[RTTY] AL-1200 arcing during QRO RTTY contesting

[WA9ALS - John]

Bill wrote:  You're right about the AL-1200 not being built for QRO RTTY
contesting.
I had the tank assembly get so hot it melted the solder connections,
once on 80 meters and once on 160 meters.  When I asked the designer of
the amp about it, he replied "well, who uses RTTY on 160 meters anyway?"
Bad answer, IMO.
---

Amen.  I've had the tank assembly come apart too with heat.  It consists of
two sizes of tubular coils.  One end of the smaller diameter one fits inside
one end of the larger diameter coil.  I suppose they are [hopefully] crimped
somehow to form some mechanical advantage and soldered [hopefully] with some
kind of high heat solder.  I was able to repair this connection once myself.
It wasn't easy because the amount of overlap for mechanical advantage is
very small.  Seems like a design just waiting to come apart to me, in high
heat modes especially.  The last time I had Ameritron replace the
bandswitch, I had them replace the tank assembly too, although my repair job
was apparently still OK.

Noone has had any suggestion yet of whether or how to clean the bandswitch.
The physical connections are still OK.  Tnx