Palomar Elite 900 Chattering on SSB

[317]

Hey guys my new amp that claims to have automatic SSB chatters on ssb with modulation ,, any one have one of these ,, is a cap on the relay the resonable way to go , if i do that my am will hang on unkey as well i would think ,, i dont really want to run anymore wires from my radio for control.

 

[Robb]

I've seen this on a Palomar amp before. Turned out to be a bad connetion from the power supply to the amp. Don't use a spliced power wire; make sure it is a continuous strand from the supply to the amp. It almost drove me crazy figuring that one out. I changed a couple of caps in it - and that went no where...

I went over the board at first with a soldering iron - to make sure that all of the internals were OK. But that wasn't it. If in doubt and it wasn't te power supply wires, that board doesn't have a lot of caps on it - so it would be easy to change them all out...

 

[317]

i kind of worded it wroge chattering was the wronge word, it acutaly shuts off when im not speaking with it keyed and turns on when i start talking talking keyed,but if im not speaking loud enough it cuts out, its not staying lit for the whole keying of a transmition causing me to sound like im losing power to other people. wich it is.

 

[Bionic Chicken]

Sounds like bad power connections. I'll bet it won't stay on when keying it on AM either. Unhook the coaxs and see if the amp will power up without them connected. Sometimes if you do not have a good ground to the amp it will "find" one through the coax.

 

[317]

funny thing is it works fine on am, and it did it on my bench supply in the house. when on my meters if i dont have a dead key of 5 watts the amp wont turn on, am or ssb. im wondering if they didnt put a big enough cap in the keying curcuit.. if i have a DK of 6 on am the amp fires untill unkey. ssb will shut off if my modulation swings under 5 watts for any givin moment.

 

[mackmobile43]

check the sniffer cap on the input S O

 

[317]

I wish i had schematics on this unit , it seems to be a big secret, all i can find is older models. it works nice 2 pushing 4 but id like to solve this anoying problem that should have come out of the box working..

 

[fasteddie]

i installed a sideband delay in my worldwide with a swith so it can be turned off during am operation varying the langth is done by size of cap changing the size of cap in yours might help

 

[Bionic Chicken]

The keying transistor could be leaky causing this. I've seen this happen in base amps on SSB.

 

[317]

what would you usualy do in this case?.. the manufatuer sugests no more than 15 watts swing on ssb so i tuned my magnum 257 ssb pot wich is also my alc in this radio to swing 15 to 20 watts,, can i run this a little hotter? the amp has 2 1446's driving 4 2sc2879, when i ran the amp while tuning it the higher the ssb/alc pot was the better it stayed on..but im would be overdriving the amp i would think..

 

[317]

I finaly had a chance to open her up and see what was going on. i added to the delay cap that was in there wich is a 680uF and added 2200uf now i get my 1 sec delay.

 

[mackmobile43]

I finaly had a chance to open her up and see what was going on. i added to the delay cap that was in there wich is a 680uF and added 2200uf now i get my 1 sec delay.

Did you happen to notice if it was biased on the output stages and not on the input stages>?

 

[317]

not sure , here is the same board that is in my unit,,

 

[317]

Does anyone know what i can safely drive this amp at,, i set my radio to the spec that came with it , it was 5 watts dead key and 15 watts swing ,, the fact that i set my radio to these paramaters and am works ok but ssb doesnt click the amp on all the time ,, seems to tell me that it needs a little more drive, so my radio wich is limited and finiky on adjustmens,,, aka magnum 257 ,i tund it up so it deadkeys am 6 swings to 15 and on ssb swings to 15 -25,, and it works better now , is this typical of a 2 sd1446 pushing 4 2sc2879'S,,

 

[9C1Driver]

A 5 watt AM dead key is alittle high for that amp, 2-3 watts max would be best. You could probably get away with 20-25 watts pep input but any more and the amp will just run hot.