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What is your all time favorite BASE AMP?

Heavy stuff. Circa 150kg.
Mine looks like on attached photo.
Mike
 

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Back in the 70's I had a military amp. Ran it on CH 16 for about 6 months - it was FANTASTIC... until the FCC showed up and took it!

A combination of: stupid, teenager, single-wide trailer, mountain top, a Cobra 19 & a really bad antenna made for an exciting short period of time.

Lucky they only took the amp. Funny thing though, it took two of them to pack it out! : )
 
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in my 40+ years on the radio hobby i had many and none last either i smoke them or sold them finally years ago i decided to buy an alpha 86 (used) been my best amp ever. drive it to 1.5k with 55 watts. max is 2.2k i never will go there. but is nice to know that it could. i would dead key 1.5 k all day won't even get hot. contact all over the world, good report and audio on ssb. use it on all bands loads up super quick. has 4 meters to monitor whats going on, the best is the grid current meter keep that grid bellow 70 and is hard to mess up this amp would last for ever.
all is super heavy duty made in 1986? still have the original tubes #2, the transformer by itself is 48 lbs. the total weight is about 86 lbs. super expensive to ship. still have it today would never get rid of it and if it does comes a time that i have to buy another it would be another amp of the same quality. i'm done with throw away amps.
 
I thought best was always related to latest (owned).

“If you please, sir, don’t rile me with fact or expert opinion.”

Being new, I have the indelible advantage of only a few owned. Same manufacturer.

Thus, there is NO competition re best base amp!

(Take heed, ye naysayers & run-of-the-mill Philistines).

.
 
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For me I'd have to say the Palomar 300a (after b+ and other effective upgrading mods.)
5194-1507929719-c122587207983695dafb8f13b1718f15.jpg
 
For me I'd have to say the Palomar 300a (after b+ and other effective upgrading mods.)
View attachment 38984
If you ever have to replace the short tubes with the standard sized ones, just add 6 washers to the cover screws and rest them on the top edge of the bottom cover as you tighten them. It gives enough safe clearance to the plate caps and keeps it looking relatively stock. I have 3 and only one still has good, original, short tubes. The other two had their "roofs raised".
 
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STill using my rebuild sb 1000 from Heathkit, with new 3-500ZG in it.
Mostly running 500-600 watts from it, it will do 1000.
Serves me well, 30+ years young.
 
my THP 1.5 is absolutely great.
drive it with 60 watts (+/- depending on the band) for full output.
change bands and it follows along
automatically.

Fan noise is minimal even when QRO... and no, it won't amplify on 11 meters.

I've had numerous tube amps, and they worked well and have certain advantages, but the THP overall comes out on top
 

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