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Texas Star DX500V how much drive?

TruckerKevin

TruckerKevin

KD9NTD
Nov 9, 2017
234
142
53
58
Buckner, Illinois
www.qrz.com
Hello fellow radio chaps

I have acquired a Texas Star 500 (does NOT have the variable dial on it.) It is old, but clean.

I currently have it hooked to my Galaxy Saturn on a 60 amp power supply.

I do NOT want to burn this thing up. My radio dead keys at 3 watts and swings to 8 watts on rf power turned all the way down on low without the amp on.

I have read that these Saturns should swing to more. That is the most I can get out of it adjusting the high then low pots.

With the amp on, My meter shows a dead key of 200 watts and swings to 300.

Does this sound about right? Just looking for some experience to chime in here. Pretty much a noob with amps.

Oh, I do have the fan kit to keep it cool

Thanks again
 
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No problem TK, I think the transistors are rated for 10w pep input and a 1w dead key each. I run a 350HD on my President Madison with a 3w dead key swinging to about 16w peak. The amp outs out about 150w dead key and almost 400w peak.
 
Your MFJ meter isn’t a bad unit. It only gets a 3.5 rating out of 5 on Eham.net. Reading the reviews one stated it was 10% off others claim it’s dead on. Even if it was 10% off you should be seeing higher numbers.
 
I just talked with some people far away. About 55 miles north of me. After fine-tuning, they said I sounded nice and loud and clear and was not clipping anymore with my amplifier turned on and my RS power turned all the way down .

My radio dead keys around 4 watts and only swings to about 7 on my meter turned down. With the amp on I dead key about 200 and swing to 250 or so, these numbers fluctuate a tad bit .

Maybe there isn’t an issue here?
 
There used to be a chart on the Texas star website that showed the expected output power at different drive levels but I wasn't able to find it. Maybe its in the manual if cbtricks.com has it.You're making about half of the rated power with less than half of their 20 watts input power so it seems like the amp is ok.

Can you borrow another meter? It almost sounds like the pep function isn't working properly. I would think the saturn would do 15 to 20 pep easily.
 
Your radio is a saturn and not a Saturn turbo correct? The reason I ask is a friend had a turbo that he tried to turn down to drive an amplifier. When the carrier was turned down so low it had very weak modulation. He had to disconnect the internal amp in the Saturn turbo to make it play.
 
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