re: Dayton 50 cent tour...
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Hi there,
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Since many of you were not able to attend Dayton this
year, a few roving snap shots were taken for your
viewing pleasure. The focus of these pictures and
comments are about Amplifier Manufactures present
at Dayton. The following list is in alphabetical order.
You can view various pages in the directory at your
pleasure. You might see various amps members
in the pictures. Here we go...
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Double click or cut and past the following URLs into
your web browser of choice.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Alpha6-2.jpg
A picture of an Alpha Power Booth table and one
of their latest amplifiers for the 6 and 2 meter
bands.
Yes, it's a dual band amplifier based on the ever
present 3CX800A7 tube. Not a working model, this
deck will feature a switching power supply and
micro processor control.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AlphaBooth.jpg
The well known face of Dick Erhorn, founder of Alpha
and there to press the flesh. Alpha did have one
or two of their current models honking full tilt code
practice (cw) into a termination (load). Dick was
always busy with friends and new faces dropping
by to say hello.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Ameritron1.jpg
The Ameritron Booth side view... they seem to be
offering amplifiers made with every well known tube
or solid state device in common power levels. The
lids were off and one could have a look under the
hood.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AmeritronTom.jpg
The most famous amps member "Ameritron Tom"
who was there to answer questions from