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Reviews For: RM Italy BLA600

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

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Review Summary For : RM Italy BLA600
Reviews: 3MSRP: $2,500.00
Description:
RM ITALY BLA600 Solid State Amplifiers are 500W sold-state wideband, compact, automatic linear amplifiers for 160 through 6 meters; 1.8 to 54 MHz. Low input drive requirements (20 to 25W on 80-10 meters, 30-40W for 500W on 160m and 6m). They utilize the rugged NXP / Freescale MRF6VP5600H 50V power MOSFET for high power and high reliability. These amplifiers are capable of all modern modulation modes. BLA600 amplifiers are fully automatic, featuring instant RF frequency-reading for band changes and fast, reliable and silent PIN diode TX-RX switching, making them ideal for CW QSK operationThe BLA600 three (3) antenna outputs that are easily configurable on a per-band basis as per the user's requirements. The RF deck is supplied by a heavy-duty linear power supply, with 240 volt AC input (115-120 or 230 Vac capable) and utilizes an efficient active bridge rectifier with very high-grade filter capacitors to provide the PA devices with a very low noise and robust 50V DC. The amplifier's RF deck has a large heat spreader and copper heat sink which provides a very efficient cooling system. There are separate fans for the RF deck and LPF board / power supply for high duty cycle operation. Internally, all modules are mounted in a very robust and well-screened enclosure. BLA600 amplifiers feature Dual MCU control and an extensive array of protection circuits that look after the amplifier with rapid reaction time. VSWR, I/P Power, I/P Frequency, Three Temperature sensors; Transistor / Heat sink and PSU, Drain voltage / Drain current and HV PIN supply are all continuously monitored. Covered by a 12 month warranty.
Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0033.3
KY8D Rating: 2022-04-30
Happy by 4th Day Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I will likely re-rate this amp up to 5 stars once my ownership grows more mature. I'll start out with 4, though, since for the first several days I enjoyed no useful service at all. Until, that is, RM Italy via email suggested I turn on the menu option "Full QSK".

I had not thought to try that myself, since I'd been driving the amp with my semi-ancient IC-745 which has only semi-QSK, which feature I was not even using.

The most vexing problem which kept re-occurring affected its use only in CW mode. It could not be made happen at all in SSB mode. SSB tests were performed only into a dummy load so as to preserve my record of being CW-only since 1989. This odd CW vs SSB misbehavior is relevant, as I will now describe.

Before turning on the "Full QSK" option, the unit kept faulting out with "Error Frequency" at fairly short intervals. I firstly suspected my 40-year-old IC-745 (refurbished 7 years prior by an Icom technician with many new caps, a general tune-up, and firmware upgrade). Borrowing a friends TenTec Scout 555 though, I still got plural instances of "Error Frequency".

Said error, according to the manual, indicates out-of-band frequency. And this was just not the case. Not with two different rigs driving, both otherwise serving nobly.

Anyhow, turning on "Full QSK" at the amp solved this problem instantly. I am supposing it must be the case that said option has more to do QRQ than QSK, for whatever reason.

If, in the fullness of time, I am presented with no other issues, I will then re-rate this unit at 5 stars. Last night, during my first real use of it, I drove the unit gingerly at 300W on 20m and 200W on 30m, and it performed well. I worked France and Switzerland both very easily during somewhat iffy conditions.

I'll stay easy on the amp for a while, holding to 300W, until I have more experience with it. I'm thinking I'll want an attenuator, though, to make that easy. This amp has VERY high gain, such that the power out knob on my IC-745 is made extremely touchy, making it likewise VERY easy to be over-driving the amp.

And so, connecting ALC feedback back to the rig is STRONGLY recommended. Even on my 40-year old IC-745 I was able to do this. Performing the adjustment proved a little bit tricky, as the ALC Max and ALC Min pots proved interactive, at least with respect to the Icom, which wanted a range of 0 to -4V.

I very suspect that some who've reported premature burnouts on this amp have over-driven it accidently more than once. No blame to them, since it's so VERY easy to do. Doubtless this amp is targeted at the modern market of 0 to 10W SDR rigs, and not so much to somewhat older 10 to 100W rigs.

And so, for these latter, an attenuator would be VERY helpful to have. I'll probably make my own. Because, although the BLA600's manual might state that 20W is max input for 80m through 10m, and 40W for 160m and 6m, that's pushing it WAY too hard. I'm getting 300W output with just only 10W of drive.

So, 4 stars for now, maybe 5 later.
N4EEB Rating: 2021-12-13
Failed in a Few Days Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received the amp from DXE. A few days after putting it in service, it started displaying a "Frequency Fault" on CW, which, according to the manual, meant that the frequency in use was outside of the ham bands. This was not the case. I emailed RM for tech support. They never replied. About a week into ownership, the internal 50v power supply failed making the amp useless. It's a credit to DXE that they accepted the amp back for a full refund with no questions asked.
W5ZYX Rating: 2020-08-18
Impressed so far! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Because I have the 6-meter bug I recently replaced my trusty SB-220 amplifier with a RM Italy BLA600 and so far have been very favorably impressed. The set up instructions are concise and well written, and the amp can literally be on the air in just minutes after unpacking. It requires less than 30 seconds after power on to go through tests, and automatically senses and sets up for the band on which you are operating. Mine easily hits 500 watts of output with 20 watts of drive on 80-10, and does 500 watts on 6 with 35 watts of drive. I've run it for hours on 6 meter F8 yet it stays cool and produces clean and distortion free output. It has excellent and rapid protection circuitry for both over-drive and excessive SWR but unless you have a resonant antenna, it should be operated with an antenna tuner downstream. Its obviously not an SB-220 powerhouse, but so far, I am very pleased with my purchase and, as we all know, its the first 500 watts of output that really makes the difference on the air.