Bill et al...
I used an FL-7000 at my home station for some time, but sold it to
replace with something more robust for RTTY. It is very handy for
quick band QSY chasing DX from packet spots and is missed. Mine
was poor for 100% duty cycle RTTY operation and would get warm.
Using an AL-1200 on the FT-1000mp and an SB-221 on the FT-990 now,
but also have interest in the new Icom amplifier. See below...
At 11:16 2/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I've finally gotten around to hooking up my FL7000 that I am going to use
>for my remote project. Everything works 90% great with the ALC hooked up
>to the FT1000MP.
>
>Here are a few problems I have noticed:
>
>1. 20M, regardless of antenna used, trips the protection circuit unless
>drive is reduced to 350 to 400 watts out of the amplifier. Both antennas
>have less than 1.5 to 1 SWR in the CW band.
Never had that problem. Maybe something in monitor circuit needs tweaked?
Could the rig be generating an initial spike which is causing the trip?
>2. The tuner in this thing seems to me to be mostly useless. I set it
>for a band then move to another band. Set the new band and then return to
>the previously set band. The amp doesn't remember it's previous setting
>and faults. I dont need the tuner except for problem #1.
The tuner is not very useful for QSY frequently. It will match SOME
antennas/band segments where operation would be impossible without.
Personally, I cannot imagine trying to operate remotely with the antenna
tuner. Mine was never that automatic...
>3. The amp tends to fault the first time transmitting on a band. It's
>like the ALC doesnt quite kick in fast enough. Resetting once or twice
>normally results in normal operation. Nothing else changed.
Mine never did that either. Was always driven by the FT-990 and never
was tried with the FT-1000mp.
In addition to ALC, I usually kept my RF Power control set low as the
amp seemed to require far less than 50w for full out.
>Overall I think it's kind of a neat amplifier. I just need to work out
>the bugs. On 80, 40, and 15 the amp puts out 500W easily. I'm anxious to
>get QRV.
Yeah, mine would do over 700w on 40m (not recommended) with well matched
antenna. My blind friend was using in a CW contest one time (and my ALC
was set for another band) on 40m late at night until he smelled smoke.
I had fallen asleep, coffee in hand. He asked what was burning and awoke
me suddenly causing me to pour the full cup in my lap. My first sights
were smoke billowing out of the amp...
It was merely a charred silver mica in the 40m band pass filter. We
opened it, removed the cap and used it the remainder of the weekend,
but not on 40m until we got new components...
>Of course now I have my eye on that new Icom solid state amplifier that
>will do a KW.
Yeah, me too.
>Does anyone know of a SWR/Power meter that can be read via a com port?
Nope.
Based on my experiences, I (personally) would not beleive
the amp to be reliable enough for remote operation despite
that I never experienced all the problems that you did...
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