[RTTY] AL-1200 arcing during QRO RTTY contesting

[Jerry Flanders]

The reason I bought my AL-1200 was because it appeared to be such a rugged 
amp and appeared fully capable of RTTY service at the maximum legal 1.5 KW. 
What I quoted before is from advertising literature. Ameritron states in 
the Al-1200 manual:

"Technical Specifications - Output: 1/2 hour continuous carrier: 1500 watts 
(below 18 MHz)"

Advertising hype? I dunno. Disclaimer - I have been fooled before by clever 
advertising.

Jerry W4UK

At 09:11 PM 10/4/2001 -0400, you wrote:

>2500 Watts PEP two tone is about 600 Watts DC (6dB peak to average
>for a two tone signal) ... RTTY is a single tone mode.  1000 watts
>RTTY at 50% duty cycle is putting a real hurt to that amplifier ...
>
>Your reduction to 500 Watts is more in keeping with the 2500 Watt
>specification of that amplifier, particularly for contesting!
>
>73,
>
>    ... Joe, K4IK
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rtty-admin@contesting.com [mailto:rtty-admin@contesting.com]On
> > Behalf Of WA9ALS - John
> > Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 8:46 PM
> > To: Jerry Flanders
> > Cc: RTTY@contesting.com
> > Subject: Re: [RTTY] AL-1200 arcing during QRO RTTY contesting
> >
> >
> > > The AL-1200 is a pretty rugged amp. Quoting from Ameritron's
> > > literature on it:"it can deliver power of more than 2500 watts
> > > PEP two tone output for a half hour!". You were running it at
> > > only 40% of this at probably less than a 50% duty cycle -
> > > almost QRP for this amp. You may have to look elsewhere
> > > to find this problem.
> >
> > Well, I'm certain I could've fried an egg on the top of it - I
> > hate to think what it would be like at 2500 watts!  ;-)