PALOMAR/BOOMER 500 WITH 35 AMP P/S OK TO RUN AN HF?

[Sonar]

I recently sold 2 of my 4 Palomar 500 Elites. I have 2 left and use them or will be using them strictly for backup. I sold one to a local who purchased a Yaesu ft 950. The 950 sounded great with his newly purchased heil. Unfortunately the power supply he was using sounded like a jet engine was running in His Radio Room. Since he upgraded from a Cobra 2000 to his ft 950 he obviously had no use for the Palomar 500 any longer. Remembering that the Palomar 500 had a 35 amp power supply he asked me if tt would run his HF. I told him with a 35 amp output it should have no problem running one but I added that if it were me I would be kind of scared to hook up such a nice piece of HF equipment to an amplifier (that amp) with a 35 amp power supply. I must say his balls must be bigger than mine because he did so and to my surprise the Ft 950 not only ran very well on the Palomar's 35 amp built-in power supply and the jet engine noise was not only gone but it was quieter then I even believed. No sound at all from the Palomar's continuously running fan which I might add is very quiet. Now it's my turn to hook up a 22 amp required HF to a power supply. I am going to be purchasing the megawatt power supply that everyone suggested when I posted a question about which power supply to purchase once I get my HF. Now I have one of my own and no power supply yet. I should mention that he has since hooked up the jet engine power supply again only this time he added a 10 foot plus power cord to put it into another room where it's very loud fan can't be heard. I'm tempted to power up my hf using the Palomar's 35 amp power supply. Something tells me I'm doing something wrong. Why do I get the feeling that a mediocre amplifier at best built who knows where using sub par part's over 20 years ago shouldn't be used to run such a nice piece of gear. The only reason I'm considering using it as the power supply for my hf is that it's so God damn quiet. And it did work for the person who purchased one from me. Why he decided to go back to the power supply that sounded like a jet engine I don't know because I haven't asked him but something deep down inside of me is telling me don't use it on my HF. I know there are many of you who are familiar with these Palomar Boomer no name four 1446/455 amplifiers that have the 35 amp power supply built-in. So my question is has anyone used one of the power supply in that amp to run an hf or anything that needs the type of ampridge this amplifie/power supply has and did it do the job it should've without either failing or worse blowing up the equipment it was running?

 

[loosecannon]

you can use that palomar to power your HF rig no problem.

I understand your hesitation, but as long as you don't use the amplifier portion of it, (like, dont hook anything to the SO-239 connectors) then you are fine.

A 35 amp power supply is a 35 amp power supply. yes, some will have more filtering, but since it's an old style linear power supply (heavy) you really don't have to worry about noise too much.

use it! but don't tell any hams what brand it is. LOL
LC

 

[Decoder]

Check the voltages. I'll bet you that when the supply has no draw(receive) it will show you in the 15 volt range but as soon as you put a heavy draw(transmit) it will drop to abut 12.2. Those amps with built in powersupply don't have to have very good regulators. Also I'm sure the filtering sucks. Just my 2 cents.

 

[wavrider]

Loose cannon that amp does not have a regulated PS in it, I would never ever connect an HF rig to an unregulated power supply, the voltage, depending on mains voltage, may float as high as 21vdc no load.

 

[BBB]

I also believe newer HF rigs can be damaged by an unregulated power supply, especially when it goes over the typical design rating of a maximum of 13.8 volts DC. It may work for awhile...

 

[222DBFL]

