Good going Dario, and thanks for letting us know about the experiment.
I so much wish we could experiment with a linear RF amp on our toy transmitters here in The Homeland, but we are under house arrest and cannot legally even have a linear RF amp.
Dario,
I'm excited to read that you have contected to Ramsey 1W linear amp to your Spitfire AM TX and antenna. Like you, I'm not too confortable with soldering. Can you tell me how you connected the Ramsey amp to the Spitfire and antenna? Also, can you tell me what type of antenna are you using please? I would like to purchase the Ramsey amp and your information will help me decide if I can manage the install.
Thank you,
Pat,
Ireland.
At the risk of reviving an old topic...............
I just received this transmitter. It is the Spitfire MK-II, copyright date 2014, which is later than most of the other posts to this topic. I also have an SSTRAN 3000 (and several Talking Houses), and I can say that in general, the circuit appears to be quite similar to the SSTRAN. Same DIP switches for setting the frequency, same DIP switches for coarse adjusting the ATU, and a variable cap for fine tuning. Even the case is similar.
As mentioned earlier in this topic, an advantage over the SSTRAN is no meter is needed when tuning the antenna. You adjust the trimmer until the LED goes out. After that, the LED serves as a modulation/volume monitor.
Sounds VERY good - WAY better than any Talking House. Absolutely no hum at all. I have a couple TH 5.0 units and a 4.6, strangely enough the 4.6 sounds better than either 5.0. The 5.0 units have lots of hum too.
The Spitfire sounds pretty much indentical to the SSTRAN 3000. Signal is also stronger than my SSTRAN, but of course not as strong as a TH. No gain/modulation/compression controls to set/worry about, so if you need to do any pre-processing, it will need to be done elsewhere.
Also, the Spitfire covers 500 kHz all the way up to 2,240 kHz (160 meter band). I have not tried this yet, currently it is set to 800 kHz.
About $120 on eBay including shipping from the UK. Not a kit, its ready to go including power supply, antenna and audio cables.
I am just "housecasting" here, and it covers my house/yard easily. Seems to put out a stronger signal than the SSTRAN, but I need to do more testing. Have not got in the car yet to see how far down the street it goes. My TH units go way down the street, but do not sound nearly as good.
Anyway, I hope someone finds this info useful. If you are looking for a ready-to-go transmitter (not a kit), you should seriously consider this.