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RM Italy 203p amp

If you think he should put a four watt dead key into it go ahead and smoke that amp. As for 18 to 20 watts, thats the max amount of swing I would put into it. I know all about the 1:4 swng rule, but trust me if you put a 4 watt dead key into that amp it will not last long. For example a 1 watt dead key would only be 4 watts modulated power out of the radio if you followed the 1:4 rule, that would not drive that amp at all. Around 15 watts swing would be about right, and a 1-2 watt dead key is all I would put into that little amp. You should adjust your dead key on the radio to allow a 1:4 dead key and swing ratio out of the amp not the radio its self, as again that would only create 4 watts of swing out of the radio. Someone else could probably explian it better, but I hope this helped.
Not what RM Italy says
 
I did have it hooked up right. I slide the bottom of and it is nothing like the plain 203. There is no pins that i see to move. I do know when i first got my plain 203 i had to slide the bottom off and move the pins and after that it worked just fine, and it still does. I can not get H&Y Electronics to return any of my emails. I have emailed them 4 times and still nothing. So i called them and they said i would have to call Mark Smith. I hate to say this but he seems a little strange. All he seem to want to talk about is his farm in TN. I did some checking on him and i could not fine anyone by that name and phone number that he gave me. The address comes up under someone elses name. I got a feeling that if i ship it to him, i will never see it again. H&Y Electronics is no help to me at all. So can anyone tell me what i can do to see if i can get it to work? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Well, without a clear picture of the guts to see it's pretty hard to say. RM does not have a schematic on their website, so it's impossible for me to say what's inside it to try to get an idea of what could be wrong. Based on the information at hand it sounds like you have a defective unit. I would try an RMA, but it sounds to me like HY isn't real interested in providing one.
 
Well, without a clear picture of the guts to see it's pretty hard to say. RM does not have a schematic on their website, so it's impossible for me to say what's inside it to try to get an idea of what could be wrong. Based on the information at hand it sounds like you have a defective unit. I would try an RMA, but it sounds to me like HY isn't real interested in providing one.

They have 2 versions, bipolar and mosfet, take your pic from their site.

www.rmitaly.com
 
I did have it hooked up right. I slide the bottom of and it is nothing like the plain 203. There is no pins that i see to move. I do know when i first got my plain 203 i had to slide the bottom off and move the pins and after that it worked just fine, and it still does. I can not get H&Y Electronics to return any of my emails. I have emailed them 4 times and still nothing. So i called them and they said i would have to call Mark Smith. I hate to say this but he seems a little strange. All he seem to want to talk about is his farm in TN. I did some checking on him and i could not fine anyone by that name and phone number that he gave me. The address comes up under someone elses name. I got a feeling that if i ship it to him, i will never see it again. H&Y Electronics is no help to me at all. So can anyone tell me what i can do to see if i can get it to work? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Hey bigal...I had a 203 that had the same symptons. It' s the chepo .78 cent relay they use. I had to replace one in a 203 I own. Very simple to do and H&Y sold me the parts and it was no hassel at all buying the parts. Here's a link to a thread I posted for the repair.

http://www.worldwidedx.com/amplifiers/91765-rm-kl-203-repair.html
 
Hmm.. I was under the impression that bigal has a different unit than the standard 203. I'm assuming there is a difference between the KL-203 and the KL-203P.
 
KL-203P

I am sorry, but the plain 203 without the preamp is not the same as the KL-203P. Inside the KL-203P is nothing like the plain 203. I did email RM and they emailed me back and said there is no pins to move in the KL-203P. When i slide the bottom off of it there is no pins at all, just like RM said. I no some ask me if i had it hooked up right. I have always hooked them up this way. Outside antenna to in on the meter, Out of the meter to in on the amp, Out of the amp to the radio. This is how i have my Plain 203 hooked up and it works just fine. I also have my Kicker K 500 hooked up the same way and it works just fine.
 
I am sorry, but the plain 203 without the preamp is not the same as the KL-203P. Inside the KL-203P is nothing like the plain 203. I did email RM and they emailed me back and said there is no pins to move in the KL-203P. When i slide the bottom off of it there is no pins at all, just like RM said. I no some ask me if i had it hooked up right. I have always hooked them up this way. Outside antenna to in on the meter, Out of the meter to in on the amp, Out of the amp to the radio. This is how i have my Plain 203 hooked up and it works just fine. I also have my Kicker K 500 hooked up the same way and it works just fine.

Can you hear the relay click when you apply rf to the amp? If not, chances are its the relay. Does it have a similar or same relay as I posted the link to?
 
3 watts is more than enough power to drive the 203p to at least 50 watts or more. Time to get a schematic and troubleshoot or send it back to whomever you bought it from.
 
KL-203P

Will i have tried everything, and it still would not key up any power at all. So i have sent it back to H&Y. As of today 6/12/11 i have not heard anything at all from them. I know they got it OK because my tracking number said it was delivered. These people will not even return emails. I had to contact RM Italy in order to get H&Y to return emails. They did return RM Italy emails and in turn he would send them to me. They gave RM a RA number so i could return it. RM told me that it sounds like the amp is no good. So the only way i can get anything done is to go though RM and not H&Y. If i get my money back or an amp that does work, I will never do business with them again.
 
As far as the install there is nothing to solder. All you need is a 3 or 6 foot jumper. It goes antenna, amplifier, and radio. the jumper goes between the amp and radio. If your in the mobile a 10 gage line right to the battery is fine for a feed line (red positive line). then ground a short black line to the firewall or seat post.

On my recent install, of my TS 500V, I left the 8 gauge negative as long as the positive cable and grounded it to the frame near the battery box, is there a benefit in terminating that lead earlier and grounding it in the cab?
headscratch.gif
 
RM Italy KL-203P

Here we go again. Just got another 203P and it is doing the very same thing as the first one i got. Just as soon as you turn it on the noise level will jump up just like it would if you would turn on the preamp. And the preamp is off. I still can not get it to throw out any power. Yes i have it on AM and not SSB, And yes i have it hooked up right. My 203 that i do have works just fine and my Palomar Elite 250HD works just fine and they are hooked up just the way the 203P was hooked up. RM Italy is no help and H&Y is no help. Can anyone give me some kind of ideal of what is going on.
 
If the 203p is like the the 203 there is a jumper that needs to be moved inside. I think this was already mentioned in a earlier post. Mabye H&Y forgot to mod it. Just a thought.
 

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