Monday, Feb. 21, 2022
I did not cart the Drake PS-7 up to the shack last night, but I did today. It actually isn’t as heavy as I remembered it was, even for 32 pounds.
The PS-7 has one large DC cable that connects to the rig’s DC connectiion, then a secondary molex plug that’s the control cable — for one thing, it allows the front panel off/on switch to still turn the radio off and on.
Well, my theory was absolutely correct — running the PS-7 with my TR-7 absolutely cured the chirp situation. At full output — hitting about 150 watts — the dial lamps didn’t dim a bit. I did not run the rig at that power level, of course. I dialed it back to about 90 watts. The rig ran beautifully, with nary a hint of any chirp!
So why wouldn’t a 35 amp Aston power supply work when the PS-7 — rated at 25 amps — worked fine?
My working theory is that the cabling the PS-7 has is much larger than the cable I pressed into service. Next time I’ll use No. 10 wire and try it again with the solid 35 amp supply.
But it was GREAT to have the rig running solid at full snot, no runs, no drips, no chirping!
I am ordering two 8-pole filters for the radio too — the 2.6 kHz and the 450 Hz CW filter. They’re sold by the Noble Co., and priced right at $49 each. A bargain for certain. I’ll have a review once mine arrive and get installed.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z …. SK … SK … (dit dit) …