|
Ameritron makes several amps in the 5-600 watt range, so does SGC if you can find their brick.
Elecraft has a very nice function amp if you want to spend the money and of the two companies the Elecraft beats the Ameritron hands down. As to support with Ameritron glad to hear you think it is good as quite a few of those amps get sent into service as reported or sold shortly after someone buys one at full price and then realize that you can buy a KW amp and simply choose to drive it with less drive and put out less power and problem solved.
So your choice should be a quality KW and drive it to a lower output and have some resale or a 500 watt amp that driven to tilt and breaks down with little resale value beyond 30-50% of sales price if you get lucky.
that being said if I were you avoid those transistor models and find one of the better examples that Ameritron puts out that actually holds up that being an AL-80A or AL-80B. It is considered a 1 tube (3-500Z) and can hit 1 KW if on 220 volts and driven properly. I own one of the AL-80B and run it on lower output power of 300-600 watts all the time without an issue.
It can handle 160-10 and even be modded to add 6 meters if you want. IT works on both AM and SSB without a hiccup.
So now the question is spend money on a claimed 5-600 watt model and run it hard till it breaks or get a KW amp and just run it less than max and avoid hassles? Up to you but having to deal with those small bricks they aren't worth the effort. Consider the shipping plus the cost of repairs once it breaks and even under warranty it stills racks up serious shipping costs plus the chance of loss or damages in shipping just adds to the fun.
Hope that helps....
Hermit
|