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Palomar ERF-2030+

Mitsubishi makes MOSFET transistors meant for RF. Their "RD06HHF1" transistor is meant to be a final for AM CB radios or similar. The "RD16HHF1" is meant for SSB CB. These two were intended to replace the bipolar Mitsubishi 2SC2166 and 2SC1969 transistors that got discontinued. But they cost a few bucks each, even in large quantity. As a result very few radios use them. Most factories chose to use parts that cost a quarter each more or less. Downside is that the cheaper parts just don't hold up well to SWR when you use them for RF power.

But if you're running a factory and someone offers the choice of either a part that costs a quarter or a part that costs four bucks, you'll probably get fired if you choose the more-expensive part.

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To play Devil's Advocate...

Yes, you DO NOT have the luxury of Gates and their ability to get pummeled ±20V - like the other designs.

Ok, that also places the device in a limited market - not that they were not thinking this before they introduced the part.

In order to help with this - the Gate design itself leads us down a rabbit hole that really can't help us utilize the part for 12V applications - but can give us insight into how to "wash" out Gate influences but give the user some flexibility in designing the amp to fit their needs.

Now they are not making the part specific to a bandwidth, although by design - it requires the user to use a realm of higher voltages.

It's not that far off, at least with the re-introduction of electrical vehicles - the more common use of the battery for the higher voltage and current reserves are now more commonplace than ever before.

Now, to help with historical facts.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's the Electric car was quite popular but it's drawbacks were the lack of available recharging stations - and their purchase price - which gave the Petrol-Powered Putt-Putts a Plethora of Prosperity in options in the Pockets of the Pedal Pusher - Gas Stations and Sinclair became the new Fred Flintstone versions of the Family Night Out and the ability to go places and not have to wait in line for an extension cord and an outlet - and a night or two - of layover while the batteries accepted a charge.

So the Fossil Fueled Four-Door Funabout ran along just fine on 12V batteries just to start the car, and the fuel and the engine, did the rest for development of motion to or from a destination.

Obviously, the Fossil Fueled Folly also needed some form of entertainment or information - so the effort of putting tube-type radios into vehicles had its moments - until the Solid State revolution allows for smaller and lighter and less demanding conditions - the vehicle and the family riding in it, can enjoy Marconi - macaroni and Herb-Albert in Tijuana sound without making or becoming toast themselves.

With the above - the effort to raise the bar is no longer a barrier - but an approach to solve another condition that the re-re-make of the electric car, has required in order to become a viable contender for the market dominated by the Fossil fueled - a better motor.

So the Motor itself is not any real huge change, it's in the materials and construction to obtain those physics has changed - along with the belief or notion that the field strength and it's density - being hand in hand - one to obtain the other was needed - they boosted the voltage to provide the better flux (current) density that takes the basic 1 ton car into a 6,000 (or 3-ton) pound battering ram which suits perfectly in running over little old ladies, and their Boy Scout consorts looking to obtain their Eagle Badge - the new silent killer...

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So to tie this up, the approach is only different when you rethink the supply of the amp - which in a typical 12V car, is not truly viable - for that same reason those recharging stations must provide ... that is; the boosted voltage to overcome the cell-to-cell voltage rise that is needed to push the power into the cell to even reverse the discharge process and re-charge the cell.

In older CB days, we tried to parallel the parts to reduce the total on-resistance and drop in an effort to obtain some gain.

Other designs use the "push pull" operation of I'll give you half if you let me do the other half...

So, in a way, we're getting there...

Good to hear from you @kopcicle - with all those embers burning over there in your neck of the nation - good to see you've survived.

Don't be such a stranger.
 

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It seems that all of the gang here at worldwidedx forums along with mister nomad from nomad radio has come to a final conclusion once and for all about the modern technology being produced by Palomar Electronics.
It's all just one big fraudulent manufacturing of good re-stamping equipment and fake components as the final day approaches when Palomar shuts down the business for good.
 
I don't think you have to worry about buying anything from them. It's either not available from them or just not available for whatever reason the wholesalers are out of most everything now days.

It would be interesting to know what their junk 2030+'s are really but they're only hyped up by one idjit that trolls channel 19 7 days a week. And as for the max-mod, it's nothing special either but I'd like to know what it was before it was rebranded. That's about as far as my support for them goes, just curious what they were before they got re-stamped.
 
On a more serious note,

Palomar, Texas Star, Outcomm, or even Qixiang - no matter the make, model or mode that device works in. It had to start out as a very simple device approach to keep the complexity and parts count down.

Until competition found ways to outdo the original...

Ok, Dynascan, forgot them? Hope not, they helped in development for Uniden to take the helm because they found ways to reduce the parts count and offer similar products that performed similar in both functionality and appearances.

Yes, Uniden - not exactly on the top of the heap anymore - but neither was Realistic - even though those formers - helped Tandy keep their gumshoes working and pushing sales across the counter, and in doing this - kept food on the table for many and entertainment for the masses was not a bad way of life after all.

