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KL203 Amp
- Thread starter Spinrock
- Start date
If you have a Pilot, Flying J, T/A, Petro, or maybe an Ambest near you, you should be able to find the jumper that you need.
Don't buy the cheap jumper, though. Get the Wilson or K40, if they have it. Sometimes, all they have is the cheap, crappy jumpers, and that's better than nothing, I guess, but if they have a name brand, that would be better.
Don't buy the cheap jumper, though. Get the Wilson or K40, if they have it. Sometimes, all they have is the cheap, crappy jumpers, and that's better than nothing, I guess, but if they have a name brand, that would be better.
Thanks, got a Pilot about 12 miles up the road. Will swing by in the morning and see what they have. If nada, then I can always do Amazon.
Update. Picked up a jumper today. Started plugging everything back in..(quick disconnects) and noticed the radio would not power up. (One wiring line for each device to the battery.) Switched QD's and the radio fired up and the amp was back to the normal weak anemic level of led output. Popped the good QD into the amp and noticed the LED's were original full brightness. Duh... evidently my soldering leaves much to be desired. The joints at the fuse blocks and ring terminals were not doing the job. Showed 12.8 volts until plugged in then would drop out on the bad line. The amp does light up but very weakly. Continuity was bad of course. Sooo... over about 10 months these soldering point (s) are failing. I admit I am a solder monkey.
Straight mechanical connections from now on. GRRRRR. Will work up two new lines tomorrow and try and retest again. I suspect I have destroyed the amp and probably damaged the radio. Seriously considering a new radio with power built in and eliminate the outboard amp situation. Probably a Stryker 655. Might change my mind if this setup somehow resurrects itself. It was a good combo until my soldering shenanigans caught up with me. I suppose this qualifies me for the golden screwdriver award even though I never touched the insides of the units. No blame to the tech that did my work. All on me. The saga continues.....
Straight mechanical connections from now on. GRRRRR. Will work up two new lines tomorrow and try and retest again. I suspect I have destroyed the amp and probably damaged the radio. Seriously considering a new radio with power built in and eliminate the outboard amp situation. Probably a Stryker 655. Might change my mind if this setup somehow resurrects itself. It was a good combo until my soldering shenanigans caught up with me. I suppose this qualifies me for the golden screwdriver award even though I never touched the insides of the units. No blame to the tech that did my work. All on me. The saga continues.....
If I'm reading you correctly, you've done some soldering on things outside both the radio and the amp? But, you, yourself, have never done anything inside either device?
Sounds, in my less-than-professional opinion, that bad power connections are what's causing your problems (from what I read, that's your thought, too).
I'm not aware of any case in which an electronic device has been destroyed by being under-powered (which, if we are correct about the bad power connections, that's the problem ) Although, I have heard of many fires that have started from inadequate power lines; the device was sucking more power (and generating more heat) than the power wires could handle. Big rigs burn from bad power inverter installs, all the time. I'd lay money, that each instance was on account of the power wire not being a large enough guage for the job.
So, then, solidify your power connections. Unless you have shorted something out, you should be good.
I have the same radio/amp combo. I love it. I didn't do any soldering, when hooking it all up. I used some crimp on terminals, so I can remove either device quickly, and I used some heat shrink, to give a cleaner appearance.
I may, later, try my hand at soldering, just to further strengthen the connections on my crimps. But, my crimp method is usually pretty solid.
Incidentally, I have a Stryker 655. It's being stored, and I use the 980/203 setup. Of course, some golden screwdriver had his hands in it, before I owned it, which probably has everything to do with my unhappiness with it. One day, I'll have it put right, and I will try it again.
Sounds, in my less-than-professional opinion, that bad power connections are what's causing your problems (from what I read, that's your thought, too).
I'm not aware of any case in which an electronic device has been destroyed by being under-powered (which, if we are correct about the bad power connections, that's the problem ) Although, I have heard of many fires that have started from inadequate power lines; the device was sucking more power (and generating more heat) than the power wires could handle. Big rigs burn from bad power inverter installs, all the time. I'd lay money, that each instance was on account of the power wire not being a large enough guage for the job.
So, then, solidify your power connections. Unless you have shorted something out, you should be good.
I have the same radio/amp combo. I love it. I didn't do any soldering, when hooking it all up. I used some crimp on terminals, so I can remove either device quickly, and I used some heat shrink, to give a cleaner appearance.
I may, later, try my hand at soldering, just to further strengthen the connections on my crimps. But, my crimp method is usually pretty solid.
Incidentally, I have a Stryker 655. It's being stored, and I use the 980/203 setup. Of course, some golden screwdriver had his hands in it, before I owned it, which probably has everything to do with my unhappiness with it. One day, I'll have it put right, and I will try it again.
