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Rocketbox info thread !!! Made in the USA with a reasonable pricetag !

Would you like to build you own Rocketbox linear from a kit ??


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I see a number of these boards on ebunk being shipped from Russia, Ukraine and Israel. Anyone know anything about them?
 
Nadda as of yet?
,

no answer yet.
I asked about the design of the boards, are these off the shelf or is Rocket involved with the design and can he make changes.
I have now seen posts saying these boards are available from others on flea bay.
About the 1000 model, it was said he was working on some "audio issues" and we have not heard anything about it after this.
Me Rocketbox, are you still here?
If any testing is going on with the 1000, do you have a update for us?
Any units built or in use?

73
Jeff
 
All I can say is there’s a few guys selling kits and complete amps, I’ll have some complete amps soon. I didn’t order any kits though but I could.

So that should help explain why other people are selling the kits and boxes.

The rest, I can’t answer.

And here’s a throwback, who catches it...

Hope this helps.
 
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I see on their Facebook page they were "testing" a 1000XL version of this low gain mosfet amp.

My confusion is, that I "thought" I knew the guy who started "RocketBox" like around 3-5 years ago, but I could be wrong, or maybe he recently sold it. Not giving names, just initials, here, JDG. If you are in the know, please private message me and let me know what's up, who's doing what, who I should get in touch with. I'll keep it to myself, can't get in contact with JDG lately. Interested in buying some parts for a different kind of project, and/or helping out with their design if they need it. -443
 
They are pricey

Yep. I bought these amps from a local Palomar builder 11 years ago, for I think about half or less than half of what they cost now. I may have been given special pricing though, was a friend. I had a 250FET and a 450FET. Used one to drive the other LOL. My feelings about these... If I don't get flamed too hard for sharing:

Firstly, I am a fan of using lower cost power devices, if they perform sufficiently.

Secondly however, I am not impressed AT ALL with these parts. They are so low gain that it doesn't make a lot of sense to waste so much real-estate on the board, and the heatsink to have this 1 x 2 x 4 x 8 scheme just to get to around 800-1KW output. If I had the resources to build a product for this category that RocketBox is in, I would use HG Semi 2879's or even MRF454 from MACOM. Just makes more sense, to me at least. I have found other, less expensive, but probably way better, TO3 case Mosfets that work in place of the ERF parts, but still the gain is the issue, not enough gain there to make it worth using IMO, not even at less than $2.50 per Mosfet.
 
I haven't seen such low gain per stage since the 1970's when Motorola would use 7 flange mount transistors in 3 stages to produce 120 watts in VHF lowband. Today, this is easily done using one quality transistor in one well designed stage.
 
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Motorola would use 7 flange mount transistors in 3 stages to produce 120 watts in VHF lowband.

Was the only way to make a mobile transmitter as bulletproof as the 8298A final in the Motrac radio. That model was their ruggedness standard, and solid-state RF power was still kinda twitchy under high mismatch conditions back in those days.

I'm just glad they gave up on the stud mount forever.

73
 

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