What power supply do you recommend for SO2R operations

Martin Bérubé

I have participated in the WW DIGI contest last weekend. That was my first SO2R operations ever. I was using a Flex 6600. Evertthing went well but, at the end of the contest, my power supply decided to show some disagrements after a day of near continus tramsmission.

So here is my question to experienced Flex SO2R operators. What kind of power supply do you use or recommant for your radio.

Thanks,

Tim - W4TME

I have always had excellent performance from my Astron RS-35M. It has been going strong for close to 20 years.

Tim K9WX

I have been using an Astron RS-35M with my 6600 for several years for SO2R with good results and no problems. I don't run a lot of other station accessories off of it, however. Typically just a KAT500 antenna tuner and a SixPak antenna switch.

With two slices open, the meter on the power supply shows a 14 amp current draw when transmitting on FT8. This is considerably lower than the 25 amp requirement stated in the 6600 hardware reference manual.

Joe N3HEE

What do you mean by disagreements ? The RS-35 should be fine for what you are doing. I use the Astron RS-50M. More than enough current to run multiple radios and accessories. It also runs a little cooler during long contests. I never pay attention to the meters. You can save some $$ and go with RS-50A.

Martin Bérubé

Joe,

This mean a capacitor blew up. Is is a RS-32A

Thank you for your comment.

Joe N3HEE

Who is the manufacturer of that power supply ? Astron makes very good highly reliable power supplies.

Martin Bérubé

It's an Astron RS-35A

EBSDallas

I use a pair of RS-35A’s. One powers only the radio (6600). The other runs various shack accessories (HF-Auto, antenna switch etc.). I have had both for years and have not had a problem with either of them except for the incandescent meter lights burning out (replaced with blue leds). While I often run digital modes, I do not do any digital contesting. I do run a little casual cw contesting and a lot of serious phone contesting and they have kept up without issue. Does yours run more than just the rig? It’s always possible yours had/has a marginal component in it that isn’t up to the stress imposed by extended digital contesting. It might be worth a call to Astron. I’ve always found them to be very helpful and pleasant to deal with.

Stan VA7NF

The best configuration is a 10-100 Ah battery with marine circuit breaker (low resistance, no fuse contacts to film over) that is charged by any of the suggested power supplies through an appropriate charger - I am not recommending any specific hardware as it will change with the battery type chosen. Note: Many Li-ion batteries have enclosed charge controllers so they can be charged directly from the PS.

The advantages are:

+ Pure DC with most PS birdies filtered out and a .01 uf mica for HF+ and .1uf capacitor for audio in parallel across the battery helps even more

+ Several hours operation if the power drops, even better bridging a partial second drop often due to lightning

+ I use a 7 Ah Li-ion bicycle battery + Marine 30A breaker (protection + on/off switch) mounted inside my grab and go box; as well have a 110 Ah AGM inside my shack

+ Fairly even draw on the PS as the battery takes the surge, also lighter gauge is possible if your PS is distant; but use 8 or 10 between battery and rig