Using An Antenna Matcher? Good or Not So Good?

Then I would not worry about it. Xforce is poorly designed and assembled. If it works be happy. Just adjust your flasher until it does not annoy you while operating the equipment.

 

This is what I said. There is a difference between merely operating one and knowing nothing about the electronics involved, and repairing many of them over the years, knowing the field well above average. Xforce takes the term 'dead bug' construction to new heights. Back in 05 I had two of their largest base units sent to me for repair. One from North Dakota and one from Minnesota, both friends. Every final and both bridges were burned to crisps in each, along with many resistors and all output combiners. On top of that the boards had broken loose in shipping. You cannot stand a large circuit board on edge 90 degrees from another and expect a mere seam of solder to be sufficient support. I reinforced all areas in both as well as completely rebuilding both. About the only things not smoked were the transformers and filter capacitors. After finishing I shipped them back advising both parties to test them out, sell them and go find a couple Ameritrons. These guys were both Hams using the amps on 10 meters but had decided to spend over $700 each in the effort to save the big bucks real Amateur amplifiers in their desired power range cost. They learned their lesson.

If you go study Toshiba specifications you will see running 2SC2879's at 22 volts unregulated (meaning surges were bound to go even higher) is far beyond the absolute maximum ratings the manufacturer specifies. Their engineers are not stupid and they have many more years of education than the designer of Xforce amplifiers. I am not new to this I was a well known technician in Phoenix for decades and one of the few the channel 6 crowd trusted with multi thousand dollar pieces of equipment when it came to repairs. When they go to their key down breaks they take buckets full of finals for a reason. Reliability is not one of them. Fatboy's are no different in this other than the boards have better support although 'dead bug' issues still exist.

I took your reply to indicate you were irritated with my remark about Xforce but so be it. You can either take sound engineering advice from one of the more knowledgeable in the field or not. My opinions are based upon over 40 years of experience repairing this type of equipment as well as many decades of study of proper RF engineering and design techniques.