Lee -
Just a couple of additional points - that Jim, N2EY did not mention in his
very good reply.
1. Glass RF tubes ( 811 / 572B, 3-500Z) are no longer manufactured in the US
in large quantities. Eimac and other mfg. moved to ceramic RF tubes and sold
off their glass tube production.
Russia, Eastern Europe and China have the majority of the glass RF tube
production -- which you can see at RF Parts.
The quality of glass tubes has also become a concern -- I regularly read
stories of 'bad Chinese tubes' , Svetlana 572B with smaller plate areas than
other 572B tube mfg., etc.
2. Sweep tubes are at End of Life (EOL). There are conversions to EL509 or
EL519 Eastern European TV sweep tubes --- but it is still a sweep tube!
Due to these 2 points many previous amplifier owners are looking for
something that is "easy of operate" and "works" --- without having to worry
about parasitic suppressors, and religious debates since 1990 about problems
with some glass tube amplifiers.
Lastly, the new 8877 designs, such as the new Alpha are not cheap and have
exceeded the pocketbook ($$) of many hobbyists.
w9gb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Buller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 9:01 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Solid State Amps
When I attended Dayton this year and reading the magazines, I see there is
now a great interest in solid state amps.
I thought that these amps were...well...not as efficient as tube amps thus
not being attractive to hams. I guess we wanted BIG iron for an amp.
Ameritron has two amps out for quite some time...the 500 and 600 with the
600 now coming with a switching PS. It seems people who own the 600 watt
model like them very much.
Even "E" has the contesters contest amp and it is solid state. So, what
has changed? Have the SS Amps gotten more efficient? Higher voltages?
What effects the efficiency of these amps where now there seems to be a
market for the Japanese and the Italians.
Now most radios provide 100 watts output using transistors and the tube
finals in rigs have long been gone. So, is this just a natural evolution
of amplifiers or is some new technological breakthrough happened in high
powered solid state amplifiers?
Lee - K0WA
In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If you
don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it. If you
can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some
Common Sense. Is Common Sense devine?
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