Roy it's a mixed bag so to speak as to solid state pwr amp.
I
too am in the midst of that decision as my 30 yr old Alpha's
are
showing their age these days.
Yes I would
point you to the Elecraft KPA-500 due to it's ease of operation and
not
that much diff in $$$$. It's an all in one unit as P/S is builtin ( not
switching)
and use current LDMOS final. Ameritron is old tech
on all their HF SSPA which
have their own issues.
You
can find used KPA-500's for around 1.5K which is a decent cost savings.
Also
look at the RMitaly BLA-600 which appears to be very well built and
priced well.
It too has a linear power supply built in and
uses LDMOS device.
I had one of the 1st ALS -
1300's which had PS problems(switching type) however
know what
I read is that Ameritron has rectified. I gladly sold it less than a
year later
to an op in Poland.
Going
from 5 to 6 hundred watts to 1 to 1.5 K is very pricey still IMHO so
guess I will be settling for
less than a KW out in the near
future.
That's my take OM,
Tim
, AB4B