HF Amplifiers Explained! - Ham Radio Outlet 

He really does!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you sir!

Thank you!

Yes, at nearly twice the price per watt, they are certainly good to have!

@@HamRadioOutlet Absolutely plusses and minuses. At nearly twice the price, but with a band control cable.. All I have to do is push 1 button and feel it heat up :)

Check W8JI’s tutorial. Lasts about 40 seconds.

So I do have one followup question. I have the FT991A. You talked about increasing the wattage on the radio to increase the wattage on the AL-811. Does that same theory apply to using the FT991A. 60 watts on the radio to increase the power on the amp? Hope this makes sense, I am still a newbie with this. 73s de KD8VSP

@@stevenbata2336 yes

@@stevenbata2336 The steps are the same regardless of the radio. That's why Bill didn't talk about how to adjust the radio, as each radio is different.

Glad we could help!

Thanks for watching!

Glad it was helpful!

Agreed, they certainly are expensive! I wonder if having an amp makes ham radio too easy? I know that when I break through a pile-up using only 5 or 10 watts, or complete a QSO where our mutual signal reports are 5-7 and the remote station is using a 5 element beam and 1,000 watts and I'm using an EFHW thrown into a tree and 10 watts, I'm pretty happy!

Thank you.

Thanks Daniel.

Waving back atcha! 🖐

Most manual external tuners have meters built in, so the setup is: Radio -> Amplifier -> Tuner -> Antenna For tuners without meters: Radio -> Amplifier -> SWR Meter -> Tuner -> Antenna Always tune the antenna with the amplifier in bypass mode. All equipment to the right of the amplifier in the flow charts above must be able to handle at least the maximum power of the amplifier, preferably more.

The "tuner" in the transceiver is only designed to help match small mismatches between the 50-Ohm output of the radio and the antenna that's attached directly to it. When you use an amplifier, the antenna is not attached directly to the antenna anymore, it's attached to the amplifier. So, when you're using an amplifier, your antenna needs to be resonant, or you'll need an external antenna tuner. The amplifier expects to see 50-Ohms at its antenna output, therefore the tuner must be placed between the amplifier and the antenna. Before even activating the amplifier you have to use the transceiver and the external tuner so that the amplifier sees 50-Ohms. Then you activate the amplifier and do the process described in the video.

Totally depends on your antenna. If it has a large bandwidth, then no, you wouldn't need to retune. But few antennas are low SWR across an entire band. Your antenna could be 5:1 at the bottom, 1.7:1 in the middle, and 4:1 at the top. If you tune it in the middle of the band, it will not be tuned at either the top or the bottom.

@@HamRadioOutlet That makes sense, doing some testing with amp on standby should answer my question.

The amplifier must see a 50-Ohm load... which means your antenna must be tuned to 50-Ohms. This means the flowchart goes... Radio -> Amplifier -> External Tuner -> Antenna It also implies that the external tuner must be able to handle the power of the amplifier as the amplified power will be going through the tuner whenever the amplifier is running. You can't use the tuner built into the radio as that would simply match the radio to the input of the amplifier, which is always 50-Ohms and therefore 1:1 SWR. Meanwhile, the amplifier's output is attached to the antenna, whose SWR could be significantly different. To tune the antenna, you would put the amplifier on bypass (so it's not amplifying anything), use your radio to output a constant carrier and use your external tuner to match the antenna to 50-Ohms (as close to SWR 1:1 as possible). Then follow the instruction in the video for the amplifier.

@@HamRadioOutlet Thanku so much!! I meant: Where would I place an external watt/swr meter? Thanku William

@@WILLIAMPERRELLIYou have to think "What am I measuring, and why?" This makes the solution to your question obvious... What does an SWR/Watt meter measure? It measures the SWR between the transmitter system and the antenna system. The transmitter system is everything dealing with creating and amplifying RF. The antenna system is everything dealing with the antenna and matching network. Since all modern transceivers and amplifiers output 50-Ohms and expect a 50-Ohm input, placing a tuner or SWR/Watt meter between the transceiver and amplifier would always show 1:1 SWR. It would also show the power as whatever the transceiver was outputting... both of which are pointless since you want to know the SWR of the antenna and how much power is going to your antenna from the amplifier. Most external tuners have built-in SWR and Watt meters... that's how you measure SWR! Power going out vs reflected power. The tuner will show you both output and reflected power, and SWR (either digitally, on a single needle, or using crossed needles). So nothing changes from the previous description. Take a look at the MFJ-976 external tuner: www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-007445. See the meter? That shows everything you need to know. No need for an external SWR/Watt meter! Same for the LDG-1000Pro: www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011524, or the Palstar HF Auto: www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011436. If your tuner has no indication of SWR or power out, then the SWR/Watt meter would go between the transmitter system and the antenna system... that is, between the amplifier and the tuner: Transceiver -> Amplifier -> SWR/Watt Meter - > Tuner -> Antenna Reading from right to left... the tuner adjusts the match of the antenna, which is displayed on the SWR meter and provides a 50-Ohm load to the Amplifier. reading from left to right... the transceiver supplies RF to the amplifier, and the watt meter displays the output power. The SWR/Watt Meter and the Tuner must be rated to handle more than the maximum output power of the amplifier.

@@HamRadioOutlet Got it!! Icom-7300, to a Hkit sb-2060a tuner, to a Hkit sb-1000 amp and out to an end fed 80-10.

@@HamRadioOutlet The reason I wanted to add another watt meter, is to verify the meters on the Hkit s2060a’s. Thanku and I appreciate ur help!! Billy

Assuming you just passed your Technician test, you are limited to 200 watts on the HF bands.

There are antennas! You just can't see them (they're wire antennas)!