Texas Star DX 1600 X Mobile

[Drifter]

I am thinking about buying one of the two ... What are your thoughts. Which one is the better of the two. one has switchable bias. How is the input tuning . It will be my rag chewing box and also a driver for a 3cx3000 amp
Copper Electronics, Inc.
Copper Electronics, Inc.

 

[kd-5-bgt]

http://www.worldwidedx.com/general-...9-copper-accused-shady-business-dealings.html

Check that link concerning Copper,

reading that might make you reconcider Copper

 

[Drifter]

Yeah. Been buying from Coppers for over 20years. No problems to complain about.

 

[9C1Driver]

Yeah. Been buying from Coppers for over 20years. No problems to complain about.

And they have been shafting people for about that long and then some. So do you have their "tech"......hang on a second.......lolololololololol. Ok, do you ever have their "tech" convert and tune the radio's you buy from them?

Copper and H & Y are a necessary evil, we all have bought something from them and hope like heck they get it right. I see no point to a switchable class C to AB amplifier. I would get the tried and true 8 pill.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

i think copper charges extra to convert their TS amps from just being CW amps to being capable of am and ssb use . the problems with using class C for modulated signals aside ...... the difference between 800 watts and 1200 watts wont make a contact difference ...... but it would be the rare occasion that a 1600v will talk where a 500v won't .

 

[ElectronTubesRule]

I ran a sweet 16 then latter on a 3200 which internal is two 1600 boards combined. Most people over drive them and let them get too hot sitting in the trunk of the car. I had DX 100 kit on my RCI 2950 and it worked beautiful to drive the 1600

 

[purenrg]

How well did the TS3200 Viking run, and what did you see on output ?

 

[ElectronTubesRule]

You know I do not recall exactly your talking 1992 for me. My sweet 16 never had any issues at all. The shop I was working at set it up for me. I know I had set for 1000watt's clean with or with out the compression on. I ran fans lots of fans on it in the trunk because this was in Ga.!

The TS 3200 twice had issues with balancing the boards and that meant new toroids and transistors one more then one occasions. I basically went through the entire thing upgrading ever part until it was bullet proof. To be honest I think heat soak is a major issue too. When I moved to a cooler climate I noticed that people had fewer failures in seriously powerful amps and almost no one had one fail in the winter!

I want to say that prior to gutting it and rebuilding everything with hand selected components that where all mill spec. that I was able to run 2500-2800 watts clean if I was not rag chewing. If I was rag chewing I want to say it was more like 2000. The heat was the issue. When it 100 degree's outside and you have a 3200 in the trunk of a car heat becomes a serious issue.

After I went through the thing I could get it up 3000 watts nice and clean. I was never one to push things to the limit. I normally tried to use as little power as I could and to be honest I never used more then about 500 watts inside any major built up area. I would normally go out to the middle of no where when I wanted to shoot skip till 3-4 in the morning so I would not have to worry about tearing up peoples tv's, garage door's, cordless phones etc...... I never had anyone complain about me using too much power or being a splatter box and I take great pride in that. I never steeped on anyone or agitated anyone.

If you ran this inside your home you need to have a box fan to flow over it. If you have it in the mobile you will need every brush-less fan you can fit on it.Their was a black guy who's name I forget he was the first guy I ran into that had a 3200. He pushing that amp to the limit all the time. When I poped his trunk the heat hit me like poping the hod of a car. I was afraid to touch the thing because it was that hot. So I think that seriously if you get a 3200 as things flow replace them with heavier duty parts mil-spec if you can get them. I would not run it past 2000watts this gives you a huge margin for safety and you know it will be clean and clear not a splatter box. I would add a speech processor like the SP1-a. That with 2000-2500 watts will be a talking radio that is going to plow through a lot of pile ups and be super audioable! The finals are not the weak link in TS amp's the torids and switching transistors and resistors are the weak spot's. Once their is a balancing issue you will smoke the toroids and some of the final's. I also went for the low beta final because they are more durable in a mobile environment any time I had the ability to select the beta rating of a final. Even the MRF 455's I keep as spares are low beta not as powerful but more durable.

As an example Mil-Spec resistors have to be able to survive a sustained surge of 10X their rated value with out failing. I can not recall the length of the surge for the test. Consumer level resistors do not have to meet that extreme of a rating. I know I was looking some Dale wire wound resistors I think they where rated at 1watt for Mil-Spec and 5watt for non-mil-spec.

I value clean signal and durable gear. This way if their is ever an emergency and my life is on the line my tool have plenty of durability and room to push harder if I must. Seriously stay away from modulator type processors and stick to just voice compression. Usualy when I would be talking at my personal power limit and people where having a hard time picking me up I would switch on the processor and most times the people receiving me told me it added 1S unit to my signal and made my audio easier to underst and. 1S unit is a huge improvement when you are already at 2000+ watts.

Before that I had a 500HD and 667. I had the 667 so at the flick of switch it acted like a modulator. I also replaced the 2290 with another 2879 but kept it at the same power output as the 2290.

 

[Needle Bender]

I ran a sweet 16 then latter on a 3200 which internal is two 1600 boards combined. Most people over drive them and let them get too hot sitting in the trunk of the car. I had DX 100 kit on my RCI 2950 and it worked beautiful to drive the 1600

what kind of vehicle and antenna?