Power Supply Woes

dlwarnberg

Mike... I know you are asking George but.... West mountain Radio Super Power Gate...  http://www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_id=pg40s

I'm using 2 SLR100's (http://www.vmaxtanks.com/SLR100-AGM-Solar-Battery_p_37.html) 

Whatever battery you choose, be sure they are safe for indoor use.. i.e. they do not need to be vented.

David

Gerald-K5SDR

NB and WNB will never help on the types of noise in the screen shots above.  Those are real signals (e.g. QRM not QRN).  Power supplies are transmitters with lots of strong harmonics.

Gerald-K5SDR

Make sure you use type 31 ferrite material toroids.  If you don't know what the material is, it probably won't help.  Many junk box toroids don't help at HF.

dlwarnberg

I thought the same thing, I would assume FLEX tested this particular power supply for noise and deemed it within tolerance...

David

Walt - KZ1F

Not familiar with the post you referenced. I assumed it perhaps was due to modified sine wave. FRS sold me a switched astron 25amp. I figured, as it came from them, it was good.

dlwarnberg

Walt, if you look at my post it's the solar pool pump, there are attached pictures to show it.. one is taken with the pump on the other is with pump off...  so I know whats causing the issue.. there are other birdies there and I've found that to be the power supply for the most part....

David

George KF2T

Mike - David's right on the money.

George KF2T

A good switching supply can be extremely clean.

KY6LA_Howard

When you run off the Powergate ... make sure you are using the battery as the primary source of power not your PS

dlwarnberg

Gerald, thank you... looking at these... 
http://www.fair-rite.com/cgibin/catalog.pgm?THEAPPL=Suppression+Components&THEWHERE=Cable+Compon...

Norm - W7CK

Many of the newer pool pumps, AC motors, well pumps, chargers, TVs and other devices generate a bunch of birdies or hash.  You can spend a bunch of time tracking down the noise generators you own but then a lot of these generate signals that go over a hundred yards.  Pretty hard to deal with signal or noise generators that belong to the neighbors 3 doors down!

Jim Gilliam

Yep, that's why I remote from my cabin in Big Bear. So far, it's rural enough that my noise floor is -125 dBm. However, I don't expect it to last forever.

Jim, K6QE

Norm - W7CK

I run most of my station on a 12v battery bank built on four 6v golf cart batteries.  It makes for a very nice emergency radio system and it is pretty quiet.

I do have a switcher that I used in the past.  Its a power-werx SS-30DV.  The darn thing is pretty quiet and I would highly recommend it.  Very small, light, efficient and doesn't create a bunch of heat like the linear supplies.   I have an older Astron linear supply but I never use it any more.  Big, heavy, creates a bunch of heat and uses a lot of power just sitting there doing nothing.

W9OY

I'm using 3 Samlex 1223's  one for the 6500 one for the 6300 and one for peripherals and none of them are noisy.  I switched from Astron linear supplies because the transformer buzz in the Astrons used to drive me nuts.  They were RF quiet but physically very annoying.  I also had a Samlex 1235 which was RF quiet but had a fan which would turn off and on all the time.  The 1223's have fans but I have yet to hear one turn on.  I live in the sticks and some days my local noise is in the -130 to -135 dBm range on some bands.  I like the 1223's because you can often pick them up on ebay for 60 or 70 bucks

73  W9OY

Norm - W7CK

I'm not exactly sure what your talking about here Howard.

I personally run four 6v golf cart batteries and keep a large charger on them.  My equipment is wired to a fused block that comes directly off of the batteries.

Although I usually get about 6-7 years out of my batteries, the next time I need to replace them, I'm thinking of going with an AGM and then maybe the Powergate to keep the battery charged.  Safer I guess......

Are you saying that you use the Powergate to charge the battery and then connect all of your fused equipment directly to the battery?   This has always made more sense to me than running the equipment thru the Powergate.

Norm

Ken - NM9P

I also use the Alinco DM330 and have never noticed any power supply generated noise, except for below the AM Broadcast Band.  Now, Perhaps there could be some general wide-band white noise, but short of testing with a battery in an A/B situation, I wouldn't know it...That is a test for another day....

Ken - NM9P

KY6LA_Howard

Yes. I connect the equipment to the battery side of the power gate