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Reviews For: Ameritron ALS-1300

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

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Review Summary For : Ameritron ALS-1300
Reviews: 63MSRP: 2,899
Description:
HF No tune Amplifier, 1200 watt solid state w/switching PS
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ameritron.com/Product.php?productid=ALS-1300
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00634.1
KC5UIW Rating: 2012-08-12
Nightmare Amplifier - Poor Customer Support Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Went through 2 of these amplifiers before I decided to let Ameritron beta test with other ham operators. Tested the first amplifier on 20 meters and no problems found - switched to 40 meters at 20 watts drive and the power supply failed. Contacted customer support and was given advice and recommendations that had nothing to do with the defect. Clearly they have issues with the switching power supply (probably cheap parts).

Second amplifier tested on 20 meters for about 10 minutes. Decided to test the rest of the bands and started out on 10 meters. Applied 10 watts of drive and the amplifier protection circuitry tripped immediately. 15 meters only put out 650 watts.

At no time was the amplifier's ever operated past 22 amps draw on either power supply. The amplifiers were never driven with more than 45 watts drive.

When it was working I had noticed that the amplifier seems too overshoot about 300 Watts. After about 5 seconds the output from the amplifier seems to settle down and stabilize. They probably need to add a limiting circuit that can absorb the excess/surge from the balancing of the PAM's.

I would -not- recommend this amplifier until Ameritron recalls all ALS-1300's and perform the necessary repairs. I would recommend that Ameritron fully test each and every ALS-1300 prior to shipping. I don't think they are repairing units, prior to shipping, because the red dot sticker on my showed a date of June 2012.
WR0F Rating: 2012-07-22
Nice reports so far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well we purchased our ALS 1300 S/N 23809 on 6/14/2012 with the 10 meter kit. The 10 meter kit was a easy install but should be marked for proper installation .
We ordered ours through DX Engineering.com $ 2375.00 including shipping + 10 meter kit $37.95 .
We typically only drive it with 50 watts maximum except 10 meters which we run about 45 watts max .I have seen 1300 watts out into dummy load on several bands but found 50 watts drive is more than enough to get 1000 watts out .
ALS 1300 has been trouble free and I have found it very nice not having to tune up my old Kenwood TL 922A amp when we switch bands especially during a DX contest .
Would I buy this amp again ? YES !
I hope this will be my same answer in 12 - 24 months
WX7Y Rating: 2012-04-01
Amp gone again 5th time Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well this is the 5th time my ALS-1300 has failed in just over a year. Each previous time the amp has broke Ameritron and UPS had it for NO less then a 6 weeks.

This is the 3rd time the +12 Volt part of the Power supply has failed. The last time (#4) the AMP went back to Ameritron they swapped out the AMP itself and made sure it had balanced current to the FETS and made sure the 10 Meter board worked right and said they had new P.S. boards that they swapped out in my Power supply. WELL this time the AMP lasted 7 hole months so the new P.S. boards do help BUT now again the problem with the +12V died again.
However this time the AMP is 3 days out of warrantee and I decided to check into this.
What I found was the +12V Power Supply shorted out killing the little switching module.
I have added a small +13.8 Volt P.S. and the AMP now works again.

There is plenty of room to install another 12V PS in the P.S. Case with out disturbing the Air Flow.

I really think this AMP could be a GREAT Amp IF these little things would get fixed.
How hard is it to get a +14V Switching P.S. to work these days, there are Millions of these things built that last for MANY YEARS not a few Months.
I hope some day Ameritron will have a REAL fix for these Power supplies and RECALL and replace these Junkers or someone does a class action suit to get them to listen and take care of this problem.


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Earlier 3-star review posted by WX7Y on 2011-12-05

Purchased this Amp this past April 2011 from HRO and it ran for about 2 hours. lost some of the MOSFETS, 10 meters would not work, Shipped to Amertron.

2nd time back in my shack, it ran like crap and the MOSFETS were not balanced right and knocked out the MOSFETS again, ran about 1 hour, looked inside and the 10 meter modual coils were all streched out.

3rd time back to my shack and AMP ran very well for a couple weeks then the Power supply died.

