| K7UA |
Rating:  |
2006-12-27 | |
| Very convenient to use |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I bought a used ALS600 with the old style power supply on ebay a few weeks ago. I really like it. I am using it with an Icom 7000 and a SteppIr yagi and SteppIr vertical. SWR is not a problem with these antennas and I am not getting any "faults" from the amp. With the no tune amp and auto tuning antenna system this is a pleasure to use. I'm using it more than my Alpha 99 and IC775, just because it's so darn convenient! I'm giving it a 4 rating, because the build quality is good, but not great. With some of the negative reviews posted here, I have been pleasantly surprised. |
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| former_AE6CP_LH |
Rating: |
2006-12-14 | |
| Thanks Ameritron!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought the ALS-600S with the switching PS, I have only had it for a day so this is just an initial impression.
After opening the boxes and setting the RF and PS unit on the bench, I was impressed at the small size and very light weight of the two. I think they look sharp as well. I know the price was almost double that of the 600 watt tube version but for just over $1000, it's still not a bad buy IMO.
So I hooked up the coax to my 746Pro, the dummy load and the ALC/relay lines and turned it on. I followed the setup procedure and adjusted the ALC per the manual. According to the power meter on the front of the RF unit, I get 500 watts out with about 60 watts drive. I ran the RF power all the way to 100 watts on my rig and the power meter was reading 700 watts on the ALS-600. Good enough for me, I backed the power down until I had a solid 600 watts out, flipped the switch to standby and keyed down. About 75 watts drive, that's where it will stay. I connected a piece of insulated wire to the antenna jack of my Rig and laid it across the top of the power supply, I could not find any hash in any HF ham band.
I disconnected everything and got out the screwdriver to have a peek inside.
Okay, now I'm a kit builder and I've built several Elecraft and SWL kits and right from the beginning, when building an Elecraft, if you follow the manual to the letter, your finished product will look like a work of art, inside and out. Everything from the solder joints, to component placement, to pre-forming leads and even making sure all resistors and capacitors are oriented in the same direction. I know what it takes to make a circuit board look pretty. The individual who built the RF unit of my ALS-600 did not. It looked like a gorilla with a blow torch put it together. The components were just shoved in to the PCB's, all bent in different directions, many connections looked like they had WAY too much heat applied. Some wires were too long and just stuffed into various places and others were too short and pulled tight. I went around the inside and bottom of the unit to ensure all the screws were tight (one was about to fall out) and I also found a plastic cable tie which had been cut off and was just lying in the bottom of the case.
The switching power supply on the other hand was perfect. Inside it, every component was straight and mounted correctly with pre-formed leads, all the soldering looked very professional, all the wires were routed very neatly and there were "QC" stickers all over everything. No loose screws or cable ties in there. It looked as good as anything I had ever built.
I'm giving this unit a 5 instead of a 4 because I think MFJ/Ameritron is a really great company, I think God they exist and that they make all the products they do and sell them at reasonably low prices.
Judging from the power supply which has a date of 11/06 inside, they are really working to improve the biggest complaint of the ham radio community "Quality Control" I just wish the guy who built the power supply would have built the RF deck as well!
'73
-Larry (AD5VM)
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| VE2JKA |
Rating: |
2006-11-08 | |
| Love it! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Excellent amp, got mine few days ago directly from the Ameritron factory.
Thirty to forty watts in on ssb will get 400 out no problem works cool. However, I find the cooling system fan is a little loud for me.
Tried sixty to eighty pep in and it was pushing a little over 600 watts out, my SWR is flat on my beam so I get max out.
Does not take much space it's a nice setup. I do also have other big gun amps...and I wanted to get this one as a quickie amp no tune just turn on and go with a little over half a kilowatt.
I like it I am pleased with the performance and I got it at a great price too! I looked at the tokyo high power amps I am sure they are great but, for the price I chose to go with Ameritron and I am quite content with my decision.
