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Reviews For: ACOM 1010

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

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Review Summary For : ACOM 1010
Reviews: 87MSRP: 2340 USD
Description:
KW 160 - 10 m PA, 700 W PEP

Jan 2007 Note - Vine Antennas, UK agents for ACOM, have advised that their ACOM 1010 amplifiers now have a fan- noise reduction modification that reduces fan noise considerably whilst maintaing sufficient cooling of the amplifier tube

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.acom-bg.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15874.9
IK0YKM Rating: 2023-03-05
Great amplifier Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great one tube amp. For daily use it is a real rock. Never had a problem. I recommend it to everybody.
KG6TR Rating: 2022-09-01
perfect for certain use cases Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I avoided getting an amp for years, partially because I had a 200W radio and figured that was "good enough", and also since I only had omni antennas (DX Commander and EFHW). But being the mud duck in a rag chew isn't fun so I decided to add some power. My antennas are below 2:1 swr on all bands and I don't have (and don't want) a tuner so the 1010 is an ideal fit for my use case. Quick to tune, and tolerates the edges of the bands where the antennas aren't quite resonant. Works great off 120v power and makes for a compact and highly functional setup with my Anan 7000DLE mkiii. Great amp.
AA2T Rating: 2022-07-24
No Complaints Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Been rock solid and for a few mistunes I did, the protection kicked right in. Long warm up is expected for this type of design but I'll live with it for getting a more reliable design. Good for 3:1 SWR which lets me use more antenna BW w/o a tuner.
W9RAC Rating: 2022-03-29
Great amp for daily use Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having owned several Acom amplifiers I added this one as a low powered unit to compliment my Acom 2100. Thus far been a great amp, running it in the 550/600 range with 45 watts of drive with TS-990.
One thing I am not wild about is after warm-up period it defaults to transmit mode. I am use to amps defaulting to standby. Acoms two year warranty is something to consider for your next purchase. 73 Rich
AK4SZ Rating: 2022-03-29
Excellent Amplifier Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I found the amplifier easy to set up and use. Very easy to tune. The only minor fault is the short warm up time when powered on. It has been very forgiving of my learning curve using an amplifier. I'm extremely satisfied with this product.
N2XPM Rating: 2022-02-07
SWEET Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the amp now for a few weeks. As I can be an idiot at times, this amp is IDIOT proof. You can't hurt it as the protection circuitry works flawlessly. Tuning is a breeze providing that your antenna has less than a VSWR of 3.0, no external tuner is necessary. I have played on all bands with this amp except 15 meters since my dipole is fugazy on that band and requires the LDG 1000ProII tuner to operate.
This is NOT a 800 or 1KW amplifier. If you over do it and push the tube, a new tube will cost $350.00. As best as I can tell, 650-700 watts is the max and I run the Kenwood TS-590S as an exciter at 10-25watts where I achieve 200-450 watts out. My amp is wired for 110 volts AC and works fine. The fan on top of the amp is hardly noticeable and keeps the amp cool.
Today, I ran the amp on AM on 3.885 and signal and audio reports were robust at 400 watts.
Bottom Line - Your going to pay more compared to an Ameritron, if they can't hear you at 400 watts, chances are that they aren't going to hear you using a KW. ACOM Quality is spot on, ease of use so simple that even after reviewing youtube videos without reading the manual, you can be on the air in no time. BUT, I highly suggest that you read the short manual anyway.
My cost was $1959 minus $160 Holiday coupon for $1799.00 still a great investment and worth every penny.

New Review almost 2 years old -

Since my last review, the amplifier still works great. I am now using a LDG 600 ProII Antenna tuner with my new Icom 7300 radio. The amp is exercised daily at 400 to 600 watts without any worries. I have read that other users have reported getting a kw out of this amp. I would venture to say that you don't need to do that as the amp works well for what it is designed to do. Needless to say, I am still very happy with this product and highly recommend to anyone looking for an Amp for the simplicity of tuning and operating!
W5ZYX Rating: 2021-12-26
After 9 months of use: Simply Great Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Update after 9 months of use:
All I can add is that this is one great amplifier. Its incredibly easy to tune, rugged, dependable, looks good on the operating desk. I've found over the years that 700 watts PEP lets me work almost any station I can hear and this solid performer of an amplifier does the job.

Original comments:
I received an A-1010 from HRO, put it in service, and my first impressions of this amplifier are very positive. In my six decade ham radio career I've had five other linear amplifiers ranging from a sweep tube rig that could put out 300-400 watts on a good day to an SB-220 that effortlessly delivered 1.5 KW PEP. (The SB-220 would still be here had UPS not dropped and literally crushed it when it was sent out for addition of the Harbach mods, but that's another story.) What sets the A-1010 apart from all of these other amps with vacuum tube finals is its almost instant and effortless ability to be tuned to resonance.

