Hello VHFers
I am bringing a few completed 1500 watt 222 MHz amps to the Central
States Conference in Little Rock. If you were interested in getting one
of the amplifiers, I wanted to let you know that some of them will be
at Little Rock. That is this coming weekend. It looks like I will have
at least five of the 11 units all done. (N1AV is working on two amps as
well in AZ. That makes a total of 13 amplifiers for 222 EME and meteor
scatter) The other units are all close to complete. I just ran out of
time. I wanted to get some amps done and distributed in the western
parts of the country, hence the road trip to Little Rock!
With all the mods I did, adding TX sequencing for external relays, and
protection circuits to protect the FETs. I have put in about $350 of
cash into each unit. (You can't believe how much even the small stuff
costs these days!!) After much discussion, the consensus was that some
minimal amount should be charged to insure that the new owners would be
somewhat serious about using the gear! The price is set at $700 for
each amp. This is rather obscene for a 1500 watt amplifier and is less
than 50 cents per watt.
Here is a picture of the almost completed 1st unit. There are RCA jacks
on the back for keying and sequencing of TX relays. The front panel has
some LEDs to let you know what is happening. One shows DC power, one is
for TX, and the remaining two are VSWR faults and high temperature
faults. There is an AMP ENABLE switch on the front panel as well.
The picture of amp #1 is below. I had no labels on it yet, and the
wiring was not 100% complete in this picture. My plan is to also have an
abbreviated manual for the amps. That will happen very soon, but they
are not going to be ready for this coming week.
All you need is a 48-50 volt supply and a TX relay. All the rest is
done. A directional coupler and low pass filter is on the output, and a
W6PQL ultimate control board is installed to monitor faults and provide
sequencing.
I used a smaller amp version on 222 MHz last week and ran 500 watts on
battery power. WZ1V has another of these amps in the 500 watt version,
and he loves it. They basically just sit there and pump out RF!! At
some point this fall, I will have two more 500 watt amps converted. They
have the same characteristics and W6PQL boards as the 1500 watt
versions. All this is to generate more 222 MHz activity on EME and
meteor scatter so that achieving WAS is easier. There have only been 18
222 MHz WAS awards issued since the band came in use.
I am leaving for Little Rock at 2 AM after the next 222 MHz activity
night. I hope to arrive in Little Rock on Thursday. This is exciting!
73
Dave K1WHS
ps. I had some help from a few folks to make this project move along. A
big Thank You to the following who helped with the project: N2CEI at
Downeast Microwave, W6PQL, W8ZN at Directive Systems & Engineering,
N0AKC, and WA1T. I hope I did not miss anyone.
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