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Reviews For: Mirage KP-1/6M

Category: Receive Pre-amps

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Review Summary For : Mirage KP-1/6M
Reviews: 2MSRP: 149.95
Description:
In shack GaAs pre-amp for 6m
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mirageamp.com/Product.php?productid=KP-1/6M
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023
W0BKR Rating: 2015-09-08
Mediocre with Issues Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have one that I would like to use now and then, but when it is in line with the radio, you can't go below say 14 mhz with it in line (unpowered) as it jacks up the SWR on the radio. Take it out and you are okay. So, you have to arrange for a unique set up to run two coaxs out of the radio to a couple of antennas (not mentioned in the manual I got) in order to even use it, else, you won't be able to run your radio on lower bands. The clicking internally (RF Switched) is noisy to say the least.

Does provide gain, didn't check how much on the S-meter but useable I suppose.
AB0YM Rating: 2014-06-16
Gained almost 2 s units on weak sigs Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased a KP-1/6M to use in my vehicle while roving in the ARRL VHF June contest. I was reluctant to order this as there are many negative reviews and comments on various sites. My comments are by "ear" (and s-meter) as I did not have lab equipment to evaluate this. During the contest, having the preamp on gave me between 1 and 2 S units of gain. On my FT857D, that made the difference on QSO completion on about 20% of my 6M contacts. The automatic RF switching was useless for SSB, but I was expecting it. PTT worked ok. I suspect that the many negative reviews were due to poor quality control at Mirage, rather than a design issue. On a few of those reviews, I suspect there was also an element of operator error. I would have given this a "5" except 1) noise was slightly higher than expected and 2) the auto RF switching was unusable - no big deal, but they shouldn't market a feature that is not usable.
Time will tell if this amp is durable enough to use in a vehicle. So far so good.