D&A Maverick Dual Power

[420Snowman]

I have a Maverick Dual power that I would like to beef up and get some more power out of it. I am getting from 3 to 500w out of it now and would like to mod it to get more. any ideas??

Snowman

[Nagant]

It is what it is. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for.

There is no feasible way to get much more output without making major changes. You're limited by it's power supply and tube compliment. Being a sweep tube amp I would not even consider modding it as I mean no offense but it not worth the money. If you want more output sell the D&A and buy an amp with real transmitter tube or tubes.

[str8stroke]

I also have a Dual Power Maverick. 4 x 6JT6A's by 4 x 6JE6C's good luck just finding & replacing those tubes affordably! There was a guy I found a long ways back who claims he could change out the tubes with cheaper ones, but when I asked him when he could do it....suprise.... he no longer does it! lmao! Your output numbers are the same as mine. I have had mine for over 20 years!

[420Snowman]

Gonna stick with the way it is, I am gonna re cap it though as I was told when they get old they can make things drop. Preacherman said he is getting 700pep out of his, I am not even close to that....

Snowman

But I am also putting up my beams next week, so the DA will probably do just fine with a beam reaching out to skipland!!

[str8stroke]

tell me more about this 'recapping" once you try it. I would love to see if it works. If so, I am gonna do the same. I would LOVE to see 700!

[Spiderleggs]

Gonna stick with the way it is, I am gonna re cap it though as I was told when they get old they can make things drop. Preacherman said he is getting 700pep out of his, I am not even close to that....

Snowman

But I am also putting up my beams next week, so the DA will probably do just fine with a beam reaching out to skipland!!

A local here has one, says he is getting 700 out of his also.

[Night Crawler]

tell me more about this 'recapping" once you try it. I would love to see if it works. If so, I am gonna do the same. I would LOVE to see 700!

Changing the high voltage filtering capacitors isn't going to increase the wattage.

[str8stroke]

Night, thank you. I replaced 4 of the 8 tubes. Soon do do the last (expensive) 4. I am looking at all ways to improve things.

[Nagant]

Changing the high voltage filtering capacitors isn't going to increase the wattage.

I support this message!!!!!
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[str8stroke]

I pounded away on my maverick again last night. She performed flawlessly as she has for the last 22 years or so I had her! She skipped all around the nation and a few foreign lands as well.

[Sporty Mike]

What kind of beams you putting up Snowman?? I hope to have my Y-Quad up by next weekend.


Mike

[420Snowman]

I put up a set of Maco 103c's, they are working great with the Maverick, I talked all over the place today, including Australia about 6 times!!! I love what they have done for my DX ability, I have virtually no static, ZERO TVI, and great skip!

Snowman

[Nagant]

Glad to hear you've got them up and going. It's great not having all the static isn't it. That was the first thing I noticed after getting my little beam up last year.

[str8stroke]

420, I hit Aussie the other night with my Maverick too! Kinda funny I thought. I was on 38lsb. How about you??? I need one of the black knobs for the "load" dial on the top left corner. By a long shot you would not happen to know where i could score one??

[420Snowman]

I was also on 38lsb! I might have a knob for ya, you're talking the larger of the knobs, correct? My tech has a few parts tubers on the shelf and I'm sure he has a knob that's close if not exact.



snowman

[str8stroke]

Yes sir, the larger one knob with the "bumps" on it to control the top load and Tune pots. Just need one. It was lost in one of my many moves over the years. Let me know! Thanks so much

[420Snowman]

Will do!



Snowman
Sent from my HTC mobile.

[Ohio_359]

You guys stressing over the difference betweeen 500w and 700w, remember that's only 1.5db. A needle, maybe a needle and a half? Run it and have fun with it!

[420Snowman]

Oh I'm not stressing, I was thinking it would do more, that's all, I still love it!



Snowman
Sent from my HTC mobile.

[str8stroke]

Ohio, Zero Stress. Sorta the same reason that I want 1000lb/ft of torque in my truck when I don't even need 200lb/ft! Just cause I can!

[Ohio_359]

Ohio, Zero Stress. Sorta the same reason that I want 1000lb/ft of torque in my truck when I don't even need 200lb/ft! Just cause I can!

If you had a Cummins it would be easy

But RF and diesel is different. The difference between 1000lb/ft and 800lb/ft could be the difference in a full pull and not. The difference between 1000 watts and 800 watts is not even audibly noticeable.

[crazy_cooter]

Gonna stick with the way it is, I am gonna re cap it though as I was told when they get old they can make things drop. Preacherman said he is getting 700pep out of his, I am not even close to that....
I would pay a ton of money to see a maverick 250 do 700 watts....i'll bring my bird meter and we'll see
Snowman

But I am also putting up my beams next week, so the DA will probably do just fine with a beam reaching out to skipland!!

