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You can
write your own review of the Yaesu Quadra VL-1000.
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K4ZMV
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 13, 2009 11:31
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Nice amp, but ........
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have had the Quadra now for about two months. My intention was to run an FT2000D on Input 1 and a K3 on Input 2. Much to my dismay, I discovered that there are too many hurdles to overcome to use Input 2. This has been well documented on this forum.
What I also discovered was that the Quadra is NOT a real QSK amp. With the 'FULL' setting for the 'BK-IN' parameter, the Quadra will only faithfully follow code speeds up to between 18-20 WPM. After that, it dramatically truncates dots. I called Yaesu and talked to technical support and they verified that my Quadra was working correctly. They recommended I use the 'semi' setting for break-in. That corrected the problem. And, really, the semi breakin is pretty fast so no bad problem.
Otherwise, the Quadra is like having a 1 KW transceiver. The tuner will tune up to 4.0:1 and pretty fast. The amp is smooth and the output is an honest 1 KW. It is a little noisy, but I spend most of my time in the cans so I don't really care. It is heavy, so don't plan on putting it on a card table. Overall, a nice solid state amp with a good auto tuner.
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N1JMS
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2009 19:33
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Nice Looking
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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A little fickle until you get to understand it's idiosyncrasies, however, very strong and reliable once you get it figured out and stabilized. Of course the Yeasu manuals and back-up lack simple detail, as usual. Really a 4.7/5 in my book.
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W9SN
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 24, 2008 10:19
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Great Amp
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I had 2 of these in the past and went the Icom way for a few years. Recently came back to the FT-2000 and wanted an amp that married it. The Quadra is a beautiful piece of equipment. Married to a Yaesu radio, it is like having a kilowatt rig on your desk. I also have the Icom PW1 amplifier on my second station. I am not sure either of these have the advantage over the other. The Icom can set on the floor instead of taking up desktop space is the only thing I can think of. With 50 watts of drive, the Quadra will produce just over 1000 watts out all day long, and seamlessly tracks with any late model Yaesu exciter.
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N7VXD
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 20, 2008 15:30
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Awesome Amplifier!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This amp by Yaesu is one great piece of equipment. Having owned a PW-1 in the past, I was somewhat skeptical about some of the "bad press" the VL-1000 had gotten, especially about SWR tolerance. Not so. The Quadra has exceeded all my expectations, and operates without a glitch.
Granted, without the Tuner online, the Quadra will shut down at 3/1 SWR. But click on the Tuner, wait about 4or 5 seconds and your at 1/1! So far, I have been able to sucessfully tune SWR's at 3.5/1 with no problem, and I'm sure it would handle 4/1 with ease. Of course, this is a coax only Tuner-Amplifier and balanced lines, ladder lines or long wires are going to need a different set-up. Personally speaking, if you have SWR's over about 2.5/1 on dioples and OCF antennas, you probably need to re-think your antenna and grounding situation anyway. As a Yaesu Tech Representative recently told me, some people see the Quadra's SWR tolerance as a detriment, while others see it as a blessing. I agree 100%. There is also a website out there that shows how to use ICOM exciters for AUTO-TUNE with the Quadra.
Finally, this amp is really built. After opening the cases on both the power supply and the amp itself, I was amazed at the ruggedness and quality of construction. And, no more High Voltage dangers, no more tank circuit arcing, no more cumbersome manual tune-ups, no more grid current worries; the Quadra is smooth as silk.
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VA7OJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 4, 2008 23:27
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10th anniversary!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My Quadra has just passed its 10th anniversary in my station, and is now on its 5th Icom exciter (an IC-7700). It is still serving me flawlessly.
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KE4EX
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 25, 2008 21:23
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Great Product
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have used this amp on 160-80-40-20-17
I run it with 50 watts drive.
I have the Low set at 500 watts
and the high set at 1000 watts.
--Set up the amp into a dummy load.--
The tuner is fast, protection system is quick.
I am very pleased with this amp.
Follows my FT2K around like a puppy.
