Undocumented feature of 60dBm's Neptune 100-watt HF amplifier

I was rearranging the rat's nest of cabling that constitutes the best-unseen space between my operating desk and the wall yesterday when it happened...

Once everything was satisfactorily cleaned and ship-shape, I fired up the Hermes Lite 2 and the Neptune amp that I've had for about a year now...and something wasn't quite right.

For starters, the green "ON" LED was blinking slowly rather than remaining steadily on.

More significantly, automatic band changes weren't occurring.

I could switch bands manually by short-pressing the "ON" button and I had full output on every band - just no auto bandswitching.

A look around 60dBm's website revealed that there is no online manual for the amplifier. Great. So I fired off an email and received the following reply from Paul UU0JR in Ukraine less than an hour later.

So for the search engines - and whoever else may have this problem:

To toggle between manual-auto band switching:

• Push and hold front panel button until green LED goes out
• Disconnect power supply for 10 seconds
• Short PTT
• Connect power supply
• Push and hold front panel button until green LED goes on
• Remove PTT short
• Done

The green LED will flash slowly in manual mode. To change band in manual mode just short press button on front panel. The amplifier remembers its state and, in the event of a power failure, will restore its state after it appears.

It is convenient for remote use.

 

Thanks, Paul! 

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