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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
GJ0KYZ Rating: 2021-01-30
Excellent amplifier Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've owned an Acom 1010 for a few months now and it's performed flawlessly. It can't operate on 6m, it doesn't have comprehensive metering - no SWR reading for example, it doesn't have vacuum relays and it only puts out 800w. However, it is very, very simple to tune, it will work with any rig, it can run full power all day long and it is TOTALLY idiot proof. The other I was operating FT8 with the wrong antenna for the band and with a resulting SWR that was off the scale. After ten minutes I noticed my mistake and whilst the amp had become hot it suffered no damage whatsoever. An absolute 10/10, 5-star piece of kit; much better the two Acom 1000s that I have owned - one of which packed up completely whilst the other developed an annoying glitch with the display. Both were more twitchy to tune than the Acom 1010, which with practice, you can tune in a round five seconds. I bought this amp as a stop-gap whilst my SPE 2K-FA is being built. The latter hasn't turned up yet. I do hope it's worth the wait and the money as the Acom 1010 has set the bar very high indeed.
G0LFQ Rating: 2021-01-18
Easy to tune and operate Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
OK its not as easy as an automatic solid state amp but it doesn't take much to get it right quickly. It takes a couple of minutes to warm up, so power on first. It can tune VSWR of less than 3:1 which negates the need for a tuner. Anything outside of this, you may need to think about a different antenna?

I have the newer version, the fan is not silent but its quiet enough. I have only driven it up to 400w which it does effortlessly.

I drive it with a Yaesu FTdx1200 which uses a 10 din mini plug. This is very difficult to find in the UK (not ACOMs fault) I had to “butcher” a Sega Saturn RGB scart to 10 pin din to make a ground key cable.

In a nutshell its just a great Amp, simple and effective.
YO3HJV Rating: 2020-06-03
Excellent built, excellent performances! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
First of all, I do have other tube amp. It's a Tokyo HyPower 1K so my impressions are somehow biased by that amplifier...
This one was returned to me by a customer who didn't liked the LED's (he expected to be rounded like on Acom 1000).
What I do like most of this model is the honesty of the manufacturer. It is "just" a 700 W PeP QRO, which is in the specs of the tube (GU74). This means that the tube is treated right and it's life will be longer than in ACOM1000 where the tube is tortured.
I am using it almost every time I get in the air on HF, mostly in the 250-400 W in CW and rarely on 600-700 in SSB. I use ICOM 7100 and sometime a IC-7300. None of them has "ALC mod" and I never received a complain about my signal. I often monitor my signal on various foreign WebSDR's and the signal is clear and nice.
The controls are very neat and a little piece of paper with the specific position for the two knobs for the bands I am working often is great help. In fact, I can change the 40 and 20m without making any adjustments, my antenna is perfectly tuned on this bands so I only change the bands on the amplifier.
On the higher bands, a 4:1 gear might be usefull but I understand that was a compromise for a low price.
About two times I tripped the protections when I forget to change the band on the amplifier; no problem at all...
It is built like a tank but also have a very appealing aspect on the desk; it's simply elegant! Even my wife like it!
I know very few read the User's manual but this one contains usefull information about how to adapt the settings for various situations (more gain/more liniarity) and the TRI indicator is awesome.
I decided to keep it because I do have a few spare GU74 from a frozen HM QRO and also because the tube is "treated" right in this amplifier. I know I am repeating this but it's important! Treat right a GU74b and you will have a lifetime "friend"!
Other good things:
-It was designed to be used in Field days;
-Excellent support from the manufacturer;
-Very reliable - made with good quality components = less faults in real life;
-It whitstand 3:1 SWR (like most of other tube QRO);
Bad things:
-It is starting in "OPER" mode and for 2-3 minutes while is warming up, you cannot use the radio. Well, you can add a swtich on the TX cable but I cannot undersand why it is so hard to put a line in the code to OPER only after it is ready warm?
-The LOAD/TUNE knobs are on the variable capacitor's shaft. No gear. Somehow they managed to find an acceptable tuning ratio without a gear. Not so bad...
I can live with these and give it full 5 stars!
2E0FTG Rating: 2020-02-14
The Best Amplifier Out There Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I brought the Acom 1010 on the 10/02/2020 for when I've got my full license. This unit was used but only had 1 previous owner me being the second. I didn't know this until I picked it up from the shop (ML&S) so this was a surprise and made my day since I only paid £1099 for it (New £1599) and you couldn't tell the difference between a brand new one and this one as it had hardly been used by the previous owner so the tetrode/tube is still perfect and won't need changing if at all for many years to come.

