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Reviews For: Ameritron ALS 1306

Category: Amplifiers: RF Power - HF & HF+6M

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Review Summary For : Ameritron ALS 1306
Reviews: 39MSRP: $3,000
Description:
Ameritron HF+6 1200W Solid State Amplifier 1.5-54 MHz . .
. 1200 Watts PEP Output, Instant Automatic band switching,
no tuning, no warm-up, SWR protected, Quiet Variable-Speed
Cooling . . . PEP FWD/REF Metering...PA Balance /ALC
Metering and LED Indicator . . . Front Panel Band/Error
LEDs . . . more!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ameritron.com/Product.php?productid=ALS-1306
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
11394.2
K4SAW Rating: 2016-03-08
Great little Amp Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had this amp in service for about 7 months now and love it. It does all it's reported to and very easy to set up quick. I've got mine paired with a Yaesu FT2000D with the optional data cable and a 6 band Hex Beam. Having the data cable makes operating so easy since it's just a point and click from most supporting logging programs and it takes you right there. Whats really nice is the 6 bands on the hex beam are resonate so no tuning is required. It's very easy to switch back and forth from standby to operate by simply reducing power from you radio and nothing required at the amp. I recommend that if possible to run it from a dedicated 240amp circuit as it comes from the factory because it does pull the amps when close to full power out put. I've run it good and it never breaks a sweat. The power supply and amp have excellent cooling fans that do a great job with minimal noise in my opinion.If you have the opportunity to buy this amplifier do so. Once you put it in service you'll never want to return to tube amps (my SB1000 is pretty lonely now) hihi. In closing if it were ever to develop problems i'd never hesitate to repair or replace it. 73 K4SAW
W1TR Rating: 2016-02-24
Excellent / Convenient Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got a used (2 mo) 1306 from a Ham who loved his Drake L4B which was damaged and then fixed, for $1K below list ! I use it with an Apache Labs Anan 100d and a Palstar HF-AUTO. I wrote software to control the HF-AUTO, the ALS-1306, and my Ameritron RCS-8/RCS-10 remote antenna switches and now I have a completely automated station, just point and click on the frequency and everything else automatically follows.
I used the 1306 in the 2016 ARRL DX contest, ALL GOOD!
Software is available at: http://www.glagowski.org/radio/Software.htm
N4TZ Rating: 2016-02-19
Worked for one minute Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Looked ok - nothing rattled - put out 1200 watts on 10m for 15 seconds, 1200 watts on 15m for 10 seconds, then switched to 20m - while slowly increasing the drive, at 600 watts out it faulted.
Would not work after that.

Factory very nice when I called about service. Sent it back in less than 24 hours after receipt.
After a week, though I'd check the status. Was told four to six weeks before looking at it.

So, duty cycle of less than one minute on, 6 plus weeks off?????

