I am thinking of adding a Amp to my shack. I have a TS-590 and I am using a Hustler 5 BTV vertical antenna that is tuned to 1.1 to 1 SWR on most bands. It seems that I can hear better than I can get out. I plan to put up a 80 m to 10 m OCF wire antenna later this year. I am considering wall mounting a push pole to the side of my garage to get the wire antenna up around 35'. When I had this antenna up last year I did not have much success with it as it was only up 15' in the air.

I am thinking that a 600 - 700 watt amp just might help. What our your thoughts as to which amp I should go with. I have researched several manufactures, Ameritron being an MFJ company seem to have poor QC/QA, Alpha is to expensive, Acom looks interesting, Elecraft has a nice solid state amp that I like since it has no tubes to replace.

What are your thoughts?

what are you using for feed line?

what kind of ground plane(s) do you have?  do you have room for more?

are the connections and hardware clean?


I'd recommend an Alpha, I know they have a good rep, and they're made right up the road and all  
I don't have one myself, I'm more of a QRP kinda guy.


are you on phone or cw?
do you know if you're using the right techniques for working other stations?

I recommend the Complete DXer by Bob Locher, W9KNI
for some good reading on working contacts.

Elecraft for $2K, or Expert Amps 1K-FA for $4K. Both are on my wish list right now. Same deal, I can hear way better than I can bust through a pile-up, and my Radiowavz FTD-90 is below 2:1 everywhere and below 1.5:1 on 20M and below.

I wish I could afford a Expert Amp. I like the Elecraft Amp as well as the Acom 1010 because they have LED read out on the face showing SWR and VSWR with several protection circuits.

Find a used Ameritron ALS-600 and be done with it. No tuning, no warm-up time.
AL80B is a great amp for the money if you need a little more then 600-700 Watts.

hmmm, sounds like you're doing okay.
have you tried testing your antenna field strength?  no big deal if you haven't..
how about your receive.....do you hear certain directions better than others?  trying to see if you've got issues as you suggest.

ok, that eliminates a lot of the "big" issues... I think... oh, have you verified your power out?

fwiw, your approximate cable loss (alone) is 0.29 dB, at 20M (~), which should not be a factor at all (I was curious, so I punched in the numbers)


fwiw, if you don't have proper grounding in your shack and on your antennas, I encourage you to get it done ASAP.
Florida is one of the highest lightning activity areas in the USA, but you probably already know that.

FWIW I intend to add an amp soon.  My current antenna is a G5RV and I would like to add a vertical to the collection at some point.

I'm probably going to get an AL-811 and run it at low drive levels.  Current tuner is rated to 600W on SSB and 250W for 100% modes.  Being able to run 500W on SSB would be nice, I doubt I will need it for digital, but the ability to run low power levels and get 150-200W should I need it on digital appeals to me.  No, I do not intend to blow out everyone's waterfall.

I thought about the logistics of trying to put up a two element SteppIR, but the potential bullshit just sours me.  I'm sure I'll get some grief for wanting an amp while still using wires, but you know what?  I don't care.

Realistically, I could go my whole life without an amp.  I'm very pleased with my "setup"... it works for me and I've been surprised on a few occasions.  But I want one.  

Therefore, the next time I'm having trouble spending $500 on 100LL, or ammo, or project car parts, or my house, or whatever.... and there is a used AL-811 on QRZ/QTH... it shall be mine.

In my eyes the absolute best bang for buck amp is the AL-811. 600w with cheap tubes. Takes rookie errors without complaint. Often can be found at SK estate sales and on ham classified listings for half of retail.

The difference between 600w and 1200w is 3db which is half a S unit. Nobody will notice. And honestly, if they can't hear you with 600w, they wont hear you with legal limit or more.

Florida? I guarantee would could talk without amps.

I have owned a number of HF amps over the years and I will mention my two favorites. I currently own an Elecraft KPA500 160 thru 6m solid state amp. For me it has been amplifier perfection allowing me instantaneous band changes with a solid 600 watts plus output. Nothing I else I have owned compares to it. There are no relays and it runs cool and completely quiet. I highly recommend it, but the cost is high and I don't think it would be a good choice unless you have very deep pockets.

