Hi all,
I wanted to post some pics of the amp i am currently working on, since i don't think we have any donkey stomper amplifier pics on the forum yet. (i could be wrong)
so the first few posts will just be pictures of the amp that people can use for their own purposes, but there are a couple of things that caught my eye, and i would like some opinions on.
The pictures illustrating the areas in question will be included in this first post.
I haven't started investigating too much yet, but the amp came in with the complaint that it would only show a reasonable output SWR on one channel, and the SWR would rise quickly as you moved away from that channel. i believe the customer said it was channel 40.
I have not tested the amp yet to confirm this on a dummy load and my antenna.
the first thing that caught my eye was the 'free floating' ends of the input transformers for the 8 pill section.
standard practice in building these types of amps is to leave the input side floating above the copper board by 1/8" or so. as can be seen in the pics, these are laid right on the board.
my first question is does anyone else see a problem with mounting them this way?
next take a look at the output side of the input transformers for the 8 pill section. they should be soldered on top of the 'pill strip', but at least two of them are soldered with the transformer sitting on the copper main board.
again, does anyone see a potential problem here?
the last thing i wanted to get some opinions on is whether or not it would be worth it to turn the 2 pill driver section around. i mean put the input where the output is and vice versa.
seems to me you save a lot of stray wire length doing this, but those of you who have built a bunch of these amps can probably tell me whether im wasting my time or not.
for those that don't feel like following the play by play, just enjoy the pics!
LC
I wanted to post some pics of the amp i am currently working on, since i don't think we have any donkey stomper amplifier pics on the forum yet. (i could be wrong)
so the first few posts will just be pictures of the amp that people can use for their own purposes, but there are a couple of things that caught my eye, and i would like some opinions on.
The pictures illustrating the areas in question will be included in this first post.
I haven't started investigating too much yet, but the amp came in with the complaint that it would only show a reasonable output SWR on one channel, and the SWR would rise quickly as you moved away from that channel. i believe the customer said it was channel 40.
I have not tested the amp yet to confirm this on a dummy load and my antenna.
the first thing that caught my eye was the 'free floating' ends of the input transformers for the 8 pill section.
standard practice in building these types of amps is to leave the input side floating above the copper board by 1/8" or so. as can be seen in the pics, these are laid right on the board.
my first question is does anyone else see a problem with mounting them this way?
next take a look at the output side of the input transformers for the 8 pill section. they should be soldered on top of the 'pill strip', but at least two of them are soldered with the transformer sitting on the copper main board.
again, does anyone see a potential problem here?
the last thing i wanted to get some opinions on is whether or not it would be worth it to turn the 2 pill driver section around. i mean put the input where the output is and vice versa.
seems to me you save a lot of stray wire length doing this, but those of you who have built a bunch of these amps can probably tell me whether im wasting my time or not.
for those that don't feel like following the play by play, just enjoy the pics!
LC