That was not the case in the N3 I recently worked on. It was purchased brand new less than 3 mos ago. You can't run the radio without the amp connected regardless of the amp is blown or not.
-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
Ranger made radios RT1 invasion
- Thread starter Eldorado828
- Start date
Allegedly, this is the way to go, just don't overdrive them...
https://www.icamanufacturing.com/hg8m
https://www.icamanufacturing.com/hg8m
I'm sorry but that info is not accurate. Just rip the caps off of blown DEI or HG pills and you'll see they are no Toshiba under the mislabeled cover. With respect to Texas Star being reputable, they sell nothing but illegal amps. Look at the problem Ameritron faced with their ALS-500, when the Toshiba dried up many years ago. At that time, Texas Star still had stock on original Toshiba's, that RF parts was selling the last ones made, for $204.99. Those transistors, if real were worth more than the amps were selling for complete.
People who's income is not directly dependent on claiming the HG is equal to the Toshiba, have already identified six different variations in the 2879, with the same lot code stamped on them. No one is working on copying the 2879 because there is no legal market for the part whatsoever. Since 11 meters is literally the only place that hasn't progressed past the need to be dependent on this part, it's never coming back and you're being tricked with restamped VHF parts, that will never perform like the real part did.
That's because the N3 is a mobile radio without a current limited power supply. In that case the DC power cord probably feeds the PA board first. In any event, it's a 5 minuet job to bypass the hacked amp, by feeding DC and drive RF, right through the existing PA wires. When the switch mode finals blow up in the mobile versions, you better have the right fuse inline, or you'll find some smoke and fire. These cheap parts short out, unlike their linear RF counterparts, which open.
To follow up, if it was the semiconductor companies goal to develop a new 100 watt bipolar linear RF transistor, it would not take 6 different production runs being sold, while still missing that mark. Furthermore, the goal here was infinitely easier to achieve, than having to do anything new. They already had a 30 year old part with no patents on it to copy. The fact they never even made an effort to copy the same internal structure with the same number of bonded gold wires carrying the current into and out of the same sized die, shows they are just restamping whatever they have, that works to some degree.
By the way, the date code on parts that are not counterfeited restamps, changes every week they are being produced. HG hasn't changed the date lot number, in how many years? Same thing with the Toshiba counterfeits. As if every 2879 you can buy today, just happened to all be made in the same week...
By the way, the date code on parts that are not counterfeited restamps, changes every week they are being produced. HG hasn't changed the date lot number, in how many years? Same thing with the Toshiba counterfeits. As if every 2879 you can buy today, just happened to all be made in the same week...
Last edited:
Perhaps. But, one VDMOS in a base version, making well over 500 watts PEP (variable) is not only possible, it's on the bench as the next project.
Whoa...! The misinformation sounds to me to be on your side OR....maybe you simply misunderstood me. 1st off, you sound as if you think I claimed that the HGs/DEIs are actually Toshiba 2879s or the same thing. I never saod that at all. Sorry if I gave that impression. What I DID say is that CURRENTLY and for some time, the HGs & the DEIs are the same device. I thought I said that clearly the 1st time. I said I knew the original DEIs & HGs were junk that had lots of problems but that's water under the bridge as they are now the same device AND the manufacturer has been worked with in Japan to improve the quality. I also said that based on many many tests I've seen by BBI, the Gatekeeper & at least one other amp builder/tester, the current (for some time) DEI/Hg pills kick ass and pass all tests for durability, driving, voting, dissipation, etc AND IN FACT, they now COMPARE quite favorably, in fact pretty equally or even better in some cases, than the old genuine Toshibas. THAT is what I said and I did NOT put out misinformation. Unless you have watched many many videos from BBI & The Gatekeeper who have extensively bird tested ALL the older, later and current DEI/HG pills, and seen the results of those tests, oh, and also a new one I just saw from "noname amps" (), which appears to me to be at least 1 to 2 years old, then you are not up to date on the performance and reliability of the newer HG/DEI pills IN MY OPINION. I fully admit that opinion is based on years of watching BBI & GATEKEEPER video testing of these pills incl real Toshibas, ie the testing is sometimes "vs" and sometimes tests of themselves w/o direct comparison. I also have spoken directly to the builders and fixers of the Texas star amps, in calif. in terms of their opinions of the various pills used since the industry shakeup with Toshiba. I have sold HG/DEI boxes to a customer who hits them hard and uses alot & has had no problems yet.
