Samlex SEC-1223 13.8V 23A AC-DC Power Supply

The Samlex SEC-1223 is a switch-mode AC-to-DC power supply giving regulated 13.8V at up to 23 amps.

Thirteen point eight volts is the land-mobile-radio standard, which is what this was developed for. Amateur and commercial transceivers specify that figure, and running them from a nominal 12V supply costs output power on transmit.

Switch-mode circuitry keeps it compact and light while minimizing ripple and radio-frequency interference. That is the harder engineering problem: a switching supply is efficient but inherently noisy, and a supply feeding a receiver has to suppress its own interference to be usable at all.

Twenty-three amps covers a transceiver on transmit, which is where the current actually goes. A radio drawing two amps receiving may draw twenty on transmit, so sizing on the receive figure leaves the supply struggling at the moment it matters. Explore more DC-DC converters and power supplies.

• 13.8V is the land-mobile-radio standard
• A nominal 12V supply costs transmit power
• Switch-mode is efficient but inherently noisy
• A radio drawing 2A receiving may draw 20A transmitting