160m – 15m

Bands

800 W

Output

Frequency	160-15 m incl. WARC as shipped; 10/12 m via the documented license-gated mod
Bands	160m, 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 10m/12m via mod
TX power	800 W (800 W PEP SSB / 600 W CW / 400+ W continuous modes - four 811A bottles sharing the work)
Modes	all
Weight	13.6 kg (30 lb)
Connector	SO-239

Connectors

rf in	SO-239
rf out	SO-239
amp keying	RCA phono, relay to ground
dc in	120V AC built-in
power req	120V AC 20A

The cheapest real amplifier in the catalog for decades: FOUR 811A triodes - a tube design from the late 1930s, still in production today - in grounded-grid AB2 making 800 W PEP from 120 VAC The H's whole argument versus the 3-tube AL-811, in the designer's own words: the original 'is not neutralized'; the H adds the fourth bottle AND the neutralization circuit - stability on 15 and 10 instead of adventure Glass-tube theater as a feature: four softly glowing 811As behind the grille is the prettiest thing budget RF ever did 160-15 + WARC at full rating ('no compromise on WARC' - maker copy); 10/12 by the era's license-proof mod ritual 30-32 lb (the manual and the product page disagree by two) at 8.25 x 13.75 x 15.5 - the lightest path to the high-power club The designer's own myths page is required reading - Tom Rauch: 'I designed the AL811 series amplifiers... Amazingly, the 811H has become the largest selling amplifier in the world!' His standing caution: it's not brief peaks that kill 811As but dissipation 'averaged over time periods of 15 seconds or longer'

Strengths

The lowest tube-count... lowest COST path to a real signal: 800 PEP watts for three-figure used money, from tubes cheap enough to keep spares of, in a box one person lifts. Full neutralization makes the H variant stable where its 3-tube sibling wobbles on 10 and 15, and the designer's own technical pages demystify every quirk - no amplifier is better documented per dollar.

Weaknesses

The 811A's gentility is the contract: it dislikes tune-up abuse, key-down digital duty wants the 400-watt line respected, and the lightweight iron that makes the price possible also makes the voltage sag that purists hear. Bandswitch and tune are manual, the fan is honest, and post-2024 support is the community.

Verdict

The people's amplifier: more hams made their first kilowatt-adjacent noise through four 811As than any other bottle, and the H's neutralization made the recipe trustworthy. Buy used, read the designer's page, treat the tubes kindly - the value has never been beaten, only discontinued.

The AL-811H was the people's amplifier: the lowest-priced credible path from barefoot to big signal that mainstream ham radio ever offered. The recipe is four 811A triodes - an RCA design from the late 1930s, still manufactured today - in grounded-grid class AB2, making 800 watts PEP on SSB, 600 on CW, and 400-plus on continuous modes, from a 120-volt outlet, in a 32-pound box one person carries. The four softly glowing bottles behind the grille were budget RF's prettiest feature, and the price made the amplifier question affordable to answer wrong and try again.

The H suffix carries the model's actual engineering argument: against the original three-tube AL-811, the H adds a fourth tube and - more importantly - full neutralization, which the maker's copy correctly identified as the difference between stability and adventure on 15 and 10 meters. The deeper documentation is the model's special privilege: designer Tom Rauch maintains a famous myths-and-modifications page about this very amplifier - 'I designed the AL811 series amplifiers in the late 1980's or early 1990's,' it begins, ending with the boast the sales figures earned: 'the 811H has become the largest selling amplifier in the world.' His cataloguing of its quirks, legitimate weak points, and the misinformation around it makes the AL-811H perhaps the best-documented budget amplifier ever sold. The 811A's known gentility is exactly what that page teaches owners to respect - in Rauch's words, the killer is not brief peaks but plate dissipation 'averaged over time periods of 15 seconds or longer,' which is why the 400-watt continuous line exists and why digital-mode enthusiasm shortens tube lives.

The band list wears the era's customs paperwork - 160 through 15 with WARC at full rating, 10 and 12 restored by documented mod with license proof - and production ended with MFJ's May 2024 shutdown, Ameritron being absent from the ITU asset sale. The used market inherited a vast fleet. Its in-house big brother the AL-80B trades up to the 3-500Z and real iron for a few hundred more; the choice between them was always the first decision of amplifier ownership, and on the used market it still is.

Ameritron AL-811H