October 2007
Contents
1. Compact and relatively lightweight the SPE Expert 1K FA amplifier is a no tune solid state legal limit smart power amplifier designed with the contester in mind AD5X puts it through its paces CO Reviews SPE Expert 1K FA Solid State HF 50 MHz 1 KW Power Amplifier hile vacuum tube based HF Wice amplifiers still dominate the amateur radio market we are starting to see more and more new solid state HF amplifiers becoming available This is due to lower prices for high power FETs field effect transis tors higher costs for high voltage power supply components and tubes and the convenience of no tune opera tion A new solid state amplifier intro duced at Dayton this year is the Expert 1K FA amplifier from SPE in Rome Italy Array Solutions www arraysolutions com is the exclusive U S distributor of this amplifier The Expert 1K FA amplifier provides 1000 watts PEP 900 watts CW on 160 10 meters and 700 watts PEP CW on 6 meters The amplifier is quite compact at just 11 inches wide 6 inches high and 13 5 inches deep and weighs about 45 pounds Included within this amplifier package is a 120 240 VAC linear power supply SPE chose a linear power sup ply with a highly efficient toroidal hyper sil transformer to eliminate the possibil ity of switching tones Photo A shows the attractive front panel with LCD screen photo B is an inside view of the power supply bottom portion of the amplifier and photo C2. er mea sured key down string of dits and PEP SSB power on both the 1K FA internal power meter and the external PowerMaster As you can see in Table the 1K FA does a good job of meet ing its typical power output specifica PM Key Down 932 946 915 740 870 1025 936 1025 616 Amp Key Down 1178 1115 938 850 1011 1100 1031 1200 765 tions It is interesting to note that the PowerMaster typically reads 0 5 1 dB more power than the amplifier metering The amplifier measures power at the input to the internal auto tuner and the PowerMaster measures power at the output of the auto tuner The internal auto tuner is always in line and cannot be bypassed Therefore these mea surements seem to indicate the intrin sic loss of the auto tuner On the Air Most of my operating during the evalu ation period was on 160 80 40 and 20 meters using my Yaesu MkV and on 6 meters using the IC 706MkIIG Opera tion is truly easy in that the amplifier automatically selects the keyed radio and the primary antenna previously chosen for that radio and band You lit erally don t need to worry about which microphone or key you start using or which antenna needs to be connected Your pre programmed radio vs anten na is taken care of for you by the ampli fier Of course you can manually change these combinations at any time Finally as a CW operator really appre ciated the smooth QSK break in key ing ope
3. eters monitored and acted on by the amplifi er are heatsink temperature FET drain alps COE l ae DARD AHD AHI ee eee LH kdi Vakka CF Photo E Computer screen display when the amplifier is operating at full power output Photo F Interfaces for transceivers and antennas are well marked and self explanatory Note the SO2R connector voltage PA current SWR reflected power which includes reflected har monic power input overdrive and power combiner balance Any fault con dition provides an audible and visual alarm and puts the amplifier into the standby bypassed condition All alarms are also stored in an Alarm History buffer which can be called up on the amplifiers LCD display Connecting the Amplifier The 1K FA comes strapped for 240 VAC so you first need to decide on whether or not to change this to 120 VAC The amplifier will easily operate from 120 VAC in the half power mode measured the 120 VAC AC current at 10 5 amps when operating at half power also found that could operate the amplifier at full power on 120 VAC but did have it connected to an AC branch that is separate from the AC cir cuit from which my two transceivers are powered measured the full power 120 VAC current at 19 amps so you really should run the amplifier from 240 VAC unless you have a separate 120 VAC 20 amp circuit available As discussed earlier all the connec tors for automatic interfacing w
4. ith my ICOM IC 706MkIIG with a 6 meter loop on the SO2R connector while operating HF with my Yaesu FT 1000 MkV When something pops up on the 6 meter calling frequency just hit the PTT button on my 706 and the amplifi er automatically selects that radio and my 6 meter beam Pretty neat Full monitoring of the Expert 1K FA is provided by the amplifiers LCD screen From this screen you can accurately monitor amplifier FET drain voltage and current exciter and amplifier output power and reflected power with simul taneous bar graph and digital readings the selected transceiver and antenna and an alarm log The LCD screen pro vides menus for programming the ampli fier for radio specific interfaces and antenna selections as well Youcan also interconnect the amplifier to a PC witha supplied RS 232 cable and display in color all amplifier parameters and con trol the 1K FA from your computer If your desktop computer does not have an RS 232 port found that a cheapie USB to serial converter works just fine Photos D and E show the display indi cating exciter power when the amplifier is in standby and full amplifier output power respectively Si port COL Femi oonmectionc DH Sabo hidan OH j J Amadon bani maiwa bowda aa ba a a badi ol iri an Th Loot al a band on awe bawd asi o sa et pon ata poa Dopod on lapa Lv n m Lo Amplifier Protection The Expert 1K FA has a very extensive protection system The param
