[Amps] A cheer for the SPE 2K

[Catherine James]

The Alpha 9500 is well beyond my price point.  I have an AL-811H and a Heathkit SB-220.

I was originally going to buy an AL-80B, but I decided to trade down to an AL-811H and use
the price difference to buy and install a hexbeam.  That was definitely the right decision.  Then
the SB-220 came later when I realized I wanted more power but didn't want to spend much more.

The market for amps sold above $1,500 is almost certainly tiny compared with the market for those in
the $1K range.  Few hams can put that much into the hobby.

Be sure to read the "Message from the editor" in the July/August 2016 National Contest Journal
if you have a chance.  An analysis was done on WRTC qualifying scores by US region, and it
showed that the average US contester score is 8.8% of the winning score for his region. Further,
50% of all contest scores are less than 1.8% of the winning score in their region.  Only 33
stations submit scores that are 80% of the winning score in their region.

Most hams can't afford mega-towers, giant beams and rotors, or $8K amplifiers.

I've been trying to find out what % of hams have a tower, any kind of tower, and what % of hams
ham an amplifier of some sort, but haven't been able to get that data anywhere.

73,
Cathy
N5WVR

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 11/30/16, Bill Turner <dezrat at outlook.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Amps] A cheer for the SPE 2K
 To: "Amps group" <amps at contesting.com>
 Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 12:47 AM
 
 ------------ ORIGINAL
 MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
 
 On
 Wed, 30 Nov 2016 02:45:13 +0000 (UTC), you wrote:
 
 >Very few amps will run legal limit on 100% duty cycle RTTY!  I don't think
> I'd want to >pay for the power supply that would need.
 >
 >73,
 >Cathy
 >N5WVR
 
 REPLY:
 
 As I mentioned, the Alpha 9500, at about the same price, does
 legal limit all day long. In fact, I believe all of the Alphas in the last
 25 years or so do, both manual and autotune versions. 
 
 73, Bill W6WRT
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