Wow kevin, that's quite an amp.  What company is it?  Wow. Good luck and
congratulations! 

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Forst
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Preliminary Thoughts on the SPE Expert 1K-FA Solid State Amp

Kevin,

Sounds like a neat toy.  Good luck and lot's of DX with it.

73, Steve KW3A

On 4/1/2011 12:21 PM, Kevin Nathan wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I will warn you up front, this is a fairly long post and you may want 
> to use your delete key if you aren't interested in linear amps and 
> their accessibility.
>
> I think I mentioned on this list last weekend that I had purchased one 
> of these imported amps from Italy.  This model is the third revision 
> and is quite reliable according to reviews and those with whom I have 
> spoken who use one.  I wanted to share my initial impressions with you 
> concerning its operation and especially from a blindness perspective.
>
> First, let me describe some of its features:
>
> 1.  Power, 1 KW out on SSB and approximately 900 watts on CW;
>
> 2.  Built-in automatic antenna tuner;
>
> 3.  Inputs for two radios;
>
> 4.  Set up for SO2R contesting out of the box;
>
> 5.  Instant switching of antennas and inputs depending on the RF 
> signal it receives;
>
> 6.  Half power operation available for continuous duty modes such as 
> AM, FM and RTTY;
>
> 7.  Two different settings for cooling (normal or contest); and
>
> 8.  Operation through six meters with 750 out on SSB on 6.
>
> INITIAL IMPRESSIONS.  When I first opened the box, I thought I was in 
> serious trouble.  The entire front panel of the amp is smooth except 
> for the glass display window.  However, Kathy and I marked the 18 
> membrane buttons on the front with tactile locator dots and it became 
> possible for me to operate it.  A totally blind person such as myself 
> will need sighted assistance to set it up.  You need to go through the 
> antenna selection for each band for each radio.  You can assign two 
> different antennas for each band if you wish or select "no" if you 
> don't have a second antenna.  For example, I could assign both my quad 
> and my G5RV for 20 meters on each radio and could switch between them 
> for comparisons if I wanted by pressing the antenna button on the 
> front of the amp.  Once you have gone through the antenna menu and
assigned antennas, you then must train the tuner memories.
> Each band has a starting point and goes up in steps of X kHz depending 
> on the band.  So, for example, on 160 the start frequency is 1805 
> steps are 10 kHz, on 80 20 kHz, and so one with the distance between 
> training points getting larger as the bands move higher in frequency.
>
> Once you have done this, operation becomes simple.  You need only set 
> the frequency on your radio, touch the key, or give a short whistle 
> into the mic and the input, tuner and amp all move to where you are 
> and you are ready to rock and roll.  This is accomplished through a 
> built-in frequency counter or you can actually connect CAT control 
> from your radio.  The individuals I know have these amps don't even 
> bother with the CAT control most of the time.  There is also an RS-232
interface to control the amp with a computer.
> I have a friend in Portland who controls his entire station, including 
> his Expert remotely from Baja Mexico while on vacation.
>
> I needed to do some reassignment and reconfiguration after initially 
> setting up the amp to maximize use of my antennas.  The reason is that 
> I had put my Kenwood TS-590 on input 1 and my Drake station on antenna 
> 2.  When turned off, the Expert defaults to input 1 and antenna 1.  
> Since I had my quad on antenna 1 and since I like to listen to 
> shortwave once in a while, this did not work well, especially since I 
> like the Drake R4C for SWL activities and do a lot of listening on 49 
> meters.  So, I simply put the Drake to input 1 and my G5RV on antenna 
> 1 and now all is well.  I can listen to SW any time I wish on the 
> Drake with a good, wide band antenna on it when the amp is shut off.  
> The beauty of the station now is the frequency agility.  I can be 
> listening to a net on 75, hear a DX spot come in for that new one I 
> need, click the frequency in XMLog's DX spotting window and the radio 
> will move there.  The minute I throw my call out there or even make a 
> small noise into the mic or touch the keyer, the amp and tuner are both
right there too with no tuning of the antenna tuner or amp.  I love this
agility.
>
> NEGATIVES.  If you are a control freak, the biggest negative is that 
> you cannot really monitor operating parameters such as power out, temp 
> of the amp heat syncs and so on due to the visual nature of the 
> display.  This weekend I will hook up the computer to it but I think 
> the displays on the computer screen are visual bar graphs and may not
prove to be of much help.
> To balance this, SteppIR just up the road in Belleview, WA is the U.S.
> distributor and are always willing to entertain questions.  And, since 
> the amp does not approach legal limit, I don't really need to see 
> these parameters since alarms sound and protection circuits stop amp 
> operation if you are endangering the final transistors.
>
> The other negative is that the tuner definitely only likes a 3 to 1 
> SWR or better.  So, for 80 meters where my G5RV is narrow, I have to 
> keep the old manual tuner in line after the amp to present a low 
> enough SWR to allow the amp's tuner to tune the segment of the band I 
> use most often.  However, this is a minor inconvenience given the 
> overall level of satisfaction I find in using the amp.
>
> I hope this post has been somewhat informative, helpful, or at least 
> interesting to someone on the list.  Please write with any questions 
> you might have concerning it.
>
> Thanks much for reading and I look forward to seeing some of you this 
> weekend on our 20 meter net.  Very 73.
>
>
> Kevin :)
> Amateur Radio:  K7RX
>
>
>