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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
KE7MU Rating: 2014-08-23
So Far - So great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Have had the Amp a month now, prior to power up, I inspected the solder joints to IPC J-STD-001D. There was flux residue, but other than that looked good. Inspected fit and overall condition, and it meets commercial standard. I was pensive, but find no fault with it. Would have purchased an ACOM if I had money to waste, and I hope I am not sorry. So Far So Good or Great, getting 800 watts with 60 watt drive. I consider it a bargain compared to what is on the market at this time. I use W8JI tuneup procedures and it is fast and easy. I also use a keyer at 50 WPM dots to simulate a pulser and it works great. So far would buy again.
AA4AJ Rating: 2014-06-17
Works great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It all depends on what you want. This amp is the lowest price in dollars / watt that I have found. It is just an amp with none of the stuff you can add to one - no qsk, no soft start, no grid protection, no auto tune. The tubes are fragile (I have been told) but, they are inexpensive and they work. This amp is well built. No loose parts. I get a dependable 600 watts out on CW and more on SSB. It seems to be very durable. I could get something fancier or more technically advanced but, not for the money.
WD9IQN Rating: 2014-05-09
AL-811H working great !! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have had the AL-811H for 5 months now. I primarily use it on 80 and 10 meters. Tunes up easily. Good clean output on my scope. I am happy with it.
N9GUU Rating: 2014-01-05
Great Amplifier Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my AL-811H for several years and thought it was finally time to write a review. I know that MFJ has its issues with bad solder joints and other quality issues (as you can gather from the many comments and reviews on MFJ products) but what can I say...? My AL-811H has been flawless and performs great. I just replaced the original tubes with new 811A's from RF Parts and the amplifier once again delivers 800 watts. Would I recommend it? - you bet! In fact...I'm probably going to look for another one!
VK5CM Rating: 2013-11-20
Great Linear thats easy to Tune-Up! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is the best Amplifier I have ever used,so easy to tune up with my Yaesu FT-950. It kicks out a clean healthy 800 plus watts quite easily (much better LA than the self tune one selling for three times more)Follow the instruction booklet and you'll have a perfect linear. Try using only 60 watts input from the exciter and no ALC for easy 59 Plus reports. Hook back the ALC for more than 70 watts from the exciter. In Australia we are limited to 400 watts, so 30 watts from the exciter is ample.
73 Chris
KA2UUP Rating: 2013-09-10
11 years and still going on strong Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Only problem I have had was with what looked like runaway current about 5 years ago. I sent the thing to Ameritron and it was repaied within the week for $60, including the shipping. I modified mine with 2kV rated capacitors and also installed a softstart module from another vendor who had them some years ago. I tried the 572B tubes and worked very well. However, I returned to the original 811As after I broke the cap off from one of the 572Bs. Still giving good service at the rated 600 W on CW and 800 W p-p on SSB with about 65 W of drive from an IC-746.
KF6OCI Rating: 2013-08-16
Good Practical Amp Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have two of these, didn't know anything
about them at the time, but there is so much
info on line that learning about them inside and
out is quick. Easy to work on and there are
numerous Hams including yahoo groups that
kindly help. Great learning experience.
I'm easy on my equipment, don't push.

KF6OCI
N4JA Rating: 2013-08-15
Changing input coax helped Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'll have to take back all I said before. Today, I was going to try to tune the input circuit on 10 and 12 Meters. I tuned up the amp on 10 meters with 5 watts drive. I moved the LP-100 from the output of the amp to the input. I had a 16 inch jumper of RG-213 from the LP-100 to the input of the amplifier. I had been using the SWR on the exciter on my other tests. Using the LP-100, I was able to get the input SWR down below 2:1. I determined that either the RG-8X I had been using was not 50 ohms or the length was wrong. I changed out the jumper from the exciter to the amplifier from 5 feet to 3 feet. Now I get drive on both 10 and 12 Meters. But you still need an external wattmeter to tune up the amplifier. With the new length of RG-8X cable the SWR meter on the exciter now reads 1.6:1 on 28495 and I get 495 watts out on 10 Meters with 60 watts drive. The input SWR on the exciter says 1.2:1 on 12 Meters and I get 514 watts out on 24945 with 60 watts drive. Now none of the other band's SWR were affected. I still get over 600 watts out on the other bands with 60 watts drive to the four 572B tubes. I am still running the tuning slugs all the way out the back on the two input coils on 20, 17 and 15 Meters. But I did notice the SWR reading on the exciter's SWR meter came down to 1:1 on 15 meters, instead of 1.2:1 before I changed coax jumpers between the exciter to the amplifier.
The main problem I was having with the input SWR on 20, 17 and 15 meters is still like it was before. To get the input SWR down below 3:1 on those 3 bands, I had to run the ferrite tuning slugs all the way out of the back of the coil assemblies.
W3LQ Rating: 2013-07-31
Good amp for the money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked this amp up on Ebay at the same time that I picked up an 811 (pice was real good on both, and it never hurts to have a spare). The amp arrived in very good shape; one of the tubes, however, did not make the trip well and was DOA. I bought a new set of 811As, and replaced the dead one.
This amp had the same little problem that the 811 I bought had--shorted D-16 diode in the grid circuit. Replaced the diode, and all was well.
Run this baby at 500 watts key down and it seems to like that operating zone. Run the amp through my Ameritron 1.5 KW, and all is well.
What am I doing with two Ameritrons? Well, the price was right. I like these amps a lot, but if the right Ameritron 80A or 80B presented itself, I would probably switch.
WA1RKT Rating: 2013-06-30
Poor reliability and workmanship Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased a new AL-811H in mid-2009. Got it home and it was DOA (don't remember the symptom now). Took it back to the dealer and got another one, brought it home, also DOA (same symptom). Decided to take a look, pulled the cover off, found that a length of wire that went from the bottom to the top of the chassis was pulled tight around a sharp chassis edge which had cut through the insulation and shorted the wire to ground. Fixed that and the amp worked. Notified the dealer and Ameritron on the assumption that the first amp probably had the same problem.

I am now on my fourth set of tubes and the amp has been back to Ameritron for warranty work twice. The first time, I reviewed my tuneup and operational procedures with Ameritron engineers and they agreed that I was doing everything correctly. The second time I had them upgrade the amp from 811A's to 572B's and had the grid current limiter circuit installed. That set of tubes (first set of 572B's, third set of tubes) lasted a bit over a year, and I have this afternoon replaced them with a new matched set from RF Parts, having given up on wherever Ameritron gets tubes.

Removing and replacing the top cover this afternoon, I was reminded that the cover mounting holes don't line up very well... another example of poor workmanship.

Yes, the AL-811H is inexpensive as compared with other amps, but what good is that if the workmanship is poor and it won't last much more than a year without some problem that takes it out of service? As I said I reviewed my operational procedures with Ameritron engineers and they agreed that I'm doing everything correctly, so it's not like I'm abusing it. Just to be sure, last time it was in for warranty repair I had them install the grid current limiter, which now shuts the amp down at the absolute slightest provocation and on average doesn't let me output more than about 500 watts PEP without cutting out... and it still went through a set of tubes in little more than a year.

For comparison, I have two Collins 30L-1 amps, one with 572B's and the other with 811A's. I drive them both at least as hard as if not harder than the AL-811H and they Just Work, never a problem.

Very unhappy and dissatisfied with Ameritron.