With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings

Just up on the SPE Website:

Announcement for all the U.S. and Canada purchasers of Expert 1K-FA.

http://www.linear-amplifier.com/

73

Steve
K9ZW

Previous articles available through the Tag feature

SPE has made a formal announcement concerning their progress to re-establish a USA & North America Sales & Service network:

SPE wishes to make the following announcement -

Head of SPE.
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More when they announce their plans.

Steve
K9ZW

Previous Article: SPE Expert 1K-FA Amp’s USA Future & Support in Flux

The SPE Expert 1K-FA website has been updated to say:

Announcement for all the U.S. purchasers of Expert 1K-FA. 

SPE is negotiating to establish, very soon, a new technical assistance and repair center located in the U.S.A.

All the U.S. purchasers of the Expert 1K-FA may contact this center for after-sales service and technical support.

We want to reassure all those purchasers that SPE will take care of their needs. We do however ask them to understand the difficult situation SPE is in at the moment, since there is no more maintenance service offered by those who carried out the sales.

We will make another announcement shortly with the name and contact details of our U.S. Support Center. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The Array Solutions Expert 1K-FA Website has been updated saying:

 Effective immediately: Array Solutions has discontinued its relationship with SPE, the manufacturer of the Expert 1K-FA linear amplifier.

We have been instructed that all sales and service will now be handled by SPE directly. Please contact SPE if you have any questions whatsoever pertaining to their products or service.

We are maintaining our User Group for those who own an SPE Expert 1K-FA Amplifier. Follow the link in the menu to the left or click here.

For sales, warranty, repair, or service please point your browser to http://www.linear-amplifier.com

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I guess this explains why Array Solutions never shipped my Amp!

Shipping to Italy  for service is VERY expensive and therefore many of the needs of these new amps are being handled outside of the warranty provisions.

There have also been some issues with the Second USA Amp shipment being different (and having different difficulties) than the First USA Amp shipment’s Amps.

Whether for cost reasons or other reasons, the changes made to the second series are not being favorably received.

SPE had a revised main firmware Chip available to address some issues.

What little information that there is can be found summarized on the SPE Expert 1K-FA User List (which Array Solutions has agreed to continue to host).

It is too early to predict what will happen with this interesting product.

More as it develops!

73

Steve
K9ZW

What CQ WW contesting I did from the W9EVT/WI9DX Shack on Washington Island WI-001L was partly on W9EVT’s newest gear.

Paired up were a new Array Solutions SPE Expert Solid-State Amp and Ten-Tec Omni-VII Transceiver.

I really enjoyed this combination and after some on-air assistance from Hector AD4C it was a combo performing to the tee!  This is a combo I could live with very easily.

New to the shack and running barefoot was a Yaesu FT-950 Transceiver.

In many ways the FT-950 is the “Little Brother” of the FT-2000 that lives two rigs below it in the console. After using the FT-2000 it was very intuitive to use and is able to use most of the same accessories.

Now for impressions:

FT-950 - The “Boy Robin” to the FT-2000’s “Batman” persona. Very easy to use and definitely a world-class intermediate level radio offering expandability with a DMU Data Management Unit, mU Tuning Units and standard Yaesu accessories.  The FT-950 is at a fantastic price point for its value, specially given the weakness of the US Dollar against world currencies.  A Shack Built around the FT-950 certainly could be competitive contesting and DXing.  On the down side is the relative expense of the DMU & mU units against the base FT-950.  Many of the FT-2000 pluses and minuses I’ve written about before carry over with the FT-950.  That Yaesu shipped the unit requiring very non-standard and unobtainable DIN-10 plugs to run a linear is a marketing oversight and should have been caught by the FT-950’s Beta-Testers.

Expert SPE 1K-FA Amp is really neat package putting a Kilowatt Solid State Amp, an Antenna Tuner, a Four Antenna/Two Radio Smart Switch, a Frequency Counter and a Digital Watt Meter in one package.  Intuitive to use, we had the amp up and running very quickly.  It does NOT require much drive from the exciter to put out significant watts, so take care when you first fire one up.  We had it tripping out at first. On the downside the DXcase is not very serious, specially given the weight of the Amp.  The lack of a printed “Getting Started” and a printed Owner’s Manual (it is on a disk) seems an oversight on a nearly $4000 amp.  I’m waiting for Array Solutions to advise when my Amp will be in, as W9EVT and I swapped places in the amp order que as the timing wasn’t good for my hobby-fund when the first shipments of amps came in.

Omni-VII looks to be my next transceiver.  I was really taken with the radio and envision running a pair of them in the shack.  Teamed with the Expert SPE amp and using the Ten-Tec 708 Microphone the recordings of my audio AD4C played back were exactly what I had in my mind I wanted to sound like.  In many ways I found the Omni-VII to be what I would imagine if my Jupiter “grew up” into a serious contest rig.  I’m not certain if the Omni-VII’s simplicity vs. the Ten-Tec Orion-II isn’t a better balance for an Amateur like myself.  I’m going to have to do some serious A/B testing between the two to eventually decide.

As always George W9EVT hospitality was only exceeded by his wife Susan’s (better not call her W9EVT’s XYL, even though I understand she attended the W9DXCC Functions this year!).

I’ve promised a couple amateurs who emailed and left comments to write up their “Ham Hotel” with Greengate Farm having the fantastic stand-alone shack matched by lovely guesthouse type accommodations in either the Applehouse, The Cabin or The Apartment, so expect more on the Greengate “Ham Hotel“ soon.

Off to dream about a shack upgrade with an Omni-VII and an Expert SPE amp in the mix…..

73

Steve
K9ZW