It seems like there are a lot of Ham Radio Operators that are running a good bit of power on the High Frequencies. I hear some operators running up to 1500 Watts. Sometimes you can tell they are driving that SWR up there, because they have that tell tale nose pinch sound. The problem is if they do not get that under control with some serious tuning they will eventually burn out their transmitter. A long time ago I remember someone running a 250 watt amp into a pdl II beam antenna. I knew other people that were running 500 watts from their vehicles. Other people were running 1200 watts from their base stations. It was funny that the person running 250 watts sounded better that the person running 1200 watts. The key was that he kept the swr down and the power flowed properly.
Since I have had my General Ham License I have looked at different Amplifiers. So far Ameritron Amplifiers are out of my budget. I think the only way I may be able to afford one is to either win the lottery Hi Hi or find one used through ebay. I have been looking at some from RM Italy. They are generally a mobile amplifier. I have seen some you tube videos where the person is using a power supply to power the amplifier and the radio has plenty of watts to drive it. For the most part the reviews I have seen have not been bad. The problem is they are not regulated in this country and may cause some splatter on the bands. The only thing that catches my attention is the price. It Should be noted that from what I understand they are not legal in the united states by the FCC.
I think for now I will keep saving my pennies. I will also keep watching the used equipment for some good deals. There are plenty of very good amplifiers that are used and do a very good job. You also have choices between all solid state amplifiers and amplifiers with tubes in them. If I decide to go with the used department I will make sure to check out who the seller is. With an item that expensive I will take no chances. What I would like to see is companies like Ameritron make some Hf Amplifiers in the 250 Watt range for a decent price. Maybe we could see some amplifiers made in the USA for some good prices.Well for know I will just work with the 100 Watts my Kenwood TS-2000 puts out. Thank You for reading from Dan KC2YTI 73s.
