[GCARC] HF amplifier

[Christopher Wawak]

100 watts to 500 watts is about 7db or a little more than "1 s-unit"
difference on your radio's meter. How many of your QSOs today are not
working out because you can *just *make contact with the other
station, but *can't
quite finish* the QSO with them due to you falling under the noise floor?
Is it worth the extra power requirements (heavy battery / generator) to get
a single S unit?

Looking at a QRP example, going from 5w to 50w is a 10db increase which
gives the "appearance" of being twice as "loud".

Putting resources towards antenna design, improved site selection, and
operating skill is probably going to yield more QSOs than bumping your
signal from an S5 to an S6 or whatever, especially if your antennas are
suboptimal and you can't hear the other person.

73 Chris KC2IEB

On Wed, Jun 8, 2022 at 7:29 AM Tony Starr <tstarr1450 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gregg,
>
> There are not a lot of amplifiers in this class being made, with this
> "class" being 500 watts and portable.  Two that come to mind are the
> Elecraft KPA-500 ( expensive ) and the Ameritron ALS-500 ( cheaper ).  The
> Ameritron can be powered by a 12V battery, but it needs to be a big
> battery, as the current requirement is at least 80 amps. Most of the other
> "small" amplifiers that you will find will run on 120V AC, so a generator
> would be required for portable operation. Depending on the size of your
> generator, the only limit to what you use is how large of an amp do you
> want to lug around.  This is why most people use 100 watts or less for
> portable operation.  A compromise is the Kenwood TS-480HX like I run in my
> truck.  It is a compact (but not lightweight) transceiver that puts out 200
> watts on the HF bands.  Not 500 watts, but better than 100 watts.  Plus,
> it's a Kenwood, and you know the value of that!
>
> 73- Tony K3TS
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2022 at 5:51 AM Gregg Valentine <cigarhunter at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have a 500 W or less, HF amplifier that they wanna part with?
> > I am looking for an amplifier that I can use for field day/parks on the
> > air/alternate location.
> > Gregg
> > KD2VBH
> >
> >
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-- 
-- Chris