A little while ago I found a power amplifier for my 1296MHz setup.
This is essentially a W6PQL design with improvements and control/safety circuits by OZ2ELA.
A group had built this as a project, and one of the participants lost interest and sold the unit.
A test showed a solid output of 80 - 90W, enough for my purpose.
Controlling the mast preamplifier through the coax was not available, so I got myself 2 high power bias-tees for 1296MHz, capable of handling 600W.
Now I can bypass the DC control voltage from the radio to the preamplifier, and still use the PA as TX amplifier. This works well, and I am now running 50W on 1296 most of the time, with a drive of 3W from the transceiver.
I do have some cable loss, so often I could hear people who did not use mast preamplifiers at the antenna, but they could not hear me. With the amplifier, now there is a better balance between the local (FM) stations and my station.
There is still a lot to optimize here, mostly with respect to antennas and cable loss, and now the spring is coming, I can get started with that.
At the moment I am using a vertical monoband 1296MHz antenna.
Some yagi or other directional antenna is in the planning for use with DX (SSB/CW/DIGI modes, or even FM), and I do have some decent cable available for this purpose.
