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Old Amp, But Is It HomeMade?
- Thread starter Yankee
- Start date
Looks like a Crusader 125 made in Lebanon, TN. The stud mounted outputs are getting hard to find.
It looks a lot like the powermaster 100+B ( the B ment it was a base amp) they were built by a company called CMI. They had a gold face so I would bet yours has been painted over if that is what it is.
Yes they had a unregulated power supply, some had MRF455`s, some MRF 492`s And I have seen one that had sd 1407`s in it.
They were built for the Cb market, altho they said class AB Amature RF amplifier on them.
If it is a CMI there were a few mobile amps built by that same company, the powermaster ( two transistor)100+ and a Master pack 400( 4 transistor) mobile
Old school stuff back when Hayden was building the sidewinder amps and TNT was building the SuperMod with two MRF 455`s and the infamous 12 packs.
73
Jeff
Yes they had a unregulated power supply, some had MRF455`s, some MRF 492`s And I have seen one that had sd 1407`s in it.
They were built for the Cb market, altho they said class AB Amature RF amplifier on them.
If it is a CMI there were a few mobile amps built by that same company, the powermaster ( two transistor)100+ and a Master pack 400( 4 transistor) mobile
Old school stuff back when Hayden was building the sidewinder amps and TNT was building the SuperMod with two MRF 455`s and the infamous 12 packs.
73
Jeff
HAHA, good old American Ingenuity at work. I bet they came out of a little shop in the hills, where people had a highly developed sense of ignoring stupid government infringements to their personal freedoms. Like drinking what they want and talking about roadblocks and stuff. 
Well, ya could have warned me. My mailbox is about 2 city blocks away, at the other end of the park, uphill. I walked up there and looked in the box and there were two boxes in there one quite large, the other small enough to hold a RM KL 200 P. Nice little amp, same size as the 203 I smoked the first day I had it. About the size of the palm of your hand, but thicker. Pretty red color, half a pound or so.
But brother, the other box was big enough to hold 4 pair of 14 EEEEE wingtips, and must have weighed as much as a Interstate battery for a F-350 Dually. It didn't have any air in the box, it was all amp. And I almost didn't make it back. I had to exert the last ounce of energy to get up the porch steps. Had to do it though, cause if I had set it down, I wouldn't have gotten it back up.
So I set it up on the desk, plugged it in, set the SWR, 1.2, turned it on, turned on the radio, keyed it up and got somewhere around 125 watts out of it. I talked all day, as you know, the skip opened up about 11am central, and every report was, "man, your blowing smoke here in North Carolina", "your really making the trip here to Georgia", "Sounding loud in the swamps down here", "sounding good in Southwest Texas".
It really is all worth it, heh?
Oh, yeah, $50 for that amp. Free for the other one and it does almost as good.
And I am still waiting for the 2985dx, which should be here next weekend.
The bug has bit me, and it feels good. LOL
But brother, the other box was big enough to hold 4 pair of 14 EEEEE wingtips, and must have weighed as much as a Interstate battery for a F-350 Dually. It didn't have any air in the box, it was all amp. And I almost didn't make it back. I had to exert the last ounce of energy to get up the porch steps. Had to do it though, cause if I had set it down, I wouldn't have gotten it back up.
So I set it up on the desk, plugged it in, set the SWR, 1.2, turned it on, turned on the radio, keyed it up and got somewhere around 125 watts out of it. I talked all day, as you know, the skip opened up about 11am central, and every report was, "man, your blowing smoke here in North Carolina", "your really making the trip here to Georgia", "Sounding loud in the swamps down here", "sounding good in Southwest Texas".
It really is all worth it, heh?
Oh, yeah, $50 for that amp. Free for the other one and it does almost as good.
And I am still waiting for the 2985dx, which should be here next weekend.
