DC Power Supply

[rocky28965]

Firstly, I hope I have this in the correct dept.

In my shack here I am currently looking at a power board with 6 wall warts on it.
4 of those radios could be run from a 13.8 DC power supply.
I was considering getting one of those, but what are the pros & cons of this compared with my current setup.

Thanks

 

[mmckenna]

Cons:
One power supply to fail and take down 4 radios.
More expensive.
Might generate more heat, depending on what kind you purchase.

Pros:
A properly sized 13.8 volt power supply can run most mobile radios. You could easily expand into amateur radio or other radio services in your country.
Easier to add a back up battery
Might be more efficient.
Flexibility, easier to expand.
Free up an outlet to run a mini refrigerator to keep your favorite beverage frosty and cold.

You might need to figure in a safe way to distribute that power. Twisting all the wires together and stuffing them under the terminals usually looks like crap and works like crap. Consider a way to distribute that power with individual fuses and connection points. There are various mobile fuse blocks that will allow you to easily change/add radios as needed, as well as properly fuse things.

 

[N4GEX]

I use this distribution block with an Astron 7A power supply to provide power to the equipment in my shack. Works very well.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

I charge my scanner with a power bank and can run the scanner with it when the batteries go dead. Seems to work just fine and I have several power banks out the house with one or more always under charge. I know it's a smaller scale than what's you want to set up but it's always good to have DC back up.

 

[ladn]

I was considering getting one of those, but what are the pros & cons of this compared with my current setup.

+1 on @mmckenna 's a d @N4GEX 's responses.
If you do go with a single supply, get a quality unit with more capacity than you actually need right now. You'll want to do some research on linear vs switching supplies. Both have advantages and disadvantages. For instance, linear supplies tend to be heavy, but they are very quiet in terms of rf noise; switching supplies are lighter, but some can generate noise in parts of the spectrum you are interested in.

Here's a good place to start: Products | Astron Corporation.

 

[rocky28965]

I'll have to give that some thought.
The radios I would be powering are, BCD996P2, UBCD536PT, SDS200E & IC-R8600.
Also EDA2500MMA antenna splitter.

 

[radio3353]

Firstly, I hope I have this in the correct dept.

In my shack here I am currently looking at a power board with 6 wall warts on it.
4 of those radios could be run from a 13.8 DC power supply.
I was considering getting one of those, but what are the pros & cons of this compared with my current setup.

Thanks

If you are interested in an Astron RS-12M linear regulated power supply, please check here. It will power all of your scanners.
Power supply for sale

​

 

[rocky28965]

Yeah, that looks like it may fit in with my plan and you would appear to be in the same country too.

 

[ArloG]

ALL of the wall warts connected to my TV stuff have been replaced by a single 12 VDC supply.
With a terminal block with jumpered screw terminals . One for + and 1 for -. The suply happens to be an eBay Meanwell switcher.
Modem, router, Fire cube, Ethernet switches Roku, Sat. receiver, and Logitech remote charging stand. Oh. and HDHomerun.
A Power One linear frame supply is used for the string of wall wart stuff that my radios use. Same bus bar config.
Most of the pigtails came from chopped off thrift store wall warts and from the box-o-junk. Of course those can be purchased too if you know the sizes.

 

[radio3353]

Yeah, that looks like it may fit in with my plan and you would appear to be in the same country too.

Actually, no. I mistook NZ for NV. Sorry.

 

[KMG54]

All of my radio stuff now runs off of a battery bank powered by solar at 400 watts.. I have a 40 amp controller, with 4 group 31 deep cycles wired in parallel, way over kill for radio, but have a 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter in case of weather.

 

[rocky28965]

Actually, no. I mistook NZ for NV. Sorry.

Yeah, I'm way down under.

 

[rocky28965]

How noisy are the switching type, does the fan go constantly ?

 

[mmckenna]

How noisy are the switching type, does the fan go constantly ?

It really depends on the quality of the one you purchase.
Cheap switching power supplies can have some hash on the HF bands, maybe a bit higher.
Good switching power supplies don't have this issue, they are properly designed and filtered that it isn't an issue. I'm running several repeater sites for VHF analog system, 800MHz analog system and 800MHz digital systems all on large switching power supplies.
Our 911 center has it's radios, dispatch radio console and 911 phone system all on switching power supplies.
Chances are, most of the products in your home are running switching power supplies.