Just buy a megawatt S400-12 and set the voltage to 13.8vdc. It is rated at 30amps continuous duty. Plenty for most any HF radio. And if you want to spend a bit more the S700-12 50A version is sweet as well. Can be run a few in parallel right out of the box with some minor adjustments to voltage is all. Range is from like $60-$110 for the 2 units I mentioned. He is a site sponsor and he does make a pretty good PS for the money! Mine has been a work horse for me. Just need to blow the fan out every so often depending on the dust in the air. Not a big deal honestly. For what you pay for an HF radio why risk burning it up because of an unregulated power supply that is made by pyramid or someone. They are way over rated as far as amperage goes just like car stereo stuff. They will take a milli second voltage reading and call it the rated power LOL!!
Just kidding, but seriously, get a good PS whatever you get for an HF radio. They do draw some amps and don't like spikes in voltage. At least most I have seen don't. Anyways. Listen to the others and even like I said, the only PS that isn't real expensive that I trust is the megawatt power supplies. But hey ask around here how many people use them. I know of 5 i can count I use on HF radios here locally. No issues with any. And a some are much older than mine. Anyways. JMHO's. Good luck with whatever you decide and again, get a good PS with plenty of amperage and voltage of at least 13.8vdc. Too
many amps isn't a bad thing, not enough is for sure though!! Good day.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I also believe newer HF rigs can be damaged by an unregulated power supply, especially when it goes over the typical design rating of a maximum of 13.8 volts DC. It may work for awhile...

Not only that but IMD products go through the roof with the voltage swinging up and down on voice leaks. The operator may not care about what he cannot hear but other users on the bands will care about the crap they hear.

 

[loosecannon]

boy you leave the forum for a couple of days...

guys, i would not have recommended this power supply to him if i didn't know what was inside of it.

Just because one misguided guy comes on here and says he's "sure" that the power supply is unregulated; everyone automatically believes him and goes off of his post?

we are better than that aren't we?

Decoder is probably referring to the type of base amps that are built with internal power supplies that are nothing but a transformer, a rectifier, and a bunch of capacitors.

The power supplies in these old Palomar/ Boomer base amps are actually decent.
No, they're not an Astron, but they are regulated, and will power his HF rig just fine as i stated earlier.

Please, if you are going to throw guesses out there; remember that people actually read these threads and gauge their actions based on them. You guys might have this poor guy off the air for three days needlessly with your pontificating.

here is a diagram of the power supply in question that is easily obtainable by any of the responders in this thread:
http://www.cbtricks.com/Amp/palomar_other/elite/palomar_elite500.pdf

look at page 2 for the power supply schematic.
No, it's not fancy, but it will work, and it will maintain a 13.8 volt level while putting out 20-25 amps, which is all his rig is going to draw.

Sonar, i hope these guys didn't scare you off.
LC

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I had no idea what is in that amp for a PSU but was just commenting about what an unregulated supply would do to IMD figures. I did take a look at the schematic you linked too and it does appear that PSU is pretty decent. It uses an ancient but VERY good LM723 regulator with feedback so the regulation should be fairly tight.

 

[ExitThirteen]

LC is 110% spot on.

I also own one of these amp/PSU combos, and while I removed the amp board (it was junk), I still use the PSU, works very well for checking radios and amps up to about 30-35A or so. Mine also has the newer 10,000uf caps in it.

No problems using a 100W HF rig on it if you so desire.


~Cheers~

 

[loosecannon]

thanks for the flowers exit13. also great idea on the cap change.

CK and decoder, i wanted to apologize for the tone of my last post, as i thought it sounded funny when i posted it, but upon re-reading it, i feel like i came off all douchey. sorry about that guys.
LC

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

thanks for the flowers exit13. also great idea on the cap change.

CK and decoder, i wanted to apologize for the tone of my last post, as i thought it sounded funny when i posted it, but upon re-reading it, i feel like i came off all douchey. sorry about that guys.
LC

That's OK. I noticed that too but wanted to wait and see how things progressed from there. It could have gone either way.

 

[222DBFL]

Sorry gents. I know I commented as well as to the supply not being a good idea "if" it was unregulated.
Now if it's well built like said and between the knowledge of all of you gents it appears it will be fine for an HF radio. I was more judging it upon the amp portion of the unit. Anyhow, no hard feelings here man. Tell it like it is. Doesn't bother me one bit, promise. Rather have the right answer then to spread false info like you said!! No worries man. Keep up all the great posts here lately. You gents have have some very good info as of late and have been very very helpful to others here. Anyhow, glad the air is cleared about the PS portion of this unit and that indeed you can use an HF radio just fine with it!! Have a god one to all. I'm just glad it's Friday!! TGIF!!

 

[BBB]

Yes, agreed. Was just re-enforcing the fact that unregulated supplies and 14+ VDC are not so good for ham radios as a general rule . Good find on the schematic.