| VK2EAT |
Rating:  |
2021-11-01 | |
| Gently Gently |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've owned an AL811H for nearly 4 years now and have had many fine contacts in its use. By comparison what mode you operate is key as I don't believe this amp would like to the digital modes too long.
Tubes are tubes and knowing there function can go a long way to how carefully you tune your amp. I run tube amps as a musician for a very good reason it's all about their tone. Radio is no different, if you treat a tube gently it will deliver the power you need on time when you need it.
811A's run quite hot in comparison to 572B's but I'm not altogether sold on all the hype either. 572B's will last longer but will not deliver more power.
Currently a set of four 811A's from DX engineering will set you back around $330.00AU. It's still cheaper than buying from the locals here in VK. Please DXE move down under! In all the AL811H will serve you well if you started out on valve tx as I did and spent years tuning.
Read, read, read W8JI's 'Supplemental Tuning Instructions' and you will follow the rules quite easily all the way to smooth output on all bands and your audio quality to boot. See you on the bands! |
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| K5TUE |
Rating: |
2021-04-17 | |
| ate the tubes |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
My brand new 811H had a loose shaft coupler between the front rotary bandswitch and the input rotary wafer causing a slipping between the front and rear settings. Of course I did not know this and was having a LOT of trouble with intermittent operation even when brand new.
After it ate a set of tubes, I ordered a brand new set and ooops...still having trouble BUT I re-opened the case and I noticed the slipping shaft coupler. What a pain in the backside that is to fix....you have to google and google until you find someone who puts the alignment procedure online.
Got it aligned and FINALLY my amplifier is working more or less as designed.
If the factory would add a drop or two of locktite on the setscrews and double check that shaft coupler....oh I forgot this is MFJ after all. QC is a forgotten idea. |
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| K7NSW |
Rating: |
2021-03-06 | |
| 100% SATISFIED WITH MY AMERITRON AL-811-H |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I am a Ten-Tec fan. I have their Omni VII xcvr and big 1300 watt QSK amp (pair of 3-500Z tubes). Also their high power antenna tuner. I am a CW guy and love QSK. Then I took up operating portable in my trailer out in the wilderness. I needed a more portable rig so I bought a Kenwood TS-590SG. I like having 500 watts of power handy. The Ten-Tec amp is a beast - weighs 80 pounds. Definitely not an amp for portable use. So I bought a new AL-811H and an MFJ Differential -T antenna tuner. I decided I could live with a foot switch on the amp. Am I happy with the 811-H? Yes, 100%. Bought it new from HRO a bit over two years ago. Went through it when I received it - no problems. Much lighter weight. Runs on 120vac. Great for my portable operating. Totally satisfied. At home I love my Ten-Tec gear. Out in the wilderness the Kenwood, 811-H and the MFJ tuner are just what I wanted. I joined the hobby in 1961 and am very comfortable with "dipping and loading". For me a solid state amp offers me very little in the way of improvement so definitely not worth the money. 500 watts gets the job done. Besides, I love the peaceful orange glow of the tubes and the lighted slow action movement of the two panel meters. The 8-11A tubes are doing just fine. Like most stuff, you learn to use them properly and they work great. I have not yet read anything that persuades me to spend a bunch of money to replace those tubes with four 572B tubes.The argument seems to be they take abuse better. Really? Why buy a rig planning to abuse it? Ameritron does offer an amp using those tubes. However, I have read that the power supply in the 811-H is not designed for the 572B. Anyway, my 811-H and the MFJ antenna tuner get 5 stars. In case you are wondering, my wilderness antenna is a G5RV up 30 feet on a fiberglass push-up pole. The Kenwood runs on two big deep cycle RV batteries - bought them at WALMART. A Honda 2kw generator runs my trailer and the 811-H. |
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| VE7REN |
Rating: |
2020-12-28 | |
| excellent,whats not to like! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
update dec 28/2020,still have the 811. never a issue. i use the taylor 811a,and have now aquired another 811h with 4-taylor 811a. both work flawlessly on my 7410 and 7300 icoms. highly recommend for a budget power solution.