As to the fake Toshiba pills I never denied that T/S sold any. I only recently saw the BBI video that seems to offer proof of the fakes in at least 1 box. I have heard that this went on for approx 1 year up until last fall. But I sold a new 350 from Texas star in the fall and it had DEI pills. What I actually saod was that I couldn't believe they (Texas star) would knowingly & purposefully sell boxes w/fake pills and that they had a good reputation. You noting here that they sell illegal amps is silly to me. 1st of all, that does not mean they are not still a reputable company, in terms of the way they do business and the quality control they have. I also know that for many years, up until maybe recently, you are wrong to say they sold illegal amps. I have some direct 1st hand knowledge of exactly what happened back in the late 90s that resulted in Texas star being shut down by the fcc. I know what happened. And a couple years later, for obvious reasons (to me), Texas star made a deal with the fcc to be able to modify the amps to be the so called "keyers" and that was with the full blessing of the fcc. Tha went on like that for many years so all those boxes were sold legally. They never would've been able to keep selling them w/o the blessing (and likely a cut to) of the fcc. Seems things have loosened up in the last couple years with respect to the "keyer" boxes and how much conversion work is currently needed, if any. But if there was no agreement of some kind, hard to believe the fcc is simply just allowing it to go back to the way it was pre-keyers?
Now that I've done my best to make myself more clear feel free to tell me of the misinformation I put out. I don't think I did, at least not knowingly.
I don't know what fuse was online but it was likely a 40 or 50A fuse on the truck side of the Anderson connector. In the amp, the 6A1 diode blew (or whatever the # was) along with the mosfets & some other components. I agree that mosfets as replacements for BJT sucks but not as bad as years ago when they 1st started being used.
Again, all I've said is the many testing videos I've watched show the progression of the hg/dei pills and that for some time now, they have stacked up quite well, in testing, to the Toshibas and that the HGs & DEIs are now the same device. Also, I saw a thread here on WWDX about the fake Toshibas, and all the posters said they had zero issues with those pills and they were top performance. So even if they (Texas star) knew....if the pills are that good, well...hard to bitch about that. Even BBI, when he was checking them out had trouble identifying for certain if they were fakes or not. He finally said they were but he wasn't too convincing. And who obtained the dies from Toshiba?
Lastly I feel I should make note of the fact that the folks in Escondido have been very reputable, fair and generous in the way they have done business for many years and have done many free repairs warranty or not on radios and amps. In other cases, very cheaply. They have the best warranties in the business on radios and who else backs up their amps in many cases? And they have also sent me parts for free in many cases to do my own amp repairs. So yes, I definitely considerthem to be a reputable company,regardless of the legality of the amps or not. Made in America by Americans and backed up as much as they can. They are a good bunch of ppl. I think they deserve to be recognized as a very people oriented company and doesn't treat ppl who ask for help like the big corporations do. I think they are good business ppl. And while the jury is out whether or not they were duped on those fake pills, still the entire thread here says they were good pills.
Specifically, it was this comment that is not consistent with the results "performance tests show them to do the same or better than the old toshibas". Until the base and collector impedance match the 2879, the counterfeits are not the same. Most telling is the fact you have to drastically decrease the value of the loading cap used in the output before the power will peak out. That means the output impedance has to be higher than the real part and this is one of the most important specifications in terms of output capacity. You need a lower output impedance to increase output power.
I don't mean to sound rude but Texas Star is really one of the worse ever deigns made in the history of CB amps. While it has a following because it sounds cleaner than a class C amp on SSB, everything from the unregulated resistive bias circuit, to the routing of RF through all of the push buttons and unshielded PC board traces, is a disaster. Combine that with boards that have very poor ground plane surface area intact, with positive ground wiring and these things can be very unstable. Drive them a little too hard and the 10uh choke burns up and allows RF to leak right back into the bias circuit. Then you get oscillations and pills popping. That fatal flaw is because they didn't want to spend an extra 75 cents on a 3 pole relay to isolate bias.
Don't be fooled. The builders you mention know full well they have never used a 12 volt transistor, that is as rugged as the original Toshiba. Showing equal power under ideal bench conditions, for a short time, after the mic was already keyed, is much different than hot switching the amp, into an antenna while talking skip for an hour.
Last edited:
Craig Barkett, at Barkett's Electronics, told me Toshiba is not going to make anymore 2879s.
The RT1's are supposed to be heavied up, but the idea of LDMOS technology may be the best way to go.
RCI would have to make a 50-60 Volt power supply, which I think can be done.
You need a thick, solid copper heat sink, as aluminum may actually melt.
But, this will drive the price up higher than simply using a separate amp.
Putting it all into one package is a good idea, but is it practical?
CB radio is not what it used to be, unfortunately.
The RT1's are supposed to be heavied up, but the idea of LDMOS technology may be the best way to go.
RCI would have to make a 50-60 Volt power supply, which I think can be done.
You need a thick, solid copper heat sink, as aluminum may actually melt.
But, this will drive the price up higher than simply using a separate amp.
Putting it all into one package is a good idea, but is it practical?
CB radio is not what it used to be, unfortunately.
Manufacturers of this equipment are just cheap and depend on an unsuspecting market. Every HF radio manufacturer in the world (that makes a mobile rig) has figured out how to use regular 100 watt, 12 volt MOSFET's in place of the obsolete bipolar parts. Start insisting 10 meter radios come with the same RD100HHF1 finals. No 50 volt supply or copper heat spreader needed here.
The "die" in question here, is not a part of any tooling process but refers to the semiconductor chip or wafer, used to make the transistor from.
- No one is chatting at the moment.