N2IC and W8HW have made compelling arguments for not viewing this new
amp as a panacea, and in pointing out shortcomings that have long been
well known. I currently own three Ten Tec 425s, two 87As, a KPA500, and
a Ten Tec Herc II. The 87As are newly acquired, the Ten Tecs have gone
into the back room. They served me well, and all three work fine, except
that the power transformer is fried in one of them. The KPA500 gives me
550W on 6M, and is instant on, so it's my non-contesting amp. And I keep
that Herc II because it runs on 12-14VDC.
I would strongly encourage the guys in Germany producing this amp to get
a couple of them into major contesting stations so that they are
subjected to the sort of mistreatment that can result from contesting.
There are certainly good ones in Germany, and Steve's (N2IC) station
would be a great test bed here in the US.
Another possible RF noise issue is from the PWM control for the fan.
Such systems are notorious for RF noise. There are, of course, good
solutions, but they must be applied at the design stage.
I'd also like to hear about antenna switching and QSK.
73, Jim K9YC
On Sun,6/4/2017 6:58 AM, Steve London wrote:
I would not declare tube amplifiers dead until a legal limit, SS
amplifier repeatedly proves itself in serious contest conditions. I'm
not talking about the guy who casually makes 500 search-and-pounce
QSO's. I'm talking about the balls-to-the-walls, SO2R, all-band
guy/gal who operates close to 48 hours, running stations the entire
time. Mistakes happen under these conditions - ooops, forgot to change
the tornado tuner on the 80 when moving from 3700 to 3800, etc. Or, RF
from one amp gets into the other amp and fools it's microprocessor.
The only production SS amp that has come close to proving itself under
there conditions is the SPE line. Even they aren't perfect. See
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=leadzTgmmcvix . That was
an SPE 2K. In all fairness to SPE, see
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=lua4zPgqvqmsK . A pair of
SPE 1.3K's that worked flawlessly. (However, not at the legal limit.)
I would love to borrow a pair of these RF-Kit amps and put them to
serious use in one of my SO2R contest efforts.
73,
Steve, N2IC
On 06/04/2017 07:01 AM, Jim Thomson wrote:
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2017 19:59:34 -0700
From: Mark Mumaw <nu6x@esedona.net>
To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: [Amps] RF2K+ LDMOS linear
<I would like to clear up the information on the RF2K+ by RF-Kit.de in
Germany.
I have tried to join the list but have not been able to get
confirmation.
If this message goes through I will followup with another message
answering the questions I have seen here.
BTW, I am not an Agent or Employee of RF-kit.de. I have built several of
these linears and I have volunteered to help with the English version of
the Manual.
Mark NU6X Sedona, AZ
## At $2685.00 to $2985.00 + another $270.00 for shipping +
misc parts = $3255.00
for the amp + tuner, + shipping, raspberry pi3 for the full blown
version.
## At that price point, this now spells the end of the tube era.
Done, finished. End of story.
SS 160-6m Auto tune amp, auto tuner, no expensive tubes to buy,
super light weight etc.
## No auto tune tube amp covers HF + 6m. To get HF + 6m from say
Alpha, with 2 of their alpha amps,
you could buy 4 of these SS amps, and have $ left over.
## The ameritron AL-1500 lists for $4295.00 + shipping...doesnt
have 6M, no auto tune, no auto tuner...so its toast.
## alpha 9500 lists for $7995.00 + shipping. No 6m. No auto
tuner. Its now toast.
## alpha 8406 manual tune 6M amp. $4995.00 + shipping. Toast.
## all these current tube amps are now kaputsky. Emtron is
already doa. Eimac has priced themselves into oblivion.
If the chinese stop making tubes, your tube amp will become a door
stop. Get rid of it while you still can. Hats off to the
german folks who have now put the final nail in the coffin of the
tube era.
Jim VE7RF
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