| AB6OJ |
Rating:      |
2021-04-09 | |
| Excellent equipment and Technical Support |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Own a series one 1.3k-FA with ATU for 4 years or so.
Depending on the antenna, SWR can be fluctuated. Currently working with a hex beam. I do not have any issues with this on daily usage.
The CAT cable works nicely with my radio cat interface.
My radio has a band data ports. This port couldn't reflect the correct band info on the SPE display.
I made an e-mail to explain the situation and after couples of message exchanges, the SPE Tech support pinpointed the problem to solve.
The band data port and CAT port both now perfectly works.
I really appreciate for the Tech support from SPE.
If any questions or issues, contact at the SPE Tech support. They'll answer quickly.
I am enjoying my 1.3k-FA daily without any issues.
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| HB9AOO |
Rating:    |
2021-02-11 | |
| Great, if it works. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
No question, if the PA would work as intended it would be a great piece of equipment and deserves 5 stars despite the old-fashioned display. But, my specimen (not only mine) has this problem:
Shortly after the first start-up I noticed that during a QSO the SWR sometimes increased. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I didn't notice this at the beginning. When the SWR increased more and more often to above S2 and therefore the PA switched to ERORR and STDBY, I searched for the cause. With the help of a SDR receiver, which is able to display a spectrum of some MHz, I noticed that exactly at the time the SWR increases, side waves (splatters) does appear on the SDR display. In other words, my PA has a stability problem and starts to oscillate. This especially in the range of 700W output power. And since these side waves occur in the range +/-3MHz around the main carrier, each parasitic "carrier" at a distance of 500KHz to each other, and therefore far outside the antenna resonance, they are reflected by the antenna, the SWR increases, sometimes up to S2, the PA switches off. This often happens on my PA at 20m and 10m. I tried the SPE Expert 1.3K-FA in the shack of another OM with completely different antennas as I have (SteppIR). The PA showed exactly the same behavior. We tried with different transceivers (IC-7300, IC 7610, TS-890, TS-940). No difference. At a dummyload the PA stays stable, this is not surprising, a dummyload has nothing to do with the real HF world. This error comes only very sporadically, and that makes a repair at the manufacturer possibly difficult. Sometimes some QSOs are possible without problems, then suddenly no QSO is possible because the PA switches off immediately because of too high SWR. As I found out, I am not the only EXPERT owner with this "SWR increasing" problem.
How many stars would be a fair rating in my case? Probably only one. Soon the PA will go back to the dealer from there back to Italy. I will report on the result and adjust my rating accordingly.
Edit02/11/2021
After three months, I received the PA via the dealer back from Italy It seems that it finally works now.
I asked my dealer, at SPE to request a schematic diagram for me for the HF Circuit of the Expert. SPE in Italy refused. They do not give their customers schematic diagram.
A manufacturer of HAM equipment, which has long repair times and also refuses to give its customers a schematic diagram for simple repairs after the warranty period, for me a nogo.
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| VK3BDX |
Rating:  |
2020-11-28 | |
| Another unhappy customer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My 1.3K worked fine for 2 years - until it was just out of warranty and then poof - no power out. It was during a SSB QSO.
Of the 16 people I know with a SPE, 10 amps have failed. That's well over 50% failure rate. Of course I was told I had overdriven the amp - like so many before me the SPE mantra is to not fix the fundamental continuing issues but blame the owners and then overcharge for repairs.
I paid my Aus$1035 to fix this - but it is my last SPE!. |
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| W8TRN |
Rating:  |
2020-11-24 | |
| Poor to Needs Help |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is the 1.3 without tuner. The reports were immediate after firing it up: garbled, unintelligible SSB. All reports, every report were the same. I got with Bob and he suggested the 50+y/o same, hackneyed causes; I will not regurgitate them. None of my other amps and xcvrs had problems. Never. I connected a Jupiter to the 1.3 and same SSB audio problem. Then I went kinda crazy with the ferrite beads; you guys know the drills. Did not solve the problem. FWIW, the station has engineered RF and electrical grounds.
