[NLRS] Solid State Amps

[Steven H Sawyers (na0ia)]

Winter is coming and I hope to have the house improvements (roof, windows, 
and siding) done.

So my thoughts are turning to improving the rover for the January contest. 
I am looking at rotatable beam antennas and a switching matrix to go from 
omni to beams on all bands.

For those who don't remember, I run a Icom 551 with 50 watts out on 6 meters.
and a Yaesu 736R with 40 watts out on 2 meters, 35 watts out on 220, 35 
watts out on 432, and 10 watts out on 1296. Basic NF is about 5 dB. I would 
like to add some extra power - say 300 watts or so - and better NF.

I am asking the group for recommendations on amps. I would prefer build in 
pre amps with hard keying, but I have separate DEM pre amps and relays so I 
could wire that up.

The rover is getting updated with a separate 24-28V alternator and a 35 amp 
x 48 volt switching power supply so supply voltages are not much of a problem.

I have eight 6 Volt 200AH sealed lead acid batteries plus a couple of 12 
Volt 100 AH batteries so current draw (and traction) should not be a problem.

So I am asking the group for recommendations on amplifiers.

My limited research has found the following:

RF concepts was bought out by Alpha who then changed hands so they are only 
offering 150 watt 144 and 432 amps.

I have not found any recent information on TE Systems. The old ads I found 
look promising on the power in and power out category, but their pre amps 
are somewhat dated. I can not find a web site for them, but I think they 
are still in business. Anyone have contact information? Anyone have 
experience with them?

DEM does not have much power in the 6,2,220,432 bands. They still have 
several amps listed as "in development", but they have been listed that way 
for over two years.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Steve
na0ia