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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
24.51874.5
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!
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.
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.
DV2AWN Rating: 2019-04-27
great amp for its price range Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
bought a used AL-811H, clean but used. it performed beautifully. one just have to learn properly tune and use it. experienced my first tube failure in one of its four 811A tubes, had all four replace and is now working perfectly. for its price range, its a perfect amp for novice hf linear amp user like me. just have to have spare tube handy just in case.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by DV2AWN on 2019-02-04

bought my AL-811H used but in good condition. took some researching to learn how to properly tune it which is very important from what i have read and heard. my amp is performing perfectly... just love it. would recommend this amp in a heartbeat. its not a KW amp but it does the job well. had great signal report with it, even when pushing only 300 watts.
KM4NYI Rating: 2018-12-30
Great Low Priced Amp Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Before buying one I read every review of the AL811H I could find, and despite some poor opinions, the majority seemed to be positive. Of course, the AL811H isn't an Alpha or a Yaesu, but at way less than half the price of most other amps, I wouldn't expect it to be. It's probably the best selling amp on the market today, and considering Ameritron has been building it for years, I figured it can't be too bad.

Thankfully, as I was thinking about buying a new one, a friend of mine offered me a used amp for a great price with a fresh set of Taylor tubes installed. It tuned right up, and worked great, except for a parasitic oscillation that showed up intermittently on 20 meters. I discovered mine was manufactured in 2007, and that Ameritron had made some production changes to address this (and other issues) since then. I replaced the parasitic suppression board ($35), installed a couple of gas discharge tubes in the filament circuit ($2), and removed the RC network from the grid circuit and grounded the tube grids directly to the chassis. This solved the problem, and now the amp is solid as a rock on all bands. If you purchase a used AL811H made before mid-2011, check out www.w8ji.com and follow the easy instructions to perform the updates. Of course, if your considering buying a new one, you won't have to do anything.

How does it work? In a word, great. It tunes up nicely on all the bands, input SWR is easily adjusted to 1:1, the fan is quiet, and I have received very positive signal reports with many comments about the great audio quality. I usually run mine with 40 watts of drive, which gets me over 500 watts out on sideband. It will do more, but why push it. Mine will put out advertised power levels, but let's face it: if they can't hear you at 500 watts, they're probably not gonna hear you at 800 watts either.

Be careful tuning it up, and make sure to only transmit for about 5 seconds and then wait 15 seconds for cool down when using an AM signal to tune with. Once the plate's tuned and the load's adjusted, crank up the power and run it on sideband until you're all talked out. The 811 tubes won't handle much mistuning with high power carriers, and the Chinese tubes aren't the greatest quality, but the price of replacement tubes is so cheap you don't have to worry about breaking the bank if you wear them out.

If you are looking for an HF amp to lift you out of the 100 watt doldrums, and don't want to spend a couple thousand for an amp, the AL811H might just fit the bill. For me, it's a simple little amp that gives me all the power I need.



MM0IMC Rating: 2018-12-24
Caveat Emptor Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Prone to blowing valves (tubes), fussy about WARC bands input VSWR. Quality Control can be hit and miss.

Save your money and get something with better quality...

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Earlier 5-star review posted by MM0IMC on 2015-07-30

I've had this amplifier nearly three years now.

I finally figured out after two and a half years why I was getting a high input SWR on the AUX position on the band switch. It wasn't caused by a faulty rear band switch or duff input circuitry, but by the two metal plates that are part of the neutralising transformer. It was rubbing up against the connecting rod between the front and rear band switches. I saw photographs on other 811H's where this rod was further back than on mine.

I moved it back one bolt hole and the input SWR on 10m dropped to 1.5:1 and the power output of the amplifier increased over 650W into a dummy load.

I must have had the proverbial 'Friday afternoon job'!
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Earlier 4-star review posted by MM0IMC on 2014-01-25

Finally, I've had some faith restored in this amplifier. It still performs very well on most bands giving between 800W-900W into a dummy load, cruising along at the UK legal limit of 400W with an input drive of less than 20W!

You can get nearly 700W on 12m with a lot of drive, but that comes with a word of caution as below...