Sent it back, shipping was on me (ouch)plus 6 or 7 % "restocking" fee. Ouch and did not even get kissed on this deal. I had the ampabout 3 weeks. I was very disappointed that the amp was not bench tested to determine if there were problems. At least that is what Bob said "I really did not have time to check it out". The manual is a doozy: not for the faint of heart, kinda confusing for this kid. And the "quick start guide: was not much help.
The amp is a really nice, physically well designed box. Excellent designs on the fault/protection circuits, fans, overtemp, mismatch, etc. Just the right size and it puts out almost 1400 large into my SteppIR. Sorry, that is 1.4kw. If y'all wondering why i did not try other modes, well, I do not operate them. Well, once in great while CW but 99.9% SSB. So, perhaps the amp had problems on other modes but I did not check. |
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| HB9FLU |
Rating:  |
2020-09-17 | |
| catastrophic service |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought this amp around 3 years ago. From the beginning it never worked as it should. Bias jumped up and down within a range between 0 - 12.5 A! The unit was sent two times back to the dealer in Switzerland and came back even worse than before! The whole final unit was like a war zone. Solder on the prints, the BLF188 was direct soldered on the heatsink but there was room between! On the final board discrete parts were soldered above existing parts. It had a lot of bugs in the circuit. The service guy must be a non educated person without any knowledge in electronics. The modulation was completely distorted and seemed to work in C-mode instead of AB. The gain factor of the device was way to steep. With around 2.5 watts it delivered more than one kW. In the end the BLF 188 blew up and it was time to stop dealing with this piece of junk. I gave it to a friend for free and he brought it to life after many hours of engineering. And once more, he asked the swiss dealer (service center) for the schematics, but no chance! No help and support, what a bad company.
Best of all: the dealer in Switzerland told me, that he can't help me anymore! The Italians told me all is good and there is nothing wrong with the unit. They left me alone, no schematics, no more support no more warranty. And if that's not enough, he sent me a bill about 200.- just for handling and service fee and this all within the warranty time. I had a insurance for 5 years, but the company isn't around anymore.
Total lost was more than 5'500.- Swiss Francs!
Finally I bought a good old Yaesu VL-1000 which is refurbished and in excellent shape. Together with the lost of money. I paid nearly 7'500.- for all incl. the new tool.
No more business with the SPE company in Italy and no more business with the swiss dealer. What a nightmare! Better forget it and no tears because of money lost, lost of trust in people.
Sorry,my English isn't perfect and that makes it difficult to be diplomatic. |
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| VE4AMN |
Rating:      |
2020-03-08 | |
| Very solid with exemplary support |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I originally ordered this with the FCC mod removed so I could drive it with my KX3/PX3, and it performed very well. Three - four watts would get me to 700 watts and 7 watts would give me a kilowatt. It is also quite idiot-proof, which in my case is an important consideration.
Then I decided I would have that mod reversed, pending acquisition of a new 100 watt HF rig (still mulling my choice). Bob Hardie of Expert Linears advised me that he would implement a range of updates and perform the reversal for free.
Pending the arrival of the new rig, I am still using it with my KX3 and can get 400 watts out and with 8 watt of drive I get 600 watts.
I have a motley set of antennas, so I use my Palstar AT2K to tame the gremlins. The tuner on the SPE will manage to resolve 4.5 to 1, but on 160 and 80 I prefer the external tuner route.
Bob offers very efficient service and support, and is very quick in answering emails. Although the rig does come with parts and detailed instructions to make your own CAT cables, Dan (KC5PCB) makes cables for any rig for a very nominal fee. Do your mental health a favour and order these. Dan was also very helpful in helping me through the connection to the KX3/PX3 setup.
