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write your own review of the Samlex 1223.
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KM5TC
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 12, 2008 15:54
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Very Good
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had my Samlex over 6 yrs and has worked well. I use it with my Icom 718 and Icom V8000.
The small size is a plus, as it takes up so little space on the table next to my tuner.
I had an Astron, no problems with it, but traded
it back to a friend and still have and use the
Samlex 1223. 73's
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M5TAW
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 12, 2008 07:07
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No problems
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned a Samlex 1223 for approx 5 years, it has never let me down. The construction is robust and I have never experienced any problems with RFI. Mine is CE marked and was sourced in the UK.
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K7TCE
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Rating: 2/5
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Sep 11, 2008 08:39
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Still disappointed
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My 6/18/03 rating is below. I have since installed the ZL2DF modification, but the Samlex still disappoints with 75 meter hash. The mod gave a bit of improvement, but better results were noticed when I did a really heavy duty grounding of the PS and the transceiver. I still cannot recommend this unit. I'll keep my rating at a 2 because I, not the careless manufacturer, had to incur the time and expense of the low-yield modification.
WA2TCE Rating: 2/5 Jun 18, 2003 14:42 I'm dissapointed Time owned: 6 to 12 months
Nice price, size. Unfortunately, the amount of RF noise in the 80/75 meter frequency range makes me unable to recommend this to anyone. It's bad enough there are spurs every 20 hkz or so, there are others that move down in frequency, and take about 30-45 seconds to clear the frequency you are trying to listen to. A call to Samlex got me a lecture on why some noise is to be expected from switching power supplies.
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G5XW
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 11, 2008 07:36
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7 years of trips and still 100%
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Got mine brand new 7-8 years ago for trips /p /iota etc. Its been 100% for me running my Alinco DX70. May only get an outing 3-5 times a year but its running for the whole week or 2 weeks Im away. Not as much use as some but its handled going through "carefull" airport bagage handlers, had a couple of knocks I thought would be the end, but all fine. Good runer, compact Im happy with it
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KC0TDI
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 24, 2008 12:11
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Noisy, Short Life
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased the Samlex 1223 as part of an HF package in early 2006. I run an Icom IC-718 HF rig, which won't draw more than 20A at full power. All seemed OK until two months ago. The supply began making noise which sounded like ball bearings rolling around. The noise was especially noticeable when transmitting. I checked the fan, thinking that might be the culprit, to no avail. Then, I found the N0SS modification, and was ordering material to do that. Two evenings ago, while transmitting on a net, the fuse blew. After removing the cover and finding no visible damage, I replaced the fuse last evening and powered up - briefly. There was a loud bang, sparks, a small fire, and all the smoke escaped! Not having any extra smoke on hand, I consigned this piece of junk to the trash can.
Unless you want to experience the pyrotechnics, save your money, spend the few extra shekels, and buy a linear supply. My new Astron is being shipped today.
73s, Don
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KA9WDX
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Rating: 3/5
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Jul 18, 2008 10:43
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My Results Of Trying N0SS's Ferrite Bead Mod
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I tried the ferrite bead mod and had "mixed" results. Testing out 160, 80 and 20 Meters, I had different results, depending upon the band. On 160 Meters, all "birdies" were still there, and in fact, they increased in signal strength, from around a S-7 or so before the modification, to around a S-9 afterwards. On 80 Meters, almost one half of the "birdies" dropped down to where I could barely hear them, or they weren't heard at all, but almost half of the "birdies" just moved upwards in frequency somewhere between 100 and 150 Khz, and they're every 40 Khz or so, whereas they were every 20 Khz or so before the mod, but some were barely heard before the mod anyway, and there were two "birdies" that got stronger in signal strength, and the one that's almost on 3.985.00.0 Mhz went from a S-7 to a S-9. The "birdies" on 20 Meters however disappeared completely, so I have had mixed results with the ferrite bead modification, but I may try different values to see if I get different results, and I have even taken two older USB cables, that I don't use anymore, and have removed the ferrite bead off of them, by carefully cutting the outside jacket off of the cables and pulling the wire out of them using a needle-nose pliers, and have slipped them unto the power cables just outside of the SEC 1223's case, just to see if they'd help any. I will say this though, when I pull the USB cable out of the printer, there are "birdies" that disappear on HF too, even when the printer is turned off.
