Mega Watt S700-12 50 Watt AMP

[Mtn Lynx]

Anyone have one of these?

(edited by MDY, removed **Non Sponsor** link)

[MDYoungblood]

Hi Mtn Lynx,
Had to remove the link from your post, forum rules. "Mega Watt" is a good brand as is "Mean Well", both are identical, low or no noise, there are cheaper brands out that you have to watch for, they are inherently noisy. With switching power supplies think of what you plan to hook up and add 10 or 20% more to the amperage needed.

3's

Greg

[Mtn Lynx]

Would you recommend connecting both Linear and Radio to one of these?

[MDYoungblood]

It will handle a radio and small amp but personally I like to run separate PS's for each. What happens in a switching power supply as the demand for amperage increases the voltage starts to drop, some as much as 1 to 1.5 volts, this is what you need to watch out for.

3's

Greg

[Scipio Kid]

Don't know how many others have this or even want it but a lot of CBers and Hamers want to be able to stay on the air in an emergency. I mentioned somewhere here the power supply I use out in the desert where there is no power. I'm running off a battery bank so there is no fluctuation in voltage whatever and no induced noise PS or Alternator noise to worry about either. Using only a fairly stock base station, under good conditions, my solar panel handles the radio and can charge up the Batts (after using them a lot at night) in an hour while I'm using the radio. The only drawback is size, if I had a big amp, I'd likely need more solar panels and more batteries too but that'll come later. But for now, I'm off the grid and can basically talk all I want. In a real pinch I can fire a generator and big amp charger for the batteries. The charger doesn't bother me either because the generator is too loud to hear the radio anyway ... I need to work on that part a little.

Anyway, anyone else out there fooling around with batteries and solar? (Also, your typical PS's, 3-5 amp won't typically work as a good battery charger with a big bank, they never seem to be able to keep up. But if you use a small battery, like you'd have in a rider mower, they'll keep it charged all the time as long as you're not on the air too much.)

[jon6667]

the power supply you are asking about. they are good but i found the fan on the said brand very noisey. i have one. but i use the 400 hooked up together. if you get my drift it will get you 80 amps or so. i personally would not recommend the 50 amp one.
just my opinion.

[Mtn Lynx]

Thanks Jon. I saw a couple of power supplies that would work better for me. They should be here in a week.

[Scipio Kid]

Best power supplies I ever had were built by my friend way back in High School. We both wanted to hook up car stereos and CB's in our bedrooms and he had an electronics class and decided to build 12V DC power converters himself for a good grade. His teacher thought it was a great idea so I gave him some money, 12 bucks I think and he went out and bought the parts, made the cases out of sheet metal, got huge transformers and diodes and finished them up in about a week! Got an A on the project. Mine had a spiffy lighted volt meter on it and his was identical without the meter. No idea what the final output was but never overloaded them or even came close. I'm guessing they'd handle 10 amps (the transformer's twice the size of my 5 amp Pyramid). I lost mine or it got stolen a few years later. When my friend moved to Texas he gave me his, too heavy to haul I guess. I still have it today over 40 errr, I mean 10 years later ... and it works like brand new.

I wish he hadn't moved to Texas. I have all kinds of stuff he could be fixin'.

[jon6667]

good deal.

[Scipio Kid]

Yeah, not that it helps anyone here, just some old guy ramblin' on about the past.

But hey, I'll bet I put a lot of folks here to sleep! And, for a lot of us "old guys" that's never a bad thing! (It's the possibility of not waking up that worries me some.)

[295 antenna]

I have two . I use them together to run my amp .yes the fans are a little noisy but the price is right and they work great

[Russ]

I have the Mega Watt S700 currently and would say the fan is extremely noising so, I just removed it...the outer case does get a little warm but not hot and so far no problems since removing the fan... I also, had the 30amp power supply and the fan in that one was much quieter so, no need to remove the fan but over time the fan started making a very loud noise maybe the bearings inside were getting worn out but, over all great little power supplies and the price can not be beat..

[jon6667]

i used mine about 5 minutes. and put it back in the box, overly loud. sounded like a 747 passing buy so i use 2 of the 400 much quieter. waste of 105.00

[295 antenna]

I use 2 700s stacked for foot warmers and 0ne 400 for the radio i just keep them far enough away

[MDYoungblood]

I think one of the fan noise problems is because the small fans used are designed for computer switching supplies, ie; inside cabinets, etc. When the supply is pumping out 14+ volts the fan is overdriven, building a nice little regulated power circuit for it to run at say 8v would quiet it down immensely. Something like this;

tapping the power off the 110v input so it is independent of the 12/14v source. I'm pretty sure the is plenty of room inside the case to build this.
BTW, something like this can be bought already assembeld.

3's

Greg

[KP68]

Yes I have this supply and it is the main workhorse in my base station. At first the fan noise didn't seem that bad but after about fifteen minutes it started to get under my skin. However, now that it's inside my base station I can barely hear it. Nearing the end of my base station build and through stupidity, I accidentally put a dead short on the output a couple of times. No ill effects and performs great.

[Sanman2k5]

They are noisy but work great. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it.