The OGS-50W - Stay Away!

[@DonzLockz]

Oh god, what a fluster cluck!😮 Thanks for saving us time and money T.O.🍻👍

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right! You're welcome!

[@leo2944]

I was about to buy it and got a hys tc300 instead, what luck Thank you very much for the video!!!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Good move!

[@johnathanasiou9284]

Wow, thanks for the heads up TO & shocked at the lack of protection & BPF circuitry. Agree, to bring it up to spec you may as well buy an XPA or similar better amp. There are a stack of these simplistic RF amp designs all over the net but the bleed back is worrysome as it can easily cook the RF finals in your rig. I've built similar amps in my college days & is something every ham should try at least once. When I've seen you test other amps their power output was fairly consistent. I feel the toroid transformer construction is only scratching the surface of what's wrong with this amp. Can only dare imagine how Mike (Mikes Radio Repair) & Peter (TRX lab) would react to this amp!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Might need to send them one!

[@davidincalifornia3711]

Thank you for doing this video. You prevent me from making a purchase I would have regretted.

[@temporarilyoffline]

No problem! The new hot cheap amp is: ebay.us/RxZ9x9 I haven't gotten one for testing yet, but others have said its a good start for its price. I need to get one to test out.

[@vu3gwn]

Exact same thing happened to mine. This cannot handle any antenna greater than 1:1.5 SWR. One of the 530 was blown. Replaced it and it came back to life. It works, but it's fragile. Sold it to a friend who knows how to handle it with care. Oh, another thing, when the 530N blows out, the dc power plug is shorted. Be careful.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yeah, no protections, no bypass, no PTT switch... no good.

[@d3w4yn3]

Looks like you saved me $75, and maybe the cost of a repair to one of my rigs! Glad to see reviews that tell the ugly truth, when the truth is ugly!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Sometimes it is ugly indeed!

[@don_n5skt]

The Micro PA50 works much better for me. It looks like it does not have any protection in the Amp. Based on final failures in the SbitX, the finals failing will cause a dead short when they go.

[@don_n5skt]

That amp has a lot of issues. There is no protection circuits. That is one of the things the Micro PA50 has that this amp doesn't. Lots of protection built into the Amp.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Dead short was what happened, yep. Not pretty. I can't imagine if I had a battery inline how much smoke that would have made.

[@temporarilyoffline]

I like the Micro PA50 so far, eventually I'll get one to play with.

[@johnathanasiou9284]

All the more reason to have an inline fuse like TO's fuse kit

[@don_n5skt]

@@temporarilyoffline The sBitX's did fry like that and it was not a good thing.

[@richardchambless12]

I knew that thing had a pair of IRF530s before you took the lid off. There are several kits that use those switching Mosfets. They put out a lot of power on the low bands but they short out easy as they aren’t designed for RF amplification.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Hams repurposing one thing to do another thing... No problem there, it's what we do. The micro PA50 uses the same FETs, but is a better design. I'd still like to see more protections built in though

[@graybeardradio7778]

No low pass filters on the output of the AMP, and it is likely the harmonics are not suppressed the required 43dB with respect to the fundamental required by the FCC. So it is probably not legal to have on the air, but really nice that it destroys itself keep you from violating the rules.

[@haramanggapuja]

I didn’t waste on that’n ‘cause I knew it was unfiltered. If it had filtering, bet it would have done better. Worse yet: there are a couple versions ‘out there.’

[@temporarilyoffline]

Small Favors...

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right!

[@ERICtheLATE]

Amps, weather for audio or rf, are rarely rated at rms, they are more interesting if they are wearing an emblem of peak. It can do peak safely, for a few seconds. That 50watt amplifier, with ssb or cw, should be fed the specific amount of power to be just under that, especially with cw, which is short carriers. SSB could peak right on 50watts, or a tad more, but then you are stressing the recycled solder, and whatever they picked out for components. It needs a rig set to a specific setting of happy place and never exceeded, or just there to bypass straight to antenna. Once you have a few of them, you can start combinding them. A ssb signal @ 3 watts peak, driving 2 of those, then those driving 6 of those, of course after you develop a harmonic elimination circuit to keep it clean and focused on the bands of choice. Then you discover the little white transistors, with much higher gain and peaks, but that is kinda trendy.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Pills? :-)

[@321CatboxWA]

@@temporarilyoffline What he said was , you over drove it to failure . never look to see advertised watts in RMS/AVG . 50w PEP not RMS . Its a gateway to popping skylab pills if your keen. near as I can finger from Mr. Late offered up.

