Any thoughts on this ? I have a 2950 works great until I put it behind my 503hd. Then on Am,Fm fine but ssb audio just falls apart? Ru s about 30 pep am an ssb. Did notice that power adj seems to do little. Am or ssb. The 503hd works fine with my anytone 6666,an my 25 yr old uniden presedent, so must be the ranger. Any info appreciated.
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Ranger 2950
- Thread starter bdc312
- Start date
Mine is high drive up to 35 pep.in. On am 3 wat dead key. So at 30 watts max on ssb or am the 2950 should be the perfect radio for the job.But for some reason it just falling apart audio wise on ssb. Power is there out put on amp wide open running little under 300 am or ssb.An am sounds fine.
I recently tested a local guys 503hd amp. When he ran it worked great on AM but on SSB it was real bad. So my setup was Astron 70m, IMAX 2000, and my Omega Force s45. Started out at 14 watts pep drive and sounded great but only 100 ish watts. I ended up at25 watts pep and that drove the amp to 300 watts. All on air reports were loud and clear. (Typical Magnum Audio lol) He was either starving the amp or had a poor ground, not sure. Anyway good luck, the 503 amplifiers seem to be hit or miss.
Unfortunately, your amp was never biased for SSB. Sure, it has a capacitor that delays relay drop to RX so it can be used on SSB without the relay 'chattering', along with a switch to put that cap into/out of play --- but it's always gonna sound like crap to everyone's RX.
And nothing practical can be done to correct that. It was built that way.
And nothing practical can be done to correct that. It was built that way.
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It has a switch marked "SSB", but it's a fraud.
You're hearing what AM-only amplifiers sound like on sideband. Don't blame the radio.
Leaving out the additional parts needed to smooth out the sideband audio saves money. Adding that switch on the front is cheaper than actually making it sound right on SSB.
73
You're hearing what AM-only amplifiers sound like on sideband. Don't blame the radio.
Leaving out the additional parts needed to smooth out the sideband audio saves money. Adding that switch on the front is cheaper than actually making it sound right on SSB.
73
A friend had a 503hd. It sounded like absolute garbage on SSB until the drive got up to around 20 to 25 watts. At that point it started sounding OK but not amazing. Don't remember what the output was with that much drive but I'm guessing it must have been 300 to 350ish.....
Only amp I ever encountered that sounded great when driven to the max, and like crap when treated gently.
It had a short life; less than a year and then the magic smoke came out.
Needless to say, friend didn't buy another RM Italy amp LOL!
This is also what happens to a radio that has driver and/or final bias adjusted too low. Anyone who asks about the radio's final bias gets told to tune in the radio on a second receiver, then turn down the mike gain to around 1 Watt on voice peaks.
If it sounds gritty that way, and smooths out at ten or twelve Watts, the bias is set too low. And if it's just as smooth with low power as high, you're probably good to go.
73
The radio was a new completely stock Lincoln 2+, so I do think the problem was with the 503hd.