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
>
>
>
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