SWR on the low side with the ft-101e from 1.8 best i could get is 1.3 SWR with a dead key of 50 watts now with the Yaesu at 50 watts dead key 1.4-SWR and at 75-watt dead key 1.6 on a dummy or antenna best i can get it too.
thanks, guys for your honest input I'll keep looking maybe a heath kit sb220
An sb220 will yield you the same results as the yaesu. All these amplifiers you are mentioning are very old. They were made for old boat anchor tube rigs. The impedance of the Input/output tuning networks are usually not perfect, because tubes dont care, slight missmatches are fine (60ohm, 70ohm etc good enough). keying line voltages are very high, 100v or more. That will fry any modern day radios keying relay and components. They are ssb amplifiers, they were not built for heavy duty operating modes like am/fm/rtty etc. Can you? Yes, but they WILL NOT be happy and will not last long. You would have to baby them, keep transmissions VERY short, and keep the output carrier power very low. I hear cb guys driving the crap out of these amps all the time and they sound like absolute garbage and go into meltdown in short time. Not to mention the tubes for these old amps are getting really expensive, hard to find and are not forgiving to operator error (excessive input power, long tune up times, mis tuning etc). If you are just gonna run a cb radio just get a cb amp. Buy a texas star or something. If you have an old boat anchor then by all means get one of those old school amplifiers if thats what you want. But again, they were not designed with constant carrier modes in mind and it shows. Just saying
 
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An sb220 will yield you the same results as the yaesu. All these amplifiers you are mentioning are very old. They were made for old boat anchor tube rigs. The impedance of the Input/output tuning networks are usually not perfect, because tubes dont care, slight missmatches are fine (60ohm, 70ohm etc good enough). keying line voltages are very high, 100v or more. That will fry any modern day radios keying relay and components. They are ssb amplifiers, they were not built for heavy duty operating modes like am/fm/rtty etc. Can you? Yes, but they WILL NOT be happy and will not last long. You would have to baby them, keep transmissions VERY short, and keep the output carrier power very low. I hear cb guys driving the crap out of these amps all the time and they sound like absolute garbage and go into meltdown in short time. Not to mention the tubes for these old amps are getting really expensive, hard to find and are not forgiving to operator error (excessive input power, long tune up times, mis tuning etc). If you are just gonna run a cb radio just get a cb amp. Buy a texas star or something. If you have an old boat anchor then by all means get one of those old school amplifiers if thats what you want. But again, they were not designed with constant carrier modes in mind and it shows. Just saying
i'm not trying to run dc boxes as base amps i rather stick with base/ac i'm in an HOA area so far i'm doing good with the 300 watts from the Palomar
 
i'm not trying to run dc boxes as base amps i rather stick with base/ac i'm in an HOA area so far i'm doing good with the 300 watts from the Palomar
How is that relevent? Thats like saying "im not trying to run dc radios as a base station. Im in an hoa area" huh? Anyway whatever. I gave my 2 cents, take it as you will. Good luck
 
How is that relevent? Thats like saying "im not trying to run dc radios as a base station. Im in an hoa area" huh? Anyway whatever. I gave my 2 cents, take it as you will. Good luck
sorry about that some of the dc boxes are rf dirty and old neighbors still have old electronic like computer speakers but i'll look into it as plan B and i snuck my cb antenna in the backyard them sumamabitches fine me $1000 because i didn't move fast enough to re paint my driveway
 
sorry about that some of the dc boxes are rf dirty and old neighbors still have old electronic like computer speakers but i'll look into it as plan B and i snuck my cb antenna in the backyard them sumamabitches fine me $1000 because i didn't move fast enough to re paint my driveway
Not sure about your HOA, however in mine i mounted my mast and antenna to my
2nd story deck and its been there for years! They can tell me that my FRONT yard grass is a half inch too tall but can not say squat about what i do in the backyard,
 
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