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RM Italy KL203P

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SouthernRoller

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Hello, I'm running a out of the box stock Uniden 880 and a KL203P amp, when I engage the preamp the receive goes to sort of a stutter, flutter for lack of other words as if it's cutting in and out or something. With the preamp on the receive becomes completely unintelligible. My SWR without the amp on my Wilson trucker 2000 is flat with the amp I see a rise to 1.1:1 . Any idea what is causing the preamp to act this way?
 

Orbieswar

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I was wondering what radio you would end up with..
Try another radio.... Sounds like the 880's front end is being overloaded by the preamp.
Does the 880 have a rf gain ? If so try turning it down with the preamp on.
Never been a fan of rx preamps. I have the KL203 no amp and she runs fine !
As for the rise in swr it could be the amp but more likely the patchlead.
Most Amps will lift the SWR a little bit... Even HAM amps do it !!
 

SouthernRoller

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Thanks, I will try cutting back the rf gain and see what that does.. That could possibly be it, cause it acts as if the preamp is just to much for it, it starts stuttering kind of like a stereo speaker would if you was to have the volume to loud and over driving it..
 

SouthernRoller

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Thanks Orbie, that was it. Tried cutting the rf gain back a bit on the radio and all is working great now.. Yeah when purchasing the radio I opted for the 880 instead of the 980, as I don't really have a use for SSB in the truck. Might consider a 980 as a future base setup though, and back it with a KL203 also..
 

sdeeter19555

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Unless the rise is significant, it won't hurt anything...I've seen a 2:1 SWR with a TS350HDV on, and a flat 1:1 with it off. As far as I know, that setup is still trucking along.

The only way to minimize it would be to take it to a reputable shop and have the impedance (?) matched (I think its impedance).
 

SouthernRoller

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I'm starting to lean toward a faulty meter, on my Galaxy external SWR/Power meter it was showing a major rise in swr with amp on, but on my rat shack meter the rise from non amp 1:1 to 1:2 with amp on..
 

Dawn

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Easiest way to settle this and any uncertainty about the meters is to put a terminating load on the output. That should eliminate the variable of the antenna/cable and determine the veracity of the RS meter vs the Galaxy. If both read true with the load, the RS is obviously on the money. There's plenty of cheap 50 ohm dummy loads available to take a momentary key and don't need to be continuous duty for the RM amp.

You should own one of these anyways as an essential diagnostic tool along with your watt/swr meter. One of those ribbed heat sink models in the non gold pl-259 that's rated 15W continuous duty is ideal for this. I carried a $15 Diamond clone sold by radio shack in my field bag with an N to SO-239 adapter for years in my field case for testing commercial base, mobile, and control station up to 90W from low band to 800 mhz with a bird 43 before I bought a dual use 35W Telewave that works on either connector. Well worth the investment for under $30 bucks or much less used on E bay. You don't need a high wattage unit for a momentary key to make a reading. I'd suggest making your own if you don't want to spend the money, but $30 isn't going to kill you for a lifetime investment for something you should own anyways.
 
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