Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: ACOM 2000a

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

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : ACOM 2000a
Reviews: 105MSRP: 6850 USD
Description:
ON4UN demonstrates the ACOM 2000A Automatic HF Linear Amplifier
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.acom-bg.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
251054.9
EI2IU Rating: 2001-01-15
THE BEST WHAT CAN YOU SAY ! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I BOUGHT MINE SECOND HAND YES SECOND HAND WAS A BIT NERVOUS OF COURSE BUT I WANTED ONE NEW BUT THE PRICE WAS STEEP !

SO I HAD ANOTHER BRAND OF AMP IN MIND AND I MADE A TELEPHONE CALL TO A DEALER ABOUT ANOTHER ITEM OF GEAR AND JUST ASKED CASUALY HAD HE A ACOM IN STOCK AND THE REPLY WAS NO, BUT HE KNEW WHERE THERE WAS A SECOND HAND ONE A YEAR OLD FOR SALE !

SO I JUMPED AT IT AND TOOK A CHANCE CANCELLED MY OTHER ORDER AND BOUGHT THE ACOM SAVED A 1000 POUNDS AND WAS HAPPY !

WELL A FEW NERVOUS DAYS WENT BY TILL IT GOT HERE SET ABOUT GETTING IT IN LINE STRAIGHT AWAY AND HAD NO MANUAL EITHER THE GUY I BOUGHT IT OF FORGOT TO SEND IT !

NO PROBLEM THE MACHINE IS IDIOT PROOF AND I CAN PROVE IT THERE WAS NO SETTING UP INVOLVED A DREAM MACHINE AND THATS THE TRUTH,
I FIRED IT UP AND NEVER, AND NEVER WILL LOOK BACK.

I MADE A TELEPHONE CALL TO ACOM EXPLAINED MY CASE ASKED ABOUT A WARRANTY AND NO PROBLEM A PLEASURE TO DEAL WITH - WELL DONE KRASSY !
SO THE PUNCH LINE IS IF YOU WANT AN AMP AND I SAID AN AMP ! BUY AN ACOM2000A AND FORGET THE REST ! THEY MIGHT BE GOOD BUT THEY ARE NOT THE BEST - THIS ONE IS !

IF I KNEW WHAT I WAS GOING TO GET I WOULD HAVE DEFFENETLY NO PROBLEM IN BUYING AND SPENDING THE MONEY ON A NEW ONE AND TAKE THE CHANCE OF THE REST OF THE HOUSE FINDING OUT HI !

ITS A REAL PLEASURE TO USE BECAUSE THERES NO WORK NO WORRY JUST PRESS AND TALK. BUY ONE ! YOU CANT BRING THE MONEY WITH YOU ! YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT !


N5NJ Rating: 2001-01-11
Very High Quality Unit Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've resisted writing a review of my Acom 2000A prior to now, but after seeing a somewhat negative review, I felt compelled to.

First, the negative review indicates lack of response by an individual dealer. Those of us who have purchased the units direct from Acom do not have this problem and in fact, get excellent service and response to all questions.

Occasionally there are problems that the manufacturer addresses immediately, and the amplifier then works perfectly. About a year ago, a design change was made, and at no cost, the update was sent to all owners at that time.

My amplifier is used in Contests. In the year and a half I've owned it, it has made two trips as baggage on American Airlines to Antigua and has produced nearly 30,000 qsos there as well as from back here in the U.S.

Most of the time, it is at AA5NT's station, where he runs multi-ops all the time. I have absolutley no fear of the amp being damaged while there as there is no way that it will allow improper use.

The construction of this unit is excellent. The support direct from the manufacturer as well as their reps here in the U.S. is excellent. (Visit the link in the review area for details.)

The heater light blinking problem as described by one other is most likely due to low line voltage. The amplifier is reporting this to the owner. This is not a defect. This is a feature and will protect the tubes by shutting down if it(or a number of other operating parameters) goes out of spec for the tubes.

