Amplitech designed & mfg. by itlself only LNA's & low-end MPA's, not HPA's, specifically only RFOUT powers upto:
+27dBm (only HALF-Watt !!)
There were afew attempts to +30 (1Watt exactly) or +31dBm (slightly over 1 watt).
This 4Watt unit however maybe an exception, but you'd choke and bulge eyes out to know just how much $Investment into this banal, non-impressive Amp was $spent - it's a LOSS, these powers & frequencies are made by a host of other companies.
They sell it out of desperation to recover a bit of loss.
They had this KuBand PA (no longer called HPA b/c nothing "High" is about 4Watt "High Power" anymore, nowadays) bone in their throat since 2010 when someone in MiddleEast (don't ask me details, Iam not allowed) asked for 8-10 Watt Kuband PA mountable on tanks (not even Airborne), but instead, 7 YEARS later after excruciatingly painful effort this mediocrity at lower than 10 Watt (4Watt) appears and we don't know whether it's Amplitech's own or a resale, & you can buy it anywhere nowadays. Obsolete.
In general, however:
Most everything above several Watts from AmpliTech is almost guaranteed to be made by someone else & repackaged.
I had seen & added own ideas about such resales for years working at Companies, it's nothing "illegal" :), many technology companies aren't shy to resell others' product to complement their product line/improve impression on Investors, after all you buy it everyday at grocery stores like Trader Joe's whose brand is on the bottle of milk but we know it's "Lifeway" kefir sold at other stores under its proper brand of "Lifeway".
If it generates profit - then go for it, EXCEPT specificlaly with Amplitech i don't see how it benefits their zig-zag blind-kitten directions since 2008, losing key technical people & such.
They started re-selling (which never did before), it seems in 2011 (?) - buying medium-to-higher power amps from "ASC" (Amplifier Solutions Corp. of Pennsylavnia), then they resold RF Lambda & even unthinkable - cra* from Minicircuits, and then added more attempts but ACS was most often.
The danger of "Private Labeling" (proper business term for reselling RFMW electronics, incl. Amplifiers) - it can work AGAINST the ORIGINAL designer/manufacturer (OEM) b/c OEM eventually might face competing with itself - if market broadens & pricing pressure (down) increases - that's a punishment rather than benefit for OEM trying to expand its market beyond its own marketing - esp. b/c of the nature of this dual use Civlian-Military communicatins product (highly-custom RFMW Amplifiers), eventually OEM's want to stop selling to the reseller like AmpliTech.
SECOND reason is, OEM is or iwll grow fearful of reselling to the similar product-line (Amplifiers) company that can reverse-engineer/copy, in this case ASC, RFHIC, whatever
In fact RFHIC won't do much more sales to AmpliTech.
Don't ask me how I know.
Not many Program Managers (or simply Buyers) at Military/Space/Government corporations who need amplifiers as components in their larger system integration (amplifiers they don't want to "invent"/make by themselves), as so lazy as to fail to discover RFHIC, for ONE EXAMPLE.
Why buy overpriced from AmpliTech.
Now imagine you design, manufacture & market your OWN Amplifiers nwith speces edging above competiion - that's success... which isn't AmpliTech.
Soon Analog Devices will be revamping their "modules" division in US NorthEast and bring even more competition & pressure on LowNoise Amps connectorized complete in metal housing, etc., let alone HiPower.
There you also have MaCom, CIAO Wireless, Mercury Systems, L3Miteq, and so on all o fhwom design what they sell.
This stupid 4-Watt amp from Amplitech was started in 2009 and officially in 2010, 7 years LOL! 6-months is what you need to spend for it's shipping out of the door to end-users, not 7 years.
