Astron RS-70M

[Richard Stouffer]

Anybody have any experience with one of these? I've been having some problems running my solid state amp from one with little success. When I talked to a fellow at the amp factry he said they had seen several problems with those amps- RFI and insufficient power among them.

[w7wv]

I have had to 20 and 50 series amps from them and never a problem.
I don't have them anymore as I am getting ready for full time but if I remember right the 50 had two sets of terminals.
Make sure you are using the right ones and not exceeding any sustained ratings for them.
These are some notes I found on eHam about it. Note the last one.

KC4CP Rating: 5/5 Jul 30, 2006 21:02 Send this review to a friend
The BIG BOY! Time owned: more than 12 months
Now this thing is a "REAL" Power Supply! It will run everything in your shack ... and then some.

I have used my RS 70 to power my Ameritron ALS-500 amplifier. It works like a charm (it is important to use large guage wire & as short a run as possible). I know others who run the Ten Tec Hercules using this power supply.

It is big, it is heavy, it is powerful! I have owned two. After 10 years of service ... Zero problems to report! Enough said.

W5ZZQ Rating: 5/5 Aug 8, 2005 10:11 Send this review to a friend
Best made Time owned: more than 12 months
JUST THE BEST POWER SUPPLY OUT THERE. GREAT!

KA5ROW Rating: 4/5 Jul 12, 2005 22:07 Send this review to a friend
Good Heavy Duty Power Supply Time owned: more than 12 months
This is a good heavy duty power supply, but I am a little disappointed with its overrated specs.
And the Q/A department
I however, do not think its fair to rate this the RS-70 A or M as a 70 amp power supply. They should be rated as a 57 amp power supply. With intermittent 70 amp peaks. I don't know if you could use the P/S with a amplifier that pulled 60 or 65 amps on SSB peeks. I would think after a short time something would give out.
I use the P/S to power a TE-System 1452G 400 watt amplifier. On FM pulls about 52 amps. SSB Intermittent peeks to 52 amps. The P/S gets very hot, so hot you can not put your hand on the base of the P/S. The fan has kicked on only one time that I can remember. I sure the thermal control was not working. So I by passed it, now the fan runs all the time and the P/S is much cooler. All of my other P/S the fan runs all the time.
I called Astron got someone who could not speak English very well, and I could not get a clear answer as to why the cooling fan never ran. I don't think he really knew enough English to understand me and the point I tried to get across.
A 2nd issue was when I got the P/S one of the insulators between a regulator and heat sink was hanging by one end. It was an easy fix but a very obvious Q/A problem.

[Richard Stouffer]

Thanks. I can second the comments on being over rated. The one I have bulks at 60 amp draw and my amp will shut down when that happens. I've switched to a 100 AH deep cycle battery which eliminates that problem, but I want to eventually parallel the battery to the power supply.

[N7OQ]

I have the RS-35 and have never had a problem with it. I have never load banked it but It will power my HF station and vhf/uhf radio at the same time with no problem. Is the 70 a switcher or and Linear power supply?

[w7wv]

I see the duty cycle of the RS-70 is 57 amps.
What does your power amp peak at?

[One Country Boy]

I have two 50's and two 35's. All are metered. Have had a couple of other smaller ones in the past. I had a diode go in one of them. That's the only problem I've ever had.

[Richard Stouffer]

My amp peaks at 70 watts, according to the spec, but only on digital/CW. However, in SSB, the power supply shows max on the meter which is 70 amps. When it runs that high the amp trips.

[Manual Garcia O'Kely]

You never posted if you solved your problem, but I believe that there is a way to boostrap two 70 amp Astrons together to make a higher capacity supply - there's some sort of interconnect made between the two for control.

You did not post what make/model amp you are powering, but I know that most of the 12 volt amps draw well over 40 amps average on SSB so I can believe you might exceed the 57 amp Astron rating. The SGC Power cube is rated 500 watts, 40 amps SSB, 80 amps CW key down - so that 40 is an average.

I suspect you find the battery in parallel with the power supply to work fine - and it should - the battery will be quickly recharged during receive as the amp meter will tell you. With a 100 amp/hour battery you are probably doing fine. With a 220 a/hr you should be excellent.

[Richard Stouffer]

Thanks for the follow up.

Temporarily I've switched to an Ameritorn AL 811 that I had laying around. The amp I was powering with the Astron is the Power Cube. A friend told me That he believes there is a problem with the Power Cube using the automatic activation form the RF of the t4anceiver, It's his theory that draw is greater than the 70 amps. He put together a relay that will virtually activate the amp manually. When I get some time I'll hook that up an try to run the Astron.

I'll let you know how that works out.

[W6CD]

I power my SGC-500 from a Astron RS-70M. Works fine. I only do SSB. I understand it would not be enough power if I did higher duty cycle modes.