I will keep my Siltronix 1011d...I have had 257 and galaxy radios...but the old silly cant be beat...turn it on and leave it on they dont drift... 73s de JW
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Magnum OmegaForce S-45 HP Review
- Thread starter Robb
- Start date
Mine works perfectly.
Make sure your STX/MTX selector switch is not set to SWR or CAL. In STX or MTX, the analog meter will show
RF Power out and S-Meter.
Make sure your STX/MTX selector switch is not set to SWR or CAL. In STX or MTX, the analog meter will show
RF Power out and S-Meter.
omega force S45HP..FM rf power increase
Hi all
Today, I have just received my nib S45HP.
Obviously, because I live in the UK so I will only use FM or SSB.
I have followed most of the instructions through out this thread and, I have adjusted the SSB RF output to about 60 watts swing which is great for me.
Up to now, I have tried to adjust RV117 but, it does not seem to do anything whilst looking at the watt meter.:bdh:
When, I bought this radio, I hoped that I could achieve 80 watts on FM but, I can't work out how to adjust this. Please, if there is anyone out there who can help me increase the RF output power for the FM mode, I would be most grateful.
Hi all
Today, I have just received my nib S45HP.
Obviously, because I live in the UK so I will only use FM or SSB.
I have followed most of the instructions through out this thread and, I have adjusted the SSB RF output to about 60 watts swing which is great for me.
Up to now, I have tried to adjust RV117 but, it does not seem to do anything whilst looking at the watt meter.:bdh:
When, I bought this radio, I hoped that I could achieve 80 watts on FM but, I can't work out how to adjust this. Please, if there is anyone out there who can help me increase the RF output power for the FM mode, I would be most grateful.
Precisely. That's what my S45HP does (actually a bit more). You can't measure PEP on FM as there is no peak power.
Be very careful with RF in the shack. I had some RF in the shack which glitched the microprocesor in the rig, which required a hard re-set. The glitch lost my "Call Frequency" (which was a useless 29.300 FM). Now, my "Call Frequency" is memory #2 which for me is 29.000 Mhz AM, the AM calling requency. The microprocessor is quite sensitive to RF and other anomalies (static, etc).
As well the unit falls apart when faced with a reactive antenna. In mine, the reactance causes the SSB to warble badly under high mic gain levels. (This was a Hy-Gain TH3 with a home made balun.) Another antenna, with no reactances worked well, but just make sure your antenna has no reactances.
Make sure you have no common mode currents flowing back down the coax. The radio doesn't like that either. A line isolator will help.
Funny, my HR2510 doesn't suffer any of those problems. :headbang
Thank you for this, I felt really let down when I found out this earlier today when it arrived.
Apparently, other OF S45, not HP, users around in me in the UK seem convinced that it will do 40 watts out the back on FM. Is this true?
I have a RF choke from coax next to the antenna so hopefully this should stop it. However, I would be worried about using my amplifier with this radio if its that sensitive to these return currents.
Interestingly, my Lincoln seems much better on the receive and works great with the amplifier. Since, replacing the Lincoln with the OF S45HP, I really miss it and wonder why I tried to replace it
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Not an issue. I sometimes run an amp and so long as the input impedance is close to 50 ohms, there should not be a problem. Make sure that your antenna is properly grounded, and has a very low VSWR. Avoid RF ground loops as much as possible. This is true for any mobile installation. For base operation, the same holds true. Low VSWR, avoid reactances, and avoid common mode currents.
how exactly do you avoid reactance on an antenna unless you only use it on one frequency?
the further you move from center frequency the more reactance will play a part, as most people in the uk operate from low on 26 mhz (or some from 26.965) to nearly 28 mhz (uk legal cb band) avoiding reactance is nigh on impossible.
The use of an antenna tuner will get rid of extraneous reactances.
Some hams use a tri-band Yagi on 10. For example, a friend runs a Hy-Gain TH3 on 10. He uses a home made balun in the form of several turns of coax in series with the feed-point. This balun is not perfect and exibits some reactances (and imbalance) on 10. My own TH3 with a Radio Works yagi balun shows no such anomalies. His OF S45HP craps out at high power and high mic gain levels; mine is perfectly stable. My VSWR is 1.2:1 at 28.420, where we often operate. For 11M operation I use a small tuner dedicated to 11M with a bypass switch, or preferably, I use my Hy-Gain Penetrator 500, (which is tuned to 28.800 Mhz) through the same tuner.
the old faithful ATU,lol, is there anything hams can't sort out with an atu? lol
surely its better to cure the real problems than use an atu to plaster over deficiencies?
my experience of people using rf chokes on 11m generally finds them using one of the wrong number of turns (usually to many turns) for efficiency on 11m because they copied something they read on hamuniverse that states the coax wound rf choke is suitable from 80m or thereabouts to 10m which is total bullshit.
ofcourse the first hurdle you need to surmount is the shit build quality on magnum radios compared to others. they really need to start paying those 10 year old chinese kids some decent wages if they want them to produce decent quality.
Agree 100%. Which is what I try to do here. My friend, not having an appropriate current balun, decided to follow Hy-Gian's instructions and wind his own. Those coax wound baluns vary widely in quality and perfection. His has some weird anomalies. I avoided all that nonsense by simply buying a new, proper current balun designed for yagis. The original Hy-Gain BN86 balun is a voltage balun, and subject to imnbalances as is my friend's coax balun.
Often true for hams as well
La-dee-dee, sorry, what did you say? No shit!
too many or even too few turns (as would too much or too little diameter) on the choke would be detrimental to its performance no matter what frequency its designed for,for any given frequency range there is an optimum turns/diameter ratio, also dependent on type of coax used.
a great reference for aircored coaxial rf chokes can be found on Steve G3TXQ's website.
Common-mode chokes
they say a picture is worth a thousand words,the one on Steve's page is probably worth a hell of a lot more words than that,
you can clearly see:
a). a one size fits all choke is nonsense.
b). as you move from the optimum frequency range the effectiveness/impedance too common mode current drops off.
c). a reactive choke can actually make cmc worse.
I read every post and thank you all.
I read every post and learned a lot thank you all.
I want a S-9, But in the mean time I am enjoying my Galaxay DX 959, KL-503, PS-52SS and Solorcon 99 which work just fine. This is a great forum and is a great source of information. Thanks to all.
Riff-Raff in Washington DC
I read every post and learned a lot thank you all.
I want a S-9, But in the mean time I am enjoying my Galaxay DX 959, KL-503, PS-52SS and Solorcon 99 which work just fine. This is a great forum and is a great source of information. Thanks to all.
Riff-Raff in Washington DC
I am still waiting for the newer version of the OmegaForce S-45hp. Does anyone know when this will hit the market ???