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write your own review of the Ameritron ALS-1300.
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N0FG
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 17, 2009 23:12
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nice amplifier!!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have serial # 33 and have been inpressed with it's functionality having no difficulty with rated output( something I was concerned about pre-purchase). The protection circuitry works as it should, the fans are quiet, and the build quality was good.
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NT4I
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Rating: 0/5
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Nov 6, 2009 14:19
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DOA out of the box
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Need I say more? Typical MFJ non-quality control. WHEN WILL I LEARN TO STAY AWAY FROM MFJ?
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N5OU
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 6, 2009 11:36
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Great, But!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have owned SN#30 for about a week now and have used it on 160, 80, 40 and 20 in both SSB and CW. When I first pulled it out of the box (purchased new from RandL) I was impressed by both the packing and the craftsmanship. I own and use several ameritron amps, AL-1500, AL-82, AL-500m and ALS600 so I knew what to expect. I did not remove the cover, rather simply followed the installation instructions. I use a FT-2000 and an ICOM 756PROIII, next inline is the amplifier, followed by a powermaster SWR meter into a Palstar Auto-Tuner, then out to a full wave horizontal loop fed with 450 ladder line. My swr seen by both my radio and Powermaster is 1:1. Since the powermaster is after the amplifier, it should accurately indicate
forward and reflected power. I keyed up a CW tone on 3.825 with 20 watts input to the amplifier and it kicked off giving me a high swr fault. Reset standby switch and watched both the radio and powermaster meters for an indication of high swr and saw 1:1. Amp kicked off again, I reset and tried again this time watching reflected power on the ampifier itself and saw a large and inconsistent deflection. Amplifier indicated almost 200watts of reflected power? I then inserted my alpha SWR meter in the same location as the powermaster and measured exactly what the powermast had previously. Ok, so the amplifier is seeing something that no other peice of equipment is. HMM, open up a ticket with Ameritron detailing my experiances and test and within a couple of days got a completley irrelevent response of "When the amplfier detects 200 watts of relfected power it goes to standby". Right! that is what I wanted and that is what I paid $2499 for. However, the reflected power the amplifier is seeing simply does not exist! I then put my radio-craft SWR meter (this is 3 labratory grade swr meters) in place of the Alpha and again measured a perfect 1:1 using my AL-1500 at 1500 watts out into a dummy load. I then switched back to the ALS-1300 transmitting into a palstar 1:1 dummy load and it kicked off with and about 190 watts of reflected power and an swr of 1:6 on the ALS-1300 swr meter.
This only occurs when the first Dit or Dash is sent from my paddle. SSB voice is fine.
Now on to SSB voice. 75 watts input from my FT-2000 provides 1096 watts ouput. I have not driven it past 75 in and have no plans to do so. Amplifier remains cool and quiet and does not look bad at all on my desktop. I will use my other amps for CW and allocate the 1300 to voice duties only. I remember my early days with a ALS-500 and 600 having the same issue and the fix was to bend the output contactor on the relay slightly so it closes just prior to the input relay. I fixed those so I suspect with some time I can fix this. Obviously I am ok with Ameritron equipment as I currently own about $10,000.00 worth of their amplifiers, but I cant in good faith give it a 5 and honestly, given the reply to my help ticket I am being generous with the 4. When you pay almost $2500 dollars for a piece of equipment, your expectations are that it will do at least what the boxtop advertises.
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KB4KKX
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 29, 2009 14:53
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Fantastic AMP!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have had this fine amp now for a week and have made a number of QSO's (20). It can make the difference, and has in a number of occassions, getting thru the QRN and making a contact.
Running a quick test on all bands, here are the results:
Table
160 meters 10 watts drive/252 watts out; 40 watts drive/1000 watts out
80 meters 10 watts drive/255 watts out; 40 watts drive/1007 watts out
40 meters 10 watts drive/230 watts out; 40 watts drive/1079 watts out
20 meters 10 watts drive/179 watts out; 40 watts drive/1010 watts out
17 meters 10 watts drive/219 watts out; 40 watts drive/1078 watts out
15 meters 10 watts drive/274 watts out; 40 watts drive/787 watts out
12 meters 10 watts drive/184 watts out; 40 watts drive/580 watts out
10 meters 10 watts drive/230 watts out; 40 watts drive/848 watts out
Some of my QSO's have lasted up to 1 hour and there has not been a single problem...runs cool and gives me excellent results.
I also have the ALS-600 which has worked flawlessly too.
Very simple to operate and performs perfectly.
73's
Jean - KB4KKX
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AD5X
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 18, 2009 14:32
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Solid-state amplifier
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've been using SN3 for about six weeks now. I'll have to admit - it is a nice amp. No processors or digital read-outs, but it is very easy to use and it puts out 1200 watts on most bands with no problem. I have been operating QSK with this amp as the internal relays are plenty fast enough. I've put a fairly detailed review of the ALS-1300 in the "Reviews" section of my website at www.ad5x.com.
Phil - AD5X
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KE4WY
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Rating: 5/5
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May 26, 2009 08:49
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Very pleased
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Well, I bought serial number #1 at Dayton at a very nice discount and we are really enjoying the Amplifier. It's an easy conservative 1200 watts out. I am using the ALC with my K3 and Icom radios to hold the power at 1200. Believe me this amp with put out more power; However the instructions recommend you run it at 1200 watts
for proper linearity.
No problems hooking it up. It came wired for 230 volts and even had a plug on the end. I was ready to operate in a matter of minutes.
Since I have an AL-80BQ with factory QSK that has operated flawlessly & quietly I anticipated the purchase of this amplifier and obtained an outboard QSK-5 hooking it up to this amp and it is also very quiet, no relay sound just like my AL-80BQ.
On CW, with the QSK-5, I can still run full break-in CW, and hear other stations between my own dits plus when operating SSB no relay sound is heard due to the Pin diode switching from the QSK-5.
So far I am very pleased with my purchase.
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