This is a great piece of equipment.
W4TRP Rating: 2001-01-08
Another satisfied ACOM 2000A user. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had mine a month now and I have tried everything under the sun to abuse this amplifer into giving me a fault or failure. Not a chance! The 2000A silently hums along on any band and tunes up automatically by just saying "Boo" into the mike. I love the melody the servo motors make when it changes bands. I use mine with a Radioworks Carolina Windom 10-80m wire antenna at 50 feet (tower restrictions here). I feed it through a Nye Viking antenna tuner because I can't get my antenna's VSWR down under 1:3 on all bands where the 2000A would normally not need my external tuner. I drive it with either an ICOM 756PRO or and IC-755DSP. It takes only about 40 watts drive to hit the legal limit.

The manual is well written but could be expanded upon a bit more in certain areas. If you buy one however, don't foget to request the 43 page schematic drawing set. Krassy at ACOM will send this to your via e-mail if you ask for it.

My only complaint is the unfortunate location of the fuses behind the HV power transformer. To change one of these (probably once in a millennium) one has to remove 29 screws from the cabinet and then remove the HV transformer. They should have been rear panel mounted and I'm sure the designers at ACOM have heard this by now. Under the hood, the 2000A is masterfully designed and crafted. As one who has rolled his own amps for some 40 years, I am impressed!

All in all, this is a high tech linear that IMHO beats anything else on the market today.

73...Bob W4TRP Reston, VA e-mail: bcleve@comnetics.com


RA3ANI Rating: 2000-06-18
Great amplifier! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have this amplifier since late October 1999. So far I was absolutely amazes by it's performance. It has all levels of protection one can think about, the RCU is very convenient thing too - I have put the main box in the corner of my shack and that was it. It is very quite, very simple to use and you forever forget about plate and load tuning when switching the bands. I would not trade this box for anything else.
But there is one problem with it which happened recently. The final stage cathode heater circuitry is connected to the low voltage power supply through two plastic connectors. The filament current of each tube is about 4 amps at 12.6 volts. One day (it was right before the start of the contest, believe it or not) the amplifier failed to power up, returning with the failure message - heater current is too low! Multiple attempts to bring it back to life by performing some routine procedures like checking fuses and external connectors failed. So I had no choice but to disconnect the amp from the rig and mains and start some more thorrough investigation. It took me about 2 hours (including one precious hour during the contest time) to troubleshoot and fix it. The problem was in these plastic connectors in the filament circuitry! They were literally burnt. Of course, I could not find any replacement in 3:00am, so I just cut them and soldered them diretly to the printed circuit boards. After that the problem was solved. I have worked this contest and a couple more and my amp performed great. So that's the story.
I also need to say that we don't have any direct ACOM support here in Russia, so if you run into problem like this, you have to deal with it on your own. I hate to think if some more serious problem happens...

