Inspect Your New Amps

[Recon]

Imagine a car forum and someone is warning people about an engine problem but then refuses to tell people the Year, Make, Model, and Engine type! It would be a worthless post of no use to anyone!

At the very least put a zip tie on that wire until you can get a proper strain relief.

That power wire is not soldered down well.

I think it is low class to complain and make a PSA lacking most of the basics of "Who, What, When, Where, Why". Have some courage! If this was a new amp from Texas Star or MFJ you would share it. You are clearly afraid of fall-out from the builder community and their fan boys!

I would add that if the amp is installed properly and bolted down and the wires are ran properly there should be a very low chance of a strain guage being needed even if it is clearly best practice. Anyone that has worked in car audio, 2-way-radio, or as a mechanic have seen how poorly people install electrical and electronic gear in car's and trucks! Bad construction methods and installation practices have burnt peoples trucks to the ground!

strain guage?

 

[Recon]

This may be an XForce product.
Look at the marking from the sheet metal brake, the clear-backed stickers, and the offset on the bottom of the amp.
View attachment 70785

It's not a X-Force Amp. Probably the same Fabrication Shop makes the cabinets for several amp builders.

 

[Pioneer621]

I agree it looks pretty typical for a lot of CB amps like this going back many years.

With a decent install, I doubt the cable will move around to cause any problems. Now, if you just toss the amp in the back of your SUV / car / truck and floor it at every stop light with this thing sliding around then it may be a problem, eventually, but if the amp is secure and wiring ran decently and also secured, should be fine.

The ferrite could have been secured with a zip tie, I would have at least done that, but probably not much of an issue here.

If you run it as a base amplifier, no worries whatsoever.

Could it be better, absolutely, but can’t expect the world from CB amps like this. I don't see anything surprising that I haven't seen over the last 20 years with this style amp, looks pretty normal actually.

 

[nomadradio]

The guy making this amplifier is responding to market incentives, just like anyone else building a product to sell. The incentive is to show the highest wattmeter reading with the lowest-possible production cost. Any feature or function that doesn't serve to push the wattmeter reading higher is wasted expense. Harmonic filtering, power-line filtering, SSB-bias regulation, all wasted money.

How long it lasts is not part of the picture, whether from stressing transistors to double their ratings, or rubbing through the insulation on a fat power wire. If it burns down your car or truck it's your fault for using a fuse that was too large.

I really don't see anything so terribly different from other amplifiers built just this way. Got used to lumping them together as "DFX", as in Dave, Fat, X-force. I remember a CB customer leafing through a copy of QST one day. Spotted a MFJ ad listing the price of their 600-Watt mobile linear. Exclaimed "I can get that many Watts for one-third that much!". I explained that to make the signal legal and sound okay on sideband takes three times as many parts as his CB bandit "competition" box. Never mind how much longer it will last. Same wattmeter reading, different objective.

73