In all a great experience. |
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| IK0TIX |
Rating:      |
2020-02-03 | |
| As others say: I have a 1300 WATT Rig |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I ordered my 1.3K-FA spe expert in July. In December I was on air. I took the amplifier directly from the headquarters in Rome and I had the pleasure of meeting these guys in love with their work. What to say about this amplifier? As said by others, connected to my Icom 7610 is like having a rig of over 1kW. All automatic. Switch on, select the desired frequency and power (low, mid, high) and all you have to do is try your DX.
Quiet and fast, it only needs the CI-V connection and send / alc: it does everything automatically. Thanks to the Alc I don't have to worry about adjusting the power, fixed at 50w to use my rig for digital modes or local QSOs with stand-by amplifier: only tuner.
I have not tried other transistor amplifiers but I have made tough and cheap comparisons and the SPE wins. Find another amplifier for the same price it has:
- 1300 watts input
- transistor PA
- with automatic tuner
- all protections
- HF and 6m
- remotely manageable
- automatic band change
- small and light
I have not found something of similar here, where I live. The other all had something less and often at practically similar prices.
That's all! Great amplifier |
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| K2GT |
Rating:      |
2019-12-31 | |
| Flawless |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| My 1.3K-FA Series II has just passed it's first birthday, being one of the first series II amps delivered in the US. Since then it has been flawless. It is used daily, mostly on digital, and has racked up a few thousand contacts in the past year. It has a couple of idiosyncrasies I could do without, all dealing with the built in tuner, but its operation has been perfect. |
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| G4OBK |
Rating:      |
2019-12-09 | |
| A reliable performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I ordered my 1.3K-FA from Lamco in Yorkshire in early 2018 and had to wait 2 months for it to arrive from the factory in Rome. The unit I ordered was built to the FCC spec, which means it takes a little more power input to produce legal limit power of 400 watts output. I also requested that no ATU be fitted as I already own a Palstar HF Auto ATU which cannot be beaten.
I only ever run the 1.3K-FA in the low voltage setting, with a Yaesu transceiver using a BCD CAT connection and ALC. The beauty of the CAT connection is that the antenna changes over automatically on the linear output when the band is changed on the transceiver whilst on receive. I have four antennae connected and operate from 160m - 4m with the linear only on when it is needed. I arranged my antenna input feeds via two external switches for the LF bands which means I don't need the linear running on standby when I am operating barefoot, which is most of the time. As my HF beam is resonant at less than 1.5:1 on all bands 20m-10m that antenna feed is connected directly to Port 1 on the linear, which is the default antenna when the linear is switched off. For 70 MHz operation it is necessary to go into the menu and turn off the CAT connection (takes 10 seconds to do) as Yaesu do not provide a BCD code for any band higher than 50 MHz. When I leave 70 MHz I turn the CAT back on from the 1.3K-FA menu.
The linear has never missed a beat - totally reliable now for 20 months.
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| SV2CGN |
Rating:      |
2019-07-09 | |
| Computerized my shack! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I could give more than 5 if I could.
It is my last addition to my shack that is being renovated since March 2019. It came as an unbelievable gift since I was in the list and waiting for next year delivery. But, fortunately last minute, I found an available one (new one, second series) and so pulled the trigger. Yes, I had it in 30 days since the order!
It is just amazing. No problem to deliver full output on all bands. The tuner works great. I got the FCC version just because I wanted to have more “play” on driving it.
It is connected with my IC-7600, with my new TS-890s, with my 3L SteppiR and my wire dipole. I no more use switches, no more change antennas just to check if the band is open and change them back. All these actions have been automated. I change the rig, I change the antenna with the push of a button or a click on my PC and SteppiR follows! And, it takes so little place on the desk.
Well done SPE. Thank you for this great product!
PS. The two of the four fans (the ones that are engaged when in TX mode) are a little noisier than the two ones that always run but I don't think it’ s a serious problem. |
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