Transistor Mobile HF Linear Amplifiers


The linearity is certainly in question.. These were made on the 1980's and were popular with truck drivers. Although they could be used in amateur radio if a suitable set of low pass filters was installed after the amplifier to reduce harmonics, the vast majority of these clandestinely manufactured amplifiers found themselves connected between a CB radio and an antenna.

not for sale. not for use on CB band. for educational display only.
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This contraption is actually an old Cobra remote-mountable CB strapped underneath a Silver Streak 150 linear amplifier. It was found under the seat of a wrecked car in a junkyard. Someone had them a nice little package!
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The 2-transistor amplifier takes less than 4 watts of drive and would make a good booster for some of the recent low-power backpack HF sets. The safe operating rating of the amplifier is 100W PEP (or single tone output with appropriate cooling).
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"TX Eight Hundred" linear amplifier uses four 2SC2879 output amplifiers and one MRF454 driver. The driver is operated class A. The output stage is arranged as a pair of push-pull amplifiers operating through a combiner. Class AB biasing is provided for the output stage. The safe operating rating of the amplifier is 400W PEP (or single tone output with appropriate cooling). The name "Eight Hundred", as with most "CB" and "ham" type linear amplifiers, tends to indicate the maximum power input, not the output. Like most such amplifiers, the driver is capable of severely overdriving the output stage, and care must be exercised to avoid damaging the amplifier in this way. An attenuator can be used to reduce the RF input to the driver stage.
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The driver is at the upper left. It can barely be seen.