[Amps] solid state amp ?

[Jim Brown]

On 9/25/2021 2:04 PM, Paul Kraemer wrote:
> I have decided after 60+ years  in the hobby it may be time to try a 
> solid state linear.

Owners of the Elecraft KPA500 and KPA1500 amps, including me, are 
generally quite happy. The KPA1500 has a very good tuner built in, and 
the KAT500 (outboard for the KPA500) also works quite well. Both cover 
160-6M. Both amps and tuners integrate nicely with non-Elecraft 
products, with lots of presets for multiple antennas on each band, 
instantly detecting frequency and selecting the suitable preset on a 
single dit or tap on the mic. They also accept band data.

Other amps I've owned and used a lot are the Ten Tec 425s (three of them 
in my SO2R contesting station for ten years) and two 87As (for about 
three years). RF sections of both amps were designed by K4XU. The manual 
output network of the 425s has a much greater matching range than the 
auto tuning of the 87As, and both Elecraft tuners have a much wider 
tuning range than either of those tube amps.

73, Jim K9YC