WHAT TYPE OF AMP IS THIS?

[RFEverywhere]

Good Sunday Morning.

I am being sent a "Little Red Hooker 250" amp. Attached is a photo. Does anyone know anything about these? What type of transistors it has and how many? I currently have a Galaxy 225 with 2x SD1446 and this looks to be the same as any other 2x 1446 transistor amp, but I am unsure. Can't find any info on the net about it.

Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[psycho]

When you get the amp why not open it up and look for yourself?

 

[222DBFL]

Yup, psycho said it right, pop the top an check it out! It could have SD1446's or similar. Looks like the average run if the mill pre built 2 pill. Check that it has a ssb relay inside as I don't see a switch. If it doesn't have a relay inside it may not be good for use on SSB. I know the palomar 225 I have, had auto ssb, it's a relay inside that kicks on and creates a delay for ssb use. Cheesy to me, but it works okay. It gets good reports as long as it's not over driven. Keep the dead key to around 1.5 watts and the pep at 12-15 watts and it should work fine. But I would definitely pop the lid and have a good look inside before I hooked it up to use. Check it out basically abs make sure all components are good, don't want to take out your radio with a bad amp. JMO. God bless.

 

[AudioShockwav]

I currently have a Galaxy 225 with 2x SD1446 and this looks to be the same as any other 2x 1446 transistor amp, but I am unsure.

I am sure it is, just like all the little 225/223/green lizard/white tornado 225 plus/shooting star 225/shooting star 225 plus/palomar lizard and so on.
If you are lucky it will look like this inside:



73
Jeff

 

[RFEverywhere]

Yeah.... I know. That is what I was going to do anyway. I would be dumb not to. I get all excited when I am getting new amp for some reason even though I have 4 of them, (w/ exception of my MS500) and they're all the same thing (all a pair of 1446). Right now I am using the Galaxy 225, thanks to Xforce. I had ordered the Midnight Special 500 from them back several months ago. It has 4x 1446s, when I recieved it, I hooked it up, and this thing would drop my dead key down to basically 0 from about 2.5W, and I was not able to put anything out. It also screwed up my receive. I was not able to hear anything at all whatsoever. Thinking the unit must be defective, even though they had just built its not even a week before, I called them up and they asked me to send it back for repair. I still have not been able to send it back and I am hoping that when I get back in town next week they won't tell me that it's too late. I was a little bit disappointed at the fact that I spend so much money and the thing did not work, but honestly they are such nice people to deal with that it just took all my disappointment away. Normally if it was not a brand new amp, I would have probably open it up and tried to figure out what's going on with it, even though I am not that experienced in amps yet and I'm trying to learn about them. Anyone has had an issue like that before?

Anyway, the Galaxy 225 does have the automatic sideband relay. But I don't even use sideband. I have a good old Cobra 29 LX, which I have modded with variable power. I normally don't like to run it more than 1W into a pair of 1446's, and let it swing to about 8W or 9W. Since I don't use sideband, I went ahead and swapped out the timing capacitor for the relay in my Galaxy 225. there is still a slight delay, but not nearly as long as it was before. When you don't use sideband, it becomes kind of annoying you know?

I am just rambling on here...

But just one last thing: when I got my amp I also ordered a pair of 2879's in hopes that one day I will learn how to make an amp, and I will use them. Lately I have been looking around for an assembled board missing the two 2879 transistors. I have not been able to locate one at a decent price yet. I have been trying to figure out how I have would be able to take one of the amplifiers that I have right now with the 2x 1446's in them, and modify it to be able to put in the 2x 2879's but all I have learned is that I need to change out the Transformers in the amplifier. And that's it. I doubt it is that easy. I think the biasing has to be changed also.

Does anybody have any information on that, or does anybody know if it's even possible to modify a simple Galaxy 225 -like- amp to work with the 2x 2879's?

I will probably end up getting banned from this forum for talking too much and making very very long posts. Anyway, thank you everybody for your assistance. Mucho mucho appreciate it!!!!!

​

T H A N K Y O U​

 

[222DBFL]

Yes you can mod the amp to accept the 2879's but some of the cap values will change. If it isn't broke though, no need to fix. From the as 1446's, it might be easier to swap out with 2290's and not have to change much out, but the gain will be minimal at best IMO. The galaxy amps are clean amps and operate clean without overdriving them, exactly like you do. It is a fun hobby and I like you am learning. Used to be an AM guy, now I run mostly on SSB. The locals here used to me all over AM. But those days are gone, everyone I know now around my parts is on SSB. It's cool, I have made a lot of contacts around the world and around the the USA as well. Made some very good friends with some. And in different states!! It's cool to talk to someone on the radio, forum and then meet. Like I said, met some really good people that are now considered close friends!! Happy dx'ing and God Bless.

