Amp for UNMODIFIED CB Radio

You can drive a so called high drive amp with a stock radio. I've got several twin final galaxy type radios and I don't put over 2 watts into any amp I've ever had. But the high drive amps are supposed to take 4 watts O.K. It is a pretty simple job to fix a hi-lo power switch on a cobra 29. As to where you can get one.......off hand I don't know. I buy most all of my stuff used when I find a good deal. I've got a Texas Star 667V, second one I've owned, that I've never hooked up other than to make sure it worked. I can't remember if it is a high drive amp or not. JJD could probably steer you in the right direction. I do know a couple of guys that always have amps for sale, not usually at the bargain prices I like though.

 

Any off the shelf amp will work.

Well not really.

See the so called High Drive amp for the most part are over driven by using say 50 watts on the input (IIRC the 2SC2290 is one example which only requires something like 5 to 7 watts of drive for full power). A few use some sort of padding for the input so not to destroy the transistors while others use a simple potentiometer to "dial" the watts in that does the same thing.

To me the design that I have seen produces more crap (dirty amp) than it actually amplifies.

Yes any amp can be used. I have many here but I won't sell them.

Just look around, there are many for sale.

 

You can use any amp with a stock, unmodified Galaxy CB because the Galaxy radios come with variable power that, when stock/unmodified, will reduce your DK to 1 watt when turned all the way down.

 

You turn the dead key down so you sound good and clear. I can't explain it in technical terms. They used to call it matching the radio to the amp. You need to do it for best results.

 

Turning the dead key down keeps you from over driving the amp causing distortion. To drive it with all it would take would be like driving your car with your foot on the floor all the time also. If you want a legal CB, I think that is a good choice.

 

I don't get that crap either. I think that most "techs" have their head up their *** when it comes to figuring out how things work.

I got a texas star on the bench here and it has 4 watts going into it with an output of 500 watts. I turned it up to 14 watts and cranked the little "power" knob up and it kicks out almost 700 watts, yes that being over driven. When I add a swing into the signal, it swings pretty well (it's supposed to) so the amp which the owner thought was toasted (he kept blowing fuses) works well. I think it is worth the two cases of beer I gave him for it (that's what he wanted when he was sober) so for the price, I am going to go through it, get it to produce a clean signal and add a filter to it so it will become my 10m back up amp.

Also looking at a lot of these HD amps, I only see them padding the input of the amp, not ever proper padding it so this is the only thing I can see why they think it is important to turn it down.

Honestly I think you would be happy with a good cobra 29 that has been tuned properly, a good antenna system and I hate to say it, a good amp that is clean.