FULL_MEDIC,
oh yeah, i am aware of the mod. I've done more than a few MRF497/477 swaps way back when.
what i found back then was that rarely, if ever, did simply replacing the finals yield a significant power increase. sometimes it was less, sometimes it was a few watts more.
only when i started changing cap values, re-setting bias controls, and upgrading the AM modulator section did i get a 'significant' increase, by which i mean like an extra 10-20 watts over the stock finals.
that's still not enough of an increase for anyone to notice but me and my wattmeter, but i did have fun.
in my experience, 2950's had no problem doing 50 watts PEP with just tuning and some part value changes, and even if i had gotten the radio up to 100 watts PEP with the new finals, it still would have only been a 1/2 an S-init increase in anyone's receiver.
I don't say any of that to discourage you from doing the mod, just to give you some realistic expectations. after all, sometimes we do mods that only we ourselves notice, but we still had fun and learned!
good luck,
LC
Hey Cannon, Just to give you a little background 25 or so years ago I had a Metallic silver grey Dodge Dakota pick up truck, This Dakota was bought right off the lot, and it was the first year for that model. I was very happy with it even when I moved my practice to the Pocono mountains, and that truck (LUCKILY FOR ME) since I didn't order it so the vehicle came "LOADED TO THE MAX" with every option in the book and even some that weren't! like a "Paxton supercharger" you may or may not know it but up in the Poconos we used to get on average about 170 Inches of Snow per season & sometimes a lot more!, so the 4 wheel drive and the " Dana rear with Posi traction" was a blessing The dealerships name was "Bayside Chrysler Dodge" naturally in Bayside New York. My older brother pushed me into it but really didn't have to push very hard. Well it seems since I was only interested in economy
and we had just got over the (PHONY GAS SHORTAGE.)
So I told the "SLICK NICKEL" car salesmen that I wanted a Dodge Dakota with a 6 cylinder because economy is what's most important to me. So he said sure doctor. . . and then looked at me well aren't you going to Introduce yourself? What's your last name "I was wearing my scrubs, With a little blood thrown on it to for good measure! well I gotta say to his credit he was willing to shake my hand and didn't get the least bit queasy, I would have been surprised until he mentioned he was a retired Sgt. Major from WII. So that explained everything. . . "
PLUS HE WAS A SICILIAN" Need I say more, so he started his usual sales pitch when I discovered that the owner of the dealership ordered dozens of Dakotas, and if they came equipped with a six cylinder, it was stripped , not even power windows. But the ones that came with the 318 was loaded and I mean loaded beyond anyone's desire, but the one thing that I cared about more than anything else was the "Heavy Duty trailer Tow Package" now what this included was a heavy duty suspension, oversized copper coil oil cooler mounted on the side of the tork flight tranny, all copper oversized engine radiator, AND THIS WAS THE THING THAT MADE ME JUST KEEP STARING
in the engine compartment an oversized. . . POWERMASTER DUAL PULLEY, DOUBLE SERPENTINE V BELT 215 AMP. ALTERNATOR and I just bought a sweet sixteen and a DX-500 to drive the Sweet, I JUST PURCHASED A BRAND NEW BEAUTIFUL SWEET SIXTEEN, & A TEXAS STAR DX-500. That I intended to drive the Sweet SIXTEEN With, a brand spanking new rci 2950 (FIRST GENERATION) Well
probably the most well known and most highly regarded Radio tech. of queens New York, Rosedale N.Y. to be specific, He probably was considered the best of the best, I wonder if he is still around the radio world up in new york, I'm gonna have to find out ,he was the guy that tuned & Modded my sweet sixteen,and did all the work on my DX-500, and I drove it with the DX-500 which ran like no other 2950 That I ever heard, the ranger 2950 fully worked on by Paul! I drove this into RG 213 if memory serves, or it may have been HARD LINE!! Connected to a ball mount on the rear bumper with a 108 inch stainless steel whip, of course I had to slide a rubber tennis ball onto the whip, & the ball had to be set exactly where it would hit the back of the fiberglass cap I had on top of the truck!! I can tell you this I can't remember Paul's last name, but for all I know he could be a member right here?? And one thing I can swear to,Paul had hands of gold. when I keyed up that rig, & with a bird meter connected I was pushing just a hair under 2,300 Watt's And my swr was always 1.5 to 1 or less
And that was dead key, I don't remember what the swing was. But the best part was my audio was as loud as could be but crystal clear quality. I will never forget, I drove from the
old RKO KEITH'S movie theater down Northern blvd. in Flushing. All the way to the northern cross diner in Bayside, And I set off EVERY CAR, STORE & BANK ALARM, for the whole trip!! those that are unfamiliar with the N.Y. area. That distance is about is about 2 miles, one night Paul blew my mind!! He told me to key up the ranger while revving the engine, he took out of his pocket, and mind you where we were was pitch black. He took one of those Xenon Lamps you know like the the ones that Lafayette radio electronics used to sell and us young "DRUG CULTURE CROWD" of the 60's & 70's, they were used to give an additional let us say what we called a psychedelic high, it did have a weird effect sort of like a stop motion effect camera. It was simply a variable frequency strobe light. But oh baby when your high s__t!! Anyway Paul just had a replacement lamp ,you know it's in a u shape. well I couldn't believe my mind from 6 inches away that bulb fired off so bright that it lit up every fogged out window that was parked on lovers lane! unbelievably bright. we had to make a hell of a hastily retreat because the people in those fogged out windows were calling us some rather colorful names, but all kiddin' aside I was so shocked because I never knew that that much RF could do that. And for that mater the bank alarms, which I had to stop that nonsense because word got back to the club from a member who had a cop for a dad and he quizzed him on the subject and the told him how pissed off the brass were and that "God help you if your club is involved in any way" I also remember Paul began telling me while I was laughing in amazement over this little trick, Paul said to me " and what the hell do you think you are doing to your liver and kidneys ,everytime that you key up the MONSTER? I hadn't thought of the fact that the sweet sixteen and the DX-500 as well as the ranger were bombarding my body when ever I keyed up, because they were bolted to the metal carpet covered vertical wall right behind my seat, then Paul laughed and said by the time I would reached my 30's that my nuts would turn to raisins! On his advice I immediately bought from Copper elec. this copper foil tape and I covered everything while Paul installed the auto fan unit for the sweet sixteen plus added a couple more for the Texas Star and the Ranger. still to this day I never knew that you could trigger that tube from that far away?? the next thing guys were putting led arrays as well as these xenon lamps on their antennas, it kinda' became a fad in Bayside. But like all fads, it didn't last long. I remember that Paul warned me about not touching the whip while transmitting, and this little kid ,a younger brother of one of the club members grabbed the whip while I was keyed up, well all the club guys heard a scream and the kid ran over to his older brother and right away we all wanted to see his hand. . . . well it was a nasty looking color red line across the palm of his hand. The thing that worried us the most was this wasn't just a thermal burn the kid had a radiation burn, we all felt that he would be in pain but he was in a lot of pain and I remember how terrible I felt about it, the older brother was my Cousin! Very Sorry for the very long post Gentlemen it's just hard to fit so much of the 70's in a post . . . . Like the insane double stacked wilson v quad that we mounted on a 150 FT. rohn tower that was on top of the theater which as 40 feet above ground, but that mess is a story for another day, once again guys sorry for the long . . . long post!!
God Bless!
