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Texas Star ?

Greg T said:
Well, it finally happened!! I made the huge absent-minded mistake!! Luckily, NO issues! Here's the story. Was talking skip yesterday using my Stryker 955 with the upgraded finals, and my Texas Star DX-500V . I scanned the band a little after dropping down from 27.425 and ended up listening to Jerkwad Sherman on 19 for a bit. Yes, flipped it over to AM so I could hear the guys reaming on him. Well, without thinking, I struck up a conversation with one of the guys, and spoke for about 10 to 15 minutes with him before my heart climbed into my throat. YES!! I had forgotten to drop my power or turn my amp off. Back and forth, for a 10 or 15 minute period, I was slamming that 500v with an 11 watt carrier and full swing of about 80 to 90 pep. I immediately lifted the key, felt the sides of the amp, and twisted the know to LSB on the radio. Moved to another channel and checked out the amp for possible issues. NONE. All works as intended and the case remained cool. Crisis averted!! What I can't figure out is how the magic smoke stayed inside. I can safely say that I will never do this again!
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What finals does that TS have in it? Original Toshiba's? Or was it a more recent DX-500? Just curious to know what stood up to that overdrive onslaught!
 
Well DEI's and PP100's and a lot of the other's where made by HG. That is nothing against HG either. It took them a while to get to the 16D08 2SC2879 they currently sell. Many builders where happy to purchase cheap not yet ready for market Bipolar RF transistors with their own name on them for some time and resell to the market and build boxes with them.

I own about 12 HG transistors so not giving them a hard time. To this day they are not remotely as good as Toshiba, ST, Motorola transistors for gain or durability! They are affordable, available and good enough so long as you are not trying to use them like you would Toshiba, ST, or Motorola transistors.

If not for the DEI and PP lines that came before we likely would not have the HG products we have today. Those established the demand and market for the product and spurred HG to experiment and develop new products.

If you want anything with HG 2879 transistors to last you can not run them as a 100w pep device. You have to treat them like a 50w pep device. You have to limit voltage to not more than 15v and even better to keep it at 13.8v. Do that and as I understand it from many builders with excellent reputations these devices will last and last. The further outside of those parameters you decide to operate the more likely your device will fail! So adjust your carrier accordingly and do not get long winded!

Don't shoot the messenger! This is not my opinion it is from 3 well known super popular builders and amp repair people. All of them have youtube channels. Only one of them has said this publicly but privately all 3 have said similar things. You can not push these HG hard like you could Toshiba and have them last. It is not about if you can make the power it is about how long they will last making that power!

Based on what I read on this site 90% of you expect too much power out of your amps and drive them far too hard. As more and more of your amps die and are replaced with Chinese transistors this will become far more obvious!
 
Onelasttime said:
Well DEI's and PP100's and a lot of the other's where made by HG. That is nothing against HG either. It took them a while to get to the 16D08 2SC2879 they currently sell. Many builders where happy to purchase cheap not yet ready for market Bipolar RF transistors with their own name on them for some time and resell to the market and build boxes with them.

I own about 12 HG transistors so not giving them a hard time. To this day they are not remotely as good as Toshiba, ST, Motorola transistors for gain or durability! They are affordable, available and good enough so long as you are not trying to use them like you would Toshiba, ST, or Motorola transistors.

If not for the DEI and PP lines that came before we likely would not have the HG products we have today. Those established the demand and market for the product and spurred HG to experiment and develop new products.

If you want anything with HG 2879 transistors to last you can not run them as a 100w pep device. You have to treat them like a 50w pep device. You have to limit voltage to not more than 15v and even better to keep it at 13.8v. Do that and as I understand it from many builders with excellent reputations these devices will last and last. The further outside of those parameters you decide to operate the more likely your device will fail! So adjust your carrier accordingly and do not get long winded!

Don't shoot the messenger! This is not my opinion it is from 3 well known super popular builders and amp repair people. All of them have youtube channels. Only one of them has said this publicly but privately all 3 have said similar things. You can not push these HG hard like you could Toshiba and have them last. It is not about if you can make the power it is about how long they will last making that power!

Based on what I read on this site 90% of you expect too much power out of your amps and drive them far too hard. As more and more of your amps die and are replaced with Chinese transistors this will become far more obvious!
Click to expand...
I don't use mine on AM, either. The couple of times I did just to try it, I limited the deadkey to 150W. On SSB my DX-500 is capable of 700 pep, but I usually peak out at 550 to 600 under normal modulation. Been working perfectly and sounds excellent for two years now.
 
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