Now that I have your attention with the subject line.... I have researching HF amplifiers for a future purchase. I currently have a little old AL80A and I would like to have a little more oompf in my signal from time to time.
QRPers, you may delete this message now.... I have been asking some of those who are in the know about these things and it looks like the electron power tube might be taking a fall in the near future. Kaput! According to some, Eimac might get out of the business all together because of economics. They do no glass tubes but some metal ceramic tubes, mostly for broadcast and medical applications. Broadcasters are moving to solid state so pulls are becoming scarcer for tubes. The Russian sources for tubes is drying up because they have stripped much of their equipment bare to sell it. There is not a lot of new production as I understand it going on in Russia. Some say it is pretty bad over there. China might do some tube manufacturing for several years, but will change to manufacturing high powered silicon and dump the tubes when a profit can be seen. I do not think China is into the metal ceramic tubes now. So, where does that leave us hams? There is a move to solid state amps because tubes are not being manufactured in great numbers and will get fairly expensive in years to come. Now I would like to hear some other comments concerning this. 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 divine? _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
