I run a AL-80B and a AL-1500 with my Orion. Both have
Ameritron Pin diode qsk boards. The 80B uses the
outboard QSK-5 and the 1500 uses the inboard qsk pc.
Both run great. The 80B is very quiet as far as fan
noise and puts out a good 900 to 1000W on CW. It is
probably my all time favorite amp, and I've had a
bunch.
The 1500 is also very rugged and reliable and puts out
twice what the 80B does but has higher noise and you
have to wait for the cathode to heat up properly. I
highly recommend the QSK boards. If I could have only
one amp for general use the 80B/QSK-5pc would be it.
For tuners I use an Ameritron ATR-15, and a Johnson KW
and a Johnson 275W matchbox. The ATR-15 is a good
general purpose 160-10 tuner and easily handles the
power of either of my amps. It is band switched so it
is not quite as versitle as roller inductor tuner, but
I don't match a lot of wierd loads like tuning up a
test lead and that kind of stuff. A bandswitch makes
bandchange quite quick compared to cranking a roller.
I am not a big fan of roller inductors, based on
mechanical reasons. The unit has built in 6 position
antenna switch, a current balun that can be set up for
1:4 or 1:1 and a backlighted power/swr meter.
The Johnsons I use on balanced wire lines. The 275w
version is good for about 700W out on CW the KW job is
good for about 3kw. Both of these are highly
efficient tuners, but do not have 160 without some
modification. There is a simple mod you can do to
these tuners to increase the range of loads that can
be tuned. Some models do come with a SWR bridge some
do not. They can also be used to tune coax or single
wires as well, but I always use them for balanced
feedlines.
73
Lee W9OY
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|