Handheld Amplifier

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DecAnt21

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I own a Yaesu VX-7R and A Diamond SRH77CA I am thinking about buying a Mirage B34G Amplifier and I want to know if I would be looking at an improvement. If I put in 5 Watts the Amp would give me at least 35 Watts. I also don't know what other cords I need to buy to hook up. Has anybody had any success using an Amp for a handheld? I would love to know if it is worth the money.
 

autovon

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For the price of that amp you can get a used base station that will run 50W on 2M. So are you looking to run your Yaesu as a base unit or just want more transmit power?
 

DecAnt21

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Alittle bit of both, I still want to be mobile on occasion but when I am home I want to use it as a base. I really just want to get more than 5W.
 

zz0468

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Has anybody had any success using an Amp for a handheld? I would love to know if it is worth the money.

Yes, these things work. It's only worth the money if more power is needed to solve a particular problem that you're having. No doubt you're working through repeaters... If you're already able to access the repeaters with a full quieting signal, then more power won't help you - your signal is already saturating the repeater's receiver. If you're weak and noisy, 5 watts to 35 watts is about an 8.5 db improvement. That can be enough to be useful.
 

DecAnt21

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Yeah. I have no repeaters on full quieting but I have several that are close. How do you connect an Amp. What cords does it need. I just don't understand how it connects up.
 

N4KVE

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Stay away from Mirage at all costs, unless you can find an older one. Mirage is now owned my MFJ, so the current products are absolute junk. If you really do need an amplifier, try to get a TPL, as they are great quality, & built for commercial use. Too bad, as Mirage used to be a fine product before being gobbled up by MFJ. GARY N4KVE
 

DecAnt21

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Thanks for the suggestion, I really just want an amp to boost the signal on some weak repeaters and maybe get into some that I never got before, also does it only work on 2M or can you use it for 70CM and off band.
 

AK9R

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Spend your money and efforts on improving your antenna rather than an amplifier. A J-pole made from twin lead hanging from the wall or a quarter-wave mag-mount stuck to a steel filing cabinet will work much better than any rubber duck antenna. Of course, if you can get an antenna outside, that would be even better.

The Diamond SRH77CA is only rated for 10 watts. Putting 35 watts into it would risk damaging the antenna.

Most external amplifiers are single band.

As for hooking things up, you'll need a power supply to power the amp, a short cable to go between the radio and the amp, and a cable from the amp to the antenna. Of course, all of these cables will need to have the proper connectors.

Finally, and don't take this the wrong way, you sound like a lot of new hams who mistakenly believe that their handheld radio can be used in all situations. Please understand that your handheld only puts out 5 watts and running it at that power level for an extended period of time does stress the radio. You would be much better off with a 50 watt mobile radio loafing along at 5-10 watts output. Also, please understand that your handheld's antenna is a huge compromise that puts the emphasis on portability instead of performance. Handhelds are meant to be used when you can't operate from your mobile or base radio, not as full-time communications tools.
 

w2xq

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Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16)

Been there, done that. I agree with the suggestion above to get a mobile radio that you can move from house to car. It will cost you less money and (IMHO) much less frustration with multiple cables and connectors that invariably break. I can't find the name of the quick-disconnect polarized power connectors but any ham radio dealer should have them. I want to say Polarwerx, but not sure. More power, less mess in the car, less frustration. HTH.
 

AK9R

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Tom, you may be thinking of Anderson PowerPole connectors.
 

DecAnt21

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When I have the extra money I will more than likely get a Mobile Radio. Is there a nice gain with a mobile radio with say 50W and a decent antenna? Will I notice a difference.
 

kf4uuz

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With a 50W mobile and a decent antenna, you will be very pleased with the results.

You'll probably notice that your VX-7R is getting a little dusty.
 

kf5qgf

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Get yourself a Yaesu 2900, then you can have that 75w out if need be, but you can dial it down to 10 when you don't need it. Combine that with a comet sbb-5 (i know it's dual band but leave room for expansion) and you'll have a great mobile rig. Also whip you up a j pole for the house ( 15 bucks in copper, there's plenty of calculators online, and it's a fun and satisfying project) and you'll be ready to run wherever. Get you a power supply for the house, power pole it like I did mine http://imageshack.us/a/img831/2034/0813122250.jpg
and you can swap anywhere you want. :-D

KF5QGF
 

kf5qgf

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Remember when power poling, if you're holding it like you're going to plug it in, red on right, fork down, and they'll all match.

73
 

bojangle

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AC to DC power supply question

I recently acquired an old discontinued mirage B-23 amplifier and I would like to know if anyone can tell me what to look for in output (amps) parameters for the transformer. I want to find something from a thrift shop or second hand store. Cheap but works.

Need to know more!
 

AK9R

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Looks like mods.dk has a copy of the manual on their web site. The manual should list the power requirements.
 

k8krh

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Save your money and get a 2 meter transceiver or a used one believe I saw a KENWOOD at 139 from r and l..
I myself use an ALINCO...to a 7 element beam and it gets me from Southern Indiana to Tenn when the band is open and that is simplex......
As someone mentioned 50 watts is plenty........


DOCTOR
 
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