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Reviews For: Acom 1200S

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

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Review Summary For : Acom 1200S
Reviews: 32MSRP: 3,749.99
Description:
ACOM 1200S Solid State HF + 6 Meter Amplifiers cover the amateur bands from 1.8 through 54MHz. They provide 1000W output power (PEP or continuous carrier) with less than 50W of drive. Their operating parameters are shown on a multi-function high-resolution color display.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.acom-bg.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
35324.2
NJ3A Rating: 2020-01-20
ACOM 1200S, 04AT Tuner, IC-7300, S-Box Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Background: I've recently updated my ham shack in the most pleasing way. After purchasing an IC-7300 (Awesome Rig BTW), I decided I needed an all around all band (almost) wire antenna due to, how shall I say...the need to run in total stealth mode due to some antiquated HOA rules...so, I choose the MyAntennas EFHW-8010 2K wire. Perfect fit in my situation. Additionally, I purchased an ACOM 1200S Solid State amp. Reasoning..I don't have a 240V outlet in my office (shack) and didn't need to wake up any neighbors stereo speakers with the Alpha 9500 I had at my old shack. This ACOM 1200S is perfect for my needs. I also use an N6TV S-Box interface between the rig and the amp...(Bob sends great instructions)...Back to the amp. While I had hoped to only drive 600W output, I actually get closer to 850W with 20W drive from the IC-7300. This is why I also added the ACOM 04AT Tuner to the team. This tuner requires no control wires and once the bands are tuned (ALL BANDS 10-80 <1.3 SWR, didn't try 6) with the tuner during setup the memories are there and band switching is immediate as everything is linked. If I were to do it again...I would have built a house where I could have my old tower and M2 KT36XA...but...that's not where I am. I'm a happy camper with the ACOM 1200S, ACOM 04AT, ICOM IC-7300, N6TV S-Box and MyAntennas EFHW-8010 2K...IT ALL WORKS... BTW: The ACOM 1200S is really quiet. It's also smart enough to shut the entire amp down if you way over drive it. Directions are there as well as YouTube and Google..

Very satisfied with the ACOM 1200S
KG5RXE Rating: 2019-11-04
Not as good as my 600s Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased a 1200s from HRO in August. It worked well for about 2 months. Then one day it wouldn't power on. The power button is lit, but when you try to turn it on, nothing happens except a relay click - no display, nothing. I sent it to HRO for repair and they have been waiting 3 weeks for parts from Bulgaria. They think either the power supply or the controller board has gone bad. It shouldn't take that long to get parts.

Also, there are a couple of bad things about the design. It has big air vents in the top, big enough that things could fall in them - not a good design. And as others have mentioned, some of the components are way too close to the case, like maybe 1/16 inch.

Although I have had good experience with my 600s, I probably won't buy anything else from ACOM in the future.
WR3KI Rating: 2019-09-24
Solid & Smooth Amp Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Acom had some growing pains with this Amp & suspended production in the fall of 2018. Several issues were addressed & the amp was put back into production. I purchased one of the newly issued amps about 6 months ago. I normally drive the amp with 19 watts & see 1060 out. No problems or issues at all. The amp uses a pair of 600 watt LDMOS devices so there is plenty of head room the way I run the amp. So far my Alpha has been gathering some dust, as I like going from band to band without any re-tune. Anyway, the re-designed Acom 1200 is working well without any issues.
W2NER Rating: 2019-09-18
Total satisfaction Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had this amp for 5 months with NO issues at all. It gets used every morning and night on 40m and 160m with 22 watts input and 1100w out. It's been a totally reliable amp and does what it should do. It just works, I have had three other Acom amps, all top quality including this one. Don't hesitate to purchase one, can't go wrong!!
IV3EPO Rating: 2019-08-05
Some good features Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After used fol a long time ACOM-1000 and ACOM-2000A I decided to buy Acom-1200S just because it's more useful than a tubes amp.
I know first production had some bugs but new one seems to be good. Mine is the latest with new firmware and works quite well but it's too sensitive about rfi and to use it in the best way I have to use external tuner also even if my antenna system is dynamic with very low swr. On 12 mtrs and on 10 is not possible having more than 300/500 watts. I'll try to improve ground system in my shack to solve this problem. It's ok but not so good than 1000 or 2000.
N4MIT Rating: 2019-07-07
Final update Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The amp was returned from Bulgaria, "Repaired and Updated". But I was never told what happened to it, I was only told that there was nothing wrong with it. There was no explanation about the loss of power or the loss of magic smoke. I clearly saw the 250w resister go up in smoke while on dummy load. The lack of communications and the pains of trying to ship internationally for repair led to a loss in confidence and trust with Acom/Val that the amp had indeed been repaired or it would last any length of time.