nov 2011i liked my 811 3 tuber so much, i traded it off and bought a 811h 4 tuber. beautiful...............gets the job done with 811s no problem.very good for the dollar/performance factor. not hard on the pocketbook like the big dog brands like yaesu,icom, alpha,ten tec,elecraft,hro,etc |
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| VE9AA |
Rating: |
2020-12-27 | |
| Best bang for the buck, dB wise |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Bought from VE1OP (now SK) and use it exclusively on my 2nd radio for SO2R with a single antenna (ZS6BKW w/ 15m add-on). Runs aprox 550w out (CW) depending on the band. Seems pretty solid. I am an active contester and while not always SO2R, this amp now has lots of hard hours on it over the past several years. I only drive it with about 55w-60w. I had initially run it the first contest or 2 with the full 100w from my rig until I researched it a little bit. The 811A's seem unaffected by this abuse (my bad). Can run it into a moderately high SWR (2.1:1 or so) w/o so much as a whimper, or so it would seem. Scott (VE1OP) gave me a great deal on the amp. May he RIP. I also have a 2nd one bought for parts and someday will see if I can get it going. I'd actually buy another one if the opportunity ever presented itself. |
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| KC2O |
Rating: |
2020-08-29 | |
| Enjoying this Amp! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I purchased this amplifier new from HRO about 6 months ago. I have been a ham for a very long time but never had an amplifier before. I received this amplifier right before the Covid-19 lock-down in NY and it has provided a lot of enjoyment.
The amplifier arrived in working condition and well packed. It worked out of the box - easily connected directly to my Yaesu radio. The LED lit meters are nice - bright and easy to read. I read the manual and several sites on tuning the amp, I found it to be easy. Signal reports have all been great with my Yaesu FTDX-1200 and OCF Dipole.
I recommend this product to others - it has been around for many years now. I am able to use this amplifier regularly and I did not need to add any special wiring for it in my home. It is still priced reasonably well when compared to other amplifier options. Someday, I'm sure I'll upgrade to a SS amp, but this amp fits my needs well today.
As others comment, it is best for SSB and CW use. I would also like to try using it on FT8 & RTTY, but not sure if that is a good idea as it was not designed for the full duty cycle required.
73's de KC20
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| W2VS |
Rating:  |
2020-06-27 | |
| FAILED AFTER A WEEK! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Purchased new AL 811H amplifier and it failed after a week. I tuned it up according to the instructions. Worked fine and got good reports. After about a week it would tune and then amplifier plate and grid meters would go haywire. Power out disappeared.Tried brand new tuner just to rule that out. Same problem. HRO was fine to deal with-shipping it back for full refund. UPS is picking it up.
My understanding is that they are not currently being manufactured. However, I would not purchase another one anyway. I think there are manufacturing quality control issues.
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|
| W4NNF |
Rating: |
2019-10-29 | |
| If you want an amp for SSB, it's really hard to beat this one. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Well, the Ameritron AL-811H is not as inexpensive as shown at the top of the page (eHam really needs to go in and edit some of the review header material), now being over a thousand dollars. But the AL-811H is still a tremendous bargain for a tube amp capable of around 600-watts or a bit more (a realistic figure, though the amp is advertised as having 850-watt capability).
I hadn't used an amplifier since the late 1980s. After that, I moved to a downtown QTH that was on an urban lot just a stone's throw from other big, 2-story Victorian homes. I figured sticking with 100-watts would keep relations with the neighbors on a friendly basis.
Then, two things changed: I moved to a suburban home and the solar cycle went into the mud. I could do fine on CW and digital thanks to a better antenna than I'd had downtown. But it became apparent if I wanted to do much phone, especially DXing, I needed an amp.
Which? I was attracted to the AL-80b, but wasn't sure if I'd use it enough to warrant spending that much; I'm more of a CW and digital guy, and, as above, wanted an amp mainly to use on SSB. After agonizing for a while I settled on the AL-811H, the four tube version of Ameritron's 811 amp.
When the amp arrived, I was rather impressed. It came from HRO Atlanta double-boxed and was in perfect shape. An actual printed manual was in the box. The amplifier itself looked good in a utilitarian Ameritron/MFJ sort of way, and opening it up (you'll have to take off the cover to install the four tubes and do the 10-meter mod if you want to do that) revealed no construction faux pas. The inside, like the outside, was utilitarian, but looked professionally built.
How is the 811H after two years? It's been great for me. And it might be great for you, too, depending on your needs. Despite what you may have heard, the tubes are NOT stressed any more than they were in the 811 amps from Collins and Heathkit, but you want to be gentle with them. If, like me, you want an amplifier for SSB phone and maybe a little CW, there shouldn't be any problem.
