It all started as a small homebrew (= DIY) project at the local radio club DARC OV Forchheim (DOK B26) in the northern part of Bavaria – in beautiful Franconia. Many ideas flowed into various schematics, and countless weekends later in the summer of 2014 the first amplifier was born: The B26-PA RF1K2. Lead developer Reinhard Förtsch, DH3NAB, first saw it as a one-off project. But word soon got around in the community and more and more OM’s asked for such a power amplifier.
Based on these inquiries and because there were a few more ideas lying dormant in the drawer, Reinhard decided to found the company RF-KIT. The aim was to manage the challenges of development, production and logistics.
In 2017, the RF2K+ with 2x LDMOS BLF188 was launched on the market.
An electronics manufacturer was found who not only took care of production, but also the procurement of components. And development did not stop there. The desire for very quiet and very fast transmit/receive switching arose.
The RF2K-S was presented in 2020. It uses 2 LDMOS BLF-189 units and is not only very quiet in operation, but also enables true QSK with a switching time of < 5 ms using PIN diode switching.
In the meantime, the project has become so large that the many activities had to be spread over several shoulders. To this end, Wolfgang Klier, OE2VEL, founded the new company RF-POWER GmbH, which took over the business from RF-KIT on January 1, 2025. Nothing will change in the operational business. Our customers will also continue to have access to our proven worldwide sales partners.
Like RF-KIT, RF-POWER is a small company of radio amateurs who use the power amplifiers on a daily basis. By radio amateurs for radio amateurs.