Multichannel communication system with an amplifier in each channel

A multichannel communication system carries signals having a different frequency range in each channel. In order to achieve a particular output power level from each channel, an amplifier is associated with each channel to boost the signal level. For reliability, a switching arrangement switches amplifiers among the channels in accordance with a priority, or substitutes a redundant amplifier for a degraded or failed unit in a channel. The amplifier is subject to distortion at the desired output level, and is cascaded with a distortion equalizer or linearizer for reducing the total distortion. In accordance with the invention, each distortion equalizer is fixedly connected in one channel, and is optimized for the relatively narrow frequency range of that channel, rather than being switched together with the amplifier and being optimized over the total or cumulative bandwidth of all the channels.