[@321CatboxWA]

Damn Skippy

[@bentleyhar]

Great video first time watching one of your videos you have a new subscriber

[@temporarilyoffline]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@agoraphobicadam1171]

Thanks for watching out for us. KO4HPC 73

[@temporarilyoffline]

You got it!

[@KK6USYHamRadioAdventures]

Dang used solder is a thing? Nice review and look inside.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yeah, I was shocked

[@victorcharlie7491]

Thank you sir!

[@temporarilyoffline]

You bet!

[@chriscoel]

I need a link/source for that bnc cable jumper that went from x6100 -> amp

[@temporarilyoffline]

amzn.to/3CqqtiI the one I have is the same spec, but mine is unavailable

[@bloguetronica]

It matched my expectations. :)

[@temporarilyoffline]

Mine too!

[@whiskerlesswalrus]

I had a person hand one to me blown up in the same manner as that one that failed for you and found the MOSFET shorted-the soldering is pretty bad and I noticed around one of the BNC connectors a spot on the board where it looked like it got hot and discolored the board-which also may be the soldering job on it from the factory-they have always said-if it looks too good to be true-like 50 watts for about 50 to 75 dollars it probably is too good to be true

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yeah, I was pretty shocked. These are built by people that don't know what radio is.

[@DirtyPlumbus]

I do not have a big batch of adapters, it is a definitely an issue I need to work on.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Accumulation from Amazon is your friend! I got some here, some there, then got the case.

[@TheGeekiestGuy]

Got damn. I see a lot of recycled solder. I just took apart a clone of a btech (so a clone of an anytone). The only actual part problem was the roach issue. I'll update you if you want since I just found the gnar inside. But if it costs me more than the unit to clean it and get it running, then I think I quit.😆 I kid, but you know what I mean.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yuck! Yeah, some things are pretty bad!

[@Randy-xs4wm]

This low quality amp is only meant to be used (per its spec) from 3 to 21 MHz. I notice that you began your test on 160 meters (out of manufacturer's spec) and then ran through the "approved" 80-15 meter bands but then did a bit of transmitting on 12 and 10 meters (again, out of spec), and finally returned to out-of-spec 160 meters where you blew up the amp. I'm not saying the amp wouldn't have blown up anyway given that it's made of reused solder and dog food, but I am saying that you may have sped up the problem by using it in ways the manufacturer never intended. Thoughts?

[@temporarilyoffline]

Good points! I don't know where I got the idea that it worked on those bands. I'd expect it just wouldn't be efficient. The IRF530s aren't even meant for this application anyway.

[@ERICtheLATE]

@@temporarilyoffline Pushing the envelope, by instinct. I bet it would be sweet on 40, 20 metric bands. Would be cool if everything was repairable via firmware update. This may have provided a break.

[@temporarilyoffline]

That's what I do!

[@KS0JD]

Unless you really want to why would you want an amp put together by your brothers kids! Spend the money else ware. Great video! 73

[@temporarilyoffline]

You do have a point!

[@migalito1955]

I bought an OGS-50W before I saw the videos that dislike it. I figured they abused the amp, thus their issues. To be safe I used a 40 meter resonate antenna. I also used my bitx-40, but since at 13.8 volts with adequate amps it puts out around 7 watts I decided to try running the bitx-40 at 9 volts with at most 2 amps. This brought my rigs power down to 0.8 watts on my crappy meter, but the combination of an input of 0.8 watts and the OGS-50worked great. I'd say my meter suggested 28 watts. The only issue is the recieve to transmit relay has a delay of about 200 miliseconds. I spoof this by tapping the mic before starting my audio. On digital modes this could be an issue but I really bought it for giving more kick to my Qrp kit SSB rigs.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Nice, glad it worked out well for you! I agree on the 200ms issue being a problem.

[@logicman91]

Coils are shorted the wire varnish probably had a scratch in it

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yep! Not good

[@jonaswalther9245]

Shorted mosfet!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right!