 

[9C1Driver]

Those were sold by copper and h&y, same mass produced 2 pill amps that got stamped with many different names. 250 gold, palomer, green lizard, galaxy, gray, boomer, blue lightning and so on. While I hope yours is the nice class ab amp with filtering that was pictured I don't think they were. As far as swapping finals skip that, if it works leave it alone. A pair of genuine 2879 finals are worth more then the amp.

 

[psycho]

Those were sold by copper and h&y, same mass produced 2 pill amps that got stamped with many different names. 250 gold, palomer, green lizard, galaxy, gray, boomer, blue lightning and so on. While I hope yours is the nice class ab amp with filtering that was pictured I don't think they were. As far as swapping finals skip that, if it works leave it alone. A pair of genuine 2879 finals are worth more then the amp.

I am betting it has 2 2290s......back from the days RF parts had them for $18 a piece.

 

[TonyV225]

I remember a few of my distrubutors carried these, They were like all the above mentioned amplifiers with the "White Tornado 225" and "Shooting Star 225" also being added in there. most had a pair of SD1446 transistors with the "Green Lizard' having a pair of 2SC2290 transistors.

I know through the years since the mid to late 1990s when these amplifiers started surfacing and flodding the market there were times where I did see different transistors most comon were the SD1446 but it wasnt uncommon to see them listed from time to time with 2SC2290 or SRF3749 it all depended where you seen them or who was listing them forsale.

 

[canoe]

Might have mrf455's in it. I have a galaxy 225 with those in it. I'm actually using it to drive an xforce 400hd. Works good, but I will agree with the delay being a little long

 

[RFEverywhere]

So I received the amp.

I am sure it is, just like all the little 225/223/green lizard/white tornado 225 plus/shooting star 225/shooting star 225 plus/palomar lizard and so on.
If you are lucky it will look like this inside:



73
Jeff

Nope!!!!! Looks nothing like that nor does it look like any other amp I've seen before. I will tske a photo and post when I get a chance.

It actually does have a pair of 1446 in it. However, the PCB board is one of the regular commercial type mass produced PCB boards that you see in every day piece of electronic equipment with the component values written on the PCB for the majority of the components.

It's very clean actually. But it does have an issue though. I think one of the transistors may be blown. I don't have variable power on my test cb yet, so when I tested it with 3.5W deadkey input, I am only getting 25W deadkey out with a swing to barely 30W with the power switch on HIGH. And for the other settings, I get 5W less on medium, & 5W less than MEDIUM on LOW.

I think I want to strip it and use the PCB board for experimenting and to see if I can figure out a way to use my brand new pair of 2879's.

I wish there was a way to cheaply and easily duplicate a pcb bord. I relationships with factories in China and can send it to have them duplicate it for me, but it's not worth the hassle and headaches if I only need several of them for experimental purposes only. Does anybody have any suggestions or any good ideas on how I can go about duplicating the board or if there are any US based companies that will duplicate the board for me for not too much money?

I will post photos of the board a soon as I get a chance.

 

[psycho]

So I received the amp.


Nope!!!!! Looks nothing like that nor does it look like any other amp I've seen before. I will tske a photo and post when I get a chance.

It actually does have a pair of 1446 in it. However, the PCB board is one of the regular commercial type mass produced PCB boards that you see in every day piece of electronic equipment with the component values written on the PCB for the majority of the components.

It's very clean actually. But it does have an issue though. I think one of the transistors may be blown. I don't have variable power on my test cb yet, so when I tested it with 3.5W deadkey input, I am only getting 25W deadkey out with a swing to barely 30W with the power switch on HIGH. And for the other settings, I get 5W less on medium, & 5W less than MEDIUM on LOW.

I think I want to strip it and use the PCB board for experimenting and to see if I can figure out a way to use my brand new pair of 2879's.

I wish there was a way to cheaply and easily duplicate a pcb bord. I relationships with factories in China and can send it to have them duplicate it for me, but it's not worth the hassle and headaches if I only need several of them for experimental purposes only. Does anybody have any suggestions or any good ideas on how I can go about duplicating the board or if there are any US based companies that will duplicate the board for me for not too much money?

I will post photos of the board a soon as I get a chance.

I am completely at a loss for words.

 

[RFEverywhere]

Here are some pictures....