Power supplies..

[Muzic2Me]

Wanting to inquire on Power supplies. I've reviewed endless GMRS Mobile/base station radios. I was going to possibly go with the Wouxon KG1000G. I have read great/ and not so great about them. I have HT Owouxon and would like to keep it together since I have been pretty stream less on getting through the menu for the most part (unless convinced not to purchase). But onto the power supply for it. It looks as if I need a 30 amp by my readings. Does anyone have any feedback on a chosen power supply unit.  I haven't been able to locate what the specs. of the current draw is. I do know it's a 13.8vdc output power of 50/20/10/5 watts.   I'm still thinking of what the continuous amps would have to be, and I assume that there isn't a Max amperage I have to worry about.   Wouxon SPS31win rated at 30 max; 20A Continuous.  Any advice/ preference is welcomed.

 

On a side note. Maybe one that will supply two radios, so when I get a HAM. I will knock out two-birds with one-stone..??

 

[wayoverthere]

19 minutes ago, Muzic2Me said:

Wanting to inquire on Power supplies. I've reviewed endless GMRS Mobile/base station radios. I was going to possibly go with the Wouxon KG1000G. I have read great/ and not so great about them. I have HT Owouxon and would like to keep it together since I have been pretty stream less on getting through the menu for the most part (unless convinced not to purchase). But onto the power supply for it. It looks as if I need a 30 amp by my readings. Does anyone have any feedback on a chosen power supply unit.  I haven't been able to locate what the specs. of the current draw is. I do know it's a 13.8vdc output power of 50/20/10/5 watts.   I'm still thinking of what the continuous amps would have to be, and I assume that there isn't a Max amperage I have to worry about.   Wouxon SPS31win rated at 30 max; 20A Continuous.  Any advice/ preference is welcomed.

 

On a side note. Maybe one that will supply two radios, so when I get a HAM. I will knock out two-birds with one-stone..??

 

20A continuous is more than enough for a 50 watt mobile.  One of the users that has a KG1000G can say better than i can what they've seen for current draw, but in the ballpark of 10-11 amps is what sticks in my head.  my 50 watt rated Btech shows just shy of 10 amp draw on high power, and around the same for my 45 and 50 watt rated vertex mobiles. 

onto the multiple radio question: just as you're thinking, i wanted to size up to have some headroom for ham gear.  the big consideration is looking at the most current you'll be drawing at once, and keeping that under the continuous rating of your power supply.  if you think there's a chance you'd be transmitting high power on more than one radio at a time, you might want a little more headroom.  I'm currently running 3  45 and 50 watt rated mobile radios from an Alinco (I believe it's the DM30TR) with the same 20A continuous, 30A peak.  I'm only ever transmitting on 1 at a time, so that's more than enough headroom for me; with all 3 scanning/listening, draw runs around 0.5A.  I want to say i've seen a couple other members mention this Tekpower PSU working well for their setups.  once you get into bigger wattage, the current draw gets bigger as well, so it may be better to size up more depending what you have in mind (one of those buy once, cry once kind of things).

on switching versus linear regulated, i've seen no difference in noise with this switching PSU, generally the reputable brands' models designed for radio will do fairly well at avoiding noise.  both my Alinco and that Tekpower have a 'noise offset' to move any 'birdies' you may run into, but even testing back to back battery vs psu, i haven't found any noise in gmrs.  haven't tested back to back on the ham stuff, but i haven't noticed anything from the PSU either (though i have other noise around, definitely). 

[Muzic2Me]

Thanks for the prompt response and the info you have provided.

”Buy once,cry once”…. Isn’t that the truth. I like that phrase!

[wayoverthere]

I definitely have a few places I've learned from my mistakes, mostly due to lack of research, and jumping at what seemed like a good price...and paid in extra effort and/ or frustration instead.

[billwil]

I have a KG1000-G and run it on a 30A continuous power supply.  At 50 watts, I've never really seen it use more than 10 Watts when transmitting.  It might go to 11 when I'm not looking just for that little extra (extra credit for the reference).  Anyway, a 30A power supply should handle two 50 W radios, especially if you're not transmitting on both at the same time...which shouldn't happen very often if ever.  But if you want to be sure, and plan on using both radios at the same time for transmitting, you could go a little higher on the continuous rating just to be sure.

