I guess in any case "your experience may vary", but here is mine.
I have an Astron VS-35M that was bought in 1980 and only repaired once when I back biased the LM923 by charging a battery, Pass transistors are the originals. That is 32-years of service! It now serves as my service bench supply, because I replaced it with a RS-50M which runs 24/7 for at least 10-years. I had dozens (35 to memory) of the R20A at work that served very reliably in severe maritime environments on boats and kept on working. I did have one or two croak but they were in-service continuously on the boats (24/7). Those that went I suspect from boat generator voltage surges (to 160vac). The transformers failed. The Astron's are very basic design and completely reparable if the transformer is OK. I did even order a replacement for the transformer that cost > 50% the new price on the PS. IN my final years on the job I ordered some of the 20A switching supplies for their size/weight to package into portable packages. 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 50-1.1kw?, 144-1.4kw, 432-QRT, 1296-?, 3400-? DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [email protected] "Kits made by KL7UW" http://www.kl7uw.com/kits.htm ====================================== ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
