Hello All:
I guess I'll throw my 2 cents worth in the pot. I have been waiting for a QRO amplifier from Elecraft for some time now. I've truly enjoyed all my Elecraft products which include four radios. The build of the K2/100 was the richest experience and I learned a very great deal. The QRO amplifier was talked about and a prototype was displayed many years ago now. I finally decided to put to use my 20 year old Kenwood TL-922A amplifier. The problem was that it required a buffer between the newer radios and this amp, it was a noise maker with its heavy relay, and had problems with flash over most likely due to VHF parasitics. There is a great deal of information on upgrading this finely built amplifier on the internet and I finally took the plunge to do the modifications. It took a couple months to gather up items needed and do the mods but it now has an electronic cathode bias circuit, full QSK using the little Gigavac GH1 vacuum relay, a step start circuit using that big noisy relay (it only snaps shut once now!), no ALC circuitry, modified VHF parasitic suppression, and I can drive it equally well with my Drake T4XB or my K3. The project was fun, I learned a very great deal, and the result was excellent. No more flash-overs and clean output. And the old girls, the 3-500Z's, are still shining well. The one thing that is missing is 6M amplification. This is where the new Elecraft KPA-500 will do well. I believe the new 6M Alpha (RF Concepts) amp will cost more than the KPA-500 but it will give you 1500 watts - easy. The new solid state technology with light-weight power supplies is certainly the way of the future and the small matching Elecraft footprint is a definite plus especially for DXpeditions. Will I buy one ? It depends. It will be very hard to part with my modified TL-922 since it is now 'personalized'. And with the experience and knowledge gained from that process, I may decide to build a 6M amplifier to round it all out. Now if Elecraft were to come out with a KPA-500-6M 6M only amp . J 73, Jamie WB4YDL ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.15850) http://www.pctools.com/ ======= ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

