Amp?

[Captain Kilowatt]

And a class c amp is closer to 65-70% efficient. I ran 800w out of a 1x4 with a 135a alternator for a couple years when I got started. It didn't even dim the headlights.

Just following your lead of 50% as an example. 800 watts at 70% eff. = 1360 watts consumed at 13.8 volts for 99 amps consumed by the finals. Extra current would be required for the exciter and the amp input driver as well as the vehicle operations. If the headlights did not dim you had one hell of a good battery because with the extra load of headlights on you were drawing more than the alternator could provide. This assumes of course that the 1x4 class C amp actually was making that level of power and not just messing with the meter readings due to spectral (im)purity.

 

[GnG8d]

These amps just do not require that much current. An 800 peak envelope is only in the order of 300 average watts, and that 1x4 ran at 280 average if I remember correctly. I mean, you guys are talking about 200+ amp alternators for a class c, 4 pill hammer box.

 

[M0GVZ]

XForce amps are 100A draw for their 800W PEP models. Interesting how they say they're only 400W RMS??? Surely the RMS of 800W peak is 565W?

How far did your 800W amp get you then, 40/50/60 miles?

 

[GnG8d]

XForce amps are 100A draw for their 800W PEP models. Interesting how they say they're only 400W RMS??? Surely the RMS of 800W peak is 565W?

How far did your 800W amp get you then, 40/50/60 miles?

RMS watts aren't useful and tend to cloud conversations ...... this is a prime example and I wish companies like XForce would stop perpetuating it TBH. A Bird 43 measures average, and a Bird 43p measures the peak envelope. There just isn't anything useful or quantitative about calculating an RMS watt.

But with that said, I could talk to the locals easily from 60 miles or more out with an XForce 1x4 and a W1000 hard mounted in the center of the roof on my quad cab dually pick up. That's a 200w carrier, modulated to 800w pep and forward average swing to 280-300w. These hillbillies were notorious for putting an A99 on a fence post, or a chunk of pipe leaning against the garage etc, so only the guys who had decent base setups could get back to me, but they could hear me. I guess it served them for their local chatter, and probably even made the occasional DX contact but it wasn't efficient at long range local contacts.

The worst part of that setup was all the IMD from saturation and gain compression due to running a dual final export into a 1x4 class C comp box. I can run 10,000w in the house and my wife doesn't say a word, but 800w out of that XForce would tear up all sorts of stuff in the house if I was sitting in the driveway. How I never had flashing dash lights and PCM/ECM issues with that setup I'll never know, but it was certainly a harmonic turd.

So back on topic, a CB drives a 4 pill fine in my opinion, especially if it's biased. The class C boxes take more drive and a CB with a 1x4 wouldn't be too awful bad either I suppose, but I've grown to dislike the combination boxes. Most of the power from the driver stage is bled to ground in the form of heat anyway.