[SCCC] Amplifiers

[Paul Kube]

I'd do some
comparison shopping to see if there may be others that have better internal
protection.
Based on my experience, you will find that all models of amateur legal limit solid-state amps have a record of output module failures. The modern LDMOS devices those amps use now have amazing power dissipation ratings, but it's hard to ensure perfect bonding to the heatsink. They have terrific SWR handling specs, but their gates are real sensitive to overvoltage and overcurrent, and protection circuits sometimes don't operate fast enough to prevent failure. There aren't any good published statistics comparing different amps with respect to failure rates and root causes, so it's just hard to make a well-informed choice. That said, all the current offerings -- KPA-1500, PGXL, SPE 1.5K and 2K, RF-KIT RF2K-S, Mercury LUX, Acom 2020S,... -- have lots of customers who haven't had any problems, and you may become one of them.

73, Paul K6PO



________________________________
From: SCCC <sccc-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Raymond Benny <rayn6vr at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 9, 2023 6:31 PM
To: Dennis Younker NE6I <NE6I at cox.net>
Cc: southern california contest club <sccc at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [SCCC] Amplifiers

Hello Dennis,
I purchased a KPA1500 a couple of years ago. Its a nice amp with all bands
included, it works well!

My only drawback is when one of my antennas developed a bad intermittent
connection that caused the amp matching problems. I continued transmitting
thinking it was no big deal, but it eventually caused one of the two RF
modules to go dead.

Guess it was my fault, but it cost me close to $600 for repairs and
shipping.

In the future, I may purchase another KPA1500, but like you, I'd do some
comparison shopping to see if there may be others that have better internal
protection.

Ray
N6VR/W7YA

On Thu, Mar 9, 2023, 6:57 PM Dennis Younker NE6I <NE6I at cox.net> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> Anyone here running the Acom 2000a, Acom 2020S or the Elecraft KPA1500? I'm
> looking at the three of these, mainly to add power on 6m but this purchase
> would become the primary amp and move my existing 160-10m amp to the backup
> position here. Curious about your experience with any of these three.
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> --Dennis NE6I
>
> _______________________________________________
> SCCC mailing list
> SCCC at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/sccc
>
_______________________________________________
SCCC mailing list
SCCC at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/sccc