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Power Supply for 20 Watt Radio


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Posted
1 minute ago, WRYY282 said:

Can a 20 Amp peak, 16amp continuous power supply handle a 20 watt radio?

Power Supply
Astron RS-20M-AP Desktop 13.8VDC Linear Power Supply with Meters and Anderson Power Poles, 20A Peak, 16A Continuous https://a.co/d/5DZ8vIP
 

Radio https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-xs20g.html

 

 

Yes. The current drawn by a 20 watt radio when transmitting will probably be about 5 or 6 amps. It’ll be under an amp on standby. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, WRYY282 said:

Can a 20 Amp peak, 16amp continuous power supply handle a 20 watt radio?

Power Supply
Astron RS-20M-AP Desktop 13.8VDC Linear Power Supply with Meters and Anderson Power Poles, 20A Peak, 16A Continuous https://a.co/d/5DZ8vIP
 

Radio https://www.buytwowayradios.com/wouxun-kg-xs20g.html

 

 

You have headroom to spare. (Time for another radio? 😉)

My 20 watt rated at779uv runs around 5A draw on high, and even my 45 and 50 watt radios (btech, vertex, icom) don't top 11A on high power. Haven't checked the idle draw for the anytone, but with 2 vertex single band  vhf/uhf radios and a btech 50x1 all monitoring, my psu was only showing around 0.5A draw (yes, half an Amp).

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Posted
8 hours ago, WRYY282 said:

Can a 20 Amp peak, 16amp continuous power supply handle a 20 watt radio?

Power Supply
Astron RS-20M-AP Desktop 13.8VDC Linear Power Supply with Meters and Anderson Power Poles, 20A Peak, 16A Continuous https://a.co/d/5DZ8vIP

A better power supply (IMO) is a Mean Well LRS series unit. A Mean Well LRS-12-360 supply can be bought from Amazon for less than $40 and can supply the 13.8V needed by the radio with medical grade power. It doesn't have the fancy meters and you'll need a cheap volt meter to adjust the output voltage but once set you can forget it for the next 20 years or more. I know of several public safety sites that use these supplies in their repeater sites.

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Posted

Yes a 20 amp power supply will be plenty for a 20 watt radio. You could even run a single 50 watt radio on that power supply. Most 50 radios will draw around 12-13 amps at full power. Now if you think you might end up running two 50 watt radios at the same time then get a 30 watt power supply.

One thing to remember with power supplies (and generators) is that they are rated for the maximum/peak amperage. On average the continuous amperage they will run is 80% of the peak amperage. So with your 20 watt PS, you can easily run up to 16 amps continuously.

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