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Reviews For: King Conversions 6 meter amps

Category: Amplifiers: RF Power - 6M/VHF/UHF+

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Review Summary For : King Conversions 6 meter amps
Reviews: 80MSRP:
Description:
HF amplifier conversion to 6M
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kingconversions.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00805
N8ERM Rating: 2017-06-04
Lou six meter conversions Time Owned: more than 12 months.
So get your amp to Lou owner of King Conversions and it will arrive doing exactly what he says. You can take it to the bank.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by N8ERM on 2009-09-07

This amp is fantastic. It tunes easily,puts out 1400watts if you wish. I ran it at 1KW during the contest and it never missed a beat. It is my choice for 6 meters.
WB6YIY Rating: 2017-02-16
Everything is GREAT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Terrific! All works as I was told by Lou,50wDrive=700wOut! If you are in the market for some POWER give Lou a shot.. Very Satisfied.Keep up up the GREAT WORK!!!
N0AN Rating: 2017-01-23
First Rate Conversion Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Product: SB220 Conversion to 6 meters

Service:

Outstanding. Knowledgeable. Excellent Communication before the sale. Kept in contact via email during the build, test and shipping phases.

Quality packaging. FEDex did its best to crush the Tube Box, and only Lou's very substantial packing saved the tubes. Amp was super packed! The packaging is "homebrew" but very well done.

Performance:

This amp was purchased exclusively to run Meteor Scatter on 6 meters using MSK144. MSK144 has a duty cycle (compared to a single tone) of about 60%. I specified to Lou that the amp needed to meet these specs:

RF Out: 600W in MSK144 mode, 15 sec on 15 sec off, Max of 25 minutes total per QSO.

Here is how the amp performs:

Tuned for Maximum Out with a Drive Power of 70 watts from a TS-590SG

CW Tune (Lower Plate Voltage)

Plate Voltage: 2100
Plate Current: 550 ma.
Grid Current: 200 ma.
Output Power: 650W average (not PEP)
Plate Input Power: 1155 W
Efficiency: 650/1155 = 56%
Tube Dissipation: 495 Watts
Available Dissipation: 1000 Watts

The 3-500Z tubes show NO COLOR WHATSOEVER during the 15 second transmit sequence and handle 20+ minutes of sequencing easily. The amp appears to be loafing.

CAVEAT: Do Not Run This Amp for MSK144 in the High Voltage (SSB) Position! The power supply in the SB-220 cannot tolerate this kind of load in digital service. Yes, you can get 900 to 1100 watts out, but you will blow the amp up. (Many have)..there is also a cooling issue at the higher power, high duty cycle operations.

The instructions for tuning up the amp are very clear and ...they work. You get max output for a given level of drive and keep the grid current in range.

For MSK144 mode, tune it up using MSK144, not single tone. This has a major advantage because the duty cycle of MSK tones is much less than a single tone tune-up, and you can't transmit for longer than 15 seconds because that's how standard MSK144 works! Double blessing: lower duty cyle than single tone, and a mandatory 15 sec rest between key down tuning. Even the most lengthy tuning sessions won't tax the amp!

Bonus:

It appears Lou built in a soft keying circuit, so the rig only has to see < 6 VDC on the keying line. This should be safe for any modern radio.

Cooling:

Cooling is an issue for nearly any amp or exciter in digital service, even something as forgiving as MSK144.

After watching the amp run for a few hours, I found a consistent heat flow at the front left top of the case. I laid a small USB powered cooling fan on the front, left, top of the case, exhausting air. This removes quite a bit of hot air, quickly, which can only be good for the amplifier.

I also put that same kind of fan (Amazon), on the TS-590SG driving the amp. It is blowing air from the front of the radio, just underneath the Tuning Dial, toward the back. The radio runs cool now, compared to a half hour of MSK144.

Summary:

First Rate service
First Rate Performance

What more can one say?

73, N0AN
NK9O Rating: 2016-12-04
LK500 Amp Repair Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Lou: Helped me initially to repair a QSK board and spent considerable time to walk me through it. I had additonal issues and had to send the amp in. I cannot express the impressive repair work and customer service that I received even after the amp was returned with follow-up e mails.
Bought a LK500 6 meter conversion amp afew years aback also outstanding experience overall.
Try King Conversions and you will not be disappointed.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by NK9O on 2011-06-28

