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| Reviews Summary for Ameritron ALS-600 |
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You can
write your own review of the Ameritron ALS-600.
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N4RSS
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 22, 2008 07:47
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Works Well
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Have had for about a month. Works well with my Pro3. Will shutdown on reflected power. Radio power supply on top of amp is a no-no, as RF will shutdown radio, so I separated by a couple of feet. Runnning on 220v and have added the 10/12m mod kit. Interior seems well constructed to me, but I'm no expert. No noise from the switching power supply that I notice.
N4RSS
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K4LVR
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 15, 2008 13:43
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Good Value - not without quirks
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I wanted something simple for DXing, although I am competitive in contests with low power, the extra S unit in DX'ing saves time. I have a tube amp but its old and is really too much for my antennas, so this seemed just right. Purchased the "new" model with relay bandpass switching and remote band switching (which I cant use with my current rig). Also, the "traditional" linear power supply. After working with them since February (Orlando Hamcation) on pricing, I finally got a deal from HRO Atlanta that met my budget constraints and couldnt be passed up!
So the amp arrives, and the box it came in was rather scruffy. The double boxes inside were packed well with foam gussets. The manual is skimpy, wierldy organized, but useful.
QC, well that's another story. The RF deck has a rattle in it when shaken. Opened it up and found some toroids flopping around cables. Zip tied them, no more rattle. The power supply has a deep ding in the back, but powers up and works fine. No way this ding was caused in shipping! The cabinets, while they look fine, wobble when set on a table... They are close but not perfectly square, so that the weight of the RF deck rests on three feet, the fourth just hangs in the air. A little sticky rubber pad fixed that. Same issue with the Power Supply, the cabinets were not bent square at the factory! The ding in the back by the fan is from the INSIDE!
Electronic build quality is very good, nice looking solder joints, nice boards, lots of plug in connectors. One conector's cables on the RF deck look like they get pinched by the cabinet when its put on. A little Dremmel grinding of the side edge of the top mounting deck and that problem goes away.
Performance is just fine! Solid 510w out on CW, 650 peak on SSB on my wattmeter with 85w in. This is really all I will ever need. I will probably run less exciter output and keep it at around 500w for some overhead.
Waveforms look good on the scope, The ALC works as advertised. The T/R relay is realy loud (will soon replace it with aftermarket QSK after the warranty expires). The fan is surprisingly quiet for the ammount of air it moves.
Martin, Please! Spend a couple of pennies on some zip ties for the toroids! Make sure that the bending brake in the shop is set square and consider putting the exhaust of one unit on the oposite side of the other, or best of all, flow the air THROUGH the cabinet from front to back! The way it is now, you HAVE to stack 'em, you cant set them side by side because one or the other cabinet's air exhaust will be blocked! I would really like to see the voltage and current on the RF deck instead of on the PS. This unit should get a 5 but gets a 4 because for $1.2k list, I shouldnt have to be the final QC department!
But I still think its a good value... Its made in America by Americans, it works fine and it is affordable with two kids in college and Gas at $4/gallon, so this ALS-600 fits the bill for my station, hopefully, for a long time, if Im nice to it. Works perfectly with the MFJ 998 tuner, like a poor man's PW1 once I get a rig with Band select out, next year if the roof doesnt need replaced. So far, so good.
My venerable 36 year old Dentron 160-10L is now retired from active duty. The shack is a lot cooler too!
-W4LT
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W3DS
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 5, 2008 06:01
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Nice Amp
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I initially had mixed emotions on this unit. I purchased a brand new ALS-600 with a switching power supply. The new amp had several cover screws that came off during shipment and a circuit board plug that wasn't even connected. It must have been a rough UPS shipment. After reseating the connectors and looking over the insides (construction and soldering looked very good) I fired it up. I turned the amplifier on and it immediately keyed itself with no cables connected and the power output meter was pinned. The power supply was just fine but I had obviously gotten a shaken up lemon amplifier. I returned the amp to the dealer for credit (less shipping). They didn't have another amp to send me but I happened to find a new one at HRO with the linear power supply. I really wanted to try a solid state hf amp but 3 grand isn't in my budget for an import model. The new ALS-600 arrived and everything looked perfect. When picking up the amplifier I heard a rattle inside the case when I tilted the unit. Not again, I thought, but the rattle was of no concern. It was a ferrite bead on a wire inside that rattled a bit with movement. The linear power supply is one heavy case compared to the amplifier which is light weight. The fan in the linear supply seems quieter than the switching supply. The case is the same size as the amplifier. The switching supply case is longer in length. The ALS-600 I received is one of the new models with a modified front panel with remote sockets. I turned on the new unit and all functions working normal. 90 watts drive gives me a solid 600 watts output. I've given the amplifier a very good workout on various bands using my ground mounted vertical and yagi on a tower. I am impressed with this little amplifier. It is reasonably quiet and the broadband no-tune feature really adds enjoyment to the operating shack. I agree as other users have said, I'll never go back to a tube amp after using a no tune solid state amp. The latest QST review of the ALS-600 is worth reading. I'm very happy with it and it stay in my shack for a long time.
