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Stryker 955 Amp.

Of course not. Didn’t you see the humorous “come on” at the end of my post? But I do have a 4 pill I could feed it into and if that cut it, I got bigger.
 
For what its worth I have a 655 pushing a dx500. The 655 variable is turned down all the way...2 watt deadkey...from their it swings 20 to 25 at 13.8 volts. This has the 500 keying 100 and swings 400 to 450...perfect.

73's
 
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When I had my 955 in my pickup with a xforce 600Hd it worked well. I used it on ssb mostly.
I've heard this setup will put out close to 1K. Not sure, since I don't have a Bird meter. It would bust through a pile up though.
The 955 and the amp are boxed up, and waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I don't use either anymore.
The 955 doesn't fit in my new truck, and the amp works best in a mobile application. I'm primarily on the HF bands now, and CB has takin a back seat to how I operate now. Never thought I'd say that. The Ham Bug bit me hard I guess.
 
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fogdog said:
When I had my 955 in my pickup with a xforce 600Hd it worked well. I used it on ssb mostly.
I've heard this setup will put out close to 1K. Not sure, since I don't have a Bird meter. It would bust through a pile up though.
The 955 and the amp are boxed up, and waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I don't use either anymore.
The 955 doesn't fit in my new truck, and the amp works best in a mobile application. I'm primarily on the HF bands now, and CB has takin a back seat to how I operate now. Never thought I'd say that. The Ham Bug bit me hard I guess.
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I would be interested. If you want to sell them, please send me a pm.
 
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Buck Morre said:
Ok stopped by the CB shop today to have someone check the power of my radio on low power it is DK 1.5 volts and swings about 18 watts. Now with those readings I should be well within the range of a 350HD Texas Star correct? Or am I missing something because this radio has 4 mosfets? On high I have a DK of 25 and swings 80 but I would not run my amp on high settings on the radio.
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I've had a lot of the same questions the last couple of days so I'm catching up on this thread. I'll continue to see the conclusion
 
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I run an out of the box Stryker SR-955HP into a Straight 4 pill amp. Since the amp is considered a "High Drive" and the Stryker's max PEP is 60 watts (measured with 3 different meters), it is barely tickling the amp. I am happy with the 500 watts the amp produces even though it is capable of twice that. Everything runs cool.
 
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I guess that depends on what amp you have there. If it's a Texas Star 500 I would say you are doing more then tickle it. If it's say a Hopper or Carl built with 2879's then yea should be fine. If it's an older 4 pill with 454, 455, or 1446 finals then your hitting it very hard.
 
Robb said:
Good question.
Here's the way it was explained to me by one of the moderators:
Look at the data sheet for the transistor in the amp, they have a voltage requirement, input power requirement, and an output spec, as well as other bits of info. It states that they are spec'd to run at 12.5v; all of the output curves on that page use that standard. Yes, they can run at 13.8v. But each time we push it out of its designed zone we stress the device further.

So, let's say that we have a 2290 (or mrf 454s or any other small pill) 2 pill amp. Spec sheet says that it requires no more than 5w of drive each pill to reach saturation for full output. We have two of them in that amp; so it requires no more than 10w input to get full output (2 x 5w = 10w). Now a 2879 pill spec sheet has a greater requirement of 10w per device; so therefore a 2 pill 2879 amp needs no more than 20w for total saturation to produce full output.

What happens when we go outside of the spec sheet from the mfr? Distortion - for one. Strong harmonic output also on other freq other than the one we intend to TX on - for another. Part is running more voltage and has more input power too, so now it is being stressed and heating up. Things are adding up. If we push it even farther, not only is it throwing off harmonics, we are now courting its failure. Sure a watt meter will show more output, but once we push it out of its designed spec range, we cannot count on it to perform clean and safe. A watt meter is essentially blind and dumb, in the sense that it reads any watts put across it circuits and doesn't discriminate if they are either on freq or several channels away. So we think that all is well and fine; right? Wrong!

So the point is: we don't have to push more watts into the amp to get more power. Simply because it stops making usable power once we do that. A 2 pill 2879 is going to have clean and full output with just 20w. Twenty. Just 20w; and no more is needed.

So along comes the export radio. The dual 1969 bipolar transistor radio has 35-40w output, so the 4 pill 2879 amp will work fine within the input specs. A 40 channel single final/1969 CB radio has a 20w output, and will work within the spec of the 2 pill 2879 amp. But now we have mosfets radios that have 60w with dual finals. SO either we turn down the radio to the spec of the amp, or we get crap out of an over-driven amp and blow it up somewhere down the line and wonder what happened.

Does it matter who builds the amp? Nope; because the spec sheet for the device is still dictating how it operates and what it requires.

SO the radio has a say in all of this too. If we remove the limiter we cause the radio to create more distortion because we are now feeding the radio's finals a distorted audio signal. And you guess it; the amp is forced to amplify all of that same distortion too. Crap in; means there will be - crap out. Plus whatever distortion we create in the amp because we have gone further past its input requirements. So we don't have a bad azz radio setup; we just have a bad radio and a bad system - overall . . .
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NAILED IT
 
TheRealPorkchop said:
expand...
Click to expand...
"Good question.
Here's the way it was explained to me by one of the moderators:
Look at the data sheet for the transistor in the amp, they have a voltage requirement, input power requirement, and an output spec, as well as other bits of info. It states that they are spec'd to run at 12.5v; all of the output curves on that page use that standard. Yes, they can run at 13.8v. But each time we push it out of its designed zone we stress the device further."

Well whoever was propagating this is pretty wrong technically and sounds like a snot nose whiney "HAM" talking down to a lowly CBer who wad just trying to make it and enjoy himself along the way.

There are definitely operating limits to the finals in question. But a 12.5 volt rating is based off of battery power/potential out in the "Field"

Any final or "Pill" found in mobile "CB" amps or like my TS-680s (2879) are more efficient in operation at higher voltages. There's also the well established principle and history of feeding power devices (Semi's) the ONIONS! If you can keep them cool and equally important don't starve them for current.

Big, quality and DIRECT ground and +voltage connections go a long ass way in improving the awesomeness. You don't need fuses in your power cables (At the battery, mobile and a big ass one and fuse holder. Only for fire protection)

Fuses will never save RF final outputs. Never. They do offer fire protection. But will anything inside your linear cook off like a Tesla? Nope

When finals fail or "Short" as it's referred to they quit drawing current.

Anyhow 13.8vdc is preferable to 12.5. 14.5vdc is never ever ever going to hurt a real Jap Toshiba or any legit Motorola final either.

As far as harmonics production goes, running more efficiently and the final not being starved of current actually improves the picture.

Aside from running a splatter box radio into the amp, many of the parts you see rated as 30mhz components do not produce energy efficiently above that. Now of course they can to a degree but a well considered 11m operated amplifier with 2290s or 2879s in it are not going to be causing the horror stories Hams like to espouse. Especially mobile.

And besides. I barely can find a soul on 10m when it's open, let alone 6m and that's where any vaunted and scary 2nd harmonics from a CBer operating would be. TV broadcast moved out years ago.

Big power connections. Highest safe and stable voltage, with minimal voltage drop under full load and keep the parts cool and then feed it the ONIONS!

It's Ohms law, not Ohms F*#king opinion!
 
Another simple way to know your harmonic output is just socially unacceptable is you will see reflected power (swr) that you just can't seem to tune out seeing how your antenna isn't resonant at double the intended frequency
 

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