Are you asking a question?  I don't see one.  But I would point out a misconception.  The meters on these amps are not instantaneous peak-hold meters.  Therefore, you can not read instantaneous input power.  If the Canadian regs really require an instantaneous power measurement, then they are requiring you to adapt metering that the manufacturers do not supply.  And, in fact, to the best of my awareness, isn't available from anybody.

Sad to say, but the metering in amps is way off the mark anyway.  You're lucky to have meters within 10% of correct, due to poor component selection and drift with age.

1kW DC input?  That's quite strange.  In the days when the FCC allowed US hams to calculate power based on input, we had to calculate the TOTAL input to the tube, including plate and grids, PLUS add a reasonable estimate of the RF drive power supplied by the previous stage - we were allowed to measure its DC input and multiply by 50% for that estimate.

The reason the FCC switched to the 1.5kW OUTPUT spec is that, fundamentally, RF output power is nowadays easier to measure than DC input power.

AM

A humming transformer has loose windings or loose laminations, and is warrantable.  I know of no ham manufacturer that would not replace that under warranty.  Call Ameritron.

AM

Agreed - don't assume anything.  You assumed that I could read your ad.  I could only see the photo.  I saw that it was in the "for sale" section.

If you have an ISP, they give you free space to post photos, or you can use Yahoo.

Did you pull the cover off?  Does it actually have a tube in it?  

Don't fret the 5wpm.  I take a couple dozen people from zero to 5 in a four hour weekend event - you can do it.  'been doing that for decades.  Just relax and accept your capabilities and it will happen as you study.  I use SM (supermorse) as the training tool.

AM

Don't let the fogeys scare you.  The legal implications of selling such an amplifier only apply to commercial enterprises.  If you, personally, purchased the amp for personal use, then decided you no longer wanted it, you can sell it legally, even if its intended usage was illegal.

Another legal escape is that if the amplifier was manufactured prior to the FCC restrictions that were imposed about 1980, then it's legal to resell even if you are a commercial enterprise.

By the way, you are commercial not only if you make a profit, but also if you purchse things regularly for the express purpose, or expectation of resellig them without ever using them personally.  For instance, I do sometimes acquire things at flea markets that I plan to sell on ebay.  In a year's time, this helps defray my flea market expenses, but does not completely cover them, so I never make a reportable profit.  However, the activities themselves, since I do not plan to use the items, make my behavior "commercial."

Hope this clears it up.  Bought it for your own use but decided otherwise?  OK to sell.  Bought it expressly to sell, and it was manufactured after 1980?  Illegal to sell.

AM

Why do you want to replace it?  If it's bad, contact Ameritron.  If you want more power, putting in a higher voltage transformer won't do it - you'll have to replace a whole lot more than just the transformer.

AM

Alan, I agree, let's not start rumours such as "Henry radio has voluntarily ceased production of all amplifiers"

Henry has ceased only the amateur vacuum tube amps, and the solid state HF amps.  They are still in the solid-state VHF brick amplifier business.

Those of us who have done accounting for small businesses have always known that "lost our lease" means that they voluntarily chose not to renew it, in most cases.

Judging by serial numbers, Henry has sold precious few HF tube type amps in the past ten years, and the name brand is utterly unheard-of in the larger high RF power markets of broadcasting, sputtering, plasma etch and NMR.  At base, i believe the cause is that everybody who wants RF power these days really wants small, quiet, and computer controllable.

AM

Carl seemed to disappear from the ether about two years ago.  Prior to his disappearance, several hams attempting to do business with him observed extremely long response times to purchase requests.  Sometimes someone's other life gets in the way - job, spouse, health.  I hope he's doing OK.

AM

You know, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but this is a tiring sort of question.  You're trying to sell the thing, and NOW want some free advice as to what it is?  Sorry, that's just not in the ham spirit.

If you're going to use an amp, don't buy one without a name and model number - unless you're so good at homebrewing that you could rebuild it yourself anyway.  That's not facetious - I've certainly purchased unfinished homebrew projects because I could tell the components were of good quality.

You didn't even bother to tell us what tube was in it.

Hate to say it, but a tech class licensee asking questions about an amp he has for sale just doesn't sound very sincere.

AM

I have been quite able to damage many so-called high power tuners, including Ten-Tec 238, AT4K and others mentioned.  Truthfully, antenna tuners die from too much voltage or current.  If the antenna has an SWR of 10:1, then something is soaring.

I don't always use resonant antennas.  I tend to put up the antenna, play with it using whatever tuner I have available, and once I decide I plan to keep that antenna around, I build band-specific fixed-tuned matching networks for that antenna, and switch between them with a good switch.  There are some cases (mainly short verticals) where the best matching network uses a custom-designed low-impedance ferrite-loaded transformer, which nobody sells in any tuner whatsoever.

