TS-480 for mobile AM?

[WB2EMS]

Has anybody used a TS480 for AM, especially AM mobile? I'm looking to put a mobile in my gas powered vehicle, 2010 Equniox, which has a fair bit of mobile ignition noise and also looking for something with more AM punch than the 857 I'm running in the Golf TDI.

I'm interested in hearing how the TS480 sounds on AM and it's output power level (857 folds back a lot with ALC, even with the 9 volt battery trick). And very interested in how the noise blanker works in a mobile environment.

Any data points? They're on sale for a few more days at gigaparts.

Thanks

[ka1tdq]

That's a 200 watt radio... pretty good!  Most everything else is 100 watts.  I don't keep up with all the new gear, but that's not bad for $1000. 

I don't know how it sounds on AM, but I just wanted to comment.

Jon

[WB2EMS]

Yeah, the power is one reason I'm considering it. I've seen some good comments on Eham about it's noise blanker, but it's also a fairly old design, which is probably why the price is dropping. 50 watts of AM carrier would be nice, especially with the low efficiency of most mobile antennas. You need all you can get.    My experience with AM on the TS2000 is that it can sound pretty good with a good mike, hopefully the 480 is as good.

We did a little rough testing last night by parking my car next to my buddy's with a TS480HX, and running an antenna cable across. At the moment I don't have a resonant antenna on it, just a 3 foot whip for listening with. And there was a fair bit of ignition noise, and the noise blanker helped, but in AM mode didn't totally remove it. But maybe enough to be usable. I don't know if things would be better with a resonant antenna and more signal, or whether the S/N ratio would stay about the same since it would bring in more spark noise. I haven't looked into common mode chokes yet to see if some of the noise is being picked up on the coax, that remains to be explored.

Wish I knew how to reduce the spark noise in a coil over plug arrangement. Doesn't look like a lot of options to get in there and make a difference. So I may need to carefully choose a receiver that can really deal with what's there with the noise blanker.

Thanks for the comment!

[Pete, WA2CWA]

TS-480 has two versions.
TS-480SAT with built in antenna tuner and 100 watts
TS-480HX no tuner and 200 watts

Used a TS-480HX at Field Day 2 years ago. Even with two fans, the case was hot to the touch but we were pushing it for a number of hours. Did pick up the generator noise a bit which was about 75 feet away but overall cabling wasn't ideal. Noise blanker helped a bit, but when on, there was an increase in adjacent frequency splatter which was to be expected.

[KD6VXI]

I ran legal limit AM mobile with my ft857 and a 16x2879 brick amplifier.

If your folding power back with a negative 9 volts fed to the alc jack,  something isn't right.   Carrier set to 100, pot will vary power from a hundred watts to zero.   And works in all modes.

After I got in my motorcycle wreck,  I brought the 857 in the house (can't qualify for medical card for class a license after accident).   Tim and Don have both heard the 857, both gave decent reports,  cross continent.

Check your 857 'afore ya throw more money at the problem,  although 3db would be nice!

--Shane
KD6VXI

[WB2EMS]

Sorry to hear about the motorcycle wreck. I nearly got creamed by a pickup that ran a stop sign this summer. 

I've been talking to Janice Ab2ra about it, and plan some more experiments shortly. Even if I could get it up to 25 watts carrier, with mobile antenna efficiency more fire is better.

What I'd like to do is build a 3 band class E afterburner to follow the 857 with a pdm modulator to put about  250 watts of carrier out.  But that's a project for another day.