Don't make the same mistake.
K9SO Rating: 2016-01-17
So far, so good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got this amp on the air this week. I admit that I bought it with some concern about quality due to the reputation of the parent company, but this product seemed to be perfect for what I needed (HF remote operation). I got this on the air pretty quickly with my spare IC746PRO driving it.
The amp easily does everything it promises. Drive it hard enough and it does close to 1500 watts output. Limiting it to a KW seems prudent though. The ALC worked perfectly with the Icom radio.
Icom uses an analog voltage output from the ACC2 connector for band data operation. This is not an ideal way of doing things, but the 1306 decoded the bands perfectly with the accessory cable (not included). There is some confusion when operating in the remote position since several bands are shared (e.g., 10/12 etc.). When selecting 12m on the ICOM, the 1306 switches to 10m. Similar issue with 20m/17m. But in all cases the 1306 switches the correct output filters for the selected band even though it does not display it properly. This is partly the fault of the Icom analog band data output so I don't derate this amplifier because of it.
But after one brief QSO, the band data remote stopped working and was "stuck" on 20m. AHA! There's that quality problem I feared. But it turned out that the IC746PRO stopped outputting the correct band voltages. I tore apart the radio and traced the problem all the way back to the main processor. Fortunately, a factory radio processor reset corrected the problem. I admittedly didn't have a good common ground for this first test so I fixed that and haven't had an issue since.
While it may come out in second place in the cabinetry department compared to the Japanese products, it still looks good and it does what it says it will do. The manual could be improved a bit. For example, it says that the power supply can be "easily switched to 120v" operation but does not give any instructions on how to do that. But that's not recommended anyway. They've included most, but not all of the schematics ... even if they are pretty hard to read.
I had major power supply problems with the more expensive Yaesu equivalent of this amplifier. The 1306 does not need to use an auto-transformer to convert the US power standard of 240v to the Japan standard of 220v. The supply is rated up to 260v input. My power line is very slightly above the US nominal: 244v. This voltage would possibly damage the Yaesu.
Yes, the fans are a bit noisy and the relays are loud, but my only "complaint" so far is that I have to buy a space heater for the shack now that I don't have filaments to warm me up any more.
The ALS-1306 is pretty much plug and play and does everything it says it does. Now I just hope it keeps on playing.
W7VI Rating: 2016-01-04
Great AMP Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is my 2nd report on the ALS-1306.
I have use this amp for about 7 months now and
I can find nothing wrong with the operation.
Work 3 contest and a lot of DXing. On SSB it seems that 800 watts breaks in to pile up with no problem. On CW I use about 200 to 400 when there is a pile up or bad conditions and it seems to do the job.
On RTTY I have use up to 400 watts and have no problem. I have had no reason to go any higher in wattage with the AMP. For a solid state AMP I give it a 100 per cent. And again TNX to Mike at AMERITRON he has help 1000%
N4PY Rating: 2015-12-31
Well Designed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This amp is well designed with lots of build in protection. My software can automatically select the band. The amp easily puts out 1200 watts with 60 watts or less drive on all bands. I added QSK with a DX Connection QSK 2500 unit.

The fan noise is a little high but not real bad. The antenna relay is however very loud.

It's very nice to be able to put the power supply completely out of the way since no controls are on it.
KD6RSQ Rating: 2015-12-04
great amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Been using this amp for about 2 months now and am very pleased with its performance. Paired it with a Yaesu Ft dx-3000 and the band switching interface and it works flawlessly. Great amp so far.
Chuck
kd6rsq
AK2L Rating: 2015-10-16
Nice amplifier. Duty cycle disappointing. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
SN 081.
The instant-on of a solid state amplifier is very nice, especially if you decide to use it on short notice. The fan is a bit noisy but probably normal for this size of amplifier. The unit is connected to my radio and does automatic band switching.
It has been used on SSB at full power for a few contests without a problem. Lately I have been using it for digital modes. The exciter and audio interface are set to produce 200 Watts on the output of the amplifier. The SWR on the antenna was well under 2:1.
After a particularly long transmission of about 3 minutes the amplifier's temperature sensors shutdown the PA and placed the amplifier into bypass. I would expect a 1200 Watt amplifier to be capable of sustained 200 Watt output so I am a bit disappointed.
I am going to keep the amplifier but I will operate with less power for certain digital modes that might have long transmit sequences.

WO4O Rating: 2015-10-15
Don't Buy - IF - SO2R Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Don’t buy the ALS-1306 – IF – your ARS is SO2R with the BandMaster decoder and BandPasser multi-filter units. The configuration will not work, under any circumstances, due to the design of the amplifier. Because the amplifier polls other devices, it conflicts with the system and renders other devices useless. Been there, done that, and returned the ALS-1306 to Ameritron and received a full refund from the retailer. Mike at Ameritron says their working on a solution but there is no ETA.

I retained the ALS-1306 longer than expected because I was asked to try different scenarios in an effort to solve the problem. After 6 months, everybody involved with the process concluded our efforts were futile because if there is a solution it must come from a re-design by Ameritron.
WR0F Rating: 2015-06-11
Dead out of Box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased Ameritron 1306 that was shipped after Dayton. I turned it on and went to transmit on 6 meters and the meter on amp spiked up and then nothing it went dead . I took off the top lid and while looking at connections a screw fell out. I was hoping to check it out during June contest which is why we wanted it. It does not look like it will be back from Ameritron before contest .
I should have just kept my ALS 1300 which we sold while the other amp was on the way.