Good morning all,

 

Others on the list may have a different opinion of owning a solid state amp
than me, but my recent experience with the Ameritron ALS600 makes me
uncomfortable running one.  I bought a slightly used ALS600 from a good
friend, and after using it sparingly for 6 months or so, I took out the
finals.  The problem was that I had no idea what I did wrong.  My antennas
have extremely low SWR, so I know that SWR was not an issue.  Naturally, if
I don't know how I managed to take out the finals, I can't amend my usage of
the amp to avoid a repeat performance.  I shipped the amp back to Ameritron
for repairs, and it cost me about $400 to replace the finals.  Since I was
so reluctant to put the amp back on the air, I immediately sold it when I
got it back.  To me, solid state amps are just too fragile.  Tube amps can
be abused, and almost never fail.  There are higher quality solid state amps
than the Ameritron offerings, but they cost much more for the same output.

 

For me, I'll stick with tube amps if you don't mind, Hi.

 

73

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

Alan R. Downing

Phoenix, AZ