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RM Italy 203p amp

ROADTRAIN

Member
Jul 22, 2010
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I was thinking about putting a RM Italy 203p amp on a Galaxy DX979 what does it entail? Is it too much? I,m looking to get 100 watts is this feasible? Am I gonna smoke this radio or amp? I don't know nothing about doing this. I've heard from another forum that it can be done as long as I have a low DK what must be done to the radio to accommodate the amp will there be some additional components to add to get this to run......Thanks!

ROADTRAIN
 
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its a simple tune for an experienced person that knows the adjustments. I would take it in to someone that knows what there doing Ive had radios brought to me that people went into and if they turned enough of the pots and or VR's :eek: :unsure: I just sent the radio in to have it straightend out because I had no clue what everything was more or less where it needed to be set at.
 
Put a 1-2 watt dead key and no more than 18-20 watts swing and you will be good. Also adding a small fan to that amp will help extend the life of it.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, but I still have questions here as to weather its a simple install and that I mean just solder it up as to the manual instructions, or does one have to hack it up the main board and put in a board to get it to run... I understand it needs to be tuned and all that, but just wonder if I'm better off just getting a not so new model radio thats already set up.....Give me some details please. I would greatly appreciate it.....THANKS!

ROADTRAIN
 
Put a 1-2 watt dead key and no more than 18-20 watts swing and you will be good. Also adding a small fan to that amp will help extend the life of it.

a 1-2 watt deadkey with 18-20 watt swing is a highly overmodulated input signal which will be carrying substantial distortion or/and harmonic content,amplifying it is asking for rfi and being unpopular with local users.

much better to put in 4w deadkey and approx 16w pep forward swing which is a much cleaner input signal with 100% modulation which will sound loud,clear and when amplified by a kl203p is well within the amps input handling capacity.those amps are nice little amps but when you overdrive them with swing mods they will sound nasty.

As for getting 100w out,that is neither here nor there,no-one could tell the difference on the receiving end between 80w output or 120w output apart from the distortion,the main thing is the output is as clean as possible irrespective of the actual measured power.
 
If you think he should put a four watt dead key into it go ahead and smoke that amp. As for 18 to 20 watts, thats the max amount of swing I would put into it. I know all about the 1:4 swng rule, but trust me if you put a 4 watt dead key into that amp it will not last long. For example a 1 watt dead key would only be 4 watts modulated power out of the radio if you followed the 1:4 rule, that would not drive that amp at all. Around 15 watts swing would be about right, and a 1-2 watt dead key is all I would put into that little amp. You should adjust your dead key on the radio to allow a 1:4 dead key and swing ratio out of the amp not the radio its self, as again that would only create 4 watts of swing out of the radio. Someone else could probably explian it better, but I hope this helped.
 
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I also forgot to mention that if you put a over modulated signal into a amp an overmodulated signal is what you will get out of it. As long as you keep good clean modulation to drive the amp you will be ok. I know some will disagree and say 2 watts swinging to 15 or so sounds bad, but if set up properly it won't in my opion.
 
Lets go in order here. The KL203 is a great little amp but they don't last when overdriven. An AM dead key input of 1 to 1.75 watts and max PEP watts 0f 18-20 is fine. If all you get on AM is 10-12 watts PEP thats fine.

As far as the install there is nothing to solder. All you need is a 3 or 6 foot jumper. It goes antenna, amplifier, and radio. the jumper goes between the amp and radio. If your in the mobile a 10 gage line right to the battery is fine for a feed line (red positive line). then ground a short black line to the firewall or seat post.

Here is a nice review of that amplifier. ( by the way, 4 watts is way way too much input dead key for this amp )


KL203 Amplifier
 
Lets go in order here. The KL203 is a great little amp but they don't last when overdriven. An AM dead key input of 1 to 1.75 watts and max PEP watts 0f 18-20 is fine. If all you get on AM is 10-12 watts PEP thats fine.

