AUSTRALIAN HAM RADIO STORE
Eleven years ago, I was about to turn 50. My wife asked for a birthday present suggestion. Without the slightest hesitation, I’ve said “A DX3 amplifier, by Emtron.”
She laughed it off, adding that I don’t really need another piece of ham gear. And she was right. Yet, a couple of weeks later, a brand spanking new DX3 was on my bench, glowing like a Christmas tree.
A big amp is a fun toy and DX3 was a beast, easily outputting 3.5KW on all bands. Except on bands where you really want every Watt possible: barely 1.5KW on 15m and 1.1KW on 10m.
Obviously the parallel capacity of the two output tubes was too much on these bands. While I was not surprised nor terribly disappointed, I did call Rudi for a comment. Like my wife, he laughed me off too.
“Nick, you have to understand that 10m is a different band than the rest, and why in the world would you need more power than a kilowatt?”
Rudi was a good engineer, but a terrible salesperson trying to convince me that the claimed technical specifications should be taken with a pinch of salt. Seriously? How would my customer feel if I sell him a watch which keeps perfect time six days per week but loses 20 minutes on Monday?
A few weeks ago I took a part in CQWW RTTY contest, operating a remote station at my brother’s location in Serbia. Unlike in Australia, over there running 1.5KW on any mode is perfectly legal.
Most Balkan stations run much more power – and no one complains. They just love their kilowatts.
But my mission was not to make as many contacts as possible, rather, to push a brand new PowerGenius 4O3A amplifier as far as it could be pushed, on the most demanding mode, in a real contest environment. I told my brother: worry not, if I kill it, you’ll get a replacement in a week.
Rated at 1.5KW key down amp, when pushed, PGXL actually outputs closer to 2KW.
I’ve set the power to 1700W and started the run. My brother has a fairly decent antenna on 10m band, so I was able not just to hold the frequency but to run a modest pileup at a good rate. Meaning, the TX time was at least equal to RX time. And when things slowed down, the amp was on transmit for at least 70% of the time.
Yet not once did it complain: the temperature stayed below 56 C, there were no red-flashing alarms, no ‘missing network’ warnings, no power cut offs. Just a solid 1.7KW of pure juice. Not ‘as per specification’ but ‘significantly more than as per specification’.
PGXL is a perfect example of an under-promise, over-deliver deal. A fantastic true remote amplifier which could be operated at arm’s length, from a porch – or from 18,000 kilometres away. The kind of amp your wife would want you to have.
Photo: YT3D and his rotary tower housing 3el 40m yagi and 16 el tribander for 20-10m band.