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N8EWX
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Rating: 2/5
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Mar 17, 2008 19:35
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Not Happy !!!!!!!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Hello I Bought My ALS-600 2 years ago Just before the one year
warranty was up the RF Section went out. Sent to Ameritron Repaired. One Year Later Same Problem ...This Time Out of warranty..... I Use the amp very Frequently. I am Not Happy I know this Repair Costs will be 2-300.00 I switched to the ALS-600 Due to a Pacemaker that i had to Have. Really Miss my old Reliable Tube AMP for 1200.00 Bucks I expected Better Chris Bauer N8EWX
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IRABREN
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 12, 2008 15:37
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Works when Fuses Installed
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have revised my review - based upon the fact that the amp works well - when the supplied fuses are installed. HOWEVER - it took me quite awhile to figure this out! - There are no directions which state to install the fuses and I assumed the ones in the packet were EXTRA fuses because there was already 1 installed. Turns out this is a frequent reason for calls to Ameritron. Thus at first, the AMP would not turn on and I thought it was DOA out of the box. My prior review is a couple ones down.
Ira
KE5STP
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AD4C2006
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 5, 2008 08:41
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ALS-600
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I got mine brand new a week ago,it is the last one left at HRO nationwide,I was lucky to get it and not to wait about 3 to 4 months back order.It arrived in good shape in spite of it came from CA in a long 5 days road trip.Well packaged in a BIG box.
Took it out of the box,installed it and in spite of it was making 700W PEP with 100W in read in my Ameritron ATR-30 tuner,its own wattmeter didn't work. Called Ameritron and talked to a technician named Michael,he was very polite and told me sometimes on the trip the meter wires unsolder, opened it up,he was right,one of the wires was not soldered becaue it was too short, re soldered and cover it back and its working perfect now,nothing else wrong with it.I have used it everyday on SSB and CW and this last weekend used at the contest and not a single problem,its very quite even both fans are running all the time but the comfortable situation of changing bands without tunning is all I wanted,600 to 700W is all you need for dxing,even for contesting when you have a good antenna system,this one is the latest model that have the front remote sockets and the bandswitch has that labeled too,so my next step will be to order the remote interface from Ameritron to make it work automatically from my IC-756Pro3.
I have been an Ameritron amps user for many years and in spite of sometimes we found lack of quality control,they are good well designed amps and very easy to fix.Besides the company technical support is been always good to me.
Again I am a happy user.
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KI4MHA
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 9, 2008 15:08
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Works as it should
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Got the Amp about a week ago. So far it is working great. It was easy to hook up (after I replaced a bad jumper). I have made contacts from 40m to 10m so far. It is putting out 600 watts with 90 watts drive. I do not think I could ask for any better. This is the first Amp I have owned. So far so good.
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EB7CTX
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Rating: 3/5
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Jan 27, 2008 08:54
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Normal tirando a malo
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Tengo un ALS 600 mas de un año, y puedo decir que no esta mal, la potencia por lo general no supera los 550 watios en ninguna banda, y el ventilador de la fuente es muy ruidoso, la proteccíón contra estacionarias es muy sensible, y salta cuando menos lo esperas, resulta molesta con un día de viento que se mueva la antena te corta la transmisión varias veces, es duro y simple, la fuente parece de la edad de piedra (pero funciona)
En España es caro, me costo 1200 euros usado (6 meses) supongo que todo se va en impuestos y transporte..jeje
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N0YXE
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 21, 2008 10:10
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Total Crap!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I purchased my ALS brand new. I set it up and nothing happened. After several days on-line with tech support and several dealers I was convinced that maybe there was something wrong (duh?) with the machine, and not me. After the dealer received it back and tested it I was told that the unit was defective. Things appeared not to be connected (perhaps the unit was not finished?). I received the repaired unit and after setting it up I could not get it to go on. The 704 buffer light would not light and RF was fully bypassed! The amplifier started to produce A STRONG BURNING SMELL! Two strikes and it's out. I'm send this lemon back. I've just ordered, at great expense (plus 2X shipping costs) a new Toyko Hy Power HL-1.2KFX amplifier. I hope the amplifier gods will be kinder!
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N4KZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 17, 2008 13:21
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Nice, affordable solid-state amp
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've had an ALS-600S for almost exactly 3 months. I got one of the first ones from the latest production run. The amp has been redesigned to include auto bandswitching when used with the optional ARI-500 interface from Ameritron.
The amp's protective circuitry works very well in shutting down when the SWR is excessive or if set to the wrong band (when not using auto bandswitching) or when overdriven. I get 600 watts PEP out on 160 through 12 meters and 500 out on 10 meters. CW output is a little over 500 on all bands but 10 where it's about 450 watts.
Using a no-tune amp that automatically follows the rig when changing bands is a very, very nice way to operate. I will never return to using a tube amp that requires retuning when band changing.
Fit and finish on the amp is pretty decent. It's not in the same league as some other brands but neither is the price. Tech support from the factory has been very good when I had some questions. I have found that I must be careful not to overdrive the amp when on 17m SSB or the power supply will shut off after 20-30 minutes of use. But a quick reset fixes it and more recent ALC adjustments seem to have alleviated the problem.
The money I saved by buying this amp as opposed to some other brand gave me the extra cash to then buy a nice auto tuner which I use with my 80m full-wave horizontal loop. The freedom to roam the bands and transmit at will without tuning the amp or tuner is very nice.
73, Dave, N4KZ
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