rm BLA1000

[dd18]

price of BLA 1000

I was quoted Euro 2,250 plus freight but still thought it too high with the way the US$ dropping.
I offered US$1500 to test it and got knocked back!
My skymaster 1kw put out 1kw and only cost US$1.2k, but has no power supply, filters or shut down. Strong as horse and never heats up much.
Problem with RM is that it is very expensive to get their stuff back to Italy to repair it! I am wondering if they could possibly have got this right first time around?
Includes a power supply but no tuner like the Italian SPE 1 and 1kw amps.
So I am going to wait. And see. But no one seems to have taken the plunge and bought one yet.
They make a very solid KL500 which puts out 375w from 80-10m and costs peanuts.
Why did they not just box 4 of these together for a fraction of the cost ???
I like simple and the BLA-1000 looks anything but!!
Whose got one? Anyone?
cheers,
Dave

 

[TonyV225]

At that price I cant imagine anyone our here getting one anytime soon who has that kind of money to invest into taking the chance or gamble on one of these. I know for a fact they had took there time with designing these I watched periodically as they posted pics of this as they put it togeather.

 

[K7IWW]

The Icom PW-1 is a nice amp EXCEPT the internal switching power supply. With a small spike on the AC line the supply stopped working. It was the only device in the house to fail from the spike. At the time I subcontracted repairs for an Icom authorized distributor and was quite familiar with troubleshooting down to the component level. I spent the better part of a day taking this unit apart and finding the defective part. It was a small high frequency toroidal transformer and to my disgust Icom informed our company that NO parts whatsoever were available for the power supply.

This was because they farmed the manufacture of this device out to another company. The ONLY option they could offer was for $2,500 they could sell me a new power supply. That was a ridiculous response for a $40 part. As for me, I'll avoid purchasing any Icom equipment in the future. It's bad enough when a company doesn't stock parts on older items but it's completely unacceptable to not have parts available on current production models.

WOW. Time was, when Icom by far had the best customer service among the YeaComWood trio. Upgrades were often done gratis when other issues were being repaired, one could speak directly with the tech doing the diagnostics/repairs, small parts were complimentary, tech phoned if a repair would approach cost of a new rig, etc.

The IC-4KL's power supply was its Achilles Hill, also. Super amp, but the power supply was known to fail, some components became scarce, and Icom stopped supporting it. A very few hams home brewed new power supplies. A $4,000 (in today's currency probably closer to $6,000) 500W/1KW : 120/240 VAC amplifier with with excellent linearity, robust duty cycle, widerange internal automatic ATU utlizing roller inductor and variable capacitors, and remote desktop control with continuous analog output power & SWR metering — connected to.the heavy, wheeled RF deck by common DB-14 cable — was prone to sudden failure and the typical ham was generally out of luck as far as repair.

The IC-2KL was a fine 500W solid state amp but again, was prone to power supply failure as well as power transistor module failures, with parts obsolescence a problem.


I concur with your assessment of the PW-1 and would not consider purchasing the PW-2 after my experience with the PW-1. As with the 4KL, I took a bath reselling it in light of its gremlins.