Power Sypply Issue?

Hi, a bit newbie with  transmissions, need help please

- Set up my new pni 6500 & pni ml160 antenna at home... all good ... got this power supply ic regulator suppose to be 13.8V - 3A from a local online shop

- Note that Pni 6500 user manual say to supply 12-13.8V with 2A but checked at security power fuse stock, & they have 5A fuse (however at manual they recommend to replace the power fuse with fast act 2A fuse, if the one supplied die but they have 5A) ... seems a bit confuse here

Not sure if need oscillator for accurate reading this kind of power supply, but I measure the power supply with multi meter & with out any load ... is giving 12.65V ... nothing close to 13.8V as advertised ...
Using the pni6500 at 4 watts power drops to 12.63V ... lets say all ok
Now using the pni6500 at 8 watts power supply drops to 11,25V, even if i am not so experience, this is way low

Is power supply fault or what i need to supply 8 watts with out issue? ... i was trying today dxing for 2-3 hours and finally hear me one in France (EU Band) but not so well, so with just 11.25V for sure does not gives the correct watts ... lol as how it is, i have better chance to be heard with the 4 watts which works ok ... what should i do? return it? or any other recommendations for 8 watts?
many thanks

I am sure someone will be along to correct me, you would need a 4 Amp supply to run 12W, to be safe I would go 5 Amp.

many thanks for reply ... or dear me, seems my mistake then but user manual say not use more than 2A as far i understand it ... will try to call the shop as well in 3 days when will open again ... just to clarify, using pni6500 at 8 watts while only radio is in use works fine with 12.65V ... it drops at 11.25V when i press the TX button...thanks


ΕDIt for 20watts how many amps?

I would get the biggest power supply you can afford ready for when you upgrade the radio.

Thanks for the replies, due the holidays shops are closed & living in rural area far from shops, had to cut the cable to fix it with pni plug, i used a Maplins one (got it since i was in UK) at mode 13.5V / 4A giving at multimeter 13.25V no load ... pressing TX at 4watts was 13.10V & pressing TX at 8watts was giving 12.99V, seems way better


But that one with 4/8 watts mode the pni6500 when switched to AM mode was giving a constant high pitch noise (like siren) at low volume after 5 min my ear got enough because was so high noise ... & using the 8watts was getting well hot, not even use it that much, about 5 min just for testing & room temp was just at 14C (almost freezing in there, did not open yet the electric heating for possible interfere) imagine this room at summer time goes up to 32C ...
i did put back the regulator seems safer

Duno, will call shop if can change it to make sure the next one is higher voltage & see how will go

Yes planning to get later a jetfon jf-20, 5-15V & 0-20A so i can adjust my self any supply need the next one for future update

Thanks for support

forgot to say apart the high freq noise the signal bars (1-6) at AM mode was all time at bar 1 ... thanks

The noise is from the power brick i would say.

Quote :

Duno, will call shop if can change it to make sure the next one is higher voltage & see how will go

Yes planning to get later a jetfon jf-20, 5-15V & 0-20A so i can adjust my self any supply need the next one for future update

Thanks for support

You need a steady 13.8V rather than higher voltage with a good amperage to keep the voltage supplied steady. If your supply doesn't have enough amps, it will often cause the volts to drop, which is what you are experiencing at the moment.

Thanks the for support ... indeed seems does not have enough amber for 8 watts
Tested with multimeter (current) ...
This power supply 3A is fine for 4 watts, pni 6500 consume 2.66 amber no problem for this supply (how ever suppose to be 13.8 volt but gives 12.65V) not recorded

Now tested at 8 watts and pni6500 consumes 3.34 ambers which this power supply can not do (is up to 3A)



OR Test is wrong?
Stand by (just the radio seems consume only 0.21 amber if i am correct)
Will let you know what happens the next days...again many many Thanks

EDIT
Strange the Maplins one makes high noise, is got ferrite at end part & also the cable is same desing as coaxial cable, the middle cable has very think plastic around it (positive) and negative is the same as mesh/plexus

Be very careful running any power supply close to it's max output.
They can go pop and many will give out 28v volts and pop your radio.
I personally would get a 10amp minimum but as i said get a bigger one if you can ready for any ssb radio you might upgrade to as some kick out 40w.

