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Difference between ham amps and cb amps

Who said anything about DC input power? To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen an amplifier driven with DC. It's all been AC, at RF.
- 'Doc
 


I used to know a whole lot of those guys that ran big 10kw+ mobile specials all the time, and they spent a lot of time on the key. Notice I said used to, honestly a lot of those guys started to develop some serious health problems with they got into their 50's, things like cancer, lukemia, benign tumors. High instances of these disorders when compared to the rest of the population.

If they're having those RF exposure problems sitting in the vehicle, then they probably havent ground-strapped the vehicle properly. It needs to be one monolithic hunk of metal as far as RF is concerned. If you're really paranoid about RF, you could install copper mesh over the windows.
Just about every kitchen has a 1Kw+ microwave oven, and how many times you've heard of RF exposure?
 
The title of the thread is "Difference between ham and cb amps."

The only difference I see is that CB Amps are illegal and ham amps are overpriced.

If you take the labels away they both can function equally well in either application the main difference at that point would be the radio operators primary intended use restricted only by his knowledge and experience of application.
 
I really don't know Dudmuck ? Some times things sound like they can make sence , doesn't always mean they make sence. Once upon a time ago , I used to test amps before the covers were put on them before they went into there boxes.

I may have tested half a dozen or so lots of them over a few months of time. I used to get some of the worse headaches I ever had in my life after a few times of doing this. I always would get them and I finally refused to test them anymore.

These were not monster boxes either , most were 2 x 455s and 454 class C boxes back in the early 90s . Was it just me ? The boss man used to get the headaches as well from time to time. I know today that I would never do it again . I have met some down right strange techs in my time as well as there attitudes towards people . IM not saying they don't know there crafts well , IM just saying there just seemed like they had some kind of chips on there shoulders towards people for really no reason at all .

Maybe it just takes one to know one ? But I've seen and met a few. I see no reason for anything over 500 watts pep in a cb radio type situation , and I can only hope for a decent well made ab type amplifier for use. 8 / 16 / 32 ect. ect . does not and will not ever make any sence to me what so ever. This is not some
competition for me in any way shape or form.

If I were a Ham (and it ain't going to happen to soon) I would still want the best well made amp I could get my hands on (or afford) . So this would mean I could run alot of watts legally. Is the rf in those any safer then the rf that comes out of these garage built class c cb radio type amps ? ......I could only hope that they were , but I suppose I really don't have to worry about that because it ain't going to happen.

And your right Dudmuck about the microwave oven , I honestly don't know what good it will do me ? but when I use them , 9 times out of 10 , I walk away from them. No need to stick my face up against the glass window and watch it go around and round. Same goes for a TV set , Now the computer screen might be a different story ? But I have no clue on how much rf this 20 incher is zapping me with from less then 3ft away from it ?
 
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Who said anything about DC input power? To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen an amplifier driven with DC. It's all been AC, at RF.
- 'Doc


You did right here:

Lets see...
50,000w / 12 vdc = 447 Amps
447A / 60% efficiency = 745A round to 750 amps

Guess about 100 amps to run whatever else you might need in that vehicle so 850 amps. Tack on another 100 amps just for the 'grins' and you have a draw of about950 amps.

Snipped.
 
You did right here:

Lets see...
50,000w / 12 vdc = 447 Amps
447A / 60% efficiency = 745A round to 750 amps

Guess about 100 amps to run whatever else you might need in that vehicle so 850 amps. Tack on another 100 amps just for the 'grins' and you have a draw of about950 amps.

Snipped.

50,000w / 12 vdc = 4,166.66 Amps 4,166.66A / 60% efficiency = 4,166.66 / 60 x 100 to give a dc draw of 6,944.44A,thats not allowing for grins:D.

Your 950 Amps of dc is about 6,000 amps short of driving a 50kw DC linear.You would struggle to run 7kw at 12v with your calculation.
 
Hey Doc, are you using a solar powered calculator in the dark again? :D

Check out those figures again: 50,000/ (lets say 14.2 volts to allow for charging voltage,so that becomes 50,000/14.2=3521 amps and at typical 60% eff. it would need 5868 amps.:eek: The bad news is you were wrong in your math,the good news is that the true current is even more outragous than you thought.

Jeeze that much power bouncing around inside a car will make your kids be born naked..without keying the mic
 
50,000w / 12 vdc = 4,166.66 Amps 4,166.66A / 60% efficiency = 4,166.66 / 60 x 100 to give a dc draw of 6,944.44A,thats not allowing for grins:D.

Your 950 Amps of dc is about 6,000 amps short of driving a 50kw DC linear.You would struggle to run 7kw at 12v with your calculation.

