On a sunny day (Thu, 6 Oct 2005 16:11:20 +0100) it happened "The Magnum"
wrote in
:
I forgot to ask, do you think the 10-14A PSU i have will be strong enough to
power this (when on full power) or should i think about getting a 20A one?
I have used an 8A computer AT supply, it works on that, used it with an ampere
meter, kept the current below 8A... that is RF power knob a bit before middle
position.
Now it is on a 12V 12Ah gel battery, and charging from an AC adaptor I
modified to make 13.56 volt (and it has current limit).
So, the battery is always charging, but with about 1 A maximum.
The battery is made by 'Enduring' (China).
I have not run out of battery power yet....
In theory it give should less then an hour at full power,
but in SSB you are on average much lower then that, only the peak current
counts.
Your 14A PSU will not be able to handle the SSB peak of 18A, at full RF
power.
Although my charger is only 1A, the battery will do 18 A peak no problem.
These links are about SSB average power, quoting an average of about 14dB:
http://www.ac6rm.net/mailarchive/htm.../msg01197.html
http://www.ac6rm.net/mailarchive/htm.../msg00596.html
So, maybe 1/8 the power on average, so 12/18 * 8 = 5.3 hours speech at
150W PEP in SSB on a battery charge...
In FM much less time, given half the time speaking at 12A perhaps 2 hours...
So, the gist is, you can get away in SSB with a small power supply and a good
small battery.
That will give you isolated hum free operation too, and you are still OK
if power fails, say in case of flooding or some disaster.
That is why I did it this way (and it was cheaper then a new 18A PSU too).
It is your choice, you can always use reduced power.