AMATEUR RADIO EQUIPMENT MUST BE LINEAR, IT MUST BE BUILT IN SUCH A WAY AS TO CONFORM TO THE RULES AND REGULATIONS SET FORTH BY THE FCC.
Citizens band amplifiers tends to not conform to those rules.. Most are built on class c architecture.
Class C is ok if you are operating AM or CW, but is too wide for use for SSB phone.
No one says that an amplifier has to be expensive. I bought several at auction for $65 each - 600 watt Ameritron and Dentron.
But, when you are a licensed amateur - you are held to a higher standard then the citizens band..
Part of this is in reference to - self training. You don't need an amplifier.
What you do need is an Elmer.. Someone willing to invest time in you to teach you the fundamentals of physics and amateur radio - because obviously you aren't willing to invest that time in yourself.
If you would read - and there is many excellent articles online, they would teach you that your first and best investment should always be in a better antenna.
We all start out with some type of dipole, we then move on to beam antennas and then upgrade to stacked beam antennas. Vertical antennas can be used if you have the proper take off angle.
Next to salt water is almost a must if you wish to operate DX.
A beam antenna gives you the advantage of appearing to have more power, without the investment of an amplifier, and it pays huge dividends when it comes to operating.
The second major investment is in good coax. You always use the coax with the least amount of loss.
That Belden 9913 or LMR 400 is the best bang for the buck. Even better is if you can use as much hardline as possible. Just look at the website of any major contest station and you will see miles of hardline and almost no RG8x.
Then there is the understanding that we don't talk in watts when it comes to RF, we talk in decibels.
The biggest bang for the buck is a 600 watt amplifier, because it has the most DB improvement over a 100 watt transceiver. 1000 watts or 1500 watts aren't that many more db over 600 watts.
Again, it all goes back to investing in low loss feed line and a good antenna vs the old G5RV and an amplifier some people calls a G5RV - nothing but a waste of time. And the antenna tuner doesn't physically tune the antenna to resonance, it just tricks the transmitter into applying most of its power into the antenna tuner, when it is turned into heat - since anything not absorbed by the load is reflected back towards the source.
My only gripe is the people with the poor antenna situation, using an amplifier to sound like The Wizard of Oz, and then the only people they can hear is other people using an amplifier.
The amplifier doesn't improve the receive, only the transmit.
Even if you use a pre amplifier, when you amplify noise, all you get is a louder noise..