| K4TOR |
Rating:  |
2024-03-20 | |
| Amplifier - Revised Review 1/16/2024 |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Have had the new version of the 2000+, with new touch screen, for a while now. This is a very compact, stout, full legal limit amplifier, running the FU728F. When I say legal limit, it means it is just loafing along at legal limit, with around 25W drive.
Very intuitive touch screen, which is fully customizable, with all the information you'd need. |
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| ZL1BBW |
Rating: |
2024-01-17 | |
| My 1st brand new amp. Update added. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I had been gearing up to build a new amp to replace my L4B. But in the end decided to go with a new new amp.
Their is a large choice out there, but the consensus in ZL was that OM Power represented good value.
As a predominately cw operator, the 2000+ fitted the bill nicely.
Ordered direct from OM power, they were really great at answering my questions. Delivery was so easy, got a tracking number and followed it across the world, until it arrived in Auckland, had pre paid Customs so that was no issue, then it disappeared for a few days, next thing a pickup outside the house with it in the back, we live in a rural area. Packaging was superb.
Its a small but quite heavy amp, on the desk and got it going, its generally quiet, the cooling is good, tend to use the extra fan now in the summer to keep the temp well down.
Tuning is a snap, you get a preloaded chart to kick off from and that will get you going, I have noted all the sweet spots for my operation and its just a matter of turn the dials and off we go.
Its made my CW operation really enjoyable, I dont like so called QSK, but its great on that anyway, on short semi breakin its fantastic. My few QSO's on SSB have confirmed it good there as well.
Had to have a separate 240v 20 amp feed run into the shack, the normal 240v plug feed was just not up to it.
To sum up, its everything and much much more than I hoped for.
Was sad to see the L4B go, but it went to a good home as did my previous HB amps using 2 x 4-400's.
Well its 17 jan 2024, where di those years go. Oh yeah into chasing DX, Well the OM2k is still chugging along. Helped me a heap during a short spell on 160 DXing, its been busy on 10 and 12 recently giving good account of itself. Might get a new tube for spare. Rarely run a full kw which is the limit here, and never use QSK. Always watch the temperature of the output, not too bad in winter but summer here and a contest it gets kinda warm in the shack.
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| SQ5EBM |
Rating: |
2024-01-17 | |
| 1st PA lasted 20 QSOs but still like it |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Added comments at the bottom:
Though i have made only +/-20 QSOs on it, i do like it. User guide is clear, settings are intuitive, design works for me. I love the touch screen. Just a nice product. Very expensive down here. Because i liked the user experience of those few monents we have spent together, i will stay with this manufacturer. I have used ACOMS and ZZ, for some test, and OM is more alligned with my "taste". I will write another review in a while.
So, why i only got to make 20 QSOs with it? Hmmm i got my brand new AMP, my 1st ever brand new amp... i even managed to convince my XYL how much i needed a new amp and that my old boat anchor (R140 served me for 12 years and even got me to 2nd in the world in CQWW SSB 80m) takes up too much room in my shack. It arrived. Oh what a great weekend it seemd to be. All installed. Coax jumpers came with it (ordered togoether with a new Daiwa meter). The Amp got own furniture to stand on and look pretty. Even a grounding cable was made with a diameter as required by the manufacturer. All for my new darling... the care... the softness of my touch ;-). First night and it was late friday when i got it, i have tuned it to my antennas,printed a nice chart, made 2 QSOs (20 and 40 AFAIR). The next day some 20 CQWW QSOs just to test it on 160-10m. Had no time for more. My max QRO is 1,5kW so drive power is less than needed for 2kW. Here came the Sunday. Made one QSO on 10m to JA. All worked like a swiss clock, so i have decided to work another JA some 5kcs down. Well... the PA blew one of the circut breakers in my room, turned off and after it was turned on said "Plate voltage too low". External PA fuses were ok. It came back to the shop. They did all the factory adviced test and all were OK. No fuses blown. No signs of any damadge. Still "Plate voltage too low"... the manufacturer is surprised and intrigued. The PA is on its way to Slovakia and a new one is on its way to Poland. Support both from the manufacurer and the retailer was superbe. I offered my tester services to the shop ;-) as that is not the first time i have such a luck for electronics. Imagine buying a couple of items, picking them from the whole wall of other,identical items and getting 2 out of 2 botched at the factory. I had a couple of such cases. :-). That weekend i was so angry that no PA was needed. I could light up the ionosphere myself.
