Any Opinions On The Ameco TPA?
 

I'm a shortwave newbie. Just inherited an ICOM IC-R70. I live in an
apartment and right now I'm just using a length of wire run more or
less at random around my bedroom for an antenna. Reception is OK, I
guess, but what do I know? Anyway, I'm thinking about getting an
active antenna and the Ameco TPA looks about right for my budget.
Passport To World Band Radio (2003) gave it two and a half stars.
Anyone have any opinions on the Ameco TPA?

Gary Carson wrote:

I'm a shortwave newbie. Just inherited an ICOM IC-R70. I live in an
apartment and right now I'm just using a length of wire run more or
less at random around my bedroom for an antenna. Reception is OK, I
guess, but what do I know? Anyway, I'm thinking about getting an
active antenna and the Ameco TPA looks about right for my budget.
Passport To World Band Radio (2003) gave it two and a half stars.
Anyone have any opinions on the Ameco TPA?

I had one, and used it for camping with a Drake R8 and a Racal 6790/GM.

I found it performed almost as well with the power turned off.

The tuning seemed twitchy - replacing the tuning knob with a vernier dial would be a big help.

LF engineering makes a "SkyMatch" antenna - Grove sells them, but if you go direct from the factory you can get one with a connector so you can replace the thin coax when it dies. The connector version is well worth the extra few dollars.

Alternatively, you might consider using a milspec preamp with an impedance matching transformer on your existing wire.

These turn up on ebay periodically, or at hamfests and they generally work well. They often run on 15v but will work OK on 12, and they usually use SMA or BNC connectors.

Brand names for preamps I've had good luck with include Anzak, Watkins Johnson, & Norlin/applied communications/aiken.

Gary, you have a marvelous instrument in the R-70. I owned one, and
am regretful that I let it get away in favor of some else vogue at the
moment.
True, there is that little inconvenient quirk about the digital readout
a few KHz at the beginning of a band, but I found some of the other
capabilities far overshadowed that minor point. Let me suggest that
you find the "hacking instructions" which enables you to rewire the
FM filter for use as the passband filter. Vastly, vastly, vastly
superior performance. Just a matter of a bit of judicious soldering.
In addition, I was constantly amazed at the a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e rock
stability of the frequency, as well as the R-70 ability to zero-beat
on the precise cycle .. move off frequency only a single cycle, and
you can hear the phasing swish-swish-swish. Congratulations. You
have a performer among the tallest RX. Larry's evaluation was not
justifiable in my estimation; 2-1/2 stars probably because of no clock,
and it did not come with the alteration I mentioned above. G
R-70 works very well with a high-impedence antenna, tweaked with
any number of Pi-network tuners. I always liked the TUN3,
now superceded by the TUN2 (actually an MFJ product).
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"Gary Carson" wrote in message
m...
I'm a shortwave newbie. Just inherited an ICOM IC-R70. I live in an
apartment and right now I'm just using a length of wire run more or
less at random around my bedroom for an antenna. Reception is OK, I
guess, but what do I know? Anyway, I'm thinking about getting an
active antenna and the Ameco TPA looks about right for my budget.
Passport To World Band Radio (2003) gave it two and a half stars.
Anyone have any opinions on the Ameco TPA?