[Radio1cb]

ITS NOT A MEGAWATT AMP!

with the cost of those tubes dont run it on high and i dont really think by its design and finals that it should be pushed past 200 watts RMS (which is already too much) on AM if you expect clean signal and long tube life. thats carrier watts not pep. the D&A maverick is not really a big amp and is better suited for SSB. i think the mistake most people make with these amps is thinking the PEP rating as RMS if you want to keep it clean on AM never run it with more DK than 50- 80 watts and turn your mic down. but then again thats just me, im careful with the expensive tubes, never cause splatter and im an audio natzi.

dont try to drive it with much about 3 or 4 watts should do ya 6 at the most more than that will sound like a mouthful of Pooopy!

they way these these things are built the driver tubes are actually too much for the final tubes. they should have only 2 6jg6a tubes at most for 4 6lq6 finals but i presume they put 3 drivers to distribute the drive from the CB more safley? i dont know for sure. all i know that out of the 4 drivers only 3 are actually driving. that 4th is just sitting there balancing the filament current. These boxes can really take a dump on the whole band if not used with care! understand this and you will make many contacts with less power than you thought you needed, Ignore this and you will kill your amp and sound like you have a broken radio untill it actually does break and cost you more money than the amp is worth.

That amp is a classic example of CB radio amp History and i think should be preserved and treasured. It is indeed a collectors item one can be proud to own. Use it But dont blow it up! Sure it will doo 700 but only once for about 3 seconds. thats a costly 3 second 700 watt key up LOL !


put more air through that thing! the little fan inside is not enough.

remember this if you kill your tubes then you did something wrong! i had mine since 1976 and only changed the tubes once but the old ones are still good.

[Ohio_359]

i dont really think by its design and finals that it should be pushed past 200 watts RMS (which is already too much) on AM if you expect clean signal and long tube life. thats carrier watts not pep.

I'm confused here. Are you saying that this amp should be okay with a 200w pep/avg carrier? That would be 800w+ pep fully modulated

[Radio1cb]

Sorry ,i typed that wrong and should have worded that better. thank you for pointing that out. I will attempt to remove foot from mouth now.

now this all depends on who you ask LOL as we all know. we must consider a few things

That the average under-informed operator that is looking for that "swing" above all else is going to try to break the laws of physics,( The modern thinking of the so called "peak and tweak" is HYPE for the most part!

In reality weather it be tube or transistor finals The MAX ratings are the MAX ratings PERIOD!) there are methods of pushing the limit a little bit but it always comes at some cost. see 6LQ6 tube specs [Please login or register to view this link]

Like it or not the 4:1 ratio (carrier output to modulated peak output) stands firm as it relates to AM operation in class B or C. (there may be other methods that im ignorant of haveing to do with Class D or E operation.)

200 W carrier is way too much but im sure that there are those that will try and run it that way having used up all the head room and pushed the amp to saturation at that point and throwing out harmonics and spurious all over to get perception of modulation.

A maximum around 250W maybe 300W modulated PEAK of in AM operation is what you can expect and not have it get too sloppy . that would be 50-80 W carrier MAX.

Being that all meters, setups and applications are going to read differently for a multitude of reasons and that many less precise watt meters are of the type that show people what they want to see as power output rather than what really is some operators are going to claim they are getting out as much as 700 to 1000 watts . If you overdrive and over modulate the **Censored** out of any amp sure you might see your meter register an 800 but it still really putting out the spec ratings of the finals on the fundamental frequency and the rest of the power that your meter is showing you is combined harmonics on other frequencies,reflected power and what i call "splatter watts"! and that is really not the actual true power output.

The 6LQ6 tube has been used in many designs in the past due to its abundance and dirt cheap price of decades ago as well as it can be pushed pretty hard and still hold up for a while. However for it to be clean and sound good one must realize that it is closer to a 50 watt tube not a 200 watt tube for RF applications. It's intended purpose is not really a transmitting tube but it will work and work well even cleanly if respected for what it is.

Bottom line The D&A Maverick is a 250 watt amp even IF the power supply was enough for a huge power like 800 watts the tubes simply cant do that! on AM

Now on SSB i have seen nearly 500 on high. In SSB you can often push a device to its edge with little or no problems because not only is the duty cycle much less than with AM but the way SSB works is a different sort of animal. Again every application and setup is going to behave differently so individual results will vary somewhat

It should be noted that these amp should not be driven with any radio that is modded for crazy swing! that is what get these amps a bad rep for splatter.
A tvi filter after the amp is a good idea as well.


If anyone can tell me where im wrong please explain because i dont know everything i just know what ive seen and proven. There are those engineers that can explain it better than i can im sure. Please do