Honestly, I haven't purchased a non-switching power supply at work in decades. It's not the issue it once was. As long as you are not buying cheap/junky power supplies, this won't be an issue.

 

[KevinC]

Don't take this as me endorsing anything (as that usually doesn't workout for me), but I use Meanwell switching power supplies. I use low amperage ones (less that 20 amps) so no fans. Many people complain switching power supplies are noisy RF-wise but of all the Meanwells I have I never noticed any noise.

https://www.jameco.com/c/Power-Supplies-Wall-Adapters.html#/filter:ss_attr_manufacturer:MEAN$2520WELL/filter:ss_category:Power$2520Supplies$2520$2526$2520Wall$2520Adapters$253EAC-to-DC$2520Switching$253EEnclosed-Single$2520Output/filter:ss_attr_normally_stocked:Yes/filter:ss_attr_output_voltage:12$2520VDC/sort:price:asc

 

[majoco]

I made mine some 30 years ago after the schematic found in "Wireless World". Grossly over-engineered, 4 x MJE2955's in the output on a large heatsink, transformer rewound the secondary with 8-guage wire, 24000uF smoothing cap and so on. The only time it's gone wrong is when I lent to a mate to charge his car battery - he didn't heed my instruction to have the power supply turned on before connecting to the battery which popped one MJE2955. It's in a big box to match the transceiver that sat on the top. The schematic is of a "Mk 1".

 

[rocky28965]

After reading through all your advice & comments, I started looking for a 13.8 Volt DC 8 - 12 Amp regulated power supply.
Then I got to thinking why 13.8 volts, all these radios are made to run off 12-volt vehicle installations.

 

[mmckenna]

After reading through all your advice & comments, I started looking for a 13.8 Volt DC 8 - 12 Amp regulated power supply.
Then I got to thinking why 13.8 volts, all these radios are made to run off 12-volt vehicle installations.

If you took a multimeter to your vehicle battery, you'd see something like 12.8 volts with the engine off. Start the engine and check it again, you'll see ~13.8 volts.

The 13.8 volt DC supply will be just fine for your radios.

 

[merlin]

How noisy are the switching type, does the fan go constantly ?

I have been modifying those cheap Dell poweredge server supplies.
A single 450 watt can run most amateur transceivers.
In a project box, you can use power speaker jacks--
4pcs Speaker Amplifier Terminal Binding Post Dual 2 ways Banana Plug Jack 700724840592 | eBay

for all your 13.6 volt applications. Add individual breakers and even a volt/current indicator.
powering a 150 watt transmitter, it does get warm to the touch and the fan steps up but is so quiet it is not disturbing.
They are switching supplies, but just don't emit any detectable RF noise.
They compare to Astron 30 amp supplies at 1/3 the size and 1/4 the weight.

Lot of 2 HP DPS-460EB 12V Power Supply HSTNS-PD14 Proliant 460W 499250-101 | eBay

See condition above for more details. Receive only what is pictured/listed.

www.ebay.com

They do take a simple mod to turn on and step the voltage to 13.6 V
A single 750 watt supply has been running my whole shop for over 3 years now, 24/7
Short circuit proof over voltage/current crowbar, and rock solid.
Cheers.

 

[rocky28965]

I have been modifying those cheap Dell poweredge server supplies.
A single 450 watt can run most amateur transceivers.
In a project box, you can use power speaker jacks--
4pcs Speaker Amplifier Terminal Binding Post Dual 2 ways Banana Plug Jack 700724840592 | eBay

for all your 13.6 volt applications. Add individual breakers and even a volt/current indicator.
powering a 150 watt transmitter, it does get warm to the touch and the fan steps up but is so quiet it is not disturbing.
They are switching supplies, but just don't emit any detectable RF noise.
They compare to Astron 30 amp supplies at 1/3 the size and 1/4 the weight.

Lot of 2 HP DPS-460EB 12V Power Supply HSTNS-PD14 Proliant 460W 499250-101 | eBay

See condition above for more details. Receive only what is pictured/listed.

www.ebay.com

They do take a simple mod to turn on and step the voltage to 13.6 V
A single 750 watt supply has been running my whole shop for over 3 years now, 24/7
Short circuit proof over voltage/current crowbar, and rock solid.
Cheers.

Ive got a spare 650 watt PSU from a computer, I did wonder if that may be usable.