I run the amp with 50-watts of drive on SSB, which produces 600-watts output or a little more. That is more than enough improvement for me, and, as you have likely heard, is the biggest jump from the typical 100-watt transceiver. Going to 1500-watts helps even more, but only a little more.
Are you worried about tuning a tube amp? Don't be. It was no challenge for me coming from the days of vacuum tube gear, but anyone can easily learn to tune the amp. When you boil down the instructions, it's simplicity itself. If you've never tuned up on a band, set the plate and Load controls to the values shown in the manual. Set your rig's output to maybe 20-watts, key up in a continuous carrier mode (I just use CW), and tune the plate control for maximum output on an external wattmeter (leave the load control alone). Then, increase power to your intended level--50-watts for me--key it, and tune the plate for maximum output. Do the same with the load control. Finally, do a final touchup of the plate since the controls interact. Very important? NEVER KEY THE AMP FOR MORE THAN 5-SECONDS DURING TUNING. After 5-seconds, allow the tubes to cool for 15-seconds. That's all there is to it; you're ready to go. Write down your settings, and you can forego the low power plate tuneup next time. You'll at most need to tweak the settings--and maybe not even that. When do you have to retune? When you see the power the amp is producing begin to drop, tweak the settings. If you tune up at the mid-part of the 20-meter phone band, you should be able to operate anywhere there with no retuning. Same with 40, 15 and 10 meter phone bands. On 80, you'll need to touch up tuning if you make a substantial QSY--more than 40 KHz or so. The above assumes you are using an antenna tuner as most of us do these days.
What's it like living with the AL-811H? It has a fan, natch, but with the air conditioner or heater going in the shack I can't hear it. The front controls are simple--tuning, bandswitch, three rocker switches, and two (LED illuminated) meters.
How about replacing the 811s with 572b tubes? If you want to run the amp with CW, I'd recommend them since they have higher plate dissipation characteristics. They won't produce any more power, but they will last longer. I would not recommend using the amp for RTTY or AM or digital at all, even with the 572bs. If I'm going to use CW (which I rarely do with the amp), I reduce my drive to a level than gives about 400 watts of output.
Like all tube amps, the AL-811H a simple creature and easy to repair if something does go wrong. It's not exactly light at around 40-pounds, but even if you're as broken down as poor little me, you likely won't be moving it around much.
The AL-811H has made a world of difference for me on SSB. Let's face it, these days you will often be hard to copy on phone with 100-watts, and very few ops will want to have much of a ragchew with somebody they have to struggle to hear. That 600-watts also makes it much easier to deal with pileups. If I wanted to use an amp a lot on CW or digital and could convince myself to spend more $$$, I suppose I'd go to a 1200 - 1500-watt solid state amp. However, other than the ability to operate high duty cycle modes, and a little more convenience, I don't think that would buy me much. For now I'm keeping my 3 grand and will make do with my nice AL-811H! |
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| NC3Y |
Rating: |
2019-10-01 | |
| The most bang for the buck! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I wanted a 120volt amp so my choices were the AL811, AL811H or the AL80B. The AL811H just seemed like the most watts per dollar spent. I'm a CW and SSB contest operator and I ran the snot out of it for 2 years until a tube shorted. I replaced all 4 tubes from DXE and replaced D16. All good now. No lousy solder joints or mechanical issues of any kind. I bought this one new in Sept 2016 so it has all the factory updates/mods. I would highly recommend this amp to any ham wanting to spend about $1000 for a new amp. |
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| VE3UUH |
Rating: |
2019-04-29 | |
| low cost amp that works reasonably well |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had this amp for more than 7 years and still has original tubes. It works well on all bands but 10 meter output is a little low at around 500 watts pep.Most bands will get 700 to 800 watts output pep.I have had no trouble hooking this amp up to Yaesu Ft 990, Ft 1000Mp and now FT 2000. I did not experience any matching difficulties hooking these radios to the amplifier. It has been used with a Cushcraft R7, Hygain TH3 Mark IV, homebrew OCF There has been no arching, burning smells, switch failures but then these antenna are resonant.It gets medium use as I don't sit on the bands from sunrise to sunset 365 days a year either. Comparing this amp to an Alpha and such is ridiculous at best. For a low price and if used properly will do the job. Is it the best not even close. Remember you get what you pay for. |
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