18.11.2023: got my new PA yesterday. Though the voltage in home is 236 average and up to 239 the manufacturer recommended switching PA's PS to 240V. That was done by the retailer. We have some very heavy wet snow here, so i could not tune 10 and 12m,as those elements got affected by snow. All the rest tuned just fine. Made a couple of QSOs on voice and 1 on digi. Spent some 1h last night calling 4W8 on CW 80m. Contrary to the previous piece, this PA tuned better. 99% of band settings (tune/load) are within +/-2 positions from the factory tuning table. The faulty PA i had, had waaay bigger variations from the factory tune/load settings. I am awaiting some free time and good condx to give this PA a chance ;-)
26.11.2023 : many QSOs after, some new DXCCs on 160m and 80m. All works fine. I am a happy owner. One thing i would change r the tuning/load knobs. They are not too precise imho and a slight turn can lead to mA values exceeding ones recommended in the manual.
17.01.2024: new DXCCs worked. #315 now. Works well on 160m helping me out with getting my 160m WAZ.
Regards
Miles, SQ5EBM |
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| HB9IJC |
Rating: |
2022-11-13 | |
| OM2000+ with touch screen |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I'm very happy with this amplifier. I have the new touch screen version. Output power factory limited to 2400W. Changed the hidden menu setting to 1000W in order to limit to full legal limit in Switzerland and by the way avoid to burn my R8 traps. Absolutely no overheat and really quiet versus my Ameritron. |
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| F6EML |
Rating: |
2022-08-10 | |
| very nice amplifier |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Hello ,
I am very satisfied with this amp. I now total 771 hours of use, stand-by and qso. I have 2 small anomalies which may be due to my inexperience:
1 / difficult to obtain 1.5 kW for the 50 MHz band with the dummy load because the Grid current increases rapidly,
2 / there are 30 faults in the Faults table, which updates, but only 13 warnings in the Warnings table, which no longer updates, I think.
Does someone have an idea ?
Thank you very much ,
Michel .
ps: by mistake I deleted my previous review!
Hello , sad news today ,
After switching on the amplifier, without switching to transmission, the mains power supply to the apartment has tripped. After restarting, the following message is displayed "soft start error", I put a new resistor R2 of 18 ohms, it cut again, but the associated fuse F3 of 250 mA is still intact and therefore useless.
To my great regret, I got rid of it, too complicated to repair.
If I decide on a new purchase, I will change supplier, because the power used for 4 1/2 years has always been only 500 W AVG,
73 |
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| KO1C |
Rating: |
2022-04-11 | |
| VERY Solid Amplifier!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Update to my previous reviews:
Owned 14 months+.
Still running perfectly. 20 watts in gives me around a KW out.
===============================
I had antenna problems here and I was off HF for two months. Just got everything sorted out and turned the amp on, last use was on 3.933. I went to 3.933 just now, it was STILL perfectly tuned after two months of being turned off and not used.
4/3/2021 Review ==========================
I bought my amp new from Array Solutions.
Amp is easy to tune, on 80 meters 25 watts gets me full legal according to my Telepost LP-700.
I use this amp a LOT on a net I check into on 80 meters, I always check the tune, it never changes.
I have not checked it on 6 meters but I would be VERY surprised if didn't do full legal +.
Jay at Array Solutions and Tibi at OM Power answer any questions ASAP, GREAT support!
Amp is quiet.
VERY glad to have it in my shack.
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| ON7OFF |
Rating: |
2021-10-04 | |
| Fantastic amplifier! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have a Henry 2KD Classic amplifier. One day, one of the capacitors failed which I repaired later. So what amplifier should I buy? Solid state or tube? A lot of research revealed that the solid state are easier but tend to fail. I consider this technology not yet as being perfect, so I decided to buy an OM 2000+ as my backup. Let me tell you, it became my main amplifier. The amplifier is absolutely the best purchase I have made in years. It is rock solid, has enough securities built in, so you cannot destroy the amplifier with a bad SWR, wrongly positions band switch or when you forgot to turn down the input power of your radio to the amplifier.
