Cobra 148GTL-DX

[SmackDown]

3's and 8's
I want to use my 148 GTL-DX in the house and use a 4 amp power supply, 13.8 volts. Usually I would consider this enough for a radio with less features. What is recommended, should I try to get a supply of 10 amps or more ? And even though this is an export radio, I've seen that it's rated at 4 watts on AM and 12 watts on SSB. Are these figures conservative ?
I'm open to any and all suggestions on getting the most from this radio. :?

 

[DTB Radio]

The 4-amp supply should handle the radio - just. I do recommend at least a 5-amp supply, and 10 is better.

 

[Switch Kit]

nothing wrong with having a little extra when it comes to amps ....if your going to spend the money you would do yourself a favor to get a decent power supply for your radio ,especially if it has been tuned by a local tech ,chances are he or she used a really big one to tune your radio . A nice 10/12 or 15 would be a very comfortable way to go for your Cobra 148 GTL DX and to have a few amps to spare .......nice radio ! (-:

 

[Butcher318]

You must have the Grant xl / Cobra 148 look a like radio. I had a Cobra 148F GTL DX +. It was a dual final radio that was set up just like a Connex 4800. With that one I would say at least a 10 amp supply.

 

[SmackDown]

148 GTL-DX

Thanks for all the feedback. I saw on an auction site power supplies from 10 to 50 amps. Think I'll get a 50 amp supply and use an inline fuse to limit the amount of amps to the radio to 15 amps total.
3's and 8's

 

[Butcher318]

" Think I'll get a 50 amp supply and use an inline fuse to limit the amount of amps to the radio to 15 amps total. "


Several things here, the radio draws the amps from the power supply, the power supply does not send 50 amps to the radio and you filter off 15 of them to use. If your radio draws 8 amps wide open then it will never by accident draw 50.

For just a radio I would use a smaller fuse. If your radio draws 7-8 amps then use a 10 amp fuse. If it draws 3-4 amps then use a 5 amp fuse. What can happen by using too large of a fuse is if you ever have a short it will take longer for the fuse to blow. This delay could cause costly damage that a smaller fuse would save you from. This is why you don't want to use slow blow fuses for radio's either. If there is a problem I want my fuse to blow right now.

 

[SmackDown]

Butcher318,
I didn't know that the amperage output would regulate itself. :shock: I thought that if a supply's output was 50 amps then 50 amps would be at the leads. Hmmm, 14 volts @ 10 amps is 140 watts, that's some heat inside that case. I'd better look at Cobras specs first

 

[Switch Kit]

radios and amps only suck up the amps that they need from any given power supply ,the more the marrier . The real problems are ,when there's really not enough to suck up in the first place. )-: So in other words ,you could have a PS at 12 Volts rated at 100 amps and run your Am/SSB radio on it and depending on how your radio was tuned ? chances are it might use 5 to 7 little amps constint (SSB would be the higher draw) that's why a 5 to 7 amp 12V supply would be slightly pushing the issue (even though I think a 7 amper would more then likely work just fine but still slightly pushing the issue) so as was mentioned , a 10/12/ or 15 or even 20 for that matter you would be good to go with pretty good breathing room left over there after .......like I said ,the more the marrier. (-:

 

[robogator]

If you have a chance to buy a good brand 50 amp power supply,I would go ahead and buy it now instead of a 10-15 amp supply because somewhere down the line you will need more amps !
and it never hurts to have more than you need,now!.....

 

[SmackDown]

Ok robogator and switchkit,
it seems you also are saying what was said by Butcher318, that the radio will only draw what is needed from the power supply and fusing the supply's output isn't as big an issue as I'm thinking it is.
3's and 8's