[Amps] Ameritron AL-1500 inquiry

[Jim W7RY]

The QSK mod is not only for QSK.

It also makes the relays nice and quiet! And also very fast. This keeps the 
amplifier from hot switching and prevents arcs in the tuning capacitor and 
worse, the bandswitch. This has been observed in a Drake L4B, Kenwood 
TL-922, Heathkit SB-220, Heathkit SB-200 and Ameritron AL-82. Even running 
RTTY contests, the TL-922 at 1000 to 1200 watts out, never missed a beat and 
never arced when tuning on 20 and 15 meters.

If you hate noisy clanking T-R relays like I do, this mod is for you. Noisy 
clankey relays is why I came up with these boards in the first place. 
Having the amplifier never arc again in the plate cap was a HUGE bonus!

On other reason... Was that a couple of friends from Spokane, wanted me to 
modify their Kenwood TL-922 amplifiers for QSK. I did, but had to hand build 
a perf board for the QSK switching circuitry.

I said "There has to be a better way"!  The W7RY QSK Board was born.


73
Jim W7RY


-----Original Message----- 
From: Jim Monahan
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 7:48 AM
To: amps at contesting.com
Subject: [Amps] Ameritron AL-1500 inquiry

I have a later version of this amp that uses two Schrack sealed T/R relays
(1 - RTD14012F SPDT 16A and 1 - RTE24012F DPDT 8A both 12VDC) for
antenna switching mounted on a small board.

The manual shows the earlier version with the open frame 3PDT relay.

I use this amp occasionally and has had the problem of intermittent receive.
The relays have already been replaced once to solve the problem but it
has returned.

Does anyone have a mod or suggestion on how to solve this issue?

I have considered the W7RY QSK mod but I don't use QSK.

Thanks in advance.

Jim, K1PX

K1PX at msn.com
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