Amplifier
 

I'm looking for an amp for my radio, I am currently pushing a 4 watts through a 200 watt amp and have been told that that is too much input power and I need my radio turned down. but Nobody in this area works on the type of radio I have.

I'm about to get a radio that pushes 10 watts, and I want to find an amp that can handle this input.


Anyone know where to find these?
There is a guy nearby that works on Galaxy radios and sells amps, but he is near impossible to get up with. So I'm hunting an online option.

if you're not going to get the radio output turned down then you're probably going to want to get a HD (high drive) amp. they're designed to take the input from a radio w/o having to drop the output (within reason).

I've heard of high drive amps, I just can't seem to find any for sale. I was wondering if anyone knew where to find them.

IIRC, X-Force has some models, MagnaForce has some, Texas Star has some HD models. X-Force/MagnaForce used to make decent quality boxes, with HD models in their lineup. I used to run an X-Force 200HD box. Not sure about quality now, though.

TS used to make several HD models as well, decent quality (at least better than the rebadged generic amps - there were several different brands of amps that were all pretty much the same thing, right down to the faceplate - only the name of the company screened on the faceplate was different).

If you want to really get serious, you could look at comp boxes like davemade or fatboy.

as long as you get a reasonable wattage, you can get by with a stock alternator, but you may want to upgrade your battery.

Thanks for the info, I am definately going to get one for my Galaxy in my '85. I might just try to figure out how to turn down the Cobra to feed the standard amp I have.

if you can't get a tech to do it, if you are electronically inclined and can get a meter and google the schematics, you can figure out which pot to turn down (IIRC, on some cobras and similar model unidens, it's VR13).

most people say look for a 1:4 swing ratio to drive the amp (for the cobra 148s we used to turn them down to 1.2-1.3 watts deadkey).

caveat: if you're not sure, don't do it...

I don't have any techs nearby that work on Cobra's. (Mine is a newer 148 gtl) I might hunt down a meter and some schematics. I've been meaning to learn more about radios, I reckon right now would be a good place to start.

Thanks again for all the information.

ah, a 148 GTL is a popular radio. lots of schematics and mods listed all over the net. just make sure you double-check your sources. sometimes the am power is listed as VR11 and sometimes it's listed as VR10 (not sure which is correct, but i'm sure there are typos out there and it wouldn't hurt to double-check which VR to turn down before you actually start getting in there and messing w/ stuff).