The OM power works fine with about 40 Watts in. You can have a maximum input 55 Watts, but then the amplifier might go into security if you happen to pronounce a vowel too long in your speech in SSB. A long "euuuuh" might just trigger the amplifier into fault mode.
The only thing that is a bit frustrating is the 210 seconds warm up time. If you happen to urgently need the power, you have to be patient. But this has nothing to do with OM power. It has to do with the tetrode tube technology.
I get about a solid 1.5kw ~ 1.8kw out on all bands measured on my external Diawa cross needle meter. It will run perfectly with an swr up to 2.0. But when you run it to it's limits (SWR of 2.5), it will trigger the fault mode.
This amplifier will run smoothly if you are looking at a average power of 1.2kw. Tuning is relatively easy. I have added some stickers with arrows on the tune and load dials with the settings for the different bands. By adding these stickers I just have to reposition the tune and load. No need to retune the amplifier again to find the optimal position of the tune/load. You only have to go in the middle of the band. This position will cover basically the entire band.
The communication with OM power was top notch. They are very helpful and will reply quickly to any questions. The only way I communicated with them was by email.
The amplifier is not too noisy. The fan noise level can be compared with the level of noise you get of a microwave oven. There are two levels of fan noise. The low speed and double/high fan speed. The high fan speed only happens at very heavy use and is much noisier. It might be disturbing as it you might have to increase the volume of your radio. But the high fan speed is only turned on for a very short period of time (about 30 seconds). Then it switches off when the temperature has gone down to acceptable levels.
The shipping was delayed at the purchase due to high demand and production issues during the covid pandemic. But that was understandable. OM power even gave me a 100 euro discount because of this reason. Thank you!
The cross needle power indicator is a little generous. My Daiwa seems to be less generous and the power indicated is what I measure on the external Daiwa meter. While the power on the cross needle of the amplifier tends to be another 200 to 300 watts higher.
Which one is more accurate? I have no idea. The digital power indicator of the amplifier matches the built in cross needle power meter.
OM power told me the maximum continuous duty power is about 600~800 watts. Continuous duty is the maximum recommended power when keying up in FM/AM with continuous carrier for one day without having any permanent damage to the tubes.
I haven't used the amplifier on 160 meter or 6 meter, because I don't have any antenna's for these bands.
Just be aware the amplifier is generating a lot of heat. So it will be able to warm up a room in the winter time if you doing a contest!
I can recommend these amplifiers to all of the hams. I rank the OM power amplifiers higher in quality than the ACOM amplifiers. OM power amplifiers are the rolse royce in the current amplifier market at a very acceptable price. |
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| N2RRA |
Rating: |
2021-04-03 | |
| Not perfect, but incredible amp. Compare to my Alpha. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I’d give this amp a 4.7 to a 4.8 if I could, but being close to a 5 star figured it’s close enough. When purchasing this amp used I should’ve done an internal inspection of this amp, but I didn’t. This thing still chugged along with four resistors on the blocking cap side cooked and the door knob capacitor at the coil of the anode side showing signs of wear. The solder was melted right off the tube strap on both ends so the amp would get really hot reaching temperatures up to 75°C peaking 80°C. I for some reason had to change the transformer tap as well from 240V to 230V in order to maintain proper heater filament voltage and plate voltage. Not sure why that is, but it now works as should with replacing resistors and door knob cap showing proper readings. For some reason ceramic disc cap at F4 on logic board A shorted, but with all the protection circuits with more fuses through out the amp than I can count protected everything like a champ. Since replacing the ceramic disc cap with a slightly larger one thanks with some help from a great guy and tech Dave who found the problem this amp is awesome.
