Flex 5000A & Ameritron ALS-600 Question(s)

Wally

I have a 5000a and want to add a power amp and am considering the Ameritron ALS-600 and would like to know if this is a good match and which power supply would be better or if it makes any difference...the linear or switch?

Jim

Hi Wally I run a 65 amp Toyota Hi power Switching power supply . My amp Is a legal limit tube amp It needs only 30 watts or less from the radio . The amp Is a Ten Tec Titian Gold 425 rig several different Flex's  3k and 5k . Foot note also run the radio's through a Ameritron ARB-704 before the amp
have web  site with info on the old flex radios
http://www.w4wwj.org
73 Jim W4WWJ

DON

Wally

I ran an ALS600 with my F5K and it really worked very well. As far as power supplies go, either one would do well.  I am now running the ALS600 with a Flex 6300 and that works very will too. I built an interface to allow the ALS 600 to auto band switch from the FLEX and it is like having a 600w tranceiver.

73 Don K0OM

Wally

Oh my gosh what a wonderful web page you have...it will take me awhile to get through it all...Thank You! so much!

Wally

Thanks Don I appreciate it...isn't there and interface from Ameritron that will auto band the 5000a? Or is it an interface that allows none SDR and older radios to connect.
Wally

Greg N8GD

I run a 6300 with an ALS600 and an MFJ-998 autotuner. I use DDUtil to interface to the ARI-500 amp interface which auto band switches the amp. It's pretty much an automatic operation. I believe you can do the same with the 5000A. I think DDUtil works with PowerSDR as well. Search for the ALS600 here on the community. There is a write-up on connecting the ARI-500 using DDUtil and a homemade BCD cable to the amp. Greg, N8GD

Patrick Greenlee

Re the power supply:

Switchers can be quite noisy in audio and or RF spectrum but are lighter and depending on design and components can be more efficient.  Linear supply might be a bit less efficient but weigh significantly more.  If you aren't intending to use it in aeronautical mobile service in a glider maybe weight is not a big deal.  I'd read the eHam and other reviews to see if there are any glaring issues like RFI with the switcher.  Good luck with your project.

Patrick        NJ5G

Greg N8GD

When I purchased my ALS600 at the Dayton Hamvention last year, I talked to an Ameritron rep and asked which power supply I should get. He stated that unless I needed the lighter weight of the switching supply, I should go with the linear supply instead since it is simpler and less prone to failure. My amp and supply sit on a shelf above my 6300 and haven't moved since they were installed, so the extra weight of the linear supply hasn't been an issue! Greg - N8GD

DON

Wally
Here is a messy drawing of what I used to make it work.
You must use the DDUTIL program from K5FR to tie the whole thing together.
The parallel port must be a real one vs. the usb emulator type of port or it will not work.
I got the Unified Microsystems cards from DX engineering and they are reasonably priced.
I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but it may be a place to start.
This worked well for my F5k and the 6300.
there is a lot of good info on the K5FR DDUTIL web site.
73s Don K0OM

Wally

Thanks for all of your help guys...I bought an ALS-600 and am afraid of making an interface for it for auto band switching...maybe later. I sent an email to Ameritron to ask about how to hook up the 5000 with it:

I just bought my first power amp which is a ALS-600 and need to know how to interface it with a Flex 5000A.
Can I use a foot switch like the Heil FS-2 connected to the amps' relay jack? Or, do I connect the TX1 on the back of the radio to the amps' relay jack and if so do I need one of your relay buffers?
I got the amp with the linear power supply. I haven’t heard from Ameritron so anyone want to take a stab at answering the questions?

Thanks again for all of your help.

Wally

Greg N8GD

You don't need to build an interface.  Ameritron already has one available, the ARI-500.  Here are the details on how to do it from an earlier post from about 2 years ago:

Interfacing the Flex 6500/6700 to the ALS-600 or the ALS-1300 using the ARI-500

Your Flex 6500/6700 transceiver can be setup to provide automatic band switch selection of the Ameriton ALS-600 or ALS-1300 using the Ameritron ARI-500 interface.  Unfortunately, Ameritron does not provide a standard cable for the Flex radios.  So you need to build a custom interface cable to connect between your PC printer port and the ARI-500.  This cable will connect the Radio Interface connector on the ARI-500 rear panel to your PC printer port LPTx.

You will also need to install the DDUTIL Version 3 software to send the band data BCD information to the ARI-500 via the printer port LPTx port.  You can download this software via the following website:

http://k5fr.com/ddutilwiki/index.php?title=DDUtil_v3.0

If you own a newer PC without a printer port,  you can install a printer parallel port adapter card.  I recommend using the Rosewill RC-304 PCI dual printer port adapter card.  The Rosewill adapter ports will be setup on non-standard Hex Addresses.  Using device manager you can obtain the printer port address in hex.  Convert the hex address to decimal and then setup the DDUTIL to use the printer port with that address. More details on this setup on the DDUTIL website.

