IRF510 bias current

Jerry KE7ER says:

“Farhan recommends 100ma for the push-pull IRF510’s on the uBitx. More is better, you get into a more linear region of the FET. But more means more power getting sucked from the battery if portable, that power gets dissipated as heat in the FET’s.  I’m going with 100ma.

“With a 500ma quiescent drain current when using a 24v supply, each FET is dissipating 24*0.5 = 12 Watts.   That’s a lot of heat. Back off to 100ma and it is only 24*0.1 = 2.4 Watts.   Which still seems plenty.

“You want to be very careful when adjusting IRF510 gate bias trim-pots, take it too far and the IRF510’s might be trying to dump 100 Watts or so.”

Note that a Mitsubishi D16HHF1 in push-pull requires a higher bias current setting (perhaps 250 mA or 300aA).