The A-1010 is sleek and low, not nearly as heavy as its forefathers, and to my ear produces barely noticeable fan noise. So far I've tested it on 75, 40 and 20 SSB and with 60 watts drive it consistently delivers 750-800 watts PEP into my 160 meter loop measured at a Palstar AT2KD tuner.

While certainly not an inexpensive piece of equipment, I don't believe the considerable additional cost difference between it and a full legal limit amplifier is justified by the slight additional gain in readability that results. The A-1010 will make your signal heard and reflects engineering and manufacturing quality. Experience proves that you usually get what you pay for and an A-1010 should serve its owner well for a long time.

I realize that one day of testing isn't long enough to draw absolute conclusions about a piece of equipment but my first impression is that ACOM's A-1010 is in a class by itself.

VY0PW Rating: 2021-10-28
Great value Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Have the 1010 amp for 6 months now and very happy with it. It is a backup for an ICOM PW1.

Workmanship and built plus materials used in the 1010 are first class. Very easy to tune. Fan is super quite better than on the PW1. It has two SO 259 antenna connectors at the back and a front panel switch activates them when the amp is on otherwise only the antenna connected to PL socket 1 in the back is active.

Only thing I would like see added in an upgrade maybe have 3 or 4 259s at the back and have a separate power line to the front antenna switch so one does not have to power up the whole the amp on with the tube running.

All in all great value for the shack. I am sure it will last a long time.


W0AZ Rating: 2021-08-24
Well made, conservatively rated. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Updated impressions after more than a year of use, driving it with an Icom IC-7300.

Setup was simple. It requires only an appropriate plug on the power cord (mine arrived set up to run on 240V and that’s what I have available in my shack), a keying line and coax to the rig and antenna. Band switching is manual.

I added 15ms of transmit delay to the IC-7300.

It’s a very stoutly built, conservatively rated amplifier. I run it at ~500W CW with ~50W of drive and at ~600W on peaks on sideband.

Tuning is very simple. This is the fastest and easiest tuning tube amp I’ve ever used. Fail safe mechanisms to protect the amp from operator error are there in abundance.

LEDs provide any operating information you might want but remain simple for everyday operation showing only forward power, reflected power and the nature of any faults that might occur. Additional button pushes provide other operating parameters.

The fan is louder than I’d like. Not a big deal, and the only negative I can report. Once the receiver is on and I’m listening to signals the fan noise becomes unnoticeable.

This is not my first tube amp (my Yaesu FL-2100B is still working fine with it’s original 1970s vintage Cetron 572Bs - now driven with my FT-1000MP), but this Acom may well be the last amp I ever need. I expect it will outlast me.

I am no longer operating any digital modes, so I can’t report on it’s ability to handle high duty cycle operation; however, the ability to select limited maximum output for those modes at the touch of a button and the very conservative rating of the amp should allow it to handle these modes with ease.

I’ve used it roughly 75%/25% for CW and sideband, pretty much daily for several hours since getting it (largely thanks to local covid restrictions) with no issues of any kind.

Everything has worked exactly as it should since day one, and it appears to be very well engineered and constructed.

Not that it matters a great deal to me, but the amp is fairly compact and quite nicely styled.

The additional cost over bargain priced amps is well worth it.
K0DXV Rating: 2021-06-02
Beautifully Made, Easy to operate, Flawless performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I feel fortunate that I was able to snag one. Like many ham products, amplifiers have been in short supply. I have read everything I could find on the 1010 and felt it would suit my needs very well. I had originally considered the 1000 but the price for an extra 300 watts was nearly 50% higher. So I chose the 1010.

Many people have remarked about how easy it is to tune. My experience bares this out. The load indicator is pure brilliance. I transmit 15 watts into the 1010, peak the tune and then adjust the load so that only the center LED is lit and tuning is done. This literally takes seconds. I then adjust my output power to 65 watts and the 1010 puts out its full 700 watts with occasional peaks on side band reaching 800 watts.

I do find the fan noise to be rather harsh. It's not particularly loud - but it has a kind mechanical whine that I find irritating. But, once I turn the volume of my transceiver up, the noise is hidden in the background. Compared to the other amplifiers I've own, it's not bad. and I can live with it.

The 1010 only has a single RCA jack for transmit switching. There is no facility for ALC. This is fine with me since I never rely on ALC to limit input power anyway. It's a better practice to monitor your input and output power rather than rely on the amplifier to prevent over driving.

My 1010 has been in steady use now for just a few days. I've made dozen of contacts including many DX stations on both 20 and 17 meters. From the standpoint of usability ( professionally I was a usability engineer) I give Acom high marks for making a product that is basically idiot-proof. Misadjusting the load control can result in distortion and splatter and put unnecessary stress on the tube(s). Acom eliminates the possibility of mistuning the load with a simple 3 LED indicator. Adjust the load so only the center LED is lit and your done. Fantastic!

Overall, the 1010 meets my expectations in every way. It's very attractive with a nice compact cabinet that looks great on my operating desk. It's far from the lest expensive amplifier in its class. But, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. You pay a little more for the 1010 and you get a real quality product.