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Reviews For: Ameritron AL-811H

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

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Review Summary For : Ameritron AL-811H
Reviews: 187MSRP: 899
Description:
160-10 meter RF Amplifier. 4 811A tubes
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ameritron.com/Product.php?productid=AL-811H
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
34.31874.5
N2QQF Rating: 2007-12-30
Good Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Good amp, well worth the money spent. This is a good amp that covers all the bands 160-10 meters. This is a great amp for the newbie and oldie alike. Easy to use as opposed to my older sweep tube amp and the tubes are real cheap to replace. I see alot of people replacing these 811 tubes for 572B but that is a mistake. Those tubes will overdrive the power supply which the amp wasn't designed to handle. In fact for the price of 4 572B tubes you can get 2 sets of 811's. You may get 900 watts out of the 572B but at what cost long term. If they hear you at 900 watts they will hear you at 600-watts. This amp will certasinly give you 750-800 watts out but if let the amp run cool and it will last forever. Anyway, the point is that if you take care of this amp the tubes will last for a long, long time maybe even forever. This is a great amp, no regrets here.
N5FOG Rating: 2007-11-11
Great amp simple design Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Great amp, does 500 watts with around 20-25 watts in. Overall a good simple design and very easy to fix if it ever needs it. My only complaint with the AL-811H is its 28 cfm cooling fan is undersized IMHO. Aside from that I think the 811H is a great amp.
KB3NGA Rating: 2007-10-25
All the amp one should need Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
OK my experience with the 811-h and Ameritron has been a bit rough but here we go with the review

I bought this amp back in feb 07 and had nothing but problems with the amp it was sent back 4 times! 1st blew three caps and 2 diodes and 2 bleeders and the traces actually blew off the board. So when I got the amp back they replaced the caps and everything and replaced the traces with tinned wires hmm I thought??
the 2nd and 3rd and final trip back to ameritron were due to the equalizer resistors burning up and the caps going so the forth and last trip yeilded what I call total customer Service

This is what Mike from ameritron did for me
One New 811-h hot off the lines factory installed
572-b tubes

The new amp now works better and cooler and I have to say ameritron took care of this customer
and thats why I give this amp a 5 because it works its easy to tune and 600 watts is the max u can really get out without burning up tubes and if you cant do it with 600 1500 wont cut it either
73's de KB3NGA
AB2WK Rating: 2007-10-21
Easy to use Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is my 1st amp and I've had a lot of fun with it. I got tired of not breaking pileups and shouting into microphones.It's not hard to tune up and I get great signal reports with it. It even tolerates rookie mistakes. I tuned my radio from 40 to 20 meters,got distracted and left the amp on 40 meters. I realized my mistake about 5 seconds after keying the mike and nothing blew up! Still runs like a champ! Needless to say I'm a bit more careful now....
KK8ZZ Rating: 2007-10-11
Just works, and works well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Cheap, tubes are reasonable to replace and easily obtainable, easy parts replacement if you have problems, good output, easy to tune. This amp is a great value in my opinion!!
VE3KF Rating: 2007-08-29
Good guy. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
AL811H is good PA and works ok. All it need is RF power meter or SWR meter. It is because tuning with a minimum anode current sometimes is not corresponding with a maximum RF power.
The replacing 4xG 811 tubes to 3x572B is very good idea also.
KD0BAI Rating: 2007-08-21
very nice amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading everything available on this amp. decided to order this amp as a first amp. ordered from HRO and it arrived in less than one week. Well packaged. 811A tubes had been installed prior to shippment and one tube had a break at the anode connection. Decided to remove all the tubes and replace with the taylor 572B tubes. Amp was very solid inside with lots of room for possible repair. burned tubes in for over 12 hours and have kept transmissions to under 300 watts, until new Palstar AT1KP arrives. Input is from Kenwood TS-570GS into a 102 ft. G5RV. First transmission with amp at under 300 watts was received in Kansas city, MO and comment was "sounds like your in my back yard" (5/9+). instructions on amp were adaquate. Was concerned about heating but with 572B tubes at low power, sofar heating is not an issue for concern. So Far I am delighted with the amp and look forward to gradually increasing power as it gets broken in with new tuner. using MFJ 974hb at present under 300 watts with very low SWR. Very happy with 811H.
73- KD0BAI
K3TLP Rating: 2007-08-08
Keeps On Ticking Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my AL-811H since 1993. I've replaced the tubes twice when the output dropped a bit to 500 watts. In 14 years, I've replaced 3 grid resistors and the last year replaced the parisitic supressors that connect to the plate caps. It works like it is supposed to. It's easy to tune. I own 3 other higher output amps. I keep going back to the AL811H. "It takes a licking but keeps on ticking."
NX8B Rating: 2007-08-07
20 OVER !!!!!!!!! Time Owned: N.A.
--ALLWAYS ON---I HAD ALL THE SAME PROBLEMS -BUT ONCE YOU LEARN HOW TO PROPERLY LOAD THIS AMP- IT ROCKS--NEVER SET THE LOAD TOO LOW -STAY ABOVE 4-THIS WILL -HELP- KEEP FROM POPPING TUBES- IF NOT BUY THE 572'S-USE VOICE PEEKS TO HELP LOAD---NO RFI WHAT SO EVER- A PLUS IF U KNOW MY NEIGHBORS-GREAT LEARNING AMP AND EVERYDAY-AMP---C U ON 40
W9GDH Rating: 2007-07-23
Good Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got mine in June 2007. Only problem was the input coil for 160 Meters was turned all the way in. After adjusting it now 600w on 160 Meters. Did the 10/12 meter mod. Will run about 500w on 10/12 meters.
PS I would like to see some more postings from users who replaced the 811a's with 572b's. Powerout, plate current, grid current, plate voltage (under load) and input power of 811a's verses 572b's.