5. ith up to two transceivers and four antennas are provided on the rear of the amplifier as can be seen in photo F SPE provides two sets of RCA type cables for ALC and amplifier keying and two 15 pin D connectors for making up transceiver interface cables In my case wanted to connect both my Yaesu MkV and my IC 706 transceivers to the amplifier pur chased a 9 pin female D connector from RadioShack for the Yaesu CAT end of the cable and used one of the SPE supplied 15 pin D connectors for the amplifier side of the interface cable For the IC 706MKIIG used an Ameri tron ARB 704 transceiver amplifier buf fer which provides ALC and amplifier keying outputs from the transceiver s accessory socket For the IC 706MkIIG band data information made a Cl V cable using a 3 5 mm mono plug for the ICOM end and the second SPE sup plied 15 pin D connector for the ampli fier end Detailed instructions in the amplifier manual show how to make cables for virtually any transceiver Next went into the 1K FA setup menu and set the interfaces for the Yaesu and ICOM radios also set the default selected antennas for each radio and trained the internal auto tuner for each antenna on the different bands Performance My amplifier testing included measur ing the amplifier power output into a legal limit dummy load and checking the amplifier s internal power metering against an external Array Solutions PowerMaster digital wattmet
6. r transceivers set for max imum power all the time and the 1K FA will control the transceiver power levels from band to band with no operator adjustments necessary Also when the amplifier is placed in Standby you have full transceiver power available However what if you don t need the full 1 KW power The 1K FA has a Power switch on the front panel that lets you select between half power approxi mately 500 watts and full power Again the amplifier controls the ALC line as necessary to control the drive so there is nothing for you to do other than punch the Power button Five hundred watts is 7 dB more power over an S unit than the typical 100 watt transceiver which often is all it takes to make the differ ence in snagging that DX contact The 1K FA also has a rear SO2R Single Operator 2 Radio connector for contesters This is a receive only port that permits you to listen on one transceiver while you are operating your main transceiver If you hear a sta tion you want to work on the secondary transceiver you just start transmitting with this transceiver and the amplifier Photo B The bottom power supply portion of the Photo C RF section of the amplifier with the internal shields amplifier Look at that power transformer automatically switches to this trans removed ceiver and the correct antenna I ve found this convenient even outside of contests for monitoring 6 meters w
7. ration of the amplifier Conclusion The SPE 1K FA is definitely an amplifi er to consider With its multi radio multi antenna SO2R and auto tuner fea tures this amplifier is very easy to use from normal rag chewing to contesting and DXing Introductory price is 3 975 For more information including a down loadable user s manual check the Array Solutions website at lt http www arraysolutions com gt Note 1 Single Operator 2 Radio SO2R is a pop ular entry category in some contests It permits a single contester to operate on one band while monitoring for new score multipliers on anoth er band on a second radio and then to briefly switch to that second radio to make the contact for a new multiplier Amp Dits 1118 1033 1018 950 1100 1075 950 1200 810 Table l Amplifier power output measurements where Amp internal amplifier meter reading PM external PowerMaster meter reading See text for discussion of differences in readings all of which are in watts Reprinted with permission from CQ Magazine October 2007
8. shows the RF compartment with the internal RF shields removed The Expert 1K FA can serve as the center ofa fully coordinated contest sta tion as it includes a two transceiver input control interface a four port antenna switch and a high power auto matic antenna tuner that can separate ly manage antennas on each of the four antenna ports Thus any two trans ceivers can be connected to any one of 1517 Creekside Drive Richardson TX 75081 e mail lt ad5x cq amateur radio com gt BY PHIL SALAS AD5X Photo A The SPE 1K FA solid state amplifier puts out 1000 watts on 160 10 meters and 700 watts on 6 meters four antennas When the amplifier is off transceiver 1 is connected to antenna 1 while antenna ports 2 3 and 4 are grounded The two transceiver control interfaces are 15 pin D connectors that provide band data interfaces to most transceivers Even if your transceiver has no band data output the Expert 1K FA senses the keyed transceiver s fre quency and automatically selects that transceiver and the correct antenna There are also two separate ALC automatic level control and amplifier keying interfaces for the two transceiv er inputs The ALC interfaces are very well thought out When you connect the ALC cables between the 1K FA and your transceivers the amplifier auto matically controls the drive power from the selected radio necessary to give you the full amplifier output Therefore you can leave you
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search