Mike, unless Henry has come back out with the 4K Ultra, that's a rather old
design that's "continuous tune" from 3.5 through 30 MHz and offers excellent
coverage of frequencies between the ham bands, so used to be popular with
government agencies, embassies, etc. It had some neat features like a
filament voltage adjustment and test points, not normally found on amateur
equipment. It's a good amp, but does not cover 160m and requires the
typical "8877 three minute warm-up," which can be frustrating (for me).
I just sold a 3K Premier (which is a 3K Classic X Mk III, virtually no
difference with the Mk II) which had 160m coverage. I don't recall if the
"Mark II" covers 160 or not, maybe not. The Mk III definitely does, as does
the "Premier," whatever that means. This was obviously a rather huge cost
adder, as Henry used large B&W coil stock (not a toroid) to add 160m, as
well as lots of HV doorknob padders switched in by their famous plunger
switches driven by the bandswitch which also drives a chain, pulleys,
triple-action camshaft (only kidding) and all that stuff that makes the
bandswitch difficult to turn.
I might have had a parasite problem with the 3K Premier, never investigated
fully enough to ascertain; however I used to use the amp quite a lot on the
lower bands (160, 80, 40) and one day noted a large change in the way it
tuned on 40. Still made 1500W output, but tuned in a different point,
leading me to believe something failed. Sure enough, investigation revealed
two doorknob caps had cracked in half, leaving pieces of ceramic material
laying around inside the RF cage, and with that, their values had obviously
changed (or possibly dropped to zero). These were 7500V caps -- Henry
doesn't really skrimp on components. The parasitic suppressor on the
3CX1200D7 still looked fine, although I didn't isolate the resistor from the
inductor to measure the R. But something made those doorknobs blow.
On the bright side, if you live in the L.A. area, as long as Henry's in
business, they'll service those amps and probably have spare parts for them.
I've found their service to be rather remarkable. I brought in an old 3K
Classic X (export model) which was 12 years old and long out of warranty and
whose roller inductor had jammed the roller between turns of the inductor
(having jumped off the track) and burned the plate RF Choke; they not only
repaired it for free, but upgraded it to current production standards, also
for free. They do take responsibility when something fails due to poor
design.
73, Mike.
Steve WB2WIK/6
> Henry 4K Ultra (3CX1500A7) vs.
> Henry 3K Classic X MkII (3CX1200A7)
> > I have the opportunity to purchase one of these two amps. Any help with
> > the pros/cons of each would be appreciated. Thanks. Mike-K6QD
>
>
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