The second amp that I came to enjoy was the Ameritron ALS-600. I owned several and never had a moments problem with any of them. I sold my last one only to get an amp with 6m and that was the aforementioned Elecraft KPA500.

The ALS-600 is an outstanding value and if run properly will give you years of trouble free use. I highly recommend it. It is very forgiving to newbie mistakes and with its various protection schemes will keep you from blowing it up. I drove mine with about 40 to 50 watts drive for full output. It ran cool, but was not a quiet with its open relay and fan.

I ran both amps with a Kenwood TS-590S radio, so I can say with certainty that you will not be disappointing with using either one.  The tube amps may be cheaper, but once you get a solid state amp, you will never want to go back to tuning again.

Remember.....the first 500 to 600 watts makes the most difference when working DX or the low bands during noisy conditions. Any money you have left over really should be spent on a better antenna system than on a higher power amplifier.

Thanks K9-Bob, I was thinking that the solid state has a great advantage due to its ability to change bands without have to perform a tune each time.

I would like to know if any one on here has have the opportunity to use an Acom Amp, they advertise their amp as have the ability to change bands quickly, only 10 seconds to tune, being a tube amp.

I have no experience with tube equipment; therefore not incline to purchase one.  As I feel tubes are going to become an issues as they are either not being manufactured any more or the few that are still being made are made in China were QC/QA become an issue again.

Another issue for me is that Ameritron has such a bad QC/QA reputation that I don’t want to deal with the hassle of troubleshooting and repairing a new unit.  

My understanding is that tube amps will put up with more abuse than a solid state amp, but my understanding is that solid state amp now have protection circuits built in to prevent them from letting out the magic smoke.  

While the solid state units are more expensive they seem to be more user friendly due to their ability to switch bands without needing to be tuned.

So while I would prefer a solid state amp, the KPA500 being my first choice, I don’t want to eliminate the Acom 1010 due to it being a tube amp, just because of my being unfamiliar with tube equipment.

I guess it come down to the KPA500 vs. the 1010?  Any input welcomed.

I have made a QSO to NC already so don't think VA would be to much of a problem. It seems during the 80 m net that most are from the North East or North West US and I can't seem to praticipate in the net with the others.

I just edited the tittle.

The Hamcation started yesterday, I got to spend two hours there and plan to return today. I was able to see Ameritron, Expert, Ten Tec and Elecraft. HRO who is now carrying Acom was not able to bring any so did not get to see it in personal.

I have been looking at the manuals for the various amps, I like the idea of a amp with the ability to switch between two antennas but not many amps have this feature.

While researching the ALS-600 you need to purchase an interface to get the automatic band switching feature, which means multiple cable from the interface to the amp clutter up what little space I have.

The Ten Tec and Expert amps are too costly for me.

This leave the Acom, Elecraft and Ameritron. Having seen most of the amp I can say that I am not impressed with the appearance of the Ameritron nor with having to have additional cables going to an interface. The Acom does not perform automatic band switching though it appears to be a robust design.

This only leaves the Elecraft amp, with a little modification to the stand on my table in my shack I should be able to put the KPA next to my TS-590. Another point for the KPA is that it has the ability to be connect to my transmitter with a data cable, which allows a second method of band switching.

The 590 and Elekraft work well together
And can do full QSK CW

Why do you need automatic band switching? Will you mount the amp in another room? Why complicate things. ALS-600 has a band switch knob. It take a second to switch bands. You don't have to tune it or do anything else.
BTW, I bought my ALS-600 used for $600. No problems so far.

Get the KPA if you can afford it.  I love mine!  I also love my KAT500 tuner sitting on top of the amp.

It's great not having to mess with the amp when switching bands.  So great in fact that I built an automatic antenna switch so I wouldn't have to mess with an antenna switch when changing bands too!