Be aware though that this amplifier doesn't really like 10m though! It runs hots and requires a lot of drive for this band - a quick way to shorten the life of your valves (tubes)!
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Earlier 3-star review posted by MM0IMC on 2014-01-20

I finally got a replacement rear band switch from Ameritron and got the amplifier working again. :)

I noticed that the drive spindle between the band switches seems to rotate with a pronounced off-centre motion. This may have cause the premature wear of the original rear band switch as it isn't that robust as compared to the front one...
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Earlier 2-star review posted by MM0IMC on 2013-12-06

As usual, the connection with Made From Junk lets this amplifier down! The rear wafer band switch has given up the ghost, even though I religiously had the amp in standby and never transmitted whilst moving the band switch.

Built DOWN to a price and NOT up to a standard!
W7WPW Rating: 2018-12-16
Just got one... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got an AL-811H. ( ordered from DX Engineering ) I opened it up to remove packing materials around the tubes and found-- The fan wires were not connected, One transformer wire to the back PCB loose, and two capacitors on the front wafer switch not soldered.
This is just unacceptable! I repaired the defects and it tuned up just fine. I didn't want to believe the posts I saw about defective manufacturing, but now I do believe. If you order an Ameritron, be sure you have the ability to repair it right out of the box. We fire people where I work for being this brain dead as far as QC goes. Again... NO Excuse!
G4VVQ Rating: 2018-06-27
Ameritron AL 811HX Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Ameritron AL 811HX, European version, i just bought one of these, nearly new, it works great, no problems thus far, its running off 240 volts AC, i get 400 watts out of it for 20 watts in, thats our legal limit in UK 400 Watts, the PTT line runs at about 100 mA /12 volts and my Icom IC 7300 relay Jack is rated at max 17 volts 0.5A, so i can plug the amplifier straight into it without any problems..the Amp is rated at 800W, i haven't tried it on that as yet, it does work in the AUX position for 10 and 12 meters...if they dont you apparently have to cut a green wire connected to the 10 meter AUX coil inside...so yes all in all i like the Amplifier.....from Fred g4vvq in England.
KE0OHO Rating: 2018-02-14
Hammer of the Gods Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
In going from 100 watts, this was the best amp for me. For $900 I get a new Tube amplifier with power supplyy. It gives me a 9db Power gain at 800 watts, next 3db would be 1600 watts. Wayyy better than 100 watts. A durable old design. Good resale. Very good reliability. The solid state stuff, big parts count, big power supply, delicate output devices, big money, not ready for prime time HF, yet?
WY7CHY Rating: 2017-08-31
Excellent Amp' especially for price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've owned this amp for going on 2 years now. I bought it used from a friend of mine. He had it for about 6-7 years. New, it's about $1000. I got it used for about $500. You can find them for about $500-$600 used. Those who criticize the 811H and the little brother 811 do so mainly because of advertised power out. They say that you can't really get 800 watts PEP out of the 811H without overdriving the tubes. That may be true. The power supply is definitely the weak link.

With traditional 811A tubes, you would be pressed getting 800 watts PEP out without pushing the tubes too hard. However, you can easily find some quality Ryazan G-811 tubes which are sturdier. But BETTER YET, you can simply put in 572b tubes. They are a direct swap; can handle so much more power than the amp can produce and will run much easier. Of course, without pushing hard or replacing tubes, you can easily get 650-700 watts out. And that extra 100 watts isn't going to gain you anything noticeable.

Other than the power advertisement, the amp is a very good amp. It's very simple. Easy to operate. Easy to work on if you ever had a problem. The design is tried and true and has been around for 25 years without any major changes. If it ain't broke,,,,, don't fix it.

If you have the extra money, buy the AL-80B. More power and better overall amp. But it's an extra $600 new and used is still about an extra $400. So, if money is an issue, get the 811H if money isn't an issue, get the 80B. For what it's worth, the extra couple hundred watts out of the 80B isn't really worth the extra $400-$600 for the amp. For the average person who wants an amp to make up for not having the best highest gain antenna, and wants to make those DX contacts, the 811H is a great amp. With my crappy antenna, the 811H has helped me contact europe, russia, all of the USA, central and south america, and some asian areas like hawaii.