73! de Paul, RA3ANI
AA2MF Rating: 2000-05-07
Surpassed my expectations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
With a very little pistol station like i have, hoping to work a DX station without taking the entire weekend to do it dwindles without turning to modern technology. During a contest the situation becomes even worse. The object is being able to jump onto a frequency of the needed station or multiplier ready to transmit. There is nothing worse then to be adjusting your equipment while the frequency is clear only to find yourself ready to transmit at the peek of the pile up.
The amount of companies in the amateur market manufacturing an auto tune HF amplifier is very limited. The primary reason i decided to go with the Acom 2000A was the chose of the transmitting tubes. Knowing the Acom Company is the same group that manufactured the 91b amplifier made me realize they had a solid history. What i found after my Acom 2000A arrived surpassed my expectations. At first glance i thought i was looking at a unit built during the bygone AM error. The unit is built like a tank. The chase and cabinet is made of heavy gauge aluminum able to support the weight of the two internal transformers. I found no twisting of the chase with both transformers installed even with the cabinet cover off. The tank circuit coils and connecting straps are all silver-plated. There are no uneven or rough edges. Everything looks like it belongs and is suppose to be there. The fixed capacitors are mica; the band switch is porcelain with silver-plated heavy-duty contacts. The air variable capacitor shafts have ball barings. The plate choke looks very over rated. The part layout looks clean and well thought out. All the cabinet cover holes line up and have a clean machine screw thread. Setting and turning the screws can be done with your fingertips needing a screwdriver only to apply the final turn. The finish is very well done on both the amplifier cabinet and the remote unit. The lettering and LED metering also shows the high level of workmanship, which is clearly seen through out the unit.
The protection circuitry eliminates any possible way for the operator to do damage to the amplifier short of dropping it off the operating table. An amplifier fall situation can also be eliminated because the main unit can be placed on the floor with only the control head on the operating table. If the amplifier shuts down the display on the control head tells you why.
I have not had a chance to use my Acom 2000A in any contest. The operation has been only chaseing DX on the bands. Jumping from one spot to another is a real pleasure not having to worry about seeing if the amplifier is tuned. I have no doubts that my Acom 2000A will loft along when i enter into the next contest. Not to repeat what has been said about the performance of the Acom 2000A i will only say i agree with the previous comments of other owners of this fine amplifier. I belive that the Acom 2000A is to become the amplifier of choice. If you care to contact me directly please feel free to do so. My email address is aa2mf@arrl.net
N.A. Rating: 2000-03-17
The last amplifier I buy (unless I buy another Ac Time Owned: unknown months.
I was hesitant to buy this amp, mainly because of a combination if things: one, the company making them hasn't been in business very long so not much history there and that along with the reletively high price, I was not convinced. I researched it and listened to the comments of the previous users. All the claims are as you can read on the previous comments, and they are true. This amp cannot be blown up. It is protected in literally dozens of ways. I wanted an amplifier that would be safe from damage during a multi-op contest. This one is. If someone does something wrong, it protects itself. I have no fear of it getting destroyed or the grids getting zapped as I was constantly worried about with my 2x 3CX-800 amp(Brand T) and a 3x 8874 amp(Other Brand A). The tubes are reletively inexpensive so spares are on hand with a minimal investment. I've used it in 4 different major DX contests as well as in CW SS and am extremely pleased with it's performance and support from K1LZ and the rest of the Acom team. The card at Christmas was a nice touch too.
KR1G Rating: 2000-01-24
Nothings perfect - but this comes close :) Time Owned: unknown months.
Ok, a fantastic piece of equipment. I agree with everyone's comments below! Simply Great.

Very little room for improvement, but one worth mentioning: Most HF rigs have slightly, yet substantially, different output per band (with the same settings on the rig). Would be perfect if I could set the ACOM to 1.5KW and not worry about the drive from the rig. I may need another for single op 2 radio








A real workhorse. I change bands more often now and as a result work more DX
WA7AW Rating: 1999-12-26
What a GREAT Company to deal with Time Owned: unknown months.
Acom 2000-A is a piece of cake to operate and hook up. Mine had a fuse that was bad, simple
troubleshooting led me straight to the prob. was easy to fix. what other company do you know that sends out Xmas Cards to their customers. email responses take less than a day in
most cases. and last but by no means least...when was the last time a company GAVE
an update to you FREE of charge, without requesting it or even charging postage.
i do have one little complaint though. to change the internal fuses you have to unbolt
and move the massive transformer out of the way to get to some of the fuses. all in all
I am VERY satisfied with this unit and can recommend it to anyone who is looking for
the newest tech in amp design
wa7aw
John
.
N0FGK Rating: 1999-11-26
Works like a charm Time Owned: unknown months.
I just got my ACOM 2000A fired up. Took longer to get the power dropped in the shack than to hook up the amp! :) I just hooked it into the antenna circut, hit operate and away I went. It handled some nasty swr I had on a beam with no problem. I just turned down the drive and the amp kept going. I like the remote control unit setup. It displays all the info. needed to manage the amp. Unit is quite and runs cool. I did put a fan in the back that I had just as an added "extra". Didn't need it but a little more cooling never hurts. I can recommend this amp to anyone wanting an amp that is plug-and-play.
SM5COP Rating: 1999-09-24
Workhorse Time Owned: unknown months.
Have been using mine since early December 1998. Works fine and stays cool. No need to adjust drive when changing bands. Being a "bandhopper" this is a great amp. No need to think of Plate and Load. Just to keep driving power down to 40 - 50 Watts. Control box display easy to read and the colorful bar graphs show the output power and SWR (if any) at a glance. Blower is quieter than the one in my logging computer. Shuts down very quietly if necessary. Has happened when I forgot to take the driving power down and when wrong antenna was connected. Being an avid CW operator I would have liked a quiet QSK but I knew about the relay clicking before purchase so I should not complain. Doesn't have to worry about pin diodes going bad, though! Great amp. Love it!