REVIEW OF THE SPE EXPERT 1K-FA SOLID STATE LINEAR AMPLIFIER

By K7RX

Recently I received an unexpected windfall and was able to purchase one of these imported amps from Italy.  This model is the third revision and is quite reliable according to reviews and those with whom I have spoken who use one.  I would like to share my initial impressions with you concerning its operation and especially from a blindness perspective.
 
First, let me list some of its features that appealed to me:
 
1.  Power, 1 KW out on SSB and approximately 900 watts on CW;
 
2.  Built-in automatic antenna tuner;
 
3.  Inputs for two radios;
 
4.  Connections for four different antennas;

5.  Instant switching of antennas and inputs depending on the RF signal it receives or CAT connection;
 
6.  Half power operation available for continuous duty modes such as AM, FM and RTTY;
 
7.  Two different settings for cooling (normal or contest); 
 
8.  Operation through six meters with 750 out on SSB on 6.
 
9.  Ready to use for SO2R contesting out of the box if this is your thing.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS.  Not being able to get my hands on one beforehand, when I first opened the box, I thought I was in serious trouble.  The entire front panel of the amp is smooth except for the glass display window.  However, my XYL and I marked the 18 membrane buttons on the front with tactile locator dots and it became possible for me to operate it.  A totally blind person such as myself will need sighted assistance to set it up.  You need to go through the antenna selection for each band for each radio.  You can assign two different antennas for each band if you wish or select "no" if you don't have a second antenna.  For example, I could assign both my quad and my G5RV for 20 meters on each radio and could switch between them for A/B comparisons if I wanted by pressing the antenna button on the front of the amp.

Once you have gone through the antenna menu and assigned antennas, you then must train the tuner memories.  Each band has a starting point and goes up in steps of X kHz depending on the band.  For example, on 160 the start frequency is 1805 steps are 10 kHz, on 80, 3510 and 20 kHz, and so on with the distance between training points getting larger as the bands move higher in frequency.
 
Once you have done this, operation becomes simple.  You need only set the frequency on your radio, touch the key, or give a short whistle into the mic and the input, tuner and amp all move to where you are and you are ready to rock and roll.  This is accomplished through a built-in frequency counter or you can actually connect CAT control from your radio.  The individuals I know who have these amps don't even bother with the CAT control most of the time.  There is also an RS-232 interface to control the amp with a computer.  I have a friend in Portland who controls his entire station, including his Expert remotely from Baja Mexico while on vacation.
 
I needed to do some reassignment and reconfiguration after initially setting up the amp to maximize use of my antennas.  The reason is that I had put my Kenwood TS-590 on input 1 and my Drake C line station on antenna 2.  When turned off, the Expert defaults to input 1 and antenna 1.  Since I had my quad on antenna 1 and since I like to listen to shortwave once in a while, this did not work well, especially since I like the Drake R4C for SWL activities and do a lot of listening on 49 meters.  So, I simply put the Drake station to input 1 and my G5RV on antenna 1 and now all is well.  I can listen to SW any time I wish on the Drake with a good, wide band antenna on it when the amp is shut off.  The beauty of the station now is the frequency agility.  I can be listening to a net on 75, hear a DX spot come in for that new one I need, click the frequency in XMLog's DX spotting window and the radio will move there.  The minute I throw my call out there or even make a small noise into the mic or touch the keyer, the amp and tuner are both right there too with no tuning of the antenna tuner or amp.  I love this agility.
 
NEGATIVES.  If you are a control freak and totally blind, the biggest negative is that you cannot exactly and independently monitor operating parameters such as power out, temp of the amp heat syncs and so on due to the visual nature of the display.  Eventually, I will hook up the computer to it but I think the displays on the companion software's screen are visual bar graphs and may not prove to be of much help.  To balance this, SteppIR, just up the road in Belleview, WA, is the U.S. distributor and are always willing to entertain questions.  And, since the amp does not approach legal limit, I don't really need to see these parameters since alarms sound and protection circuits stop amp operation if you are endangering the final transistors.  I am in process of putting my LDG TW1 in line with antenna 1 so I can quickly look at output power.
 
The other negative is that the tuner definitely only likes a 3 to 1 SWR or better.  So, for 80 meters where my G5RV is narrow, I have to keep the old manual tuner in line after the amp to present a low enough SWR to allow the amp's tuner to tune the segment of the band I use most often.  However, this is a minor inconvenience given the overall level of satisfaction I find in using the amp.
 
I hope this information has been somewhat informative, helpful, or at least interesting to someone reading this newsletter.  Please write with any questions you might have concerning it.  My email address is k7rx@comcast.net.