[wayoverthere]

Not so much a product suggestion as a source...I've been checking out hamestate dot com, and they have some seemingly decent deals on some astron linear power supplies...I'm tempted. There's a triband alinco HT tempting me too, but I don't really have a use for 1.2ghz

[Muzic2Me]

11 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

Not so much a product suggestion as a source...I've been checking out hamestate dot com, and they have some seemingly decent deals on some astron linear power supplies...I'm tempted. There's a triband alinco HT tempting me too, but I don't really have a use for 1.2ghz

Cool site. Thanks

[Muzic2Me]

11 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

Not so much a product suggestion as a source...I've been checking out hamestate dot com, and they have some seemingly decent deals on some astron linear power supplies...I'm tempted. There's a triband alinco HT tempting me too, but I don't really have a use for 1.2ghz

[Muzic2Me]

12 hours ago, billwil said:

I have a KG1000-G and run it on a 30A continuous power supply.  At 50 watts, I've never really seen it use more than 10 Watts when transmitting.  It might go to 11 when I'm not looking just for that little extra (extra credit for the reference).  Anyway, a 30A power supply should handle two 50 W radios, especially if you're not transmitting on both at the same time...which shouldn't happen very often if ever.  But if you want to be sure, and plan on using both radios at the same time for transmitting, you could go a little higher on the continuous rating just to be sure.

I ended up purchasing the Astron SS-30m-AP switching. We will see how it works , hopefully before the weekend

[serrasalmus]

i use to use a jackery 240 to power my kg1000g and i dont have amps but the highest wattage i ever seen it draw was around 130watts im sure someone smarter then me can convert this into amps.....the damn math and formulas are keeping me from my tech ticket....

[SteveShannon]

3 hours ago, serrasalmus said:

i use to use a jackery 240 to power my kg1000g and i dont have amps but the highest wattage i ever seen it draw was around 130watts im sure someone smarter then me can convert this into amps.....the damn math and formulas are keeping me from my tech ticket....

Divide watts by volts to get amps.  An advertisement for the Jackery 240 mentions 14.4 volts, so divide 130 watts by 14.4 volts and you get a little more than 9 amps.

[Muzic2Me]

38 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Divide watts by volts to get amps.  An advertisement for the Jackery 240 mentions 14.4 volts, so divide 130 watts by 14.4 volts and you get a little more than 9 amps.

Ohms Law   

[Muzic2Me]

Chomping at the bit for my delivery tomorrow and Friday. Finally will have a radio other than a HT. YaY! for me.

[PartsMan]

Does anybody make one with a battery backup built in?

[Muzic2Me]

5 minutes ago, PartsMan said:

Does anybody make one with a battery backup built in?

 

5 minutes ago, PartsMan said:

Does anybody make one with a battery backup built in?

 

6 minutes ago, PartsMan said:

Does anybody make one with a battery backup built in?

(1) Pilot G2 - Rugged LiFePo4 power system, made in the USA - Bing video

[Muzic2Me]

Just now, Muzic2Me said:

 

This site has pretty On-The-Go stuff   Hardened Power Systems, USA – Helping you get more out of the gear you already have. (portableuniversalpower.com)

(1) Pilot G2 - Rugged LiFePo4 power system, made in the USA - Bing video

 

[MichaelLAX]

21 minutes ago, PartsMan said:

Does anybody make one with a battery backup built in?

I used to use my Duracell Powerpack 600 with its included Anderson Powerpoles as my 12v home power supply. Was $145 with free shipping from Amazon .

[AdmiralCochrane]

My first VHF/UHF power supply was a hand me down UPS that my wife gave me when she upgraded the UPS for her computer.  I just cracked it open and tapped onto the battery. 

Not long after that I saw a video about converting computer server power supplies to power ham equipment.  There are some units that only take a little bit of mods to get you a 500 watt 13.8v power supply.  Install 1 jumper and turn a potentiomenter to jack the voltage to 13.8.  One I gave away was rated for 750 watts at its nominal 12v.  I think I paid $30 shipped on eBay. 

There is suspiction that these may have some RF noise at some frequencies, but if so, no one has found noise in any common ham (including most HF), LMR or GMRS band.