| WB7QXU |
Rating:      |
2014-05-02 | |
| Sweet Amp |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I own many amps and this amp is really sweet to use, Love it performance true legal limit out. rugged power supply and The Best tube ever the 3-500z. Nice to operate and tunes well. My solid state rigs love it over the other 3-500 amps. It is really one of the best amps out there, I'd say the best since it has 3-500 tubes the only ones I love. But honestly I can only say the best things about it. Mine does 160-10m with 1500w out Nice sweet tuning, and never gets tired, a real work horse. |
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| KA1PM |
Rating:      |
2013-11-22 | |
| A Sweetheart |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I've been a ham for over 50 years and have had all kinds of amps during that time, from a Homebrew with a 3-400Z to a Heath SB-200 & other Heaths to the Alpha 87A as well as 3 Henrys. This AL-82 is a sweetheart. I chase DX and like to "Hunt & Pounce" and don't want to leave the amp running while I search, this one fires up in 5-6 seconds, and that's perfect for my purposes. It's smooth, I QSY to a different band in less that 10 seconds, it puts out at least the legal limit on all bands according to a calibrated watt meter (the built-in is quite generous) and even though I wired the fan for high speed, it's still pretty quiet. I've not had a single problem with it. I've run several amps using the 3-500Z tube and have found the tube to be a very good one, and one that won't break the bank if you need a replacement. I would actually rate one amp that I owned as a -0-, but, for sure, this one is a 5. |
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| W7ZZZ |
Rating:      |
2013-11-21 | |
| OLD SCHOOL BEAST |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Arrived poorly packaged; the deck unit had slid down and was tilted in the box, poking through the side. The transformer had ripped out the bottom of it's box and was painted rattle can black while it was in the shipping box. Overspray on the cardboard interior told the story there. The transformer looked like about twenty stoned high-school students had assembled it during a single short recess period. It truly is an incredibly crude looking piece. Two places in the deck needed re-soldering. The fan is incredibly noisy. Put it all together, fired it up, and it works great. This is old an school amp, with 3300v under full load. Hard to beat that. Scrap the mud off, and if you are lucky, a strong beast lies within. Ameritron needs to figure out how to package products for shipping. Absolutely mind bending pathetic packing. Time will tell if it lasts. So far, so good. The price is reasonable, the tubes are cheap, and it pumps out watts like a maniac. I gave it a five in the end, because after all is said and done, performance is what counts...and this thing performs! |
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| KG6YV |
Rating:      |
2013-06-25 | |
| Wow, I am impressed! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I received my AL-82 last week and did the final assembly on Saturday. Prior to assembling it I spent about three hours checking all internal connections both electrical and mechanical. Everything was very professionally done at the factory. Assembly was completed in about two hours. Hint: If you don't like lugging around 77 lb amplifiers I recommend moving the chassis to its final place and then installing the transformer. I also replaced the power plug with a four prong 250V twist-lock plug for safety...
Operational Findings:
I already own a Henry and Drake so I expected to need 80-100 watts drive... NO WAY, be careful this beast drives to 1500W on 75M with 55 watts drive from my FT-2000D. It runs about 650ma Ip and 200ma Ig @1500W on 75M. I have not tried it yet on the higher bands but I expect no problems getting full output. The fan on the factory default "med-hi" is OK for me.
So far, so good, this is just what I have been looking for, legal power with my favorite tubes (3-500ZG). If I can remember to do so I will do a follow up review after 6 months.
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| W1AEX |
Rating:      |
2013-06-18 | |
| Most bang for your buck |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I picked up a third-hand fuse blower from e-bay 2 years ago as a "project" amp. The outside cabinet looked brand new but the date on the inside indicated it was roughly 10 years old.
After looking it over it was obvious that the bleeder string had opened and as a result the filter caps failed. The nice thing about this amp is that it's very easy to work on and since it's still in production, all the parts are available direct from Ameritron. I picked up the filter caps from Mouser because they had CDE 500vdc versions that made me more comfortable than the 450 vdc versions Ameritron uses. So... for 130 bucks I ordered all new filter caps, bleeder resistors, meter shunt resistors, and a replacement for the step-start power resistor. It took about an hour to repair and it was up and running.
I've used it heavily after fixing it and it has never complained on any band. It's a very capable workhorse that handles continuous duty modes without flinching. I use mine in AM linear service frequently and it easily handles 200 - 300 watts of carrier output with plenty of headroom for peaks. Mine has Chinese RF Parts tubes of undetermined age and they have behaved fine while easily producing full legal limit on any band. The forced air from the bottom, through the socket, and out the chimneys keeps the tubes happy. The big Peter Dahl plate transformer (same design in current production but made by a third party) is up to the task and the power supply sits at just under 3800 VDC while idling and drops to about 3600 under full load.
This is a well designed and trouble-free amp that can handle any mode at full legal limit. Replacement 3-500's are still reasonably priced and they should last a very long time if used regularly and within their specs. |
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| AD4C2006 |
Rating:      |
2013-04-18 | |
| Still working great |
Time Owned: N.A. |
Remarks: After six months of daily use from 80 to 10M, I still say is a work horse although I want to share a small defect experience I had last weekend that I am sure will help some of you if you happen to have the same problem.
I was using it on 40M with little over a KW output without any problem but then decided to switch it to 20M knowing the band was opened already.Then when tried to tune it there was no power output with no dip neither on the final current when moving the PLATE capacitor,the tubes were tking current, there was 3500V on plate, grid current was taken as well, checked the swr the radio was seeing at the input tuned circuit and it was just 1.2 nevertheless no PO still, when switching to other bands like 15, 17 and 10M no power out neither, I started to be concerned of having to ship it to Ameritron for warranty repair but taking in count how heavy this amp is it would cost me over hundred bucks so I decided then to open it up and see If I could fix it.