Midland, Robyn - many others - heled develop a framework that many take for granted today as viable means of working models for others to learn, follow and use - to this day.

Ok, what am I getting at? Each one of the above has had a common thread or theme - they all had to try various package designs - parts and the performance they exhibited and their semiconductor datasheet to guide them - found ways and possibilities that - when you yourself try to install a new part - you also will learn and find out their frustrations. The OEM versions got outdone by the parts pool they originally evolved from,

Before; there was discrete, placed carefully wired in cans, then epoxied packages onto SMD and even thin film - which results in a bane for humans - the microminiatures and downsizing lets the complexity increase to a point that an AI has to take over to solve the conditions the radio makes are now seeing in the reactive events that those very forefathers simply worked, and fudge factored to obtain a given result.

Nothing seems simple anymore...

So it is with Palomar, they got a hold of a part that now is obsolete, puts them and us in the same box - but not in the same bind.

You simply have to find the part you want - using your intuition and knowledge- find and apply what we've put out here in amplifier designs - I know I have - to help guide you to finding the right part that actually fits - one thing is not mentioned here is the LEGACY and archival means to keep something going is still there - until it's deprecated because of the demand for the part no longer exists.

Same applies to Palomar and Texas Star and Toshibas and Motorolas - they get merged, bought out - dried up - bankrupted - sent to pasture - closed their doors - all because they left the table too quickly in hopes that they didn't have to return to refill - because the ones that stayed got bored and decided to change things to make it better for them - not those that left the table. So, the standards we used to live by, are now different - so are the parts - but it's not impossible to find the part you want - just don't expect them to continue to make it so you seem to see an endless supply - it's simply not there anymore.

1675825896361.png

This may sound harsh, but asking for Free Advice is one thing - but asking for advice without it costing you anything - is not as simple as it once was.

IF you're expecting to find the needle in the haystack - quit asking someone else to find it - you will have to take those steps and find it for yourself.

Then if successful, you can stomp over those others that say "Palomar Max Mod is the best" - because you found the next best thing - and no, Max Mod is Palomar's parlay, you have a new game.
 
Uh, well... potting material can be removed and you can see what's inside... just sayin'.

Far as max mod goes, it's nothing special. It's already been proven it's no different than what it's been used to replace - Tip36c. If you've not seen it, it's on YouTube... and with an offer to see the sheets of data proving it, all ya gotta do is ask. Why buy a part that doesn't exist but is "fabricated" by silkscreen, has no real available data sheet? That's misleading to the repair guys and just plain ole ripping off customers by making wild claims of such a part being better when in no way you can prove that. You can, and it has been, proven to be exactly the opposite though... no improvement.

2030's, slight improvement on a wattmeter but keep in mind how dumb those things are, they read everything.

RT1's... the new savior... which also doesn't exist... no such part but they've been sanded down and crudely stamped with a NEW part number. It's false advertising, misleading and plain ole lying to the customer/consumer. It goes farther than this but this is all it's worthy of my time on it...
 
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It seems that all of the gang here at worldwidedx forums along with mister nomad from nomad radio has come to a final conclusion once and for all about the modern technology being produced by Palomar Electronics.
It's all just one big fraudulent manufacturing of good re-stamping equipment and fake components as the final day approaches when Palomar shuts down the business for good.
Re-stamping finals and other electronic parts has been going on for many years. Look at these new radio's from RCI with this RT-1 final. It's not even a transmitting final, it's a switching transistor used in power supply's. Before X-Force amplifiers got sold they came out with their "own" (re-stamped) finals called Power Pills. The PP100 was a replacement for the Toshiba 2879 and the PP60 was a 2290. X-Force paid to have PP100 and PP60 stamped on them. What were they really? Who knows, probably either a DEI or HG.

When Sam Lewis passed away for the most part so did RF Limited and Magnum radio's. His son or grandson tried to keep the company going by bringing back the Palomar name from the 80's. Covid and the current economic downturn plus inflation is making things tough for these company's. I really want to see Palomar (RF Limited) pull through.
 
I have not seen the max mod tested against the 817,827, or 754 like transistors.
Against the TIP36 it fails miserably.
To keep it simple assume it's nothing more than a linear voltage regulator circuit.

And that's easy to compute power dissipation to get an idea if it's even going to work.
P = EI

An example would be a radio with a C-E voltage drop of 5.5 volts drawing a worst case scenario of 6 amps thru the transistor.
That gives us 33 watts of power dissipation.
If we have these values for a max mod, it's 33 watts.
If we have these values for a 2SB754 it's 33 watts.
The heatsink is constant unless you add more to that so it's a fixed variable.

Which one runs cooler if both devices are dissipating 33 watts into the same heatsink?
That's the pickle.... and an exercise for the reader :)

The max mod is a good replacement for the 817 or 827 or 754, etc.
Albeit an expensive one over a TIP36c which is what I would use because it's cheap and it's available.


Now, the MOSFET replacement of BJTs in a circuit that was intended for a BJT is going to suffer from other issues.

Edit: clarify current thru device not whole radio.
 

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