K7ERQ left EHAM reviews on both, it would be nice if he wrote a comparison. A couple things not mentioned below is that the Flex amp is SO2R capable and has a higher list price.
John KK9A K9MA wrote: On 7/23/2018 21:37, Gary K9GS wrote: > Any side by side with the KPA1500 and the Flex Power Genius yet? > I haven't seen any yet. I did have a conversation last year with 4O3A, designer of the Power Genius. From what Ranko said, the Flex amp seemed to have more headroom than the KPA1500, which might result in better linearity at 1.5 kW, albeit at the expense of efficiency. (The specs say "capable of 2 kW.") There is some scheme to dynamically adjust the supply voltage for higher efficiency at lower power, I presume for CW and RTTY, where linearity isn't a big issue. I read somewhere that supply voltage is NOT modulated in SSB mode, which I imagine would cause lots of nonlinearity. The Flex amp can do predistortion with their radios. However, the KPA1500 also has an output sampling port, which should allow it to do predistortion also with a radio capable of it, probably including the Flex. (I wouldn't be surprised if Elecraft came out with that feature eventually. Could that be the reason it has that sampling port?) The Flex amp has an external ATU, which 4O3A strongly favors, but I think that's a personal preference. For most stations, with antennas that aren't always below 1.5:1, a solid state amplifier without an ATU is pretty useless, so I think Elecraft's decision to integrate it makes sense. While the Flex amp can certainly be made to work with Elecraft radios, the seamless integration with the KPA1500 is very attractive. I'm happy with mine so far. 73, Scott K9MA ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
