rescuecomm
Member
Quick question: Do you have a power supply capable of running these amps? That's a lot of 13.8 vdc amperage.
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Which of these amps should I get?
- Thread starter arudlang
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slowmover
Active Member
Good point.
Manufacturer describes 503HD as (3x10A) fused. 40A @ 13.8V recommended.
Seems a reasonable minimum even if one plans to run it at a lower output.
The MEGAWATT S-500-12 is rated 40A continuous-duty. Low price. See discussions online about performance & quality.
ASTRON appears to be the brand with the most solid track record per reviews.
— This is one where future plans should dominate, IMO. “Price” isn’t always the same as value over the longest term (replacement costs vs one-time purchase).
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arudlang
Member
I know I started this, but who revived it after all this time? 
Surely you guys know I moved on, this thread is like two years old.
I dont bother with 11 meters in the car anymore. Got my ham ticket and went VHF 2m for travel. I put thousands of miles up in road trips last year and having a CB was pointless and useless for each and every one of those miles. The 11 meter band is a wreck due to the point we're at in the solar cycle. Completely unusable due to skip and the O.P. stations out there stomping and splattering on every channel, especially 19. By the time the cycle winds down and the skip and splatter eases up I doubt anyone will still have a CB in their big rigs, or they will never turn it on. Why would they? It's an absolute **** show on 11m AM.
With a base station it's almost fun for 5 minutes to try to get picked out of a pileup on 38 LSB, but then I'd rather go to 10 meters and have an actual conversation with someone on DX where I won't get cut off by people in pissing matches cranking their noise toys and screaming "let's go Brandon! Let's go Brandon! Let's go brandon!" Over and over and over, and over, and over. That's the word for 11 meters, it's over. Collectively ruined. It was fun for a minute on a base station. It's useless on the modern road. People who claim it's still legitimately used have their echo turned up too high, talking to themselves!
I want my money back that I wasted on 11m junk like the KL203 so I can reinvest in equipment for literally any other band, but nobody wants it. Can't hardly give it away.
Sorry I'm in a salty mood tonight, better luck tomorrow.
Surely you guys know I moved on, this thread is like two years old.I dont bother with 11 meters in the car anymore. Got my ham ticket and went VHF 2m for travel. I put thousands of miles up in road trips last year and having a CB was pointless and useless for each and every one of those miles. The 11 meter band is a wreck due to the point we're at in the solar cycle. Completely unusable due to skip and the O.P. stations out there stomping and splattering on every channel, especially 19. By the time the cycle winds down and the skip and splatter eases up I doubt anyone will still have a CB in their big rigs, or they will never turn it on. Why would they? It's an absolute **** show on 11m AM.
With a base station it's almost fun for 5 minutes to try to get picked out of a pileup on 38 LSB, but then I'd rather go to 10 meters and have an actual conversation with someone on DX where I won't get cut off by people in pissing matches cranking their noise toys and screaming "let's go Brandon! Let's go Brandon! Let's go brandon!" Over and over and over, and over, and over. That's the word for 11 meters, it's over. Collectively ruined. It was fun for a minute on a base station. It's useless on the modern road. People who claim it's still legitimately used have their echo turned up too high, talking to themselves!
I want my money back that I wasted on 11m junk like the KL203 so I can reinvest in equipment for literally any other band, but nobody wants it. Can't hardly give it away.
Sorry I'm in a salty mood tonight, better luck tomorrow.
slowmover
Active Member
Let the Enemy win. (Okay). As it’s a focused attack once seen.
I do 10,000-miles per month. Not a day, much less a week passes that AM-19 isn’t useful.
Question was & is valid.
Difference today is in having an NRC radio.
Sideband is where it’s useful from a base. And some mobile.
More trouble has to be worth the price.
Allowing others to dictate whether or not you’ll be heard ain’t a recommendation .
I do 10,000-miles per month. Not a day, much less a week passes that AM-19 isn’t useful.
Question was & is valid.
Difference today is in having an NRC radio.
Sideband is where it’s useful from a base. And some mobile.
More trouble has to be worth the price.
Allowing others to dictate whether or not you’ll be heard ain’t a recommendation .
slowmover
Active Member
— Given that local comms is the priority for which Citizen Band was envisioned.
An amp ain’t a panacea (is the point).
Putting heads together with other men to first, define, then to, solve, a problem faced by all.
The relative match in RX & TX distance sans Skip is a goal.
NRC gives one distance (same as time), thus an ability that one’s distant conversational partner be able to hear you (is how to look at relative power).
Most radio rigs mobile or stationary have poor performance. That you can pull him in and that he can understand you (especially mobile and at speed) defines success.
Takes little or nothing extra from a well-sorted base. (Field expedient antenna another set of variables). From mobile, it’s a matter of testing (many leave them off or in lowest power output setting).
Had yet another miscreant on AM-19 yesterday bragging about his Amateur gear. Even gave his call sign so we could go review his videogates.
It’s a few dozen daily regulars (this has to be a paid job) running their welfare radios extraordinaire to jam up AM-19 in concert with others (and encouraging others to join them).
They never have an acceptable excuse for this behavior when confronted. There are 1.5-million CDL holders in this country. 750k of them are 150-miles or more away from home every weeknight.
Then, tens of millions of cars. Family men.
The second part of the job appears to be recording all on-air activity of which they’re a part. Then reviewing and ID’ng all participants as a log.
You listen long enough they give it away inside their inanities (absolutely nothing said, just gum-flapping).
This is in contrast to base operators of years past being a great help in major metros (a few extant, still). Weather, maps, general trends.
Discourage men and they’ll abandon this tool (a tiny investment by the Enemy with a huge payoff; sorta like hijacking a few airliners to damage or bring down major structures as analogy).
An amp has its place.
