[Amps] How about a Solid State MARS amp

[Tom Rauch]

> Well, I think it is possible.  It has been done, there are 
> pleanty of good designs that are available.  I sugest that 
> you might read the ALS-500 manual, it says in the first 
> paragraph that it covers the full frequency range from 1.5 
> to 21.6 Mhz, and looking at the front cover, that does 
> seem to be the case.  It's not too hard to get 500 watts 
> out of an FET these days.  Tokyo hipower is producing a 
> legal limit solid state amp, and I know for a fact that 
> the design they use can operate on 5 Mhz.   As a second 
> fyi, I have an old 3-500z amp from Amp Supply, and just 
> playing around, I could tune it on 5 Mhz pertty easily by 
> selecting the 80 meter band select, and I could get about 
> 900 watts into the dummy load.


I would never use a ALS500M at home. It really is intended 
for applications where you only have 12 volts and aren't 
using a good station.

I would get the ALS600 FET amplifier. It is much cleaner.

By the way, contrary to misapplying books and rumors, ALL 
type-accepted amplifiers have to pass FCC requirements for 
harmonics. Any Ameritron amp will always be at least several 
dB better than minimum requirements (around -45dBc) for 
harmonics. The problem is odd-order IM products that create 
splatter. Not all amps are equal, and it is NOT the 
filtering that matters.

The tuned input of a GG amp, by virtue of the driving 
impedance at harmonics, can greatly affect harmonic levels. 
This is because the cathode circuit can affect  waveshape of 
the anode current on a fractional cycle basis.

73 Tom