[Elecraft] Elecraft Amps

[Luis V. Romero]

If you want this, its already out there.  :)

I purchased a 600w solid state "kit" amp, actually, it was a "kit" amp by
happenstance. A brand new Ameritron ALS-600 that I had to do final QC on and
replaced the original Slow-as-Moses TR relay with the AD5X full QSK micro
switch board.

It's a wonderful little amplifier (now), in all honesty, but I would have
happily paid the same amount of money (circa $1,300) for something I could
have built from a box of parts and directly interfaced with the K3.

Building stuff. That is a lot of the fun in Ham Radio for me, because I
don't have the time or tools to design and build from scratch.  

When I started in Ham Radio, I was a Heathkit junkie.  I had a basement full
of two tone green back in the late '70's, and the K3 has reawakened that
addiction, now that the kids are grown and I have time again.

-lu-


Message: 7
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:15:50 -0600
From: WW2PT <ww2pt at arrl.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft Amps
To: lawrence libsch <llibsch at bellsouth.net>
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <0B770874-A215-4116-8BB9-75002BDF9437 at arrl.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=US-ASCII;	format=flowed;
delsp=yes

I'll weigh in, just in case the Aptos crew is taking notes and  
counting votes. ;-)

An off-the-shelf, high-end appliance to compete with THP or SPE would  
be a high-cost, low-volume, low-profit venture, something I would not  
want to undertake in the current economic conditions if I were CEO of  
a small company like Elecraft.

Personally, I'd love a small (500w or 600w) solid-state amplifier kit  
that I can build myself (a *real* kit, with soldering iron and  
everything!). Some of us don't have the time, tools, and/or smarts to  
homebrew such a creature on our own and would jump all over a kit like  
this. It doesn't have to be anything revolutionary, just a simple amp  
built around MRF150's or whatever. Base model would work with any rig  
to make it appeal to the mass market, with options to expand  
functionality (built-in ATU, K2/K3 interface, etc.), kind of like the  
way the K2 is marketed -- buy what you need. If it could be sold for  
less than a comparable Ameritron, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

73,
Paul WW2PT

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