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Reviews For: ICOM PW-1

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

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Review Summary For : ICOM PW-1
Reviews: 78MSRP: 5000
Description:
HF/6 Meter All Band 1KW Amplifier
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur/amplifiers/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00784.3
WE1X Rating: 2002-11-08
In the tradition of Icom amps Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my PW-1 for a little more than 2 years now. An Icom 775dsp and Icom 756 PRO drive the amp with a Hexbeam HX5Bi (5 band) and a Fritzel FD-4 windom (80-10) on the other end. The amp's tuner is very forgiving and can manage the Fritzel's SWR very nicely. Band tracking, tuner settings, etc. all work just great.

My only complaints with the amp are (a) the fans are far too noisey even with the amp under the desk, and (b) the temp can rise rather quickly kicking in additional fans.

However, I think the PW-1 continues Icom's tradition of other fine amps: the 2KL/AT500 combo and the 4KL.

Per the previous review there are TWO different versions of the PW-1. Prior to June 2000 the PW-1 had to remain on (albeit in bypass) for your rig to run barefoot. In June/July of 2000 a revised PW-1 came to market which resolved this problem. Unfortunately, an older PW-1 cannot be modified. But all in all still a great amp.
DF1AS Rating: 2002-11-08
Nice Power Cube Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got a used one from an Ebay auction but in near mint shape.
The overall performance is really excellent. The tuner works faster and better than that from my 746. It even matches an under-roof 2x2.5m-dipole on 40m, the 746 doesn't. Band switching is also no deal.
But, there are two (minor) problems at all:
(1) When switched off (mains off) none of the 4 antennas can be used! I would have expected Ant-1 (as well as Rig-1) to be on at fail-safe condition (e.g. wired inversly).
(2) The remote controller (why do they use 1950's design with analogue instruments? All the transceivers do not!) and/or its cable is RF sensitive! I could not use the amp with my under-roof antenna (about 10m away and separated by two walls from my station) on 30m and 20m unless I put ferrox chokes at both ends. My guess is that cable has no or bad shielding.
That's why I vote 4/5 for the PW-1. Compared to other amps this may be a bit inequitable. It seems there is currently no better amp in the market.
73 - Kay-Uwe
VR2XMC Rating: 2002-05-28
A high quality product but expensive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was impressed by my friend's PW-1 in his QTH. I have eventually bought one for myself. It integrated with ICOM tranceivers so well that it works like having a 1kw rig. With extensive protection measures, you will have trouble free operation with your ICOM rigs.

I do not feel that the fans are noisy nor the amp has ever raised in temperature. The supplied separation cable for remote control is merely 10 feet. I would wonder whether it can be longer so that I can place my PW-1 far away out of my sight. In Hong Kong, we live in condominium and floor space is a scare commodity. I do not want my PW-1 taking up valuable bedroom space.

73

Johnny Siu VR2XMC
VK5SZ- Rating: 2002-05-02
Mod required Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
HI,
I have just bought the Icom ICPW-1 Amplifier andit is great. For some strange reason, Icom have not removed the diode for 10m operation which is a bit poor. In Australia, the amp should come with 10m enabled I would have thought but apart form this minor mod required, I love it, every aspect of it. How easy to do anything now....
If you know of the mod to run this amp on 10m,it would be much appreciated. I can be emailed at
brenton@posnav.com.au
many thanks for any asssitance
regards
Brenton
KW4DA Rating: 2002-01-10
Great Amp! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned a PW1 Amp for a year and half (and still do) and all I can say it’s excellent. It has not given me a minute of trouble. It puts out a solid 1000W all day long if you need it. I have used it on RTTY and PSK at full power in contests, tried everything to blow it up, nope, couldn’t.

Not all of my antennas are flat across the band so putting 1000W watts out can cause problems. The built in tuner works well matching just about anything short of a long wire.

