For a number of years we used 100% Henry amps at the
W5KFT station. If you can live with the one major limitation
that most of the Henry amps have, they are probably the best
value and one of the most dependable amps that can be purchased.
The main limitation with most Henry's is the band coverage
is limited to 80-10 meters. I think that of all the numerous models
built by Henry for HF, there have only been two that have 160 meters
on them.
A couple of years ago we made the decision to replace the Henry
amps in our contest station because of the 160m limitation. After a lot
of research and study, we made the decision to go with the Ameritron
AL-1500. We made this decision based on the following (not in any particular
order)
1. Readily available reasonable priced tube ---8877
2. Compact table top size
3. Ability to run legal limit with 100 watts of drive
from most conventional receivers (problem with AL-1200)
4. Availability of used AL-1500s in the $1500-1700 price range
5. Simple straight forward amplifier construction
6. AL-1500 will work all bands 160-10 including WARC
There are probably some others, but these were the main factors
We have been using the amps for several years now and we have only had
one
problem. In the RTTY contests, the amps are subject to a heat problem
especially
on 15 meters. Once we figured out the problem, it was easily solved by
placing a
muffin fan on top of the cabinet in RTTY contests to help with the internal
heat
build-up in the cabinet. We have NEVER had this heat problem on either SSB
or CW
during contest operations.
If I had to go look for another amp today....it would be a used AL-1500
Bryan W5KFT
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