I have a K3 and the KPA-500. It's a very nice little amp but at 500 watts I
was getting pushed around all over the place. With my THP HL-1.5KFX, I run
800 watts and that makes a definite difference. If you are serious about
contesting, go for the legal limit!
The difficulty with a non-Elecraft amp may be to get the amp to band change
for you, depending on which one you get. The Acom will do that just fine
with a single dit.
Back in the day when I was running tune amps, I would mark the dials for
each band so tuning was a very quick set of movements. The extra 5 seconds
won't make a difference unless you just moved someone from one band to
another and even then it's not significant.
Pete, W1RM
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Thorne [mailto:rmthorne@att.net]
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 6:25 PM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] 500 Watt Amp or 1500 Watt Amp
Hello Group,
I'm finally building my first serious contest station after hamming for over
30 years. My wife and I moved out to the country last August to a lot with
no restrictions. My first tower is up and I'm planning a 2nd soon.
I'm looking at amp possibilities. My rig is an Elecraft K3 so the
KPA500 looks intriguing in that it will follow the rig and I won't have to
tune it, i.e., quick band changes.
Is 1500 watts really worth looking at? I could go the Acom 2000a or Alpha
route, but that's not quite in the budget now. So I'm looking at the
Ameritron AL-1200, 1500 or other comparable amp. The disadvantage is tune up
time, but I'm not sure that's really a big deal. I've operated at K5NA for
years and it doesn't take much to tune to a different band using pre-marked
settings.
So the question, does the extra 1000 watts make a difference? as compared to
the ability to make quick band changes using a solid state amp?
Thanks
Rich - N5ZC
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