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KA9WDX
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 17, 2008 22:34
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My Review of the Samlex SEC 1223 Switching Power Supply
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this P/S for around 3 years, and so far, I haven't had any problems with it, and in fact, it's so quiet, I sometimes forget about it. I have used it in an apartment for around 1 year, then in this trailer home for over 2 years now and I have had it connected to two transceivers at the same time, but of course, that's monitoring and I've only transmitted on one transceiver at a time. It has been connected to my Icom IC-718 HF Transceiver, which I had purchased at the same time I had purchased the SEC 1223, plus it has been connected to a Radio Shack Vhf Transceiver, which runs around 6 or 7 watts or so and I don't think that the SEC 1223 P/S has been turned off more than once or twice in the past two years or so...I turn the rigs off at the transceiver and usually forget to turn the power supply off. I think though that both transceivers have batteries inside of them, to keep the programmed frequencies, and/or to keep the memory frequencies, intact, and to save the other menu settings, so keeping the power supply on, I think, saves on the batteries. I have had other brands of power supplies, and I have had about equal pluses and minuses with those brands, meaning, for example: I have had Astron power supplies that worked a long time, but I have had other Astron's die on me too, some in a very short time, some of them were rated twice the maximum current that the rig would draw, yet they "blew" their power transistors, or whatever, out on the heatsinks and I'd have to replace them sometimes.
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KI6PDQ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 11, 2008 18:19
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Absolutely flawless!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Use it EVERYDAY to power my mobile at least 12 hours or more per day. No a single complain or malfunction. Straighforward compact design. Stays cools and fan is very quite. What else can you ask for?
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AA4LR
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Rating: 3/5
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Jun 15, 2008 06:38
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RFI Generator - but solvable
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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After my old linear supply went west after 19 years in service, I found a used Samlex 1223 at a hamfest. Owner had replaced it with an Astron SS-25M. I should have taken the hint there.
I was impressed with the size of the unit, and it had no trouble supplying my K2/100 to full output, even on 160m. (The old linear supply could only do about 90 watts on 160m)
However, I was disturbed to find numerous spurs were audible on my antennas on 160m. The loudest of these was near 1845 kHz, about an S7 on the K2 S-meter. Note that the location and strength of the spurs varies with supply load.
I found that putting a snap-on ferrite core around the power cord reduced the spur to an S5 indication. A similar reduction could be had by placing a snap-on ferrite around the power output leads.
My first modification was to de-solder the white and black power cord jumpers inside the unit in order to slip on seven FT50-77 toroids. After this modification, the spur was reduced to an S5 indication.
Since that wasn't sufficient, I then made a modification similar to that designed by ZL2DF and published by N0SS: http://www.n0ss.net/samlex_1223_rfi_mods_from_zl2df.pdf
My unit was different from ZL2DF, in that it did not have the screw / compression power terminals. Instead, my unit used two binding posts that were soldered directly to spade terminals on the PC board.
After pulling out the PC board, I removed the spade terminals. I replaced these with 16 gauge wire fed through eight type 43 ferrite beads for each lead. The wire is small, but it is the largest that would fit through the beads. the output terminals are bypassed across each other and to chassis ground with .1 50v multi-layer ceramic caps.
After this, the spur at 1845 kHz was just audible. At night, atmospheric noise covers it up.
This supply was originally designed to work with VHF/ UHF gear, and likely does well. With minor modifications, it is suitable for use with HF gear.
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W8NLZ
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Rating: 5/5
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May 1, 2008 07:00
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Good PS for the Price
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Apparently I've been lucky. Have not experienced any discernible RFI coming from the power supply. It seems to be a good unit at a good price. I am about to buy a second Samlex 1223 to operate my new Kenwood TS-480HX at full 200 watts. Recommended for the average application.
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