The bug has bit me, and it feels good. LOL
All the weight is in the transformers for sure, so it is it's own power supply. But what you can't see from those pictures is how big it really is. And I am still stiff and achie from carrying it two blocks. But it sure was worth it.
It's silent too, no fan, although I can hear the relay click when I key up.
It's silent too, no fan, although I can hear the relay click when I key up.
After a few days use, I have found out some of it's idiosyncrasies. I have also made up one new 3 foot jumper for the first time.
When I flip the on switch, the whole box [figuratively] jumps for a second, sounding like a BIG electric motor on startup. Then, the large flat top of the metal cover will vibrate, enough so you can hear it. This vibration is absorbed though, by putting something on top of it, like my DSL modem and a roll of duct tape with a second much smaller amp on that. [My desk is my test bench for now, I will arrange everything nicely when the big radio gets here.]
So here is my new question. The amp really does the job with a 9 foot and a three foot jumper to connect the radio to the amp, then the amp to the meter, then from meter out to antenna. I thought this might work better with two 3 foot jumpers, so I made up a new one. In the mean time, it started raining heavily here for most of the day.
SWR was great with the 3 foot jumper and the 9 footer. 1.3 at 40 and 1.2 at 1. Then I replaced the 9 footer with the new 3 footer I made. All tested great with my ohm meter, no shorts, good continuity where it was supposed to be. But, while the radio was off while I built this, and it started raining then, when I switched cables, the SWR was a perfect 1.00 all around, as it always is with the dipole, however, as soon as I fired up the big amp, it went up to 3.0+.
You think your confused? So am I, cause I can't track down what it is, I switched back to the original 9 foot and 3 foot cables and it still does it, however, switching over to the little amp, SWR are good, on or off. Another variable is, as the rain stops for an hour or so and things start to dry a bit, the SWR on the big amp goes down to 2.5. Might it go way down when it's really dry outside?
So now, either the amp is doing something bad or it's the PL-259 on the outside end of the antenna coax. And it's still raining. :sneaky2:
When I flip the on switch, the whole box [figuratively] jumps for a second, sounding like a BIG electric motor on startup. Then, the large flat top of the metal cover will vibrate, enough so you can hear it. This vibration is absorbed though, by putting something on top of it, like my DSL modem and a roll of duct tape with a second much smaller amp on that. [My desk is my test bench for now, I will arrange everything nicely when the big radio gets here.]
So here is my new question. The amp really does the job with a 9 foot and a three foot jumper to connect the radio to the amp, then the amp to the meter, then from meter out to antenna. I thought this might work better with two 3 foot jumpers, so I made up a new one. In the mean time, it started raining heavily here for most of the day.
SWR was great with the 3 foot jumper and the 9 footer. 1.3 at 40 and 1.2 at 1. Then I replaced the 9 footer with the new 3 footer I made. All tested great with my ohm meter, no shorts, good continuity where it was supposed to be. But, while the radio was off while I built this, and it started raining then, when I switched cables, the SWR was a perfect 1.00 all around, as it always is with the dipole, however, as soon as I fired up the big amp, it went up to 3.0+.
You think your confused? So am I, cause I can't track down what it is, I switched back to the original 9 foot and 3 foot cables and it still does it, however, switching over to the little amp, SWR are good, on or off. Another variable is, as the rain stops for an hour or so and things start to dry a bit, the SWR on the big amp goes down to 2.5. Might it go way down when it's really dry outside?
So now, either the amp is doing something bad or it's the PL-259 on the outside end of the antenna coax. And it's still raining. :sneaky2:
I have that amp, The Crusader 125 sitting right next to me. The white faced amp looks to be the Crusader.. Fixer got it right!! Mine is in A++ shape.. I have yet to hook it up because I cannot install a base antenna in my town home complex..
Layout and placement of the switches is a good indicator, even though the face plate is white, it looks to be exact.. Back of unit matches..
Layout and placement of the switches is a good indicator, even though the face plate is white, it looks to be exact.. Back of unit matches..
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