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Reviews For: Ameritron ALS-600

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

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Review Summary For : Ameritron ALS-600
Reviews: 197MSRP: 1299.99
Description:
600W Output Solid State Amplifier w /Power Supply on 100/110/120V for US
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ameritron.com/Product.php?productid=ALS-600
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
451974.2
WN6J Rating: 2011-08-05
Easy to use, hard to destroy Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
No Tune, No tubes, No problems. Just turn it on, set the band and key the mike. If you forget to change the band selector it goes into smart "protection" mode. Just reset the button and your good again.

Very Forgiving and useable. A 1.3 Solid State amp would be nice, but this really does perform well.
KI6KJS Rating: 2011-07-25
Excellent Amplifier Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using My ALS-600 for two years now and it has performed very well. I'm driving it with a FT-840 60 watts in gives 400 plus watts out on 75/80 and 500 out on 40 where I operiate the most. I am using the ARI-500 for auto band select which is and excellent combination. I operiate into a full wave loop tuned to the middle of 75 meters and driven with 450 ohm ladder line. I can easily tune all of 75/80 and 40 meters with the loop. I use a gap verticle for 20 through 10, no tuner required for this antenna. You can see My modest setup on QRZ.
WB3JGP Rating: 2011-07-09
Save your money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I must've gotten a lemon. This amp lasted about 2 minutes on the air before the power supply went POP! End of story. Was driving it with 20w max. It drew so much current at 120v, it blew the circuit breaker in my house. I moved it to another outlet and re-keyed it. As I brought it up from 10w to 20 of driver power, the power supply sparked, popped and that was the end. Not so good. Save your money, shop around, and get something sturdier. This thing isn't worth the aggravation of setting it up.
W8JBV Rating: 2011-05-26
I like it !! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my 600 now for over 2 years after 6 months the watt/swr meter quit working I removed the cover and found a loose wire and i fixed it, all was fine,about 1 year later it had no output and removed the cover again and cleaned the tx relay with tuner cleaner and blow dry , all has been fine since then.I like this amp I drive it with a ten/tec 538 at around 75 watts and get 450 to 500 watts out.at 90 watts it will do 600 watts easy.it will shut itself off if the swr is over 2to1 which is good. i would buy this amp again.I give it a 4.5 good price,EZ hookup no brainer.
KB0BK Rating: 2011-04-03
A Great Little Amp Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This little amp is a pleasure to use! It's hard to beat no tuning and the 'smart' features that protect the amp from an operator that forgets what band or antenna he's using. I have been using the ALS-600SP for several years and it has performed flawlessly. It has a small form factor with the PS able to be located quite a distance from the amp itself. It is a very nice low cost, medium power option.
WA9BXB Rating: 2011-03-14
Wonderful Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the ALS-600S used from another ham operator. It is very simple to use and practically no power supply fan noise. I get great signal reports on all bands using a variety of antennas. The ALC set-up was easy for me to get used to. The no tune-up feature is a real pleasure to use. A great amplifier for those wanting mid-range power levels.
AB9QU Rating: 2011-01-22
I like it Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had this amp only a few months and am very pleased with it. The power supply tho seems very noisy to me, like maybe the fan making noise. I also have an AL 811 H but I like this better because it is so simple to use. Except setting the alc. Somewhat confusing to me so I just don't drive the amp hard and get great reports.
73
NJ2H Rating: 2010-07-04
Working great so far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As someone else said, the instructions for the ALC setting are confusing. I read it several times, then wrote it out myself step by step and it worked fine and only took a couple of minutes.

They don't have an interface cable for the Yaesu FT-950 so I bought one on ebay for 30 bucks that has the 10 pin Linear connector at one end and the ALC and relay phone plugs at the other end. Worked fine, but you have to be careful plugging in the 10 pin connector. The pins look really fragile and you have to be sure to push it in straight and all the way.

I made about a dozen contacts today with nice reports.

65 watts of drive are enough to get 500 watts out. I also agree it should have auto bandswitching. I already forgot once, but no harm done.

K0CWO Rating: 2010-06-21
Solid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I owned an ALS-600 for a couple of years. Initially I used it with the switching power supply which tripped the protection circuitry on the RF deck on certain speech syllables both at high and lower power output levels. After I exchanged the switching supply for the analog model the amp was problem free for me. On some bands it was about 100 watts short of the advertised 600 watt SSB power output figures. The amp was easy to operate despite a "clumsily written" ALC adjustment procedure in the manual. I have a friend who has been running his on the air for years and I hear it almost daily. This little amp works!

73, BJ
KH6AQ Rating: 2010-06-20
buy it Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had a good experience with the ALS-600 with linear power supply. 50 watts of drive on CW results in rated output power. This sure beats tuning up the tube amp everytime I change bands.