I have a radio like that, when i press the ptt on the microphone to transmit no bar appears on the display, What could it be? Greetings from Monterrey México
Bad idea to twist that harmonic null adjustment in the back unless of course you want to see more wattage out but you'll notice when you turn the wattage up the SWR goes up to now why could that possibly be gee maybe it's because you're not adding any wattage on the 11 m BAND you're just turning up the harmonic wattage on 6 m and 81 and 108 MHz and on up the band no you don't want harmonics your antenna is not tuned for that that causes the final to heat up and pop also causes spurious interference just leave the precisely tuned harmonic choke alone in the back.
I just bought a new one off Amazon and the board is different than what you show in the video, I can't see a D203 diode anywhere and the only one underneath that metal is D201, do you know if the D201 will do the same as removing D203?
@JohnVeitch1 did you ever find out the answer to your question? I was thinking about buying one from Amazon. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of info out there on the newer ones.
This is the best video for this amp I have seen on yt. Would this be the same tuning sequence for the newer brown face Maverick dual power amp that came just after the grey? Also did you set the swr calibrate while the amp was keyed up? Again, thanks for sharing all this great info' about these fine amplifiers! 73 160 MI. ✌
The tuning sequence should be the same for all Mavericks as well as other tube linears. Always set your SWR calibration keyed up. You will have to reset calibration if you turn the amp off and run your radio standalone.
I would have just used the ANL switch on the front of the radio. Just wire the ANL so its always on. ( I never turn it off anyway lol ) Then use the switch in series with one leg of the diode to have the best of both worlds. Can't hear me, flips switch... Can You Hear Me NOW !!!lol
The right way is is to change the value of the loading resistor ..and get the deadkey to about 1 watt and when u modulate u will see 25 plus... But there is some other parts u must change ..do not remove the diode ... U want to put a cap and and diode in series ...
Great video. Im subscribed. Im in the market for a new base station ground plane. Im on the fence between this Maco V58, the new Sirio Monsoon, a Solarcon MaxOptimizer or for one of the 3 big boys, i.e. Excaliber, Shockwave or Colossal 10k. Can you give me your thoughts? Id like to make a video of my upgrade one day. Just a big decision you know? Lol.
Decrease Power Increase deviation Equals slightly garbled voice over lower power. So why do it?? Also, the KL203P will happily handle 6 to 8 watts on am and fm, and 10 to 15 watts PEP on ssb. As a guide the output from the 203p is average of 10x the input.
I have one of these but is says thunderbird 350?(looks like homemade stickers) but looks just like this 250 u have here in video showed n learned a lot I am most grateful some more information on this particular model (serial no. DPM-51077) I turned the dials or knobs wen I ran it just a lil bit idk what I was doing and if my meters waz correct was doing about 900watts most I seen was 1200 so I cruise on 900 b gladly to share pictures and any video of this box if I can learn a little more again thank you for this video you done really showed me how to tune the box 💯
Back in the cb days I had one worked great till I accidentally had to many beers one night and drove about 150 watts into her. She wasn’t happy about that at all.
I dont get it: this is the second (US)video about the Kl203p amp Saying only 2 watt The specs says Max 10 Watt input. Being causious I set my dead key/ Radio to 8 to 8,5 watts Wich gives me dependant at frequency between 80 and 110 watts output! It doesnt blow up! This is on Fm . On AM I the variable output of the radio drops , so I also turn it a bit up till 8 watts
I don't recommend more than 1 watt imput with this amp. 2 watts or more will cause it to splatter, and probably also cause a squeal in a cheap radio. I have a KL203P connected to a President McKinley radio, with the power turned down to 1 watt, it seems to work fine, no squeal, and will not overdrive the amp and burn it out. This amp uses MOSFETS, and they are pretty fragile.
@@mrsteve9920 the metal causes a problem being on those pots. If you just touch the metal screwdriver there and take it off and touch it and take it off a few times you'll see on a meter or a good test equipment the effect of that. The metal screwdriver will not flex and you run the risk of damaging the pot or the adjustment. The plastic alignment tool will give in flex a little bit before damaging the component
I just acquired one of these. I really don’t know much about it. All the tubes light up. That’s about all I know. Any chance you could provide any docs on this thing?
My swr goes from a 1/1 to a 2/1 during rain snow or ice. Measurements are good, coax seal on coax.. drip loop on wire and coax itself, the swr is great in good weather. Horrible in rain. It blew up my 700$ carl built amplifier.. I didn't know it started raining, shew. I talk all over the world. But this high swr in rain is killing me.