As for the company, evey time I call Tim has been johnny on the spot. Even follows up my call with a email (that a changeI can live with).
Well done Yaesu.
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WD9IDV
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 6, 2008 11:14
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Still Going Strong!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Still going strong with no problems after seven years of operation. I use it almost everyday at 1100 - 1250 watts output. When I operated RTTY and SSTV I always ran it at a kilowatt. When brand new I did have a bad MRF-150 transistor, but Yaesu did replace it and has never shown any problems since being repaired seven years ago.
I run two radios into the amplifier. The first being my "workhorse" the Yaesu FT-920. The second radio is a Kenwood TS-570DG. I use an Ameritron ALB-702 amplifier buffer interface with the Kenwood radio. I have no problems using two radios with the Quadra. Works great and as expected if you read your manual.
Closing Comments:
I love this amplifier. It is very well built. The insides are a work of art. Solid Japanese electronic build quality. The control cables that were included could have been better though.
As to the price, I think it is reasonable. For the level of sophistication, quality, and technical expertise built into this amplifier, it will be money well spent over the course of its life.
Robert WD9IDV
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NB2A
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Rating: 3/5
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Feb 8, 2008 17:15
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Ok but too pricy and not fully functional as advertised
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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First off it wont as stated by another reviewer easily do 2 radios at once as claimed. It comes up with error codes that are mentioned in the manual but do not always correspond with the current condition that is displayed. For example while doing the 10/12 meter mod on mine after finding 2 previous owners did not do it the amp kept giving me #1005 error code which relates to supply voltage. Supply voltage was 48 volts as called for so obviously this error code has other meaning. After calling Yaesu and actually getting a knowledgeable person they tell me to switch rear remote switch and magic it reset the secret error code!If you do try to run 2 radio alc lines on mine it locks up the display making it unable to even switch inputs on the amp! I did get my Quadra running now with some effort on my Icom 7800. It even follows the bands as well as power on/off with it.This is done with band data obviously just as it does with my Yaesu MKV. Is it worth the new price or even used price? I am still not fully decided it is after 2 months of use.Seems to have too many secret issues going on and with a service manual and tech notes around for it you are flying blind in my view.I have always owned Yaesu but now it seems time to integrate more Icom in my shack.The 7800 over the 9000d pushed me over it seems. Now this Quadra seems to make me realize my decision was correct to switch my thinking!One more point even though you can split the supply from the amp the amp weighs about the same as the supply quite heavy!The supply control cables are also flimsy at best where they make connections to each other too.Overall amp is in need of redesign!
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AB4D
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 23, 2008 17:51
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Great Amp, Perfect Match for your Yaesu HF.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Purchased this amp used to go along with my FT-1000mp Mk.V. The amp works great and requires very little drive to reach 1KW+. The amplifier fans are a little noisy, which increase in speed upon transmit. However, I am getting used to them. The information display is a very nice feature with a screen that will report your peak and average power, SWR: bargraph and numerically, and amperage drawn from the 50 volt power supply, or you can switch from the SWR bargraph over to view the power supply voltage. You can also change the entire display to show just peak/avg power and SWR numerically, or peak power and SWR nemerically. There also is a screen which is a SWR Spam Monitor, that provides a 100khz chart of your antenna bandwidth with and without using the built in tuner. If you are a fan of Yaesu gear, you will love this amp. Using it is like having a 1kw transceiver.
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K3ICH
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 21, 2008 20:49
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Five Years, working fine
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Admittedly, I don't use the amp for every QSO, but when needed, it has been the ultimate in simplicity. Normally it is paired with a "Field, but I just ran it last weekend in the January VHF contest with a PRO III exciter (50 MHz) on input #2. Most contacts were at "low" power (500 watts) and whenever a repeat was requested, the extra 3db was instantly there to make the difference. I didn't bother to hook up the bandswitching/keying cable so I'd just push the F-SET button and manually key the PRO on six. Got many unsolicited "great audio" reports, so I'm sure there's no RFI problems with this set-up.
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