Anyway, I set up the amp once I arrived home with it to test it out into a dummy load and all I can say is "WOW" this amp is awesome and better than any amp I've ever seen or used in the past, the build quality is top-notch and every single part just screams quality inside and out.
The amp runs very quietly and stays cool even running at the full 800watts which is very easily managed driving it with the max drive of 60watts from my Icom 756 Pro 3. This amp is very very quick and easy to tune and takes less than 10 seconds and you're done ready to transmit. Another good feature is the fact that it's completely idiot-proof with protection from operator error so no need to worry about it getting damaged as it will trip and give you time to correct the problem. If you're in the market to buy a new amp I wouldn't even hesitate to recommend the Acom 1010. I would even buy another one if I had the cash without even thinking about it, it's that good. This one's definitely 100% a keeper.
73s Mike
K1TA Rating: 2020-01-27
Best Amp out there for the money ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this unit from DXE after reading reviews and watching several YouTube videos on the unit. I bought the 240 VAC model which came quickly. Setup was very simple and I was up and on the air in 10 minutes. The unit runs very cool and quietly. In addition the front panel is like a work of art, in my opinion. The quality and workmanship is superior and makes it worth every penny.
73 de K1TA
VA3VMD Rating: 2019-07-24
Rock Solid Great Performer! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Did a ton of research prior to purchasing and finally pulled the trigger on the Acom1010. This Amp definitively measures up to it's reviews. Built, engineered and designed with high quality and a definite performer. Very easy to tune and operate even if you've never used a tube amp before. My VSWR is well below 3:1 on all Bands and the amplifier is designed to tolerate VSWR levels of up to 3:1 throughout its operating range, tuning is simplified by ACOM’s exclusive True Resistance Indicator (TRI), as such no antenna tuner is required if you're within the VSWR 3:1 specs. The Amp also has great protection features against operator errors. Documentation and support is top notch and very responsive even with pre-sales questions. 40-50W drive gives me between 550-680W PEP which is where I like to run it. 60w drive will push you to 800W+. It has a single Svetlana 4CX800A (GU74B) high-performance ceramic-metal tetrode tube with plate dissipation of 800 W (forced air cooling, grid-driven). Even after looking at some high-end solid state amps I kept coming back to the ACOM. Totally happy and satisfied customer!
K6VOX Rating: 2019-07-22
Brilliant! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
ACOM HF 1010, 120 VAC wired. Purchased June 2019. Talk about rock solid device! Super easy to tune, 10sec or less. Workhorse too, 700-800watt peaks on phone, purrs like a kitten. even on 120VAC it doesn't use a lot of amps. never gets hot, warm yes, fan is so quite. Best money spent on an Amplifier. Quality build. Nice looking. Price point perfect for what you get. Bulgarians sure make nice devices!
KD8M Rating: 2019-05-07
Easy, solid, reliable Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought my ACOM 1010 used, since I wasn't sure I really wanted one . . .

Extraordinarily easy to set up - it requires only to "Run a shielded cable from the “ground on transmit” socket or terminal on your transceiver
to the amplifier rear panel KEY-IN socket." and the rest are standard.

That ground on transmit - transceivers are a royal pain in the neck! The Flex 6600M has a TX1 . . hard to find that in the manual, I had to search all kinds of forums. A simple RCA connector from it to the "Key-In" of the ACOM 1010.

The Flex did not tune well with the LDG-1000, though. Have to hit the "tune" and then press the tune on the LDG.

So, I went back to my IC-7000. Unfortunately, its "ground on transmit" is the number 3 pin on the 13-pin Accy port! I am running a Tektronics SignalLink on that port - so now I have to find a way to pull that signal.

Really - can't you transceiver makers get it together?

So - back to the ACOM 1010 - great protective circuitry, two "mains" fuses that are easy to get to, and my only tiny bit of frustration is in the tuning the knobs and it takes only micrometers.

I created a table of the settings for each of my favorite frequencies so it speeds the progress.

Lastly, the tuner also works fine with the MARS and CAPS frequencies. No special work needed. I found this out by emailing the ACOM guys - I was answered immediately during the next business day.
NI0C Rating: 2018-11-30
Easy to tune and use; reliable workhorse Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used this amplifier nearly every day for two years now. The ACOM "TRI" indicator lights allow me to touch up the tuning "on the fly" while sending the zero in my call sign on CW, with the aid of the ACOM "TRI" indicator lights-- very nice! A couple of my vertical antennas shift resonance during wet or icy weather, and I've been able to operate with SWR as high as 2.5 or even 3 to 1.

The amplifier does require a couple of minutes of warmup time, and like a previous reviewer, I wish that it would default to the standby mode after warmup, so that I could operate safely in "barefoot" mode while waiting.

The fan is pretty quiet, and I'm able to push the power output to 600-700 watts on CW. There is a RTTY mode that allows the amplifier to be driven to 500 watts in data modes.

A couple of weeks ago, after a period of heavy use, a bypass capacitor blew and popped the primary fuses. DX Engineering fixed it for me since it was still within warranty. Repair service was very prompt, and I got it back in time to give it a good workout during the CQ WW CW contest.
G7JZD Rating: 2018-06-03
Great little Amp Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just had this Amplifier for 1 Year now, and all i can say is it is a Great Amplifier, it does all it should do, and if you make a mistake it shuts down. It is very easy to use and just strolls along very easy at 400 watts our UK limit. Does send out 700 watt easily into my dummy load, very quiet in use. Would i buy one again, i sure would, but don't think i will need too, it is a solid build job.

MIKE G7JZD

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Earlier 5-star review posted by G7JZD on 2017-06-23

Just had the Acom 1010 Amplifier for three days now. Simple to set up, and simple to use.Most of the recommended settings are very close, just made a crib sheet of the exact settings so i can go back to them quickly.
Will write another review in a few weeks, but a very happy Man with this purchase.
G7JZD