I'm running a galaxy 979 in my jeep paired to a wilson 5000 trucker. y'all think that a 1 pill davemade would be worth my time or get a 2 pill? my alternator is only 90 amps so i know it won't push too much but i need some extra oomph. i feel like i could shoot skip better with my uniden 520 pro that i replaced with my galaxy...... ground is good. swr's are 1.4.1 so i know i can push a little more out there. i was looking at the palomar 250 fet, an xforce midnight special 250, and the x force midnight special get 200. just seems like the davemade is THE amp to have compared to the rest... any opinions?
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which davemade
- Thread starter TCazes
- Start date
as far as I'm concerned, texas star is THE amp to have.
given that I'd get the TS500 and run it on the lowest setting.
I'd get the biggest amp, and run it on the lowest setting.
given that I'd get the TS500 and run it on the lowest setting.
I'd get the biggest amp, and run it on the lowest setting.
Where do you suggest snagging one? Only thing that confuses me on those is reading "must insert crystal for frequency" comment I always see on a couple pages. Also the size of the Texas star usually deters me but I'll look into them again. Thanks!
My opinion is......(biting tongue hard) ......NONE of the above but then again I prefer quality (clean signal) over quantity (numbers on a watt meter).
It<s a load of BS they use to get past FCC regulations. The TX Star amps are marketed as `CW transmitters`that require a crystal to determine the frequency of operation. In reality you just need to move a jumper inside to make it operational on 11m.
That's kinda what I figured just wasn't aware of moving any jumpers. I understand liking a clean signal but for a mobile unit that can't run my 102" ss whip I want to add a little help. I just know as far as reflection in the case and frequency cleanliness the dave mad is generally spot on so that's why I concidered it first
What are you going to do to "help" compensate for the receive side? If the antenna is degrading your tx range it's affecting the receive side as well. The amp isn't going to compensate for that.
I have no problem receiving signals from all 4 corners of the US. No matter how you put ut, to get over the garbage in the air you have to keep up with the power struggle of today or be lost in the mud. Ham operators have repeaters and are allowed linears and such to reach their distances. Not because that little rubber duck or fancy double dipole is grounded PERFECTLY and matched PERFECTLY to their radio. Their 1 watt or 2 watt transition heard round the world is a result of repeaters and bouncing a signal not the sole work of their transmitter antenna combo.
It just will not happen for a cb frequency to carry a 4 watt signal miles upon miles at command. You need power or skip conditions.
It just will not happen for a cb frequency to carry a 4 watt signal miles upon miles at command. You need power or skip conditions.
A 2 pill Davemade will work well and not draw too much current. I'd take a 2 pill Davemade over a Texas Star 500 any day. You're not going to find a transistor cb amp that meets the clean fantasy some have. If clean is your thing run a clean radio and a low pass filter. If you are a ssb guy a Davemade isn't such a good choice. Get something biased like the xforce tnt line. Tejas Star doesn't live up to the hype...JMO
texas star is the only amps to own, forget the fet amps (cheaper to manufacture but garbage) id stay away from palomar amps too just more junk, and anything that says stryker or magnum on it isnt worth the extra fuel you would burn with their weight in you vehicle to take them home.
Funny you should say that about the FET amps as they have been successfully used for a couple decades and there have been GREAT improvements in them the last few years with single devices rated at a kilowatt or better. I suggest that the problem is not with the type of amp being a FET but rather with the quality of manufacturing and design. For that very reason alone I suggest that any of the CB type amps are very much inferior and always suggest that someone purchase an amateur radio amp whenever possible. Sure they cost a little more but the old adage of getting what you pay for rings true.
See now I have heard that from several people but I was unde the impression that an amateur radio amp was for different frequency signals than citizens band?
CB and the associated so-called "free band" is from 26-28 MHz and one of the many ham bands is the 10m band and is from 28-29.7 MHz. If it works for 10m it will work for CB/11m. There are a great deal of ham amps being used on CB/11m.
I saw a Texas Star 667 with a pair of mosfet drivers (irf520 if I recall)and 4 dei 2879s. Why would they use fets over the dei 2290?...it's cheaper...about a dollar for the 2 fets. That's been several months ago so I'm curious what else tx star is putting FET's in. Even before they used mosfets they were still junk.
Don't get me started on the AB crap. The tx star cheerleaders will say the class c box just isn't as clean. I've yet to get one of these guys to put a volt meter on the base of the pills so they can watch that crappy bias circuit fall on its face. They'd rather sit around and think up their own theories vs learning something. Most of us would have enough sense to keep the input and output circuit as far apart as possible. Not texas star. They put the traces side by side. When they break into oscillation the harmonics coming out are insane. This is usually what's causing "my swr is good with the amp off but over 3:1 when I turn on the amp". No one wants to spend $75 on an old oscilloscope to see this....their back on the toilet revising their theory.
There is enough info on this forum to build a good bias circuit for an amp. The circuit I use is a refined version of what's posted here. Put it in one of those class c boxes and you'll have a nice amp. It will require some learning.
Stryker makes decent radios as far as exports go. The problems start when you try to cram a 16 pill into one instead of using an external amp.
