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Pride dx-300


I believe it works on 10m right as is. It has a 10m band switch on it. I have one, but I got it used....I'm not sure if there were any mods done to it to make it work on 10m. It's always seemed like a great little amp to me, except the fan is pretty noisy.
 
Yep. The link Master Chief posted shows the high quality of the components and the superior engineering skills that originally went into this paragon of radio excellence.

It might look prettier after correcting all of the design flaws, but it's still a gold-plated cow pie AFAIC.
 
I tried the amp on 11 meters and it did not work,Chris Aka Nomad radio's web page says he does not work on these units just sells parts, who is the master on rebuilding these amps with all the updated parts etc. I also read an article where it said you can actually put in a bigger tube in this thing.when you get all these new parts installed does this make it a cleaner amp? or do you have to change more parts in it to make it a clean running amp?
 
Any local tech should be able to get it going for you.

I have an 8930 tube for mine which is a 4CX250R equivalent, with a larger anode cooler. It gives you a little more output, but requires upgrading a number of components in the amp. The BIAS supply needs to be modified. I don't recommend the tube swap as the 4CX250B is very plentiful and the increase in output is unnoticeable on the other end.

This is a pretty clean amp if it is not abused. Run it right and it will give you a lot of service! I ran mine on the low/tune position and everyone loved it! In the HI position, it was dirty.
 
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These amps are not that good,i had one that looked brand new and i sold it for 300 bucks(got it from a ham)Those baby tubes 250b get hurt too easy by overdriving.Id rather have 6lq6s in my amp:)
 
DIRTYWHITEBOY said:
These amps are not that good,i had one that looked brand new and i sold it for 300 bucks(got it from a ham)Those baby tubes 250b get hurt too easy by overdriving.Id rather have 6lq6s in my amp:)
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You admittedly abused the amp, and then blame the amp? On top of this, you would rather use a TV sweep tube than an actual broadcast tube designed for amplifier service? Really?! Can you be educated? I'm going to try......

The Pride DX-300 is a great small amplifier. Some fools think they can beat the hell out of a 250 watt tube and have it put out a kilowatt. How long do you expect this small tube to survive when you abuse it?

The 4CX250B is a TETRODE tube meaning it has 4 active elements (hence the "4" in the part number):

cathode (with heather/filament)
grid
plate
SCREEN

The SCREEN is what separates the TETRODE from the TRIODE. I'll save all the advantages and disadvantages of the tetrode over the triode except to say that the tetrode is more efficient and takes less drive power to get the same output power of the triode. A triode can take more abuse however.

I used to say that 2 tubes is all you need. I now subscribe to the single tube rule, which is, "If a single tube doesn't give you the desired output power, buy a BIGGER tube."

The PRide DX-300 was designed in the 70s to be driven by the radios of the time, that were operating at 5 watts. You can run higher power radios by swampping the input of the amp (like the Pride KW-1, designed for 100 watt radios and no where as clean as the DX-300!).

Run it right, and the DX-300 is an excellent amp! Run it like an idiot and you WILL destroy it. But please......don't blame the amp when its clear where the real problem lies.
 
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Master Chief said:
On top of this, you would rather use a TV sweep tube than an actual broadcast tube designed for amplifier service? Really?! Can you be educated?
Click to expand...


You beat me to it MC. I was just going to say that I would MUCH rather have a real RF amplifier tube and learn how to run it than a pack of television sweep tubes.Anyone that knows anything about amplifier performance will agree unless they are the balls-to-the-wall-drive-the-crap-out-of-it-to-see-big-numbers-on-the-meter kind of operator that has no regard for other operators on the band. The 4CX250B is a wonderfull tube and I have used them in FM broadcast service as PA drivers feeding a 4CX5000A. You do have to be carefull not to overdrive them but overdriving does not get you more in-band power,just more crap until the tube goes POP!
 
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QRN said:
The 4CX250B is a wonderful tube...... You do have to be carefull not to overdrive them but overdriving does not get you more in-band power, just more crap until the tube goes POP!
Click to expand...
Master Chief is looking for the animated GIF of all the little people on their knees bowing down to the KING who shows great wisdom. but for now will have to be satisfied with this......)

(y)
 
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Master Chief said:
You admittedly abused the amp, and then blame the amp? On top of this, you would rather use a TV sweep tube than an actual broadcast tube designed for amplifier service? Really?! Can you be educated? I'm going to try......

The Pride DX-300 is a great small amplifier. Some fools think they can beat the hell out of a 250 watt tube and have it put out a kilowatt. How long do you expect this small tube to survive when you abuse it?

The 4CX250B is a TETRODE tube meaning it has 4 active elements (hence the "4" in the part number):

cathode (with heather/filament)
grid
plate
SCREEN

The SCREEN is what separates the TETRODE from the TRIODE. I'll save all the advantages and disadvantages of the tetrode over the triode except to say that the tetrode is more efficient and takes less drive power to get the same output power of the triode. A triode can take more abuse however.

I used to say that 2 tubes is all you need. I now subscribe to the single tube rule, which is, "If a single tube doesn't give you the desired output power, buy a BIGGER tube."

The PRide DX-300 was designed in the 70s to be driven by the radios of the time, that were operating at 5 watts. You can run higher power radios by swampping the input of the amp (like the Pride KW-1, designed for 100 watt radios and no where as clean as the DX-300!).

Run it right, and the DX-300 is an excellent amp! Run it like an idiot and you WILL destroy it. But please......don't blame the amp when its clear where the real problem lies.
Click to expand...


Toy amps assembled by the handicapped with crappy connectors and poorly designed boards as you can see on Nomads website.
 

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