As far as the install there is nothing to solder. All you need is a 3 or 6 foot jumper. It goes antenna, amplifier, and radio. the jumper goes between the amp and radio. If your in the mobile a 10 gage line right to the battery is fine for a feed line (red positive line). then ground a short black line to the firewall or seat post.

Here is a nice review of that amplifier. ( by the way, 4 watts is way way too much input dead key for this amp )


KL203 Amplifier

The RM kl 203p is rated at 10w input,so how can 4w avg deadkey 100% modulated to 6w avg or 16w pep be too much?

swinging 18-20w from 1.5w is a ridiculous amount of overmodulation and sounds awful,not to mention is highly inconsiderate of those around you who use radios.

just out of curiosity have you guys ever used these amps? because they run on 4w fm no problem,so i can't see an extra 2w off am modulation when fully modulated with the same size of carrier doing any damage.maybe you all know something about am swing that i don't.

why would you use a 3 foot or 6 foot jumper? (thats a cb myth) the only jumper length that wouldn't transform the impedance the radio see's from the amps input would be 12 feet or very short under a few inches.

whoever told you guys 1.5w deadkey swinging 18-20w pep sounds ok seriously needs new hearing aids for their batteries.
 
just out of curiosity have you guys ever used these amps? because they run on 4w fm no problem,
Yes, I set up and used 12 maybe 15 of those amps. I fixed maybe 10 of them burned by too much input power. Even metled transformers.
2W carrier is best way to drive those amps. More - amp is overdriven, sounds in AM like crap and producing distorted signal.
Mike
 
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I've owned a few of the KL-203 amps. Great amps and I don't care what someone says about input power. DO NOT PUT MORE THAN 2 WATTS DEAD KEY INTO IT. But the 1-1 1/2 watt IS BEST. Any more and you may very well kill your 203. You should see around 100 watts out with the low input. This way it will run cool. And have a very clean output signal. You will be glad that you drove it with the lower power. It will last for many years to come.
 
I just got a KL-203P. I can not get it to key up on the AM side. I did not try it on SSB. As soon as i turned it on it seems the preamp is on, but the switch is in the off. I can turn the preamp on and off but it does not do anything. When i turn the amp on it sounds like the preamp is on. The noise level comes up when i turn it on. And like i said the preamp is off. And when i key up on the AM it does nothing. I know on my KL-203 that i already have i had to slide the bottom off and move the pin and it works just fine. Do i need to do something with the KL-203P to get it to work? Inside of the KL-203P is not like the plain KL-203. I see no pins to move.
 
This may be a silly question, but are you 100% sure you've got it hooked up correctly, ie transciever and antenna are connected correctly? Also, in my KL300p's there is a group of 4 pins on the board. These are to enable 10-11m functionality. IIRC pins 1 and 2 must be shorted together. According to the schematic for the KL203 there are three jumpers, with 1 and 2 being shorted to enable 10-11m. I don't know if it's exactly the same on the KL203P, posting a high-resolution pic of the inside of your amp would help with determining that.
 
KL-203P Amp

I did have it hooked up right. I slide the bottom of and it is nothing like the plain 203. There is no pins that i see to move. I do know when i first got my plain 203 i had to slide the bottom off and move the pins and after that it worked just fine, and it still does. I can not get H&Y Electronics to return any of my emails. I have emailed them 4 times and still nothing. So i called them and they said i would have to call Mark Smith. I hate to say this but he seems a little strange. All he seem to want to talk about is his farm in TN. I did some checking on him and i could not fine anyone by that name and phone number that he gave me. The address comes up under someone elses name. I got a feeling that if i ship it to him, i will never see it again. H&Y Electronics is no help to me at all. So can anyone tell me what i can do to see if i can get it to work? Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
I have one fo the KL-203 amps. With 4 watts in on AM you'll get the max out at around 125 watts. 15 watts pep on SSB sees about 150 on my wattmeter. I'm sure the output will vary from amp to amp.
 
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