@gmeister03 if you run below a 2/1 or even 3/1 on a barefoot radio especially a new one like a stryker or anytone like mine then your fine. They have automatic swr protection built in. But they can about all handle anything below 3/1.. running power is where your problem is. Most boxes say no more then 1.3swr
i have not had any problem with mine going to high swr in rain etc, running high power you need to be using rfc400 coax minimum or you will have a high swr from using smaller coax did you use the coax seal? if not you did not you could have water in your coax
I still have a hard time understanding why the copper wire (center lead for the coax) is connected to ground. Would it short out the output section of the radio or amplifier?
It kind of doesn't matter. You simply need to land the overall measurement. What is it.... 248" top to bottom? And that's right to the bottom where the mast slides into the base of the antenna. 248 tip to bottom and use the wire/coil combo to fine tune. As long as the length is right that coil will do the rest I promise
You would think that the connecting wire would be thicker for 5000 watts. I'll have to run it through the Watt's Law calculator. Current equals the square root of power divided by resistance, so the wire needs to be able to handle 10 amps.
And it's also a bare wire. Which means it can heat without damaging anything. Unless it fries to a crisp. In the latter case you shouldn't slam a 10k slug in the corner on this antenna without some major upgrades. Can totally totally be done though
If it was me I would set the radio dead key down to about 2 1/2 Watts and you will probably get a little louder modulation. And most likely you will probably get a better average forward swing.
IIRC, the 6AQ5 is the tube that operates the keying circuit. From the manual, that's a post-1974 amp because that's when the radio power limits were changed from 5 watts input on AM/15 watts input PEP on SSB to the current 4 watts output on AM/12 watts output on SSB. These were quite popular before 1972 because the most popular antennas could handle the power output. The CLR2 was rated for 300 watts and the Super Magnum was rated for 350 watts. If you wanted to run a Phantom, Skipper 300, or bigger you needed a beam, Mosley Devant, or the Astro Plane. That changed when the Penetrator and Starduster were introduced in 1972.
The output of these amps is full of harmonics, which means that your transmitting on many frequencies all at the same time, not what you want to do, particularly if you're doing something that is illegal. Consider using a low pass filter between the amp and the your antenna, this will remove the harmonics.
@@geraldscott4302 Not sure if what you say is true, I will have to test. However my amp amplifies about ten time, so I would get about 10 watts out, not worth the trouble. An approximate 3db improvement, by adding an amp, over a stock radio would hardly be noticeable.
Looks like removing the diode causes overmodulation and distortion. Audio is best at about 60-70% modulation and no higher. Otherwise distortion reigns and your signal splatters over 3 channels. But whatever. It’s just CB, right?
I love how guys talk about splatter. Pretty sure it's only detected when running large amounts of power. In the real world if it don't splatter, it don't matter. You keep trying to make contacts with your 60-70% modulation. 😅 I'll walk right over you. Small block 422 Illinois gettin down 73s
Don't get me wrong, I do not promote the removal of any limiters in a radio. They usually have a variable you can turn up instead to achieve the 100% modulation you want out of a radio. I'd recommend doing that instead and put ur on a scope if you have such test equipment.
Hi Mr. Steve! this exact video was such a great guide to using both units and I had great luck with the 505xl on its own, but when I added the KL203P, I get a gnarly squeal on transmit. I have an SWR of 1:1.05, and a short coax jumper from radio to amp. they're both powered off of a 30A 12V circuit in my car and I have it set at exactly 2W radio output as suggested. when I bypass the amp, I don't get a squeal and the signal is super clean. when the amp is on however, I can almost hear the squeal from the radio itself. I've read some solutions like an RF choke on the power leads or mic cord but was wondering if you had any thoughts. Thank you in advance!
Good day Weston. I haven't experienced any squeal with this setup. Are you using the stock microphone or a power mic? Is it possible that you are getting feedback from an external speaker?
@mrsteve9920 stock microphone, no external speaker. A ferrite on the mic helped a little, and I double-checked my SWR on 19 at a solid 1:1, needle hardly moves.
They are not junk radios, I have one that the serial number ends in 08 these are the best radios I got it from Bell's CB radio tune with a red devil power mic in a jeep I'm getting a true 34 W out of it, as far as distance and talking loud believe it or not it's right up there with my Striker 655 this is a nice little radio, my friend has one of these in his Jeep that I sold him set up the same way will a 5 ft fire stick tunable antenna and you would think he was talking on a big radio