Recently semi-retired so I will be using this cutie somewhat and will report more on it if need be... 73
ve2jka.com |
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| WK9L |
Rating: |
2006-10-23 | |
| A no brainer |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have had this little gem for a while. It just sits there and pumps out 600 watts day in and day out. I have a legal limit amp for DX or if band conditions warrant, But thats a lot of heat in the shack. I put the als 600 in line and its very cool and not very noisey. I think you would have to really try to hurt it, theres alot of protection built in. I think it a great buy for my money. |
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| WN4DW |
Rating: |
2006-10-03 | |
| Love It! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've owned this amp for almost 2 years and it performs flawlessly. Yes, it does not like vswr, but neither does any other solid state amp that I know of. If you want to run a solid state amp with a mismatch buy one of the 4000 to 5000 dollar units with a built in auto-tuner. If you need a amp that you can just reach over and turn on and get an honest 500 watts PEP, and you don't have unlimited funds, this is your baby. I use it with a 756P2, a DX77 and an 706MK2g and 90 to 100 watts in will get you 500 to 600 out.
My last amp was a SB1000 that perfomed very well indeed, but I would trade for any tube amp after using this. 500 watts and a good antenna will get you any thing you can hear. |
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| W3XAF |
Rating:  |
2006-09-27 | |
| More Problems With ALS-600 |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Dear Ameritron Tech Support,
Re: Model ALS-600, Serial #13999
After only three months, my ALS-600 is having problems again.
This time, I can't get more than 400 Watts output power on 75/80, 40, 20, 15 &10 meters with an input of 80 watts from my FT-1000MP Mark V.
However, on 160 meters, I can get 550 watts output power with an input of 80 watts.
I have a Bird Model 43 100-Watt Wattmeter in series with the RF output of my FT-1000MP Mark V and a Bird Model 43 1000-Watt Wattmeter in series with the ALS-600 output.
This power problem just began this week. Before this problem surfaced, I could get between 600 & 700 watts output power with an input of 80 watts.
Since Mr. Robin Hood replaced all four LLT, Transistors, FET, RF. TMOS, MRF-150 on 06/28/2006, I shouldn't be having this problem.
Is there a control inside my ALS-600 that I can adjust to increase the power output on 75/80, 40, 20, 15 & 10 meters?
If there is no control available, please advise my next course of action.
My amplifier is still under warranty since I purchased it on 03/25/2006.
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|
| KB0QMF |
Rating: |
2006-08-18 | |
| If You Have Money To Burn.. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Then go find yourself a nice Ameritron ALS-600. I've owned two of them since May 2006, and had the same problem with both. One lasted a week, and the other a little over a month. Throw the switch to turn it on, power supply comes on, the amp is DEAD. That's two strikes. There won't be a third. I'll be sending both of these Ajunkatrons back to Mississippi for repairs and will report back on customer service. |
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| W8NWN |
Rating: |
2006-08-13 | |
| OK AMP |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I have used this amp with little or no problems. The output is a bit low on 80 meters (450 watts) and Ameritron says this is "normal", whatever that means. Its big feature is the ease of operation. No tune.......that's the way to go. I like it. |
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| N4JA |
Rating: |
2006-07-09 | |
| bad power supply |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this amp with a switching power supply. The power supply shuts down intermittenly while I work on SSB. It shuts down worse when I use the processor on my TS-870. The supply shuts down because on certain syllables it detects the rapid rise in current as an overload. I called Ron at Ameritron and we worked on it 3 days in a row and he admitted he had seen other switching supplys do the same and Ameritron had not been able to resolve the problem because they could not duplicate the problem. I think the problem is caused by voice characteristics. I can get the supply to not shut down by reducing the drive on my '870 to 45 watts and using the ALC Set control to limit the drive from the exciter. This limits the output power to below 400 watts. I would suggest you not get the switching supply. The analog supply does not have this problem. Also, you won't have this problem if you only work CW. I have run the drive up to 100 watts and on CW I cannot make the power supply shut down. As I said, it only does this on SSB.
Another design flaw exists on this amp which Ameritron admits it has: The 2.3-4.4 MHz band filter has low efficiency. The amp will not put out full power on 80 meters. On 80 meters you can only get 450 watts out, rather than 600-700 watts on the other bands. A better choice would be for you to buy a used FL-7000 if you can find one. They work flawlessly once Bill Grassa has modified them |
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| KE4WY |
Rating: |
2006-04-11 | |
| Flawless |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Amp has performed flawlessly. |
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