Welcome to the new FlexRadio Community! Please review the new Community Rules and other important new Community information on the Message Board.
If you are having a problem, please refer to the product documentation or check the Help Center for known solutions.
Need technical support from FlexRadio? It's as simple as Creating a HelpDesk ticket.

Power Supply Woes

2»

Answers

  • dlwarnberg
    dlwarnberg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016
    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
    Gerald-K5SDR FlexRadio Employee ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    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
    Gerald-K5SDR FlexRadio Employee ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    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
    dlwarnberg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016
    I thought the same thing, I would assume FLEX tested this particular power supply for noise and deemed it within tolerance...

    David
  • Walt - KZ1F
    Walt - KZ1F Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    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
    dlwarnberg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016
    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
    George KF2T Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Mike - David's right on the money.
  • George KF2T
    George KF2T Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    A good switching supply can be extremely clean.
  • KY6LA_Howard
    KY6LA_Howard Member ✭✭✭
    edited February 2016
    When you run off the Powergate ... make sure you are using the battery as the primary source of power not your PS
  • dlwarnberg
    dlwarnberg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016
  • Norm - W7CK
    Norm - W7CK Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    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
    Jim Gilliam Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016

    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
    Norm - W7CK Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    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
    W9OY Member ✭✭
    edited February 2016
    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
    Norm - W7CK Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    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
    Ken - NM9P Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    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
    KY6LA_Howard Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2016
    Yes. I connect the equipment to the battery side of the power gate

Leave a Comment

Rich Text Editor. To edit a paragraph's style, hit tab to get to the paragraph menu. From there you will be able to pick one style. Nothing defaults to paragraph. An inline formatting menu will show up when you select text. Hit tab to get into that menu. Some elements, such as rich link embeds, images, loading indicators, and error messages may get inserted into the editor. You may navigate to these using the arrow keys inside of the editor and delete them with the delete or backspace key.