As others have advised here, first off I would be looking for a larger power supply and don't worry so much about volts as long as the power supply puts out 13.8 volts when idling which most do.  What you need to be concerned with is that the power supply is providing enough continuous amperage when you transmit.  Somewhere in the specifications it should say how many amps your radio draws in both standby and TX mode and TX mode is what you want to pay attention to.  Whatever the amp draw in TX mode is you then want a power supply that will exceed that number in continuous amperage output.  As an example, my Icom draws a maximum of 23 amps in TX mode, I purchased a MFJ-4230MV 30 amp power supply which is a great little switching power supply.  The noise you are hearing is likely from the power supply, don't go cheap or try modifying a computer power supply or something like that.  It may work but it is the wrong type of power supply for radio use and yes it will be noisy.  So plan to spend some money ($100 - $150 in US dollars) on a good power supply made for radio use that exceeds your TX amperage draw requirements and you will have no problems.

I hope this helps.

73

Marc

Many Thanks for reply ... pni 6500 manual does not say how many amps use at TX ...
https://i.dedeman.ro/media/file/file/m/a/manual_de_utilizare_statie_radio_auto_cb_pni_escort_hp_6500.pdf
It just saying
- Power supply 13.8V (12.66V is giving the one i m using)
- Current consumption 2A max
Also as mentioned at first post the manual say use at least 2A to supply the unit ... & if fuse damaged replace with 2A , then at an other section says to replace with 3A ... but at fuse box stock, i open it & is 5A fuse by factory

Bit confusing that is why at video above i measured current with multimeter & using 4 watts TX consuming 2.66Ambers ... & using 8 watts TX consuming 3.33 Ambers

However soon planning to get a more Amps supply ... Thank you

I have a 10amp but it is loaned to a friend at the moment.
It would cost more than it's worth to post it to you but if you had been local to me i would have given it to you.
Save your money and get bigger than you need it will last you for years as it won't be working that hard.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Save your money and get bigger than you need it will last you for years as it won't be working that hard.

Agree 100%.  I'd do a 10 amp continuous at a minimum, a 15 amp would be even better and you'll have the bases covered and then some. 

73
Marc

@ Αlan Pillot (& ALL) ... many thanks for your kindness ... is fine at the moment, learned my first lesson ...
Yes later on, will get a bigger at least 10A one or the Jetfon jf-20...the unit was only 9 euro but working at TX 4W does not getting hot (ic regulator/cb unit) is stable enough & does not make any interference to the speaker at am band

Than you All, will update as time comes

i have an update ... after complained to shop power supply did not make over 13V (suppose to do 13.8V) but it does 12.60 V & 3 Amps are not enough  ... they exchanged for the same brand name regulator supply but with the next model with 12V / 5A ... now this one it also gives 1 Volt less, so instead of 12V it give output 11.04V measured with multi-meter EDITED current was 2.66 Amps at 8W mode (3.66A was consuming with the 12.6 V one - video upper post)

While the previous with 12.6V / 3Amps pni seems was working just about ok ... now with 11V seems has issue when TX at AM mode, it makes some noise seems not enough power




what i did was to twist both cables of the Maplins power supply (picture upper post) & added/soldered a female cigar lighter plug to its end ... also until to get an swr meter, i adjust the antenna slightly longer where i did not hear lot of hassles at few channels ... & now Maplin power supply does not produce any whistle at AM mode, seems to work fine & this is the one i am using until get a proper good band name one

conclusion ... beginners,  do not get any cheap power supply, get from the begin a good brand one ... the money i spend the difference to get the next model & post current one back & again more money posting to me the next model was almost same as a brand name power supply

It pays to get a good power supply biggest amp's you can as you will get more radios needing more power.
I run my shack of a Palstar SPS-0600 60-Amp (you don't want to know the price).
I even ran my diesel heater off it at first along with my radios and stuff and that pulls 10 t0 12 amps at start-up.

and im powering more than my light bulb now isn't that right Alan 

I am happy you managed to work out your power supply problems Babis. As Alan has said, it can pay to get the largest (most amps) that you can from the outset in case your station grows with more equipment, and one that delivers 13.8V. There are cheap or even free PSU options that can work well and give big amp outputs if you look around and are prepared to do a little electrical work.

That said, a common transceiver spec is often given as "power requirements 13.8V +/- 15%" but many can operate with higher or lower voltages than that, so I was surprised to see the results in your video of that little transceiver. By contrast, my G90 which can put out 20W on FM and SSB can happily run as low as 10.5V with no drop in output power or making any buzzing noises.