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Reviews For: Diamond GVZ4000

Category: Power Supplies

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Review Summary For : Diamond GVZ4000
Reviews: 44MSRP: 229.95
Description:
Power Supply
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/gzv4000.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00444.3
CT2HZU Rating: 2003-11-10
Superb Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have this PSU for about 2 years now, and not a single complain. Well, like other reviewers, the fan is a bit noisy, but comparing with my PC, don't know who wins the prize...
This unit is only used at the moment to suply my IC-746, and sometime my celular phone with the car kit hi hi. The needle never went over the 20 amps.

Had purchased this for it's dimensions, weight and appereance.

Had to wait a little bit to buy it, but am very happy with.
W7MJR Rating: 2003-06-22
It's okay... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
It works fine. Fan is a little noisy. Ammeter worked intermittently right out of the box (needs a tap every so often). Light bulb burnt out in 6 months (incandescent?). Sending it back to get meter fixed while still under warranty. No noticeable rf hash problem yet (too much noise from other sources to tell).
GI0ZGB Rating: 2003-01-03
Switched Mode PSU Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had one of these units for just short of two years, was a bit dubious about buying given that it was switched mode, but the output was very clean with the naturally generated RF hash being superbly filtered not being evident on any band or rig which I qwned at that time. Worked well being stable and smooth, but the fan got me in the end being just a tad too noisy for my liking. It eventually blew the guts out of an I.C. due I think to overheating and possible underating. Overall I would recommend it as a good quality unit better suited to those who are hard of hearing, the efficent fan is a total pain.
HB9DRD Rating: 2003-01-03
Excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned both of my GZV4000s for over one year, one is over two years old. I have two becaise of my needs for high current 12V and not because of any failings in the PSU. The fan is a little noisy, but its voltage stability under dynamic load is excellent, and you can pick it up without a hernia, another plus.

Highly recommended.
KF3EE Rating: 2002-12-25
Nothing but PS!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Fantasic power supply! I hear no discernible noise as a result of this supply. Sure, there's noise out there......powerline, blender in the kitchen, neighbor's vaccuum cleaner, etc.....but none from this supply that my TS2000 is picking up. The supply sits about 2.5-3ft away from my rig.

I would venture to guess that computer case power supplies and modern CRT monitors generate more noise than this supply does. I'm sure Diamond's manufacturer knew to design appropriate filtering for radio use into this power supply, whereas Sony or Viewsonic or NEC or whomever could care less about us RF weenies.

73 and happy holidays!

-Doug, KF3EE
9V1PC Rating: 2002-10-26
Noise spurs are a real problem Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have to agree with K2ANE- noise spurs on my GVZ4000 wipe out the DX portions of 80m and 160m.

A very acoustically quiet PSU which will deliver 40A happily but using it on the LF bands is a pain. I've tried it with various rigs- same problem :-(.
N8IVQ Rating: 2002-05-23
great power supply!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just purchased last week the GVZ4000 and it is a great power supply. It looks sharp and the performance to match... I went from a astron 50 amp that I have been running since 1987 to the Diamond, and this supply is great. The fan is very low noise, and I have put a current of 38 amps on it and it is just as good if not better than the astron supply which was twice the size and about 6 times as heavier... BTW I have found no hashing with my Kenwood TS440 that I have heard about with this type of power supply.. A GREAT BUY!!
VA5SAM Rating: 2002-03-26
WORTH EVERY PENNY Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Great job Diamond! Every once in a while a product comes along that stands head and shoulders above the rest. This is one of them. No complaints here so far.
K2ANE Rating: 2002-02-12
Disappointing Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this unit since it was new for two years now. I purchased it for all the reasons cited in the other reviews here on Eham.net. It has a nice large footprint, novel front panel, is light in weight etc. and so forth.

I note that some of the other reviewers mentioned RF hash not being present. My understanding of RF hash is one of it being a broadbanded type of noise, like ignition noise or electric motor noise or even the microwave oven that generates noise across the BC band well into the 10 meter band. I can testify that this unit does not demonstrate that kind of artifact.

However it does have a spur every 60khz that is about 8khz wide from the broadcast band well into 15 meters and then becomes inaudible. Its like having a marker generator going and its a very annoying sound (FMing like) which on ham frequencies completely takes out some QSO's especially on 160, 75 and 40 meters, not to mention local BC and foreign broadcasts as well depending upon where you are tuned to. My only control over modifying this spur is to readjust the front panel voltage control up or down a volt or so and I can shift the frequency of the spur but it dosen't always have a good result. MFJ had a concept where the oscillator frequency could be changed to get away from a spur occurring on an active frequency.

I understand the concept of the switching power supply and how it operates at a frequency much higher than 60 cycle AC. In fact this unit is operating at the 60khz level which is the noise I hear. I have tried to add ferrite beads to the input and output of the unit to no avail. This problem has been the case since day one. I did not even consider returning it for service because I did not believe it could be remedied. In fact, I didn't even know who could service it. RF parts is a distributor and not a service facility to the best of my knowledge. My solution has been to put it to the side and use my old heavy duty transformer supplies for my HF work. I don't even want to sell it because I would not want to pass something with this problem onto someone else.

I gives this unit a 3, even though it should get a 2 which means it "needs help." Too bad, it really had such great potential and that is why I found it disappointing.


KC8PRZ Rating: 2001-05-02
Superb Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Very very quiet. It is fairly light weight. It is good looking. I have five radios hooked up to it and turned on but only transmit on one at a time. No moans nor groans, it doesn't even flinch or have to flex its muscle. Nice job again Diamond.