Good thing it ain't my calculation.

Also I see confusion with the terms input power and drive power. Input power is the term commonly used for DC (power) input to the final. Drive power is R.F. drive.

Nice thread necro.
 
I just giggl every time I see this kind of debate arise. talking about how brand X can get 4kw from this tube and brand Y only gets 3kw. What is funny to me is that the recieveing end will never know the diff between the two since its only 1 db diff.

They will however know the diff when brand X blows that tube and brand Y is still plugging away!

I run a Ten tec Titan 425 using 2 3cx800a7's. The amp was dedsigned to be driven with upto 100 watts of input power. I tried 100 watts 1 time just to see what it would do. I keyed it for less than half a second, just enough for my N8LP to show 3600watts. I have never run more than 45 watts into it since. because even with just 45 watts input I still see 1750 out. The recieving end will never know and my tubes will be here FOREVER!
 
Good thing it ain't my calculation.

Also I see confusion with the terms input power and drive power. Input power is the term commonly used for DC (power) input to the final. Drive power is R.F. drive.

Nice thread necro.

ain't no confusion on my side,i'm well aware of what rf drive is,but without dc input power you wouldn't be driving anything,rf drive or not.

i'm also aware its not your calculation,what surprised me was you failed to notice its shortcomings,i mean its not exactly a couple of amps short.maybe you should be educating those that have difficulty counting than trying to educate me.

nice thread necro?
thats your speciality but i learn fast,lol.whats your grouch with tom rauch incidentally,did he prove you wrong?upset your ego?

your right about one thing though,everyone makes mistakes even you,its not making the mistake thats difficult,its the admitting it.
 
ain't no confusion on my side,i'm well aware of what rf drive is,but without dc input power you wouldn't be driving anything,rf drive or not.

i'm also aware its not your calculation,what surprised me was you failed to notice its shortcomings,i mean its not exactly a couple of amps short.maybe you should be educating those that have difficulty counting than trying to educate me.

nice thread necro?
thats your speciality but i learn fast,lol.whats your grouch with tom rauch incidentally,did he prove you wrong?upset your ego?

your right about one thing though,everyone makes mistakes even you,its not making the mistake thats difficult,its the admitting it.

Hey Jazz. I don't know who pissed in your cornflakes and I don't really care. If you are going to follow me around and try to refute every post I make you better go back to school first. So far you aren't doing anything but making youeself look stupid.

Have a nice day.
 
Buzzzzzzz

I have a Drake L4B which is a Ham amp and I don't get any buzz. I monitor the audio going out on the air through headphones and it's quiet.
 
ain't no confusion on my side,i'm well aware of what rf drive is,but without dc input power you wouldn't be driving anything,rf drive or not.

i'm also aware its not your calculation,what surprised me was you failed to notice its shortcomings,i mean its not exactly a couple of amps short.maybe you should be educating those that have difficulty counting than trying to educate me.

nice thread necro?
thats your speciality but i learn fast,lol.whats your grouch with tom rauch incidentally,did he prove you wrong?upset your ego?

your right about one thing though,everyone makes mistakes even you,its not making the mistake thats difficult,its the admitting it.

Hey Jazz. I don't know who pissed in your cornflakes and I don't really care. If you are going to follow me around and try to refute every post I make you better go back to school first. So far you aren't doing anything but making youeself look stupid.

Have a nice day.


Let's stay on topic guys. Leave the other stuff for the playground at recess time. :whistle:
 
he sent it back to ameritron and they said its fine nothing wrong and sent it back and hams go ..."okely dokely I guess its ok for my stuff to buzz hyuk!" No cber would put 3k on an amp and have it buzz and then take it when the company says "nope, youre wrong"... funny, if it says a certain name on it it automatically means quality no matter the performance, in the second video he had a 1+ min key at high power. try keying that ameritron that high for 1 min and see what happens,Even moleculo had one melt on him.

I would buy (for the money) the second amp by wizard, have him build in band switching and a low pass filter and be WAY ahead of the game.

All wizard builds is bare bone cb drag boxes that have undersized plate transformers and no protection.Some have no real tube socket and and the chassis is super flimsy made by someone else looks to be 1/16th of an inch thick.Wizard cant make a multiband box or even a grid driven tetrode.Loves to put his filament transformer in the same compartment as the tube with no sheilding around it to stop rf from getting into it then your line.Advertises that he uses a pi-l for the input when its infact a pi network.You get a china 3000 vacuum relay if your lucky and 1 meter maybe hes a joke.I build boxes for 10 meters also and can make a multiband box of anysize if the customer has the cash.Check me out on ebay under jeannem2987
 

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