wrote in message
oups.com...
Is there a best place to find or make a cheap power supply for a 50
watt mobile radio to use as a base station? Are computer power supply's
good?

You may want to think through what you want longer term. There are a number
of projects around to convert a computer power supply to 12 volts. Might be
a bit of a push for a 50 watt radio, I'm not sure. Google for "St. Louis
Switcher" or similar.

Supplies are pretty simple, so building one from scratch isn't impossible,
but the transformers can be hard to come by.

A cheap commercial supply will give you days of good use. Seriously, there
is a lot of pure junk out there, some of it not so cheap. Many of them are
very noisy and can put hum on your transmitted signal or make it hard to
hear. Some will work for a short while before dying.

Before you make the investment think about your future needs. A good supply
can run well over $100 but can last you for decades. Are you going to get
on HF and thus need more amps? Are you going to get interested in meteor
scatter and need an amplifier for still more amps? Don't go buying a 10 amp
supply only to discover that you need another 10 and then another 10. If
you decide to go for a good supply go ahead and get 30 or 50 amps worth so
your future needs are covered.

Many folks use a marine battery and a trickle charger. This not only gives
them plenty of power for the shack, but it keeps them on the air when the
lights go out. You need to take care about ventilation and battery leakage,
but I don't know anyone who has done this and ever thought about going to a
commercial supply. I'm pretty happy with my Astron, but when the lights go
out, I'm limited to my HT.

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