After removing the many screws the cover have, found it was just a mechanical problem very easy to fix.
The rotation of the TUNE knob was not transmited to the variable capacitor shaft because the metal coupling between the two shafts was lose (Bad quality control?) and it was just a matter of fasten the two little allen screws in the coupling after aligning the knowb at zero with the cap at its maximun capacitance (all the way in), then cover it up, reinstalled all screws and tested. 1500W output in all bands from 160 to 10M with 80W input,fixed !! weather be quality control or not it don't matter, its easy to fix and it will save you some extra money that you surely can use to spend in other radio accesories.I am still a happy user.
Hector
AD4C
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Earlier 5-star review posted by AD4C2006 on 2012-11-02
When I was searching for a new amp that be around maximun legal power read all reviews and specs of all over 1KW amps from Ameritron and put my eyes over the AL-1500 and the AL-1200 but when checked the prices of respective ceramic tubes on each one at RF Parts webside were so high my mind changed. So taking in count that a pair of 3-500ZG when needed to be replaced is going to be less than four hundred bucks, I decided to purchase this AL- 82, I have always trusted glass tubes for high power more than ceramic ones, its my opinion that they are more rugedized, maybe I am wrong but that is the way I feel.
Then the amp arrived from HRO in just 2 days and took a day off from work to receive the package and put it together. The process of mounting the Hypersil big transformer became little rough because the lack of proper extender to install the two nuts in the back against the metal wall, not having that tool made me having to use my hands and cut my skin but after all bleeding was not big deal considering the excitement of puting this big amp together and later on making it to work. Funny part is that the same thing the manual says not to let any hardware to fall within the chimmeys is what happened to me, darn! after have mounted tubes and everythng, I had to remove one of them and turn the whole amp down to let that socket come down,well finally amp was ready, plug it on my new 240V line that I had to run for it and let it firing tubes for a whole hour as I always do with new tubes.
Tuning it over a 2KW dummy load was smooth and easy.This amp is very efficient.With just 50W input from my K3 I see 1KW on the meter, with 80W I read 1500W and if open the K3 at maximum power that is 110W I see 1800W at the meter, WOW! I said, this amp will kick hard.
The difference of having maximun legal power today in crowded and noisy bands is day and night. Most of the time considering I have just dipoles as antennas its mission impossible to contact weak stations from Africa and Europe, after I have this amp for a month now, I have been able to work 25 new countries on 40 and 20M.
Without a doubt the performance of this work horse is not less than 65 to 70% .
The tubes work little warm, the cooling with the blower is excellent. My only complain in this amp is the loud noise the blower makes that is present behind my transmitted audio but I already ordered a noise gate box from W2IHY to fix that.
I recomend truly this amp to any one who wants a reliable powerful amp for less than $2400. |
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| HR2TBD |
Rating:      |
2012-12-31 | |
| 5/5 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I actually have a Kenwood TL922A but a friend of mine asked me to help him out replacing a band selector switch broken on a Ameritron AL 82 so we replaced the switch and try this Horse at home
And comparing it to the 922 there is a difference
From US to China talking about power I excite my Kenwood TL922 with 110 watts out of my Kenwood TS850 and got 800 watts on CW I excited the Ameritron with 50 watts on the Kenwood TS 850 and
Got 1500 Watts on CW then talking in SSB exciting the Ameritron AL 82 with 110 Watts I got 2KW PEP
This is a great amplifier in my opinion, it has enough space to work inside and have a huge Power Supply 3800 Volts in stand by. You can hardly hear the fan, the meters are very bright, my only complaint is that if you want to open it you have to remove a real bunch of screws. |
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| XE3ROQ |
Rating:    |
2012-08-09 | |
| No satisfied |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| When i bought operated ok, the amp is almost new almost one and half year, some day when i turned on, blow the fuses, after check all the capacitor are bad. |
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| K0WA |
Rating:      |
2011-12-12 | |
| Sleeper Amp |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I got my AL-82 used. The amp is a workhorse. It has not given me one lick of problems since I put it on the shack table. I like the 3-500s which do not cost an arm and a leg to buy. The output is great on all bands and the tuning is smooth on all bands. I run SSB, CW (main mode) and RTTY and it works and works and works. This amp is a great value and is a sleeper in the amp market. |
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| N3TU |
Rating:     |
2011-10-29 | |
| Update Experience On New Amp |
Time Owned: N.A. |
| On my previous post, I gave it a 5 and still have the amp about a month. Well, the small band switch knob fell off the front and could not find a allen wrench small enough. (I only use the amp on the weekends.) I didn't feel like running around to different places and look for one. So I went to the shelf and uncovered an old CB TRAM D201 tube set with nice big silver knob that you could use a small screw driver to tighten it to the shaft. Well, low and behold it actually looked better than the one the factory put on this new amp and matched the silver knobs that were on the plate and load. I even put a little red arrow on it like the other ones that came with the amp. The knob I used was bigger with a nice grip on the edges. Ameritron should take note of this and put on a bigger knob for a better feel. Now for 10 meter operation after I did the mod. Well, the tuning is real narrow especially if you have the antenna tuned to the band. It is touchy up on 10 meters. If I go up from 28.300 to 28.400 I have to tweak the plate and load to get the max out of the watt meter. Even with these minor problems, I still like the amp and works very well and getting good reports. 12 watts in will give me 400 out and 55 watts in will give me 1500 out unlike my Drake L4B which I had to drive it with 100 watts with new to get 1100 out and it also had two 3-500z's. I am having fun with this amp. |
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