Received my converted Amp Supply LK500 for 6 meters last year. Due to low sunspot activity, it was'nt until this year that I started using it!
Lou did a great job with this conversion running 800 watts plus with 75 watts input drive, it runs cool! Easy tune, once done I marked all dials and do not even touch them again.
Have a LK500 for years on the HF bands, and this addition makes a very attractive and impressive setup. Would recommend working with Lou again.
KA4KOE Rating: 2016-09-07
Excellent/Repairs Amps Too! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Lou is now repairing some brands of amps. He repaired a QRO HF2500DX that had some issues I simply did not have the time to address. Good communication and extremely fair to deal with.
VK6JX Rating: 2016-03-18
Super impressed - full output on 6m with easy tune and load. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I wanted to get back into 6m and needed a decent amp. I had an SB220 that Bud KC4DWI gave me many years ago and I wasn't using it. Then my mate Alek VK6APK told me about Lou W1QJ and his King Conversions. I did some research and called Lou. 5 minutes later I was shipping my amp to him.
The 220 arrived back and I was amazed how new it looked ! I fired it up immediately and sure enough, full legal US output. Input tuning was smooth and easy. Input SWR was 1.1:1. The output tune and load were likewise easy to use. Alek and I were amazed at the transformation - and the full output with not a trace of instability.
I feel like when I first got into ham radio at 14 years old, over 40 years ago. Thank you Lou - for the fantastic 6m converted amp - and that feeling !
Best 73 from downunder,
John VK6JX - Perth, Western Australia.
AB1NJ Rating: 2016-02-23
PERFECT - A Great Experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received my AL-1500 from Lou this week, and I am super impressed. This amp is perfect for 6M EME and meteor scatter. It can put out 1500w for digital modes like JT65, FSK441, JTMSK all day without working up a sweat. Lou is simply the best to work with. He answered all my questions and obviously puts his heart into these amps. I can't say enough. Thanks Lou!
KM5SC Rating: 2015-06-19
OUTSTANDING Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having earned DXCC, I was now interested in VUCC. 6 Meters was the way to go, but my 100 watts was not enough for me. After months of research, I selected King Conversions. Lou, W1QJ, "The King", King Conversions. Over the next month, Lou answered all of my many questions. Lou takes HF amps and converts them for 6 meter use only. He can convert most HF amps, but his preference, and the one he happened to have in stock was a Heathkit SB-220.

Even after placing the order, Lou continued with his Outstanding customer support. Lou explained how I should run a 240 volt line in my house to get the best performance from his amp. New tubes are available if you like, but I selected used Eimac 3-500Z tubes and saved the money to run the 240 volt line.
The tubes were tested on Lou's test bench before shipment.

King Conversions are special ordered and custom made by one man. These are not production run amps. Once my order was placed, it took one month to complete the conversion. To properly ship the amp and tubes, which are shipped in a different packages, Lou takes a complete day just to properly package the equipment prior to shipping. Lou cuts stiff foam panels to place on the bottom, sides and top of the amp. Any extra space is taken up with the foam "peanuts" he adds to the First box. He then takes box One, and places it inside box Two which also has the custom cut panels on all sides and foam peanuts. He completely seals the box and adds many labels...This side up, Do Not drop, Etc. The tubes are shipped in a different package. Each tube is wrapped in "bubble wrap" and then placed inside a box containing foam peanuts. It took 5 days for the insured shipment to arrive at my house in the Houston, Tx area. There was no damage at all.

The amp and tubes looked Outstanding. Everything looked like NEW. Quality of workmanship was Outstanding. Lou had sent complete detailed instructions for installing the amp. Additional instructions followed on how to properly tune the Converted Amp for maximum performance.

The amp worked in an Outstanding manner. I am extremely pleased with my King Conversions 6 Meter Amp.

If you are serious about working 6 meters with power, I strongly suggest you order a King Conversions Amp.
WA9ASZ Rating: 2015-06-06
Excellent! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After putting up a yagi that can handle the power, I ordered a QROKing converted SB-220 and picked it up at the Dayton hamfest. Lou was extremely gracious, and I spent most of the day with him. He did not want me to use my two wheel truck to carry it from the outside area to my car which was some distance so at the end of the day he delivered it personally to my car.

I could not be more satisfied. The reports that I receive easily indicate a 2 S-unit increase in my signal with the amp which makes all the difference for weak signal work or DX. Now, if I can hear them, I can work them.

I like redundancy in my station; I prefer to always have a complete back-up station so if any piece of equipment goes south on me, I don't lose any time on the air. The best statement I can make about Lou's SB-220 conversion is that if I had the resources, I'd order another one from him!

I use a Yaesu FTdx1200 at 50 watts for 1 KW CW, and 75 watts for 1400 watts SSB, but given the accuracy of wattmeters these days, YMMV. The antenna is a 6 el Op-Des Force 12 yagi at 28'. I cannot compare this amp with any other because there is no way I could afford one of the new amps. But I like the instant on, no warmup feature and the fact that the 3-500Z's seem to be loafing along at the power levels I indicated.

Lou is great to work with, and you can't go wrong with one of these units.
KJ4E Rating: 2014-06-07
Great Experience Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I sent Lou an email asking about his amps. I got a same day response. I told him what I wanted (SB220) and he said it would take two weeks. He kept me informed by email every step of the way. He even arranged for the amp to be brought back to Florida by a friend attending Dayton. I had the amp painted black to match my other equipment. It looks great and works great. You can tune it easily on one frequency and it is so broad banded that retuning is not needed when moving from say 50.08 to 50.2. It puts out 1100 watts on CW and 1400 watts on SSB. Lou really cares how his amps work and that you are satisfied. This has been one of the best buying experiences in my 50+ ham years. Hats off to Lou!