Quote History Quoted:
I think Ameritron is made by MFJ and that worries me.
The ACOM 1000 looks great but is over my budget.
View Quote
I've seen Acom1000 used, in excellent shape for around $2,000. Keep in mind that unlike other amps, Acom can handle up to 3:1 SWR. Solid state amps are very touchy about SWR and will go into a bypass mode when SWR gets over 1.5:1 unless you have a tuner.
Acom 1000 is fool-proof and has all kinds of protection features and alarms (with alarm memory). It's also very quiet, unlike most tube and solid state amps. It has a tuning aid that makes tuning very easy and fast. The GU-74 tube is bullet-proof and very cheap.
I tried driving my Acom1000 with my Elecraft KX3 and got about 215 Watts out with 10 Watts in. It puts out 1,200 Watts easily with around 60 Watts drive. I'm yet to hear the cooling fan running at full speed, even during high duty cycle TX when calling CQ or handling large pile-ups.