Comparing to my Alpha in protection circuits it’s up to par. I feel tuning process is the only thing that’s left to be desired in comparison to my Alpha. I find that it comes off tune sometime’s after a while in use so I check it every once in a while. Once you tune an Alpha like mine you never ever have to worry about coming out of tune. You can come back two days later and just key full bore and it’s locked in. Not the same with the OM POWER, but not a big deal I guess. Should also never assume and check your tune anyway. The Alpha put’s that worry to rest cause the panel reassures you you’re still tuned. With the OM Power you need to TX a carrier cause the front panels tune circuit moves around to erratic to know unless you TX a continuous carrier. It’s all preference I guess. The tuning process is also very sensitive so you have to be super careful. The Alpha is more forgiving and stable. Both have the same type of tuning procedure so once you owned either purchasing an ACOM would be no different of operation.
The biggest advantages to the OM power is the three different displays that you can custom tailor to your liking. The three antenna ports in the rear also make it nice to run three resonant antennas with ease which is a great feature. It is slightly smaller and much lighter due to the fact the transformer is a terroid and smaller and it is a single tube versus a pair of tubes like my Alpha. Fits nicely on a desk. If everything is working as it should the way my 0M power amp is working the amp on regular rag chews will and should never go above 40 to 50°C. If you are DX chasing, or contesting it should not go over 60°C. If it does the amps blower fan automatically goes into high mode and the blower well literally cool things down within seconds. The CFM‘s in this thing is incredible.
Main reason for the purchase of this amp was for 6m operations which does beautifully at full legal limit. There are other features in this amplifier that is absolutely awesome, but pretty much in a nutshell this is my review and if you should ever purchase an OM power amp I think you will probably be pretty happy.
73 |
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| N9CHM |
Rating: |
2020-11-27 | |
| Excellent, small/lightweight for a legal limit+ tube amp |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've had several dozen legal limit amps in the last 44yrs, and now have an OM Power 2000+. I decided on this amp for several reasons. 1) my main reason is its small size, no need to remove/install Xfmer, lightest legal limit amp on the market at 53#, 2) handles small SWR changes with ease (up to 2.4:1) with zero issues, 3) does 6M, 4) legal limit all day with 700W head room (23-24W in = 1500W out).
The OM2K tunes really fast, like tuning an ACOM, tuning indicator shows you when you find the right load, once set, going back to the pre-sets is spot on. The power out on tune up is very close to what my PowerMaster meter says, although while in operation, the internal watt meter on the amp shows average power, so I just ignore it and watch the PowerMaster for peak power out. The ACOM amps (as well as the Palstar & SPE Expert SS amps) showed more power out on the internal watt meter (several hundred watts higher at full power) than what the external PowerMaster showed due to internal metering of those amps.
So overall, the OM2K is similar in tuning and power out as the ACOM 2100 which I owned at one time (both amps are equal in their build quality-which is EXCELLENT), but the OM2K weights 13# less with no need to assemble/disassemble and new cost, at the time of this review, is ~$800 less than the ACOM 2100 (when you figure in taxes + shipping). I just prefer tube amps because they are more tolerant to SWR changes (I experiment with/build many different types of wire antennas). Finally, I have the OM Power option for "Pure Signal" for the amp (not offered with ACOM), should FLEX Radio ever offer that option. However, with the low drive needed, the OM2K has a very clean signal as verified by others who have ran their own two-tone tests (3rd order, -42db at 1500W-see previous review by K6AER).
Bottom line, the ACOM 2100 and OM2K are very similar amps in build quality, they run electrically identical tubes (4CX1000A vs FU728F, but the OM2K has an auto bias feature should the tube ever need replacing), very fast tuning on either, 1500W out with room to spare...however the OM2K costs much less, is physically smaller and weighs less, all of which is why I moved to the OM2K. |
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| NZ5F |
Rating: |
2020-11-03 | |
| Super nice amp lots of power on 6m |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Had this amp a very short time. It is a beautiful amp with plenty of head room and power.
I think it has been said in previous reviews that it is pretty challenging tuning it on 6m and a bit difficult on HF but not too bad. You do have to retune if you move within a band so definitely not for those who are hooked on solid state, lol. Three antenna outputs are real nice though you do need outboard meters. The meters are not at all accurate. The differences between my Power Master and the meter on the amp is stark so keep in mind you will need outboard power meters like a power master or LP100 or similar I would recommend.
Besides challenging tuning I have absolutely no issues with it. This small amps has oodles of power and a very effective cooling system for the valve. Really love it. |
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