If you insist on using the mag mount please have somebody shooting video when you key up for the first time. I have never seen fireworks and the following "China Syndrome" melt down like you are about to experience.
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Texas Star DX1600 - Impedance Matching
- Thread starter gameover
- Start date
He's been keying on it Tallman. Read his first post. Relays chattering and blowing fuses. Hmmm, I think he has an issue and it's not impedance matching. It's lack of proper capacitive coupling I beleive. I could be totally wrong though. I'm just a cb'er!!
I think he screwed the keying circuit. The fuses for the control circuits should not be popping. Sounds like the transistor that drives the keying relay is fried. You are sharper than some ham banders.
OK I understand the fuse thing now. The largest amplifier I ever ran with my Wilson 5000 mag mount was a Texas Star 667 and I really felt I was right at the limit of a Mag mount. The RG8x coax is fine and so is the coil of the antenna for a sweet 16. Problem is the whole magnet mount ground thing just can't cut it hence your SWR issue you are having.
I would also say you are overdriving that amp as far as the peak wattage input. A Texas Star sweet 16 should hit it's rated wattage with 100 peak watts of drive. More then that and you will start blowing fuses, finals, and the keying circuit.
A 4 pill is about the most I've ever seen run through a mag mount ever!! Wouldn't even think about it with an 8 pill. Don't care how many magnets are on the mount. Hard mount is needed IMO. Yes, antenna and coax will work, but I'd still be careful about that much power with the stock coax and connectors. The magnet mount itself is the issue here I beleive and is the cause of most of the problems the poster is having. Might not be, but if I had to nail to just one thing, the magnet mount would be it. The antenna may need to be tuned, but not with a magnet mount and 8 pill setup. Maybe I am wrong, but from prior experience, I'd venture to say it's his main issue that should be addressed before proceeding any further or risking anymore possible damage to the amp, radio, and electronics in the vehicle. Again, JMHO.
I have seen 8 pills, even a 16 pill used on the older Wilson 5000's. Somehow it held up. But these newer 5000's made by Barjan, they have been blowing up or have meltdowns with just 2 and 4 pills. They are junk. These are the ones made in the last 2-3 years.
Yep. Agreed Crusher!! Had 2 fail out of the box new. Tried several different whips as well, best vswr reading I could obtain was 1.7:1. And the R and X values weren't good either. Do you think a magnet mounted one will work with an 8 pill. I too have seen older Wilson 5000's be used with a mag mount and a 4 pill Dave made with a cobra 25 driving it. That was the max I ha ever seen a mag mount take other than the tri mag mount and open coil antenna I have that was used on a 95 Nissan Pathfinder 4 door SUV. Had the 980 with the TNT 600HD in it for a bit, but no way in hell would I have even attempted to run an 8 pill setup with the magnet mount. I would be breaking out the drill and be adding something like this. Or one of the many Breedlove puck mounts. Hard mounted, and if the Wilson 5000 the poster has with some good rg8x or even LMR240UF or LMR400UF would work I would think. The old ones were built well like you said. These new ones suck!! Someone said they were tightening up on the QC issues, but I wouldn't buy a new one. I'd get a sirio performer 5000 before I did that. Or a predator 10k 17" or 22" shaft. Depends on the vehicle. Again these are JMHO's.
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LOL, back when I didn't know much better, around 2001. I was running a 16 with a 1x2 driver into a Wilson 5000 magnet mount. This was before I started reading specs and getting to know all the equipment. Not just watts. LOL. I was DK'ing around 500 swing 1600 on a Drake W4. I ran it for a summer like that. I at least had enough common sense to cut end off and put a pl259 on it. Back then those adapter ends weren't the greatest. It was rg8x. But I was amazed at how much you could see thru shielding back then. I'm sure quality is even less now. I ran this for a summer and did pretty good. I still run that Wilson 5000. The vehicle I drive, I like too much to put a hole in. So now I just run 4 X 1446 and happy with what I get.
Dangit I am suprised the mag mounts didn't give!! And yes you know of the sma-pl259, 2 piece POS coax connector they used!! First thing I did was to change my coax and connector to some better rg8x and a good amphenol connector. I still have my old (15+yrs), Wilson 5000 mag mount and the antenna is still being used currently. It worked when the 2 new ones wouldn't LOL! But at any rate man you got lucky. I got bit. (zapped), once good by my mic good. After that it was check all coax connections almost daily to make sure everything was right and tight! Boy those were the days LOL!! Now I am happy with 100 watts max base and the 50 watts my optima mk3 does. If I need more power I always have toys. 
About the same here hotrod. Magnum 257 (non hp) or a uniden 980, and a TNT 600hd have been the most I've put through either of my mag mount antennas. Those being an old Wilson 5000, pre Barjan, and my sirio performer with the pl145 mag mount and lmr240 coax on both setups. Just wouldn't go 8 pill myself without a good hard mount and antenna setup.
This is one of those rare situations I think the original poster would be better off going to DTB Radio and getting a lesson on the four to one ratio
and scaling the output of the radio to meet the input requirements of the amplifier.
To the original poster, go back to your technician and have him set your carrier at 20 watts with a peak power of 80 watts and if your radio is unable to achieve that scale it back a little and you should be somewhere in the ballpark when you get done.
and scaling the output of the radio to meet the input requirements of the amplifier.
To the original poster, go back to your technician and have him set your carrier at 20 watts with a peak power of 80 watts and if your radio is unable to achieve that scale it back a little and you should be somewhere in the ballpark when you get done.
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For real....NEVER, NEVER use mag. mount. Or at least NEVER use mag mount with power, and if you HAVE to run a coil antenna make sure it is rated for 3x the power your going to run.
Although you keep amp. tech's working by not sticking to this rule.
Although you keep amp. tech's working by not sticking to this rule.
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