Connect your Ameritron amplifier to the ARI-500 Amp A and B jacks using the two supplied RJ45 to RJ45 computer network patch cables that are supplied with the ARI-500.

The ARI-500 RADIO input connection is a RJ-45 jack with specific connections for each radio brand.

The diagram below shows the pin-out of the RADIO input jack.

ARI-500 Radio Jack Pinout

RJ45-1 Ground

RJ45-2 Key In

RJ45-3 Kenwood RX

RJ45-4 Kenwood TX / Yaesu BCD D

RJ45-5 Yaesu BCD C

RJ45-6 Yaesu BCD B

RJ45-7 Yaesu BCD A / Icom Power

RJ45-8 Icom Band Data

The black RJ45 Radio Interface cable included with the ARI-500 has the following color wires:

Pin 1 - White with Orange stripe

Pin 2 - Orange

Pin 3 - White with Green stripe

Pin 4 - Blue

Pin 5 - White with Blue stripe

Pin 6 - Green

Pin 7 - White with Brown stripe

Pin 8 - Brown

If these colors do not match your cable, please make a new chart of the wire colors vs. pin numbers.

You can use the RJ-45 cable that is included with the ARI-500.  One end has a RJ-45 connector the other end is unterminated.  You need to install a male DB25 connector to plug into the computer printer port.

The connections for the DB25 Male Connector is as detailed below:

DB25-2    Wht/Brn

DB25-3    Grn

DB25-4    Wht/Blu

DB25-5    Blu

DB25-18  Wht/Org

Now you need to make the following connections between the unterminated end of the cable and the male DB25 connector:

DB25 pin 2- to - RJ45 pin 7 - BCD Band Data A

DB25 pin 3- to - RJ45 pin 6 - BCD Band Data B

DB25 pin 4- to - RJ45 pin 5 - BCD Band Data C

DB25 pin 5- to - RJ45 pin 4 - BCD Band Data D

DB25 any pin 18 to 25 - to - RJ45 pin 1 - ground

The ARI-500 Radio Interface cable transfers the band data between the DDUTIL software program and the ARI-500 interface. It does NOT carry the PTT signal. In order to key the amplifier from the Flex 6500/6700, you need to install a RCA to RCA cable between your Flex 6500/6700 radio TX1 connector and the amplifier relay connector.

Note:  The ARI-500 does not support selection of the 17M and 30M bands.  Switching the transceiver to 17M selects 15M on the amplifier and switching to 30M selects 20M on the amplifier.  Ameritron needs to update the ARI-500 firmware to select the correct bands.

Steve Scoggins N9HE 

Steve has all the details above and I can verify that they work.  Using DDUtil to interface with your 5000A should allow the amp to follow the bands automatically with the 5KA.  I also use an MFJ-998 autotuner, and with that setup I essentially have a 600 watt transceiver.  All you need to do is hit tune, the tuner autotunes (taking the amp off line) then puts the amp back on and you're ready to go,  This requires feeding the keying line to the amp through the tuner's amp in/out jacks.

Greg - N8GD

W9OY

I use an ALS-1300 but the method of interface for the ALS-600 is the same.

This is how I did it without a Parallel port, since my computer had none.  A USB printer port cable will not work as a parallel port by the way.

Robot Radio

For your case you would only need the ARI-500, a Sint Smart USB 8 or equivalent Chinese knockoff from ebay, 12V and 5V and DDUTIL.  I modified my ARI-500 according to this article.  Here is another article that uses a parallel port to connect to a F5K.  When I had a 5K I used a parallel port (different computer) and I think the USB lash up is a better deal. 

For my 1300, I use the switching supply.  It is neither electrically or physically noisy nor is it prone to failure.   

73  W9OY

Mark_WS7M

Wally,

I have a very little used ALS600 I'd be willing to sell if you are still on the market.  Mine was purchased just a little before December.

After receiving it I carefully did the QSK mod and run wires to the outside of the cabinet for the band switching mentioned above.

Basically with this unit all you need to do is connect the color coded wires to a relay controller for use with DDUTIL and you are good to go,

 If interested pop me an email.  I'd like to move this amp so I'd give you a pretty good price.  ws7m@arrl.net

Wally

Darn...I bought one already with the linear power supply. I'm not real worried about the band switching. My G5RV likes 40 meters and is OK on 20 but 90% of the time I'm on 40 anyway so I won't mind manually switching once in awhile.

Mark_WS7M

Rats... Well congrats Wally. Anyone else want a nice little ALS600 with the power supply and pre modified for QSK and wired for relay band switching? email me: ws7m@arrl.net