I returned the unopened "repaired" amp to DX Engineering for a full refund.

To recap my experience:
1 - My amp was first production (demo at Dayton)
2 - the amp would never produce 1000w output on any band (into dummy load or antenna) before it would trip out.
3 - it began to lose significant power on most bands (less than 500/600w output)
4 - Magic smoke was let out while video recording testing for Val.
5 - Communications with Bulgaria/Val is horrid (weeks went by waiting replies)
6 - International DHL shipping was a nightmare (they wanted me to pay tax/duties on the amp that I already owned)
7 - Shipping time was slow
8 - Lack of communications from Val on status
9 - No explanation of repair/upgrade if any were done
10 - Return shipping time just as slow

The only thing positive about this whole experience was DX Engineering. DXE made several phone calls and emails to Val to get this matter resolved and in the end DXE gave me a full refund.

I have and will continue to purchase from DXE as I feel that they did provide great customer service to me. I wish that I could say the same for Acom. I will never purchase another Acom product in my lifetime. If you got a "great amp" from Acom, that is great for you... I didn't get the same and warranty repair was just too much hassle.

In the end I replaced the Acom with a Yaesu Quadra and I have never looked back. Yaesu has always provided me with great service.
W2JKT Rating: 2019-02-19
Incredible Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had this amp for a few months now and I LOVE IT. It is so well-made and you can tell they put a lot of effort into the aesthetics, but that's just the beginning. This amp is as feature rich as you want it to be, but is also perfectly happy being used like a simple PTT amp. RF wise it's very solid and I get great signal reports all the time. No ALC feedback is required, and indeed there is not even an output for it. It only takes a key input and coax if that's what you have.

I have mine paired with a Palstar AT2K and TS-590SG, but you can also get the companion 04AT remote auto tuner, which is driven by the amp seamlessly.

I really can't sing my praises of this amp well enough. Just get one. You won't regret it at all.
OT4A Rating: 2019-01-23
Great Amp ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been looking quite sometime for a good smaller backup amp. to stand beside my major amplifier (OM 4000HF).
So i decided for a transistor amp.(first time i ever owned one).
Glad i made a good choise,very well build, gives easy his power, and its very quite.
No issues at all so far !
Works like it schould do.
Cul OT4A
SM5TAO Rating: 2018-10-10
Great Amplifier! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Initial impressions and tests:
Received the 1200s together with 04AT last week.
My configuration is TS-990S + 1200S + 04AT.
The 1200S performs exactly or better than expected, very solid and very well build. Packaging were excellent.
Using cat control tuning process on a segment of a band is very fast , it executes cat commands which sets the amplifier in standby mode, the exciter in CW mode and transmits a tone to tune the tuner using the maximum allowed power output from the exciter (smart function!) .
The amplifier and the ATU tracks the exciter for every segment within each band.
User interface is great, lot of parameters to set and monitor for both the amplifier and the tuner, logs etc... Display is sharp and clear, meters are responsive and very fast.
Very fast protection circuits in case of configuration errors.
Fan noise very low even in high power.
Output power is 1kw(+) without any problem.
Best amplifier I have ever owned! Great job Acom on this product!
K3VAT Rating: 2018-05-02
Update - Now working on all bands Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
In late March I posted below my review of the ACOM 1200S.

Since then I've replace the my vertical antenna that was giving intermittent problems on 30M, and installed new coax on the dipole antenna. Now I'm able to consistently output full power on all HF bands!

The only issue that remains, but not a big deal for me, is that I need to get the CAT working between the ACOM and the transceiver.

Over the past month I've made nearly 1,000 QSOs and the amplifier has performed excellently. Thanks to Val from ACOM who worked with me on the antenna problem.

73, Rich, K3VAT