Will it work?

[hotrod30-06]

I have a 97 F350 crewcab Powerstroke, and right now I have a Cobra 19 hooked up to a wilson2000 trucker antennae. I have been looking at a Magnum S680 to install in place of the 19. I also have a Galaxy 250 amp that I would like to drive with the Magnum. I will be using the wilson 2000 antennae. I would like some input on antennae placement. Also what do you guys think about the Magnum, Galaxy250 combo? Will it work?

[hotrod30-06]

Also I do not have the cobra 19 hooked up to the Galaxy. Sry left that out.

[rbodenbender]

does that truck have the mirrors like the older tractor trailers so you can use a mirror mount style antenna? if it doesnt< I SAW A BRACKET THAT WAS MADE SO ONE COULD BOLT IT TO THE INNER DOOR (caps lock, sry) and run one of those style antennas that way.

if you cant come up with any other way, i say just get a 102" steel whip and mount it on the bumper and be done with that. the stainless whip will take any amount of power you can throw at the thing. be sure it is all grounded well and i would run all connections to the battery for optimum results.

and welcome to the forums btw.

[hotrod30-06]

Thanks for the reply, I do have the Wilson2000 trucker antennae mounted on the drivers mirror mount now and it seems to work with the 19 by itself. I was told by a few people to mount it in the middle of the truck. My truck does have the stainless bar mirror mount kinda like the big trucks. Will the S680 be too big for the Galaxy 250? Will it have to be turned back? The radio i am looking at puts out 80 watts so I don't want to burn up the amp.

[yMidnite]

I think the 80 (swinging or dead key?) will be too much for the linear. You may key up for a little while but I don't think it will last long. You will need to turn it down to a 2 to 4 watt dk. Or you could get a bigger linear that you can drive with your new radio.

[Circuit Breaker]

You would definitely need to turn the carrier level of the radio down...probably around 4 watts. Honestly, though, if the radio already puts out 80 watts on it's own, you aren't going to see a lot of increase from the amp. If you're hitting someone at, say, S-5 without the amp, to increase that signal to an S-6, you would need to increase your power to 320 watts. So, as it stands, you might see an increase in signal strength of just over half an S unit. Not enough to make a difference in my opinion. Now, let's say you turned your carrier down to 4 watts. That would drop your signal from S-5 to about S-3. Now, kick in that 250 watt amp. You're still under an S-6. So, as you can see, you start to get into an area of diminishing returns so to speak. You saw the biggest increase (2 S-Units) just from increasing your power from 4 to 80 watts (S-3 to S-5), so you've already taken the biggest step towards improving your signal.

['Doc]

I have to agree with 'Circuit Breaker', that 80 watts is way too much drive for a typical solid state amplifier. I also agree that you won't see much benefit in using an amplifier until you at least quadruple your output. Doubling power is an increase of 3 dB. With a correctly calibrated 'S'-meter, each 'S' unit is an increase of 6 dB. See where that's going? Not much appreciable increase in that is there? And by the time you do increase the output enough to make an appreciable difference on a typical 'S' meter, you generally have taken a step into a ~much~ larger amplifier with a much larger total cost (up-grading all the other stuff that would need up-grading).
You've already made the biggest change at the most frugal cost with that change from 4 - 6 watts out to that 80 watts out. To make another significant change, you'd have to 'un-do' that first change cuz a typical solid state amplifier won't like that 80 watts input.
You do it however you think you should though. It's your wallet.
- 'Doc

[rbodenbender]

does the radio have variable power? if not, you can have a reputable radio tech install that feature. OR, if you have no monetary limit (im dreaming LOL) get a big davemade or fatboy 6 pill amp and that radio will drive a big amp like that perfectly.

[linx]

That's a great truck. I used to have one and I ran a LOT of power through that truck. I ran a tri-mag with a 27" 10k on the roof and had great results. As far as a radio I ran a 2950dx and a EC 1x4.

Listen to the rest of these dudes with lowering the power output of the radio and you'll be good to go, either that or get a competition style amp with no driver.

[rbodenbender]

when using a low drive amp, i personally do not like a dead key carrier of much more than 2.5 watts. the swing can go around 20 to 25 watts and not hurt the amp. what kills the amps is high dead keys, high SWRs, holding a dead carrier, and talking and talking and talking and never letting it cool down.