The tuner I've been using lately for my experiments is a borrowed XMatch.  At 8:1 VSWR on 160 meters, I have not killed it with full legal limit - and that's where the others have died.

AM

I was surprised to find out how many so-called "new" tubes have had rough treatment.  If you did not acquire the tube from Eimac or Richardson, then you did not purchase an actual as-manufactured new tube, but instead "new old stock" or NOS.  There is a date code on the tube, like 0420 - that one means manufactured the 20th week of 2004.

Those tubes, with rough handling, can end up with a bent/misaligned grid or cathode structure.  As the tube warms up and these parts expand, a compromised internal clearance can occasionally make actual contact.  That means the stand-off grid bias will go to zero momentarily.

This is not correct behavior for a good tube.  If you really did purchase it new, then it's a warrantable problem.  If you purchased it, instead, from some unknown guy in Iowa or Ohio, then it's more likely been "trunk stock" for an MRI technician.

Good luck,

AM

Ham rigs with general-coverage RX that can be had for about $300:  Kenwood TS-430, Icom IC-735.  There are others; I don't know what Yaesu had in those days.

Don't get hung up on buying an HF rig new.  Today's lowest-cost radios have overload-prone receivers.  The above-mentioend rigs are reliable, available, and perform roughly as well as today's mid-priced rigs.

Think of it this way.  Purchasing a used rig that was medium-to-high end when it was new is like buying a used Mercedes instead of a new Dodge.  Same price, but the Merc will please you far more and will still be going at 300,000 miles when the Dodge is rotting away in a junkyard.

AM

Verticals are very much DX antennas.  Most of the "common" 80 meter operation is "local" in which case you're better off with a horizontal antenna - like a dipole.

If you have any desire to stay in contact with your local hams who are active on HF, you'll find 75 meter SSB to be the place.  I have done reasonably well for local QSOs, by building a 75 meter dipole - full size about 130 feet long, then getting as much of it in the air as possible.  For local QSOs it really comes alive about 40 feet off the ground.  I don't worry about whether I can fit the whole thing on my lot, I just wrap the wire back and forth, or dangle from the ends, as needed to fit it.  SWR is always low enough that my rig's internal tuner can handle it.

The verticals I'm familiar with do not compromise higher bands for 80 meters.  However, be aware that on 80 meters, it'll be fairly narrowband.  You can tune for the CW part of the band or phone, but not both.  

So, you're not compromising 40-10 by purchasing the "version" of the vertical that has 80 meter coverage.  But, no matter what band, don't expect a vertical to be a great antenna for QSOs less than about 1000 miles away.

AM

I have had a similar situation.  I installed 2" thick hard foam - without the aluminum, and spaced it about 1/4" from the concrete.  I glued one inch wide, 1/4" thick hardboard to the back of the foam - about every two feet.  I just rested the foam on the floor, and used long skinny nails to tack it into the "plate" (2 X 6) atop the foundation walls, for a quick and removable job.  This was in Saskatchewan, about 10 years ago.  I raised my shack temperature about 12 degrees F by doing this.  I later installed a raise floor, by laying 2 X 2 strips on the concrete floor every 16", putting in what little bit of fiberglass would fit, then laying OSP (OSX?) sub-floor material on top of it.  I only used a few nails on the OCX, again so it was removable.  This action further increased the shack temp another 5-8 degrees F.

GL!

AM

Summarily chastised, I feel.  Yes, the northeast could be different.  My "generalization" is based on my actual attempts to monitor and scare up activity in San Francisco, Los Angeles (shudder), Spokane, Seattle, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Dallas.  In some cases, the QSOs are not political, but even if not, they are likely inane.  Howeer, it is true that since I left the active political consulting profession some 30 years ago, I have not had the opportunity to monitor the VHF bands along the eastern seaboard.

As far as doing a disservice, I have collected stats on just how many hams who start their "careers" on 2 meter FM stay in the hobby and renew after ten years.  West of the Mississippi anyway, the prospects are grim.  I may be doing them a disservice this week, but I'm increasing the probability that they'll renew in ten years.

AM

Best:

Coax center conductor to bottom of downspout on 3-story building.  Coax shield connected to some 20 gauge wire running both ways from under downspout, tucked under the plastic weed barrier of the landscaping.  No need to find trees, no need to have a balcony.  My son did this, and made DXCC in a few months on 40 meters from Michigan.  He ran 600 watts into it.

Worst: giving up on the whole idea.

What to do if you get caught: Say, "I didn't know it was against the rules", then they'll read you the rules and you tell them you had not read the fine print, and now want out of the lease.  They may give you an exception, or they may boot you out.  You have to decide whether ham radio or the teniis courts are more important to you.  Tennis, I can play anywhere. Ham radio requires an antenna.

AM