If you’re looking for a solid state amp with a built in antenna tuner, this is it. This Amp works best with an Icom transceiver because as you change bands so the does the amp. Buy it!
OE9ERI Rating: 2000-04-29
Nice but noisy Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got the PW-1 brand-new from Icom with SN 1052 some days ago - seems they started a new series because I saw some numbers like that last year, they start all new series again with 1000 (as I know from the 775).
I dont want to - as others mostly do here - count all the features you can read from the data sheets.
After connecting to the 756pro, Amplifier-Power-OFF - all exiter-funktions like wattmeter, SWR and antenna-switching features of the PW-1 ar operative - the leds on the remotehead glow - perhaps powerd from the 756pro-exiter.
Pressing the Power-switch of the PW-1 brings the
background-lights of the instruments to shine and starts the very loud fan for the power-supply which ist not temperature-regulatet and runs all the time between rx-times, the amp is under my table here but too loud for me and I have to find a longer remote-cable (preparing it myself) to give the amp to another location.
The only temperature-regulation of the 5 ! fans is in speeding up by rising temperature - they could have done that better from the switch-on by rising temperature - so the fans would start only on vy long ssb-speechs or rtty-transmissions and would normaly be quiet.
Had an Alpha 87a till now and am spoiled by the low noise of the single fan.
Using the tuner in the PW-1 brings an aditional fan to operation, also no temperature-regulation.

The IMD3 with the 756pro-exiter differs from band to band and is at 1 KWout between 20-30dB down the two-tone - not to the best but normal for the newer generations - they seem not want to improve that figures in the new designs... But thats more up to the exiters and not the transistor-amps.
Full-output can be run for 15 Minutes until the temperature comes to the red-hot-reading but the
noise is then like in an airplane at 800km/h hi.
This is of course absolutly necessary to get the temperature down.
No more to say than that remote-control with the Icom-Exiters like my 756pro ist perfect.
I would prefere for home the ACOM-2000 because of the little noise and tuning up to 1:3 SWR, for the portable use the PW-1 is not so heavy an tunes also to 1:3, the should have spent two handles for easy transport with the xyl - simple things that would not rise the high-price too much. Also more temperature-regulation for the fans would not cost the world.
Thats my sort of test-report and failures in the english-language are intended to increase the attention of the reader.

73 good luck Helmut oe9eri
KK7TT Rating: 2000-04-14
QUIET-EXCELLENT QUALITY-EXPENSIVE Time Owned: unknown months.
IT IS EXPENSIVE, BUT THAT IS THE ONLY DOWNSIDE.IT IS AS QUIET AS YOUR COMPUTER AND WORKS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS.
IF YOU HAVE TWO ICOMS, THINGS ONLY GET BETTER AS THIS AMP HAS TWO INPUTS, EACH OF COURSE WITH ITS OWN ALC ADJUSTMENTS. IT HAS FOUR OUTPUT ANTENNA CONNECTORS. BAND SELECTION IS SYNCHRONIZED AS YOU CHANGE BANDS. IN ADDITION THE BUILT-IN ANTENNA TUNER MEMORIZES A PRESET POINT FOR EACH FREQUENCY RANGE. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT ISN'T.
THE CONTROLLER SECTION MAY BE SEPERATED FROM THE AMPLIFIER WITH THE ICOM SUPPLIED CONTROL CABLE ALLOWING THE AMPLIFIER TO BE TEN OR TWELVE FEET AWAY. THE CONTROLLER IS ABOUT 8 INCHES BY 3 INCHES.
IT NOT ONLY WORKS ON 10 THROUGH 160 METERS BUT ALSO 6 METERS.
IF 1000 WATTS IS ENOUGH, THEN THIS AMP COULD BE FOR YOU.
THERE ARE A FEW FIRST QUAILTY AMPS ON THE MARKET TODAY AND I BELIEVE THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
PERHAPS THE BEST PART IS KNOWING THAT ICOM, HAS WITHOUT EXCEPTION, ONE OF THE BEST SERVICE AND TECH DEPARTMENTS IN THE INDUSTRY. IF BY CHANCE, ANYTHING WENT WRONG YOU CAN REST ASSURED THAT THEY WOULD FIX IT IN A FEW DAYS AND YOU WOULD BE UP AND RUNNING.
AA2LF Rating: 1999-10-04
Solid state ? yes ! Time Owned: unknown months.
Got one in march and the only problem I had it was
the removal of a diode to make it work on 10 m !
Ever since, driven by an IC706MK2 it is abused,
24/24 hours at 220V and at least 4 hours daily
in CW, SSB and even RTTY !
On all bands, folks, from 6 to 160...
In 6m puts out about 1100 W and everyhere else
except 160 about 1200W.
In 160 goes only to 1000 W but I suspect some
problem with my antenna...
After I set the ALC levels, never touched the
amp, only the head to change sometimes the displayed parameters. It is now constantly monitoring the temperature (mosfets) and very seldom
I see the needle close to the red sector...
Good bye ALPHA87, good bye EIMAC, welcome PW1 !