4th time back to my shack they replaced the whole AMP and installed the new re-designed Power Supply regulator Moduals in MY power supply and so far it has ran for 2 1/2 months with no issues and AMP runs very well, love it just to bad it took them so many tries to hopefully get it right, Time will tell I guess.
73's
WX7Y
W4KQB Rating: 2012-03-01
Working ok since the second repair 3/11 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
still holding up ok after second repair back in March-2011. But, I still have tube back up.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by W4KQB on 2011-03-25

Sent the amp back to Ameritron for repairs a second time -same as the first repair, blown finals. Still under warranty. They paid shipping. One note of advice-I was prepared to purchase the extended warranty, but the fine print says the final transistors ARE NOT COVERED! So what is the point?
Seems to be working good so far. Still can't get the interface to work with the 2000D. My rating is fair considering the hassle for this expensive amp. Have had good reports and I'll continue to use for pile ups. 73
Ricky-W4KQB
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Earlier 2-star review posted by W4KQB on 2010-09-18

My serial # 53 amp just quit working. will not power up. Very expensive equipment to poop out 4 months later.
Now begins the long period for repair and turn around. I hope this only happens once. i have read where others had the same issue again.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W4KQB on 2010-06-16

My 1300 has been in service over a month. I have serial 00053. Everything set up and run as expected per the book in about 5 minutes. I installed the 10 M board in about 2 minutes. It took longer taking all of the cabinet screws out to get to the standoffs to mount the board-no other harware needed. Remove the 5 machine screws on the vertical stand-offs-set the board and re-install the screws as the vertical stand off is the circuit board conductor. No soldering. Move a jumper on the bandswitch-easy!!! Done!
I have used the Sb Heathkits, Dentrons and Collins amps. Tuning these amps was not hard, but getting tubes can be for these amps.
I have the 240VAC model as was shipped
I have ran this amp at max (1100-1200 W) for several hours. The power supply (remote, massive and separate ) and amp stay so cool. Never a warm spot. The 2 PA's run on about 50 Volts, so it stays really cool. I tested the PA trip circuits-they will open if you over drive. I reccommend this amp to the Hams who may be visually challenged as there is NO tuning required. Switch bands-160-10 M, switch from standby to in line and on the air. The acccessory available for auto band switching is even easier. Match and order the cable from the controller to your rig, switch bands on the rig and the amp follows you.

My first Ameritron-and excellent signal reports. Look around for pricing-There is about 600.00 $ delta in pricing out there. Look at HRO first.

73
Ricky
K0CWO Rating: 2012-02-17
Lukewarm Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought the ALS-1300 December 2009. Upon receipt the power supply experienced a catastrophic failure. Sent both the RF deck and power supply to Ameritron for repair. After repair the power supply performed as advertised but later I was told that the amplifier produced splatter on adjacent frequencies regardless of power output. A local technician confirmed the distortion on a scope. He adjusted the bias in order to clean up the signal. The amplifier has been working as advertised for about a year now. Considering the hassle I'm not sure if I would buy this amplifier again. I believe the design of MFJ products is sound. I can only conclude that the production/quality control process of this company is "hit or miss".

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Earlier 5-star review posted by K0CWO on 2010-04-04

Initially disappointed because the power supply failed during the first 15 minutes of operation, I can say that I am happy with the ALS-1300 after a repair trip to Ameritron. John at Ameritron was courteous and helpful while the amp was being repaired. Turnaround was a couple of weeks. The amp works like advertised and has no difficulty yielding 1200 watts SSB on all bands with 65 watts of drive. Fan noise is low considering it has 5 in total. I have not used it on CW. Fit and finish is typical Ameritron. Operating instructions are clear and concise. This is the simplest amplifier to operate that I have owned to date. If this amp continues like it does today; it will be a definite keeper for a long time to come. So far I have owned 7 Ameritron amplifiers and I have enjoyed operating them all. 73, k0cwo
WN6J Rating: 2012-01-25
Worked great! For two days. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Worked great out of the box! I thought I got a good one and that all the reviews were wrong, after all my ALS-600 worked perfectly, and how different could this amp be? Quite a bit different. The standby / operate switch failed after one day, and on the second day it would go into RF overload without reason.

It was putting out 1250 watts when it worked, it just did not want to work more than two days. Returned it to HRO in Oakland and their great team, and exchanged it for an AL-82. Made the right move.