AM-19 isn’t the hobbyist channel.
Part, or maybe a significant part of this could have been ameliorated via radio warning. 1-2/miles ain’t enough to avoid entanglement. (Weather doesn’t cause these; it’s secondary to terrifically-bad driving habits).
A base operator could have been of service in this instance instead of covering up what was occurring.
See Citizen Band as being of importance and the rest falls into place.
The day you need it, then . . . .
.
An amp ain’t a panacea (is the point).
Putting heads together with other men to first, define, then to, solve, a problem faced by all.
The relative match in RX & TX distance sans Skip is a goal.
NRC gives one distance (same as time), thus an ability that one’s distant conversational partner be able to hear you (is how to look at relative power).
Most radio rigs mobile or stationary have poor performance. That you can pull him in and that he can understand you (especially mobile and at speed) defines success.
Takes little or nothing extra from a well-sorted base. (Field expedient antenna another set of variables). From mobile, it’s a matter of testing (many leave them off or in lowest power output setting).
Had yet another miscreant on AM-19 yesterday bragging about his Amateur gear. Even gave his call sign so we could go review his videogates.
It’s a few dozen daily regulars (this has to be a paid job) running their welfare radios extraordinaire to jam up AM-19 in concert with others (and encouraging others to join them).
They never have an acceptable excuse for this behavior when confronted. There are 1.5-million CDL holders in this country. 750k of them are 150-miles or more away from home every weeknight.
Then, tens of millions of cars. Family men.
The second part of the job appears to be recording all on-air activity of which they’re a part. Then reviewing and ID’ng all participants as a log.
You listen long enough they give it away inside their inanities (absolutely nothing said, just gum-flapping).
This is in contrast to base operators of years past being a great help in major metros (a few extant, still). Weather, maps, general trends.
Discourage men and they’ll abandon this tool (a tiny investment by the Enemy with a huge payoff; sorta like hijacking a few airliners to damage or bring down major structures as analogy).
An amp has its place.
AM-19 isn’t the hobbyist channel.
Photos show wreckage from the 158-vehicle pileup near New Orleans that killed 7 people
At least seven people were killed and many were injured in a massive pileup on Interstate 55 in Louisiana. Authorities blame 'superfog.'
www.usatoday.com
Part, or maybe a significant part of this could have been ameliorated via radio warning. 1-2/miles ain’t enough to avoid entanglement. (Weather doesn’t cause these; it’s secondary to terrifically-bad driving habits).
A base operator could have been of service in this instance instead of covering up what was occurring.
See Citizen Band as being of importance and the rest falls into place.
The day you need it, then . . . .
.
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slowmover
Active Member
Left an overnight spot on the Great Plains before dawn yesterday and conducted an AM-19 range test with a base station.
From a starting point approx 5/miles east of said station ran a southward perpendicular line for 19-miles (19.6 figured total) where comms were easily maintained.
His equipment was described as being a popular (old design) AM-only radio with an RFX95 installed (approx 70-watts). Antenna was an Antron 99 with ground plane kit installed. Feedpoint 22’.
Mine was twin antenna on a composite body tractor using an AT5555-N2 (60W). 53’ van.
— His lack of a more modern design radio cut our range by possibly 2-7/miles based on previous experience. A SSB/NRC radio on his part would have had us well past thirty miles in that mode, I believe (previous experience)..
I’m pretty sure I faded into the background too early on his end as I’ve exceeded this distance in same region with other mobiles.
Topography wasn’t entirely flat, so reports were from both mile markers and when at the top of a rise.
Another participant in another truck I could hear to just over ten miles (no gear description recalled, but an Export assumed).
The Great Plains is CB Nirvana during the night.
Everything changes past sun-up per range degradation due to noise. ( I wouldn’t expect to do nearly this well in suburban Philadelphia for example; etc).
It doesn’t take much to do well.
NRC is the more valuable upgrade as a starting point. With regularity do I run into stations where Larry Loudmouth has cotton in his ears.
Comms at 5-10/miles on-road is where it’s fair to designate high performance. (Avoidance). NRC is key.
(7) dead with (158) wrecked.
Long distance SSB with/without Skip is where an amp comes into its own.
Assuming a vertical antenna at a base, it still ain’t much needed given one wants “local” comms with all travelers.
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From a starting point approx 5/miles east of said station ran a southward perpendicular line for 19-miles (19.6 figured total) where comms were easily maintained.
His equipment was described as being a popular (old design) AM-only radio with an RFX95 installed (approx 70-watts). Antenna was an Antron 99 with ground plane kit installed. Feedpoint 22’.
Mine was twin antenna on a composite body tractor using an AT5555-N2 (60W). 53’ van.
— His lack of a more modern design radio cut our range by possibly 2-7/miles based on previous experience. A SSB/NRC radio on his part would have had us well past thirty miles in that mode, I believe (previous experience)..
I’m pretty sure I faded into the background too early on his end as I’ve exceeded this distance in same region with other mobiles.
Topography wasn’t entirely flat, so reports were from both mile markers and when at the top of a rise.
Another participant in another truck I could hear to just over ten miles (no gear description recalled, but an Export assumed).
The Great Plains is CB Nirvana during the night.
Everything changes past sun-up per range degradation due to noise. ( I wouldn’t expect to do nearly this well in suburban Philadelphia for example; etc).
It doesn’t take much to do well.
NRC is the more valuable upgrade as a starting point. With regularity do I run into stations where Larry Loudmouth has cotton in his ears.
Comms at 5-10/miles on-road is where it’s fair to designate high performance. (Avoidance). NRC is key.
(7) dead with (158) wrecked.
Long distance SSB with/without Skip is where an amp comes into its own.
Assuming a vertical antenna at a base, it still ain’t much needed given one wants “local” comms with all travelers.
.
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