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AL-811H
- Thread starter fogdog
- Start date
Bad idea for AM.
Okay for sideband, so long as you are gentle with it.
This model tends to live longer with 572B tubes in it.
But the 811A is a lot cheaper. Makes it popular despite the tendency to fail more frequently.
And that's what makes this amplifier popular, the price.
Not the reliability.
73
Okay for sideband, so long as you are gentle with it.
This model tends to live longer with 572B tubes in it.
But the 811A is a lot cheaper. Makes it popular despite the tendency to fail more frequently.
And that's what makes this amplifier popular, the price.
Not the reliability.
73
The al-811h is a good amplifier for what it is. Tune it properly, dont abuse it, and drive it conservatively and it will last a long long time. Its a great 500w amp. Install the gop board if you get the amp, a little added protection for those tubes. Lots of 811h haters out there but all with no real merit. Like nomad said, designed for ssb for the most part, not the high demand modes like am, fm, rtty etc. Read the reviews on eham, that will help you out also, to decide if its what you want
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Not planning on using it on AM. I have read eham reviews until my eyes were sore, and it looks like a good amp. I will just be using it on the Ham bands.
Anyway I do appreciate the feed back from y'all. I know some people have had a bad experience with it, and some like it a lot. I'm still on the fence about it. Taking my time.
Anyway I do appreciate the feed back from y'all. I know some people have had a bad experience with it, and some like it a lot. I'm still on the fence about it. Taking my time.
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The only thing I have to contribute it that you have to beat the snot out of a small ameritron to get the advertised power. If you want a 800 watt amp I think you may have buyers remorse after the second set of tubes.
I would skip anything with 811s or 572b tubes. The AL80b is a much better amp and will make an easy 750 pep. You can get a nice used one for the price of a new 811H.
I would skip anything with 811s or 572b tubes. The AL80b is a much better amp and will make an easy 750 pep. You can get a nice used one for the price of a new 811H.
Hope you find one in stock. R&l usually has the best prices. They don't stock much, but usually drop ship from Ameritron. I just read where Ameritron is not shipping anything for several weeks.
I've got a problem with my 811H. Every time I call out CQ I get a pile up. Lol I've learned if your not ready to talk, don't use the amp. I'm totally impressed with this amp. Had a QSO on 40m yesterday that lasted 20 minutes, and the amp was nice and cool putting out 600 watts. This is what I was hoping for, and I'm getting what I asked for. I do tend to stay on 1 band way longer than I used to, because now I have to adjust the tuner, and the amp every band change. I guess that's one reason to buy a solid state amp, that follows your transceiver. It will cost 3 times more however. So for now I'm going Old school with amp and manual roller inducter tuner, with a high tech radio. I'm diggin it.
Roller inductors? I still use clip leads and copper tubing. Cheaper and less finicky if they get some dust on them. I do prefer my high tech radio though.
I bought a FTDX3000 about a year ago,sold off my TS-570SG & TS-480 to finance the
purchase. Even though I have one of the latest radios I still rely on a AL-80B & a
Palstar 1500DT tuner.
The newer solid state amps are convenient, ditto the auto tuners but the amps won't tolerate even a moderately high swr without shutting down & some of the auto tuners don't handle 160 meters well.
I'll stick with the dependability over convenience(Just a stubborn old fart)