Thanks to all that responded. It appears that everyone that replied
said they were happy with the RF Parts tubes. Mine just arrived, installed
and tested. It does require a little less drive for 500 watts output (in the
AL-80B) than the Amperex tube and the grid current is nice and low at 65 ma.
The A index is still sitting at 14 and the K went back up to 3 despite
predictions
they would be lower by this time. Still haven't decided HP or LP. At least
the amp is ready in case I go with the smoke.
Hearing EU on 10 here now as late as 1700Z which is good, but the same
thing happened before the XE test and we all know what happened on the
following day. I'm not going to make any predictions but things don't look
all that great as far as prop is concerned.
However, we have to remember that in the ARRL Roundup this year, we
had very similar numbers. If participation is up we won't have to worry about
propagation unless we get hit by a flare like we did in 2000.
Seven hours to go!
73, Don AA5AU
http://www.aa5au.com
http://www.geocities.com/writelog
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