Texas Star 500V

I have been offered one of these amps, does anyone know anything about them good or bad ?

Type Texas Star 500V into youtube header and watch reviews, I do this all the time for everything before I buy something

What an answer lol.

GT390 wrote:

I have been offered one of these amps, does anyone know anything about them good or bad ?

They are primarily for 28-29mhz powered by transistor's so not sure if it will be any good on 11metres, they need a lot of power input , I believe around 4-20w giving you 500w FM and 1000w USB. you can get some db gain by using the white button but once again not sure used on 11metres but you can use this feature without using the linear part. might be worth a try if its cheap enough as they cost around £250 new , not sure if you will need 500w though lol.


73's


Mick

Old thread but thought I'd reply as I have a Texas Star 350HDV, I purchased this along with my Ranger 2950 when I lived in the USA and brought it back to the UK with me. Great amp, I primarily used it on AM and SSB in the USA, 1.5-2W drive gave around 200W on SSB and about 80W on AM. FM should give the same output as FM, I've only just reconnected it and haven't actually used it on FM yet.

These are capable of working 27Mhz no problem but may need set up if it was previously on 10M.

Richard

I have a couple of Texas Star DX 500V amps.  Seem to work fine on 11 meters AM and SSB.  They like a cool breeze blowing.

I know tis is an old thread, but i would really like to get a Texas star amp. So if anyone have one or knows where there is one up for grabs, i would be interested.
Andy 
26CT4521

This is a broadband amp capable of covering the entire HF spectrum. Based on Engineer Application Notes for the RF devices. Hence, does not include any filtering on the output stage. I always run these types of amps with an external low pass filter to cut down on the heavy spurious emissions they create.

Note worth taking, do a linearity test - if it's got any linearity, you'll probably find the point where it loses it's linearity (assuming it had any) will kick in at around 50-75% of rated output if it's anything like most of the stuff sold.

I've seen and tested examples that were supposed to be linear and lost any 'semblence of linearity at 25% of rated output, so barely fit for purpose by any standard, and some that barely even qualified as linear at any output level.

And that's just HF stuff, don't get me started on the sheer amount of cheap SHF amps sold as boosters for ISM/WIFI etc.

So just be warned, if you do use it, for god's sake don't give it more than 50% of rated input until you've got a true idea of it's linearity. I also wouldn't put much stock in the figures, re linearity, in the application notes unless it's professional grade gear, as most manufacturers of cheap gear tend to use interpolated figures based on typical hypothetical progression based data of a hypothetical 'perfect' design.

For VHF and UHF, I only use stuff that's ex professional service stuff, because it had to meet a standard far in excess of what ham gear needs to technically meet, plus the standard inclusion of a chain of notch filters, as well as high grade BPFs and LP filters really helps. In fact, to put their value in perspective, NF's and high grade discrete or module BPF, LPF, HPF's are essential pulls from dead commercial/professional gear.