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Reviews For: Radio Shack HTA 20

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

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Review Summary For : Radio Shack HTA 20
Reviews: 6MSRP: 119.99
Description:
Radio Shack HTA-20 VHF Amplifier with RX Pre-Amplifier is a high power, filtered VHF band amplifier designed for use with transceivers in the 144 - 148 MHz FM frequency band. When your transceiver transmits, the amplifier amplifies the transmitted power. 5 watts in = 30 watts out.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://support.radioshack.com/support_electronics/14961.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
1464.5
N9NRM Rating: 2022-10-18
Good amp for the money and last forever. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got one in 1992 and used it with my HTX-202 and a Kantronics KPC-3 Plus with a 13B2 beam and ran packet for a few years with it and it worked great and still works great today with my HT on FM.
N4PPG Rating: 2013-05-05
Actually very good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
on FM, I found the amp to perform wonderfully. no problems. Just for reference though, I did hook this into my 2m beacon and added some capacitance to the keying transistor so that I could run a CW beacon without the main relay chattering so much. Did great for about a year, then finals died. About 1.3 million cycles give or take.. keying it 100 times per day would give you about 35 yrs of use... not bad....
K1KT Rating: 2012-08-18
It's OK - within limits Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I also bought an HTA 20 on closeout. Never measured the output power, but it definitely helped my HT on TX. RX was another story. The internal RX amp they added to offset filter loss is noisy and quite noticeably degraded received signals when the amp was turned on.
K9CTB Rating: 2011-03-25
Great little amplifier Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was rummaging through my "spares locker" when I came upon my HTA-20. Of course it still works! I bought it new from Radio Shack, must've been just before they were discontinued. I have nothing but good to say about it. I used it with my Yaesu FT-470 on VHF packet for several years, and it never missed a beat. Next, I used it in my car with the same FT-470 for a few more years. The greatest asset besides the 35 watts I got was the total silence as I passed through Richmond, Virginia's "intermod alley". The '470 wasn't very good at intermod rejection, but switching in the HTA-20 took care of it. It has a small pre-amp which I assume is installed to overcome the loss of the helical resonators in the receive path. You can't switch out the preamp without powering down the whole amplifier, but in my experience, it doesn't add any noise to the received signal anyway. Great amp. Shame the 'Shack stopped selling them. If you can find one used and you're okay with 30 watts or so on FM (the HTA-20 isn't linear), you should snap it up!
KB7ZNV Rating: 2010-10-09
Exellent little 30 watt amp. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Radio shack did well when they offered this amp for sale. It works great with my Realistic HTX-202.
It's too bad Radio Shack was stupid enough to stop selling either unit. I bought my HTX -202 in 1993 and this Radio Shack HTA-20 amp was sold new about 1994. Both work flawlessly to this day.
In my view both were a winner even if Radio Shack has become a loser.
Radio shack needs to wise up and bring quality products back to the Amateur radio consumer.
KC4YJI Rating: 2010-09-07
Great little amp....for $30 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Only paid $30 for this when they were on clearance. Used it in collage with my HTX 202. Though I have never had another amp to compare it to, it did seem to do a good job.