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write your own review of the Ameritron AL-80B.
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B8KUE
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 27, 2009 12:15
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Great Amp
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I've owned this amplifier for about 6 months. I run it on 110v. It consistently puts out 1000 watts. It's very quiet and very easy to tune. The fit and finish is outstanding. I get great reports. If I can hear them, I can work them. Almost instant on and it runs very quiet. Thank you Ameritron for building such a great amplifier. Get one, you won't regret it.
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KC2GUY
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 25, 2009 12:32
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Maybe I'm Amazed, MFJ
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Let me put this into perspective. I was going to leave the hobby, and sold my Alpha 99. A great amp.
After a few months, I decided to continue in HF. I looked around and read reviews as well as speaking to fellow hams. I wanted to spend far less than what a new Alpha 99 goes for. For me, the Ameritron 80B is one of the best designed amps at it's price-point. It is VERY quiet, in fact, whisper quiet. Easily does the 1K output on most bands. The fit and finish inside and out, are superb! YES, MFJ has finally got great quality control, at least on the products I have purchased from them over the past 3 years. They are VERY customer friendly. I am one happy camper. The amp loafs along at 900-1000 watts. Easily, on 110V. Great metering, and an easy tuning amp. I am amazed !
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W7KOL
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 24, 2009 08:22
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Good for the price
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is a good Amp, I tune it with Ameritrons Amp Tuner-Pulser and can tune to full power in just a few seconds,
There is enough protection in this Amp its hard to damage it.
Mine will run 1 KW driving 90 Watts, but I back the drive down to about 80 and run 800 to 900 Watts out just to be safe, no one will know the diffrence.
I think for the price, its a fair deal.
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K9XT
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 23, 2009 20:13
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Great Basic Amp
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased a used AL-80B nearly five years ago and it has performed extremely well. The electrolytics have a date code of 1995 and the 3-500z had a date code of 1994 indicating the amp is approximately 14 years old. I just recently replaced the 3-500z with a 3-500zg RFP tube due to growing problems with the tube (drifting input SWR and ALC instability). I also replaced the tube socket due to burn marks around the filiment pin holes and tightened the screws holding the fan in place (to eliminate a little bit of vibration noise). The amp is now running exactly as it should. The bottom line: A little bit of maintenance will keep this amp going for a long time.
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AD4C2006
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 13, 2009 05:56
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Very good amp
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Like others have said,its a plug and play amp out of the box,in more than a year using it I have had no bad issues at all,daily used heavily on 40,20,17 and 10M,either in CW as well as in SSB,it will run out 900 to 1000W wired for 120VAC(I have no 220 at home).It runs not too hot,cooling system is super,also very quite amp.Its the most efficient amp built by this company,67% of performance is not seen today by many amps.The ALC SET control in the front panel make easier the job to control the power of my FT-2000 from the amp.So far even with the amp at maximun power and a low efficient antenna as the G5RV I am using,no neighboors has complained of RFI.
Hector
AD4C
Lake Worth,FL
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KE4WY
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Rating: 5/5
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May 26, 2009 09:02
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A Joy to operate
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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My AL-80BQ has the QSK-5PC PIN diode switching module factory installed, and I am very pleased with it's operation & performance. The switching is instantaneous and silent. I use it with my K3 and Icom radios and they work together flawlessly each & every time. On CW, with the QSK-5PC module, running full break-in CW I can hear other stations between my dits plus when operating SSB no relay sound is heard due to the Pin diode switching from the QSK-5.
This amplifier is an absolute joy to operate.
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W9GDH
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 8, 2009 15:48
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Work the best on 240VAC
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Worked great right out of the box. Dropped 240VAC into the shack. Preformed a two tone test to check PEP. Got 1100 watts @ 85Watts input on the oscope. Nice clean two tone signal also on the oscope. Works like a charm with the Kenwood TS-2000. I always use an Ameriton ATP-102 AMPLIFIER TUNING PULSER II into a dummyload when tuning. Using the pulser the AL-80B only outputs 100 watts average.
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NO7AZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 4, 2009 21:19
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Typical, not un-expected quality issues, but then .....
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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As is typical for anything bought from these guys, just assume you need to fix it first.
Excellent operation on all but 15m band, it would not load up at all. Seems that 5:00 means go home and don't finish soldering the tank circuit. Heck, the customer can do that...
I did, and it works exactly as a 3-500ZG amp should, rated power on all bands, relatively low Q output means very little diddling while sliding up or down the dial.
Overall I got what I expected, and am 100% satisfied.
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N4OI
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 30, 2009 19:22
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Just think of it as a kit - that's assembled
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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First off, my AL-80b amp works great, is very forgiving and the internal QSK-5 option makes it a real joy to use on CW. But to set expectations, one should consider the AL-80b a kit that happens to come assembled. Plan on a few initial problems that will need troubleshooting just as you would the final stages of kitbuilding. My experience included finding a pair of disc caps that arced and blew, which caused a couple of other problems. Then the filament resistance on the tube just doubled up for no particular reason (RF Parts problem). The folks at Ameritron are very supportive, once you get to a real person. They sent the parts straightaway and I am sure I could have returned the whole thing if I got tired of troubleshooting -- but I enjoyed the experience. I have now had almost a year of trouble-free operations since the initial issues. Oh, the internal QSK-5 was fun to install and it works great! I would recommend the amp wholeheartedly, but gave it a "4" because some buyers may not appreciate the "learning opportunity" it provides when first being set up.
73 de Ken - N4OI
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KG6YV
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 30, 2009 16:09
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Great Amp Once I fixed it.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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OKm another story of poor workmanship on my AL-80B. I bought this amp in 2007 and it worked out of the box for about 6 months. Then one day I turned on the power and nothing/nada. The filaments in the 2-500Z were not lit. Well, I took the cover off, popped the tube out of its socket and something told me to check the filament connections. Guess what??? When I turned the tube socket over one of the filament wires fell out of the socket connector. There wasn't enough solder on that connection and the heat generated in normal operation made the joint break. Soldered it back and the amp has pumped out power ever since. Since I view the rating scale as an overall evaluation I am deducting one point for the poor manufacturing that I had to fix. Other than that I am happy with the Amplifier
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