Midnight Special 250

[secret squirrel]

Ever come across the economy amps from X-Force anymore. The X-Force 500 and 700 were the amps the locals used around here the last time we had a group of locals with base stations. Galaxy Saturn with the Midnight Special 500 was the sought after setup at the time- small town Washington, PA just south of Pittsburgh. Most base operators moved away over time. Been about 10 years since the bases talked on AM mostly Sunday night.

 

[9C1Driver]

I think they were all built with the 1446 final and they were class C amplifiers. I'm sure they worked fine on AM, on SSB probably not so much. I always thought they were decent amplifiers that were affordable.

 

[binrat]

I had 1 years ago. Great little AM amp. I wish I kept it.

 

[2NC995]

Saw them for sale for years, but don’t know that I ever heard one on the air.

I’ve always been a fan of the 1446.

 

[dave457]

I have one and it has fets

 

[tecnicoloco]

I have one and has 4 SD1446 transistors

Sound pretty good on AM amp,SSB is another story

 

[9C1Driver]

I have one and it has fets

Here is a link showing the amp we are talking about. The Midnight Special Line never had fets.

http://cbradiomagazine.com/xforce-midnight-special-250-cb-radio-amplifier-review/

 

[Big Kahuna]

The 250 I had was good on AM not great on SSB and the 500 I tried brand new wasn't tuned right and was a mess and I sent i back for a refund and same thing happened to my friend so I never recommended the 500 after that. Honestly I wouldn't recommend them - better amps to use out there.

 

[dave457]

My bad.... It's a midnight special mf 200 and it has mosfets in it. One is blown. Bought it directly from x force awile back so they did come with mosfets. At least mine did

 

[9C1Driver]

Yes I think once the 1446 final became difficult to find they did add some model numbers to the Midnight Special line that had MF in the model name for mosfet.

 

[Mikey1966]

I have one and has 4 SD1446 transistors

Sound pretty good on AM amp,SSB is another story

My special 250 is biased for SSB & talks fine onnSSB.

 

[tripple one]

My Midnight 500 works Good on SSB. So I am told. Has 4 SD 1446 in it I have had it over 12 years

 

[AudioShockwav]

Yes I think once the 1446 final became difficult to find they did add some model numbers to the Midnight Special line that had MF in the model name for mosfet.

Yes, some of them were built with MOSFETS later on.
The first builds were 1446's

73
Jeff

 

[9C1Driver]

The midnight special amplifiers with 1446 finals all came class C. I suppose it was possible to pay extra and have X-Force do their class B bias mod to it. Been so long I can't recall now.

 

[Onelasttime]

The ones I saw had 1446's in them and then they went to HG's and then for a while they had some that had fets in them.

I almost bought one. I assumed I would have to finish it as in it was a Heathkit someone else put together that was almost right. At the time I did not want to mess around so I passed. Anytime in the past I bought a CB amp which is all I have ever owned I assume as much.

It is just a matter of lack of quality control because most of these builders know demand is higher than can be met. They also know they can blame the damage on Postal Service or user error. They are not checking each cap and each inductor and each transformer to match. They are not doing quality control at each step in production and not testing long enough after finishing the amp before they box it up and ship it out.

I am sure we have all seen inside of a "new build" that looked like it was assembled by someone that was blind and missing all of their fingers! So many solder blobs and fleck that it looks like some poured molten solder into a shotgun and fired it into the box. Something major not soldered at all so much so that the box would not have powered up or would not have put out any rf had they tested it before shipping.

Usually the more this happens with a brand it is an indicator they are going to be going out of business soon. Look at the crap XForce and DaveMade where shipping to customers the last few years before they went out of business!

You can not just buy the cheapest parts money can buy from China take the component values printed on the parts at face value and think everything will work fine! Chinese capacitors are the absolute worst for this! You had better measure every single one! You had better keep them away from all heat!