[@swichannel8114]

​@@temporarilyofflinechange the new mosfet this OGS back to normal?

[@45auto]

Oof, when a tinkerer doesn't think it's worth a tinker's da**.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right, I can't even see where you'd get usable parts out of it ;-)

[@TheSmokinApe]

I’d say that amp is surprisingly bad but I ain’t surprised 😮

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right!

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

And it can’t be FCC certified because it is capable of amplifying 27 mHz/11 meters with a 5w input. *73 de AF6AS*

[@temporarilyoffline]

As you know, If you're a ham it doesn't need to be FCC certified, that's our job.

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

@@temporarilyoffline True, but it can't _"legally"_ be sold commercially ... (Yes, there's always AliExpress ...) I remember the days when commercial linear amplifiers couldn't cover 10/12 meters unless you identified yourself as a ham and got a workaround, just like the _MARS/CAP "out of band"_ mods.

[@TonyLing]

The sort of accessory that would make even MFJ blush

[@temporarilyoffline]

Maybe!

[@TrevorWeston-vc9zq]

These are not designed for 10 meters ! The cut off is 24 mhz , pretty sure thats why it blew

[@temporarilyoffline]

One of the many possible reasons

[@q07906]

Specs on Aliexpress state that this amp is designed for 3-24Mhz

[@temporarilyoffline]

Neat!

[@P.SeanCoady]

No filters ....noise box.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Exactly!

[@joeblow8593]

Well, thanks for saving us $75.

[@temporarilyoffline]

You got it!

[@jolebole-yt]

According to its specs it will operate from 3-24Mhz. I think once you went to 28Mhz you killed it 😂

[@temporarilyoffline]

Probably did, but that's ham radio: push it till it breaks them make it better!

[@jolebole-yt]

@@temporarilyoffline It cannot be fixed unless its broken first 🤣

[@temporarilyoffline]

@@jolebole-yt exactly!

[@AmRadPodcast]

No filters! Mica insulators double-stacked - doesn't make sense why they would do that; decreases thermal conductivity... And that RF sense circuit. Hot garbage!

[@temporarilyoffline]

I thought the insulators might appear that way on camera, it was one per FET, not two stacked. But as you know, you can't go back and re-shoot something later. The whole thing was hot garbage though!

[@AmRadPodcast]

@@temporarilyoffline ah I see. Thought it was a manufacturing error.

[@phillyedhrj]

Amplifee? Sounds like a Cajun amplifier.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

[@madcarew5168]

Lead free is a curse!!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Those dang safety Sallys

[@slappomatthew]

I mean the lack of a LPF should make this a complete non starter.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Agreed!

[@Dr-T]

Where are the low pass filters for each band?! This amp shouldn't be allowed on sale without the LPF as it will fail all the necessary test/approvals. 73 Bruce G4ABX

[@temporarilyoffline]

You're right! There aren't any!

[@Dr-T]

@@temporarilyoffline Amazing! Its a bit like many of the CB 'Burners' of yesteryear 🙂 73 Bruce

[@neilgodfreybartley3143]

Instantly...🤔

[@temporarilyoffline]

Right!

[@W4TRI_Ronny]

Heat Shrink compound! You found the R! I'm just letting this video run to give you the view count. I would not buy this garbage at any price.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Agreed!

[@JT-py9lv]

*Caveat Emptor*

[@temporarilyoffline]

Exactly!

[@G4BUD]

No low pass filters. DO NOT BUY THIS!!

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yet another reason!

[@jameyevans29]

What if it’s your watt METEE? Lol

[@temporarilyoffline]

Since the amp wouldn't power on and the watt meter does, I'm sticking with my story.

[@jameyevans29]

@@temporarilyoffline I don’t blame you. Thanks for the video

[@MeineVideokasetten]

#Short: *It's crap* !

[@temporarilyoffline]

You got it!

[@phillyedhrj]

So... Donation to Jason's deer lease for target practice?

[@istvanszabo8698]

Not finished design.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Agreed

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

Need to wash your hands from touching crap.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Yes!

[@lampshadesneeded]

Ironic for an american to criticise spelling of the English language

[@temporarilyoffline]

I hate it when Americans do that.