I forget which AWG wire I used for the run to the battery but it was way overkill. Huge. I had some zipstrip red and black laying around on a spool and used it as it was handy.
I have a friend that just got back into trucking and I was going to loan him my rig until he gets on his feet and picks up his own rig. Hope you are correct about the low power thing. Will get the new harness done up tomorrow and then see what happens.
Yep I like the 655 as well as the 447 hpc2 model. My Tacoma is not designed to hold or mount a radio anywhere. Smaller is better. The 655 is huge compared to the 447 or the 980. I guess I need a bigger truck. It never ends.....
I have a friend that just got back into trucking and I was going to loan him my rig until he gets on his feet and picks up his own rig. Hope you are correct about the low power thing. Will get the new harness done up tomorrow and then see what happens.
Yep I like the 655 as well as the 447 hpc2 model. My Tacoma is not designed to hold or mount a radio anywhere. Smaller is better. The 655 is huge compared to the 447 or the 980. I guess I need a bigger truck. It never ends.....
Heh. I won't argue against a bigger truck. Though, my Avalanche doesn't have much in the way of mounting locations, either; and the cab of that thing is about that of a full size pickup. And, I may do a ceiling mount, on the old van.
My buddy has a little cubby hole, under the stereo in his truck; he found that removing that will give him enough room to stick the Cobra 19, that I gave him, in its spot.
Depending on what model truck your buddy is issued, he may find that a smaller radio is better for him, too. My Volvo truck has a spot on the dashboard for a radio; some others do not. I found that these new, sad excuses for Kenworths have a CB cubby that's too small for a Stryker 655HP (or, the 955). Freightshaker may be the same way, but I don't recall. If you loan out your radio to your friend, be sure to let him borrow some coax, too. You don't want him hooking up your equipment to the factory coax in his truck. That coax is junk, and so are the factory antennas. Theoretically, the factory antennas on my truck are supposed to handle AM, FM, WX, TV, and CB. They do the 1st three ok, but suck at the latter 2.
My buddy has a little cubby hole, under the stereo in his truck; he found that removing that will give him enough room to stick the Cobra 19, that I gave him, in its spot.
Depending on what model truck your buddy is issued, he may find that a smaller radio is better for him, too. My Volvo truck has a spot on the dashboard for a radio; some others do not. I found that these new, sad excuses for Kenworths have a CB cubby that's too small for a Stryker 655HP (or, the 955). Freightshaker may be the same way, but I don't recall. If you loan out your radio to your friend, be sure to let him borrow some coax, too. You don't want him hooking up your equipment to the factory coax in his truck. That coax is junk, and so are the factory antennas. Theoretically, the factory antennas on my truck are supposed to handle AM, FM, WX, TV, and CB. They do the 1st three ok, but suck at the latter 2.
Success!!. Wired up a new harness... fired up the amp and it's lil led's glowed full strength...and the background hiss white noise ramped up normally with the preamp on.
Hit 19 for a radio check and got a driver from the Pilot about 10-11 miles out. He was weak but quite clear and heard me fine. Sooo.... all is well finally. Thanks for the input and suggestions along the way.
Hit 19 for a radio check and got a driver from the Pilot about 10-11 miles out. He was weak but quite clear and heard me fine. Sooo.... all is well finally. Thanks for the input and suggestions along the way.
Glad you got it resolved. Be sure to check VSWR and output as well before you put everything to rest. Have a good day and hopefully your issue is done!!!
With the Uniden 980 and KL203 combo you should be fine on SSB with the 10-12 watts PEP that it does. On AM you might still try to get the AM dead key down to say 2 watts. If your able to do that a slight nudge of the modulation pot should be done as well. If you can get the radio to dead key 2 watts and swing eight your good to go. You might also consider a small fan for that amplifier just in case you get long winded.
10 miles with a 980SSB driving a KL203? You're doing something wrong. I can reach out at least that far on AM with a barefoot PC 122 in a Freightliner Cascadia. I did 26 miles with a barefoot Stryker 955, same truck.
With over 100 watts, if I wasn't reaching out 30+, I'd be pretty ticked off.
With over 100 watts, if I wasn't reaching out 30+, I'd be pretty ticked off.
If I understand Stryker radios, that "barefoot" 955 is pushing 70- 80 watts. So try that with 4 watts and let me know how it works over 30 miles. I have hit 25 miles with a stock PC68 once. Denver area up on the mountain and propogation was all in my favor. Never work like that down in the urban areas. Skip is skip. Urban factors with antenna figured in ....non skip.... nah.