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TE Systems?

 


Does anyone know if TE Systems is still in business? I sent them an email last Monday asking about pricing and availability of two six meter repeater amplifiers and have not received any response.

I'm looking to purchase a 150 to 300 watt amp. Has anyone on the list had first hand experience with TE Systems repeater amps?

Thanks,
Dan
WD4LUR
 

Historically their customer service is absolutely atrocious, their service the same.
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Your money might be better spent with Henry or Crescend.
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I seriously doubt TE is still around. Last time I saw Dave Anderson (over 18 years ago), he was quite elderly and overwhelmed.
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You can buy better.
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Chris/AJM
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--
Chris Baldwin, CETSr. (KF6AJM)
Trustee - MetroNET Cal. Intertie (KB3PX)
 

If TE doesn't work out there is a TPL 100w 47MHz amp and two 33MHz 250W Henry amps on fleabay. Either version should tune to 6m.
 

Hi Dan,
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We have tuned up both TE Systems and Henry amps for 6M. I thought the TE amp was overrated for amateur service at above 300W and should have been rated? the same as their commercial amp at 300 W maximum output,as ours lost power over time and now does 285W, where as if we set it to 300W to begin with, it probably would still be doing 300W 4-5 years later. Perhaps the first stage was overdriven when the amp was pushed above 300W. Also The driver stage needed to be tuned while viewing a spectrum analyzer to keep the amp clean..
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The problem with the Henry amps we had was that the 2W carbon resistors got too hot before the cooling fans finally kicked on via the mechanical thermostat and then sometimes the fans would stay on way too long before shutting off. That problem was solved by controlling the fans by the TX PTT instead of the thermostat.
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Adding output tuning to the Henry amp also increased the TX efficiency and duplexer match. See the RB article on how to add output tuning to the Henry amp. The 30W in, 300W out Henry amp is probably best set to 275W max output on 6M at 13.8V input voltage, keeping the drive below 28W. One Henry amp with new bipolar? transistors only needs 18W drive for 270W out after output tuning caps were added. The one with years on the transistors needs 28W drive for 270W out.
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John

 

Muffin fans usually last longer running 24/7 vs turning on and off with PTT. I've had fans wired for PTT that would fail about every 2yrs and when the same fan was wired for continuous operation I never had to replace them again, or at least for about 5yrs until the equipment was retired. I have a 200w UHF Henry amp with a similar fan setup as the 300w lo band version and I was not happy with the stock fan setup. I put a 15 ohm 25w resistor across the thermal switch so all the fans run about half speed until the temp goes up then the resistor is bypassed and fans run at full speed. They cool pretty well with two on the heatsink fins and one pointed down at the circuit board and low pass filter.?
 

I thought the TE amp was overrated for amateur service at above 300W and should have
been rated the same as their commercial amp at 300 W maximum output
I have a TE Systems 0552G 6m "brick" amp (not a repeater amp). It never made the rated 375 watts. On a good day with the wind at its back and a stiff 14 volts on the collectors it will do about 325 driven deep into saturation while drawing 55 amps. It is 1 dB into compression at about 225 watts output; since I use it for weak-signal work, I run it under 200 watts. It has four MRF492's in it, no driver stage. MRF492's are rated for 70 watts.

The problem with the Henry amps we had was that the 2W carbon resistors got too
Ballast resistors get hot due to gain mismatch. In other words, they shouldn't get hot if the devices are matched and everything else is working properly.

--- Jeff WN3A
 

Just to back up your statement about the ballast resistors, Jeff, the first Henry amp I worked on I bought used, originally on 47 MHz, and someone had used it on 6M before I got it. All the ballast resistors had overheat bubbles and got hot before the thermostat kicked in. Once it was properly tuned on input and output sides, no more overheat smell, and I never changed out the original ballast resistors! It drew 34A also at a solid 14V for 265W out, 28W drive with no reflected. (Rated 30W in for 300W out)



John

On 05/02/2025 10:33 PM EDT Jeff DePolo WN3A via groups.io <jd0@...> wrote:


I thought the TE amp was overrated for amateur service at above 300W and should have
been rated the same as their commercial amp at 300 W maximum output
I have a TE Systems 0552G 6m "brick" amp (not a repeater amp). It never made the rated 375 watts. On a good day with the wind at its back and a stiff 14 volts on the collectors it will do about 325 driven deep into saturation while drawing 55 amps. It is 1 dB into compression at about 225 watts output; since I use it for weak-signal work, I run it under 200 watts. It has four MRF492's in it, no driver stage. MRF492's are rated for 70 watts.

The problem with the Henry amps we had was that the 2W carbon resistors got too
Ballast resistors get hot due to gain mismatch. In other words, they shouldn't get hot if the devices are matched and everything else is working properly.

--- Jeff WN3A

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