[Amps] RF2K+ LDMOS linear

[Kevin Stover, AC0H]

All fine and good but where on God's green earth did you get $8K?
The SPE 2K is $8K but were not talking about that amp (^^^subject 
line^^^). We're talking about the German amp kit which sells for a 
kilobuck LESS than the AL-1500 all in.

Without the auto-tuner the kit sells for about $1K more than that pretty 
Eimac 3CX1500A7 in the AL-1500.

On 6/4/2017 12:19 PM, Jeff AC0C wrote:
> I'm with Steve here.  The old saw of "build a better mouse trap and the 
> world will beat a path to your door" is almost always false because it's 
> hard to believe the hype surrounding stuff.  If an amp maker wants to 
> crank up the sales in the US of their amps, by far the best way would be 
> to put it in the hands of someone who has a good tech reputation in the 
> community, can give it a serious contest workout and who also has the 
> ability to do a basic IMD test.
> 
> There are many folks of that description.  Before I shovel what is going 
> to be nearly 8K into a box, I really would feel a lot better if I heard 
> that they lived through a couple of contests over at W3LPL, etc and 
> Frank said they hummed along fine.  I'm using LPL as an example here.  
> My point is advertising and social media and endorsements from guys in 
> EU are a lot less meaningful than a country local here in the US.
> 
> Made the exact same argument to a Chinese maker when he was trying to 
> get going but he unfortunately just could not wrap their head around the 
> marketing aspect of a product roll out.  The ham universe is pretty 
> small - and an endorsement by someone objective and authoritative 
> carries far more weight in this market than in others, especially given 
> the huge financial investment something like this involves.
> 
> 73/jeff/ac0c
> www.ac0c.com
> alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Jim Thomson
> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2017 11:48 AM
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: [Amps] RF2K+ LDMOS linear
> 
> Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2017 07:58:54 -0600
> From: Steve London <n2icarrl at gmail.com>
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] RF2K+ LDMOS linear
> 
> <I would not declare tube amplifiers dead until a legal limit, SS
> amplifier repeatedly proves itself in serious contest conditions. I'm
> not talking about the guy who casually makes 500 search-and-pounce
> QSO's. I'm talking about the balls-to-the-walls, SO2R, all-band guy/gal
> who operates close to 48 hours, running stations the entire time.
> Mistakes happen under these conditions - ooops, forgot to change the
> tornado tuner on the 80 when moving from 3700 to 3800, etc. Or, RF from
> one amp gets into the other amp and fools it's microprocessor.
> 
> The only production SS amp that has come close to proving itself under
> there conditions is the SPE line. Even they aren't perfect. See
> http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=leadzTgmmcvix . That was an
> SPE 2K. In all fairness to SPE, see
> http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=lua4zPgqvqmsK . A pair of
> SPE 1.3K's that worked flawlessly. (However, not at the legal limit.)
> 
> I would love to borrow a pair of these RF-Kit amps and put them to
> serious use in one of my SO2R contest efforts.
> 
> 73,
> Steve, N2IC
> 
> ##  High swr, so what, amp kicks offline at some pre-set threshold.
> They are already in use across europe...in rtty contests.  Fans  are
> pwm controlled, so heat is not an issue.   Eff is high at 65-70%.
> IMD is typ –40db pep..using the newer german made LP filters.
> Mark tells me these amps are 100% duty cycle rated, all modes.
> If they survive a rtty contest, ssb + cw should be a lollygog.
> 
> ## You are right though...  send some off to contest sites..and really beat
> on em for the weekend.   Tube amps  days are numbered, the writing is on 
> the wall.
> 
> Jim   VE7RF
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps

-- 
R. Kevin Stover    AC0H
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441
ARRL