Still love the old ALS-600 and wish I had it as a backup.
KE7S Rating: 2011-12-23
Flawless Operation for 2 years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my ALS-1300 in October 2009.
It has operated flawlessly since I have had it.
It is interfaced to my K3 through an ARI-500 interface. With all the DX in the past year I leave it off until I am ready for a QSO. Flip it on and it is ready to go in a couple of seconds.
It sits in the off position most of the time and is used in almost all of my DX QSOs.
When there is a pileup I always get quick responses.
All of my antennae are resonant in the frequency ranges I use and all are auto band switched using 2 cascaded RCS-12 switches.(I have 11 antennae at this time)
The fans are a bit louder than I like, but other than that I have no complaints. I love being able to just turn it on and go. I know roughly what output power levels I need from my k3 on each band so it is pretty straightforward. I have often forgot to turn down the output on my K3 but the ALS-1300 just cuts the power back on its own.
The remote power supply allows me to leave the supply out of the way on the floor.
The only potnetially negative issue other than the fan noise is the profile...the unit is very deep and can be difficult to position on some bench set-ups.
KM5GJ Rating: 2011-06-07
Great amplifier Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading all the negative reviews here I called Ameritron several times. I finally took the big step and purchased mine new from HRO. They had the best price and the shipping charges were very favorable. They also assured me that they would stand behind the amplifier. The amplifier was shipped promptly and arrived in the original factory sealed shipping boxes. I save my boxes!

I unpacked and set up the amplifier. Before I turned it on I just had to look inside. All solder joints looked very professional, better than I could have done. The amp operated without out any problems. Full output on 160 - 80 - 40 - 20 meters.

I almost fainted when I turned it on for the first time. Flipped the switch and nothing happened. I forgot about the step start circuit!

I have had only one long QSO SSB on 80 meters lasting well over 1/2 hour and the fans did not even speed up. I am very proud of my purchase, it was my first brand new amplifier.
WB7BV Rating: 2011-05-06
ALS1300 The 48 hour amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sold my ALS600S origonal version, works grate. then ordered the ALS1300:
After waiting 6 weeks for the amp which was promised in 2 weeks, it lasted two days and a total of three contacts.
1) The good: a.It is light.
b. It puts out 1300 watts according to my power master calibrated meter.
c. It is easy to assemble and takes up little space.
d. Runs cool. Also quiet.
e. Easy setup and install the 10/12 meter option. (See the bad item d.)
f. Self protection is calibrated per manual and does not trip unnecessarily. (See the ugly b & c.)

2) The Bad: a. It has two parallel power supplies and power amps. (Balance is required.)
b. Its power meter is rather inaccurate off by more than 100 watts high.
c. The craftsmanship is poor. Dirty pcb and sloppy soldering. (Soldering resin left on the boards.)
d. The 10/12 meter option board had a solder bridge. (Remember to check with a bright sight via transmitted light.)
e. Inside adjustments and settings are in poor locations.
f. Holes on the covers are poorly aligned and hard to reinstall the screws.
g. Paint job is second rate and coverage is not complete.
h. Amp cover metal work was poor. Serrated edges on
front edge of the cover. (Cover not cut straight and in one operation.)
i. The chassis was not straight. It needed several "shims" of business cards under the right rear foot to stabilize.
j. Meter escutcheons too high in the cases which made them unreadable at the higher scales. (One has to lower ones head to see the upper scale.)

3) Now the UGLY: a. On my third contact at 1000 watts out. The power started to self lower. No change noted on SWR.
b. SWR tripped unit when testing into a dummy load. (SWR = 1.02:1) On SSB with out modulation, just key-up.)
C. Unit tripped all lights off. (HV1 = 0VDC; HV2 = 48VDC.)

It was returned to the store (HRO) and exchanged for the ALS600S. Which is running OK for the last two weeks.
HRO was very professional and efficient in handling this transaction. ( Make sure you have a good dealer.) Their price was lower than the mail order in this area and the bottom line was the same with local sales tax.
N5AFY Rating: 2011-04-21
Quit after 3 days Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After a long wait Ameritron finally began shipping the ALS-1300. I ordered mine from DX-Engineering as they seemed to be the first to receive them. I received it via UPS late on 4/3/11. On the morning of 4/4/11 I added the 10/12 meter kit and tested the amp on all bands.
I used it on air for 3 days a total of about 3 hours. On the morning of 4/7/11 I turned it on in the standby mode and I heard a loud pop in the power supply and the amp went dead. I turned it back on checked the 50 volt on HV1 and HV2. HV2 was dead. I called Ameritron and they wanted me to pay the shipping one way to them. I was persistent and they finally agreed to pay the shipping. I figure my amp will continue to go to the end of the repair line until they run out. I will report back later as to how long I wait for being persistent.