Is a RM KL-60 Any good?

[loosecannon]

this amp will gain you approximately 1 S-unit over a stock CB radio.
LC

 

[mechanic]

Anybody know what mosfet final is used in the amp? And would a IRF540 be a good substitute?

mechanic

 

[milkman21218]

Anybody know what mosfet final is used in the amp? And would a IRF540 be a good substitute?

mechanic

It uses a RM-3. I don't think that you can change it. Just get a KL-203 like 9C1Driver said, or use it as is. The 203 only cost a few dollars more that the KL-60. But you get about 120 watts out. With a 1 1/2 watts in. And about 180 watts SSB. Your KL-60 should be alot better that any tune and peak you can get.

 

[15minigrass]

Hey T23, this would run really nice behind my 146GTL. Deadkey .5-1watt and swing the rest.

 

[T23]

It does run good right now its paired with my Roberts RCB-11 23 Channel crystal based radio, the reason I have it paired with it is because of its good audio. I run a power mic on that radio aswell...

It's like new still, got it I believe last year...maby a little less than a year..,
Do you shoot skip?

T23

 

[dd18]

kl60

Kl203 is much better for a little more money

 

[Justin Brown]

No way will a stock radio work. That radio will dead key three or four watts max. I don't recomend putting more than a 1-2 watt dead key into it, or you will burn it up fast. I am sure others will agree.

You're right about not keying too much into it and stock radios dead key 3 or 4. I bought 2 kl 60s and I think it's a good choice for those who dont want someone hacking up their radio peaking and tuning it or maybe they don't know anyone in their area that will. The issue is with cbs at least many dont come with a variable to turn down the dead key. I bought the president walker 2, a great radio with adjustable power and the midland 75-822 handheld with car adapter on low. It seems to work quite well, the instructions mentioned using a low pass filter which at first I ignored. After much testing and later buying a low pass filter, I found depending on antenna you may see a much higher swr using it without the filter. With the filter it removes the harmonics from the equation and thus swr value is back to normal. Whether the harmonics can ultimately damage the amp I dont know I'm not a radio technician but I do think its a good addition. Back to the stock radio suggestion, since there are limited options for radios with a variable, yall might call me stupid but in my experiments I think I may have a solution. Instead of having crazy Joe tinkering with your radio internals, simply buy a coax antenna t splitter and run one side to the amp and antenna. Then run the other side of the t to a small dummy load, this will split your power in half going to the amp. Doing it at the stock radio antenna jack, if the radio does 3 dead key the dummy will get 1.5 and the amp 1.5. If it does 4 the dummy gets 2 and amp gets 2, it surprisingly seems to work this way.

 

[jacquelyn S cortes]

You're right about not keying too much into it and stock radios dead key 3 or 4. I bought 2 kl 60s and I think it's a good choice for those who dont want someone hacking up their radio peaking and tuning it or maybe they don't know anyone in their area that will. The issue is with cbs at least many dont come with a variable to turn down the dead key. I bought the president walker 2, a great radio with adjustable power and the midland 75-822 handheld with car adapter on low. It seems to work quite well, the instructions mentioned using a low pass filter which at first I ignored. After much testing and later buying a low pass filter, I found depending on antenna you may see a much higher swr using it without the filter. With the filter it removes the harmonics from the equation and thus swr value is back to normal. Whether the harmonics can ultimately damage the amp I dont know I'm not a radio technician but I do think its a good addition. Back to the stock radio suggestion, since there are limited options for radios with a variable, yall might call me stupid but in my experiments I think I may have a solution. Instead of having crazy Joe tinkering with your radio internals, simply buy a coax antenna t splitter and run one side to the amp and antenna. Then run the other side of the t to a small dummy load, this will split your power in half going to the amp. Doing it at the stock radio antenna jack, if the radio does 3 dead key the dummy will get 1.5 and the amp 1.5. If it does 4 the dummy gets 2 and amp gets 2, it surprisingly seems to work this way.

FCC doesn't like that go ham radio and run the big guns on hf,73!!! N1y??

 

[Chris Lawrence]

It does what it is intended to do. It takes a single final radio from 12 watts pep to about 38 watts pep. It’ll survive a 3-4 watt dead key but will get hot fairly quick. As long as the audio is clear, you’ll likely be fine, but monitor the heat. If you have variable power, drop it down to two watts.

 

[Recon]

kl60

Kl203 is much better for a little more money

I read several comments and reviews prior to buying a KL amp for my truck. I selected the KL 300P and it seems to match-up nice with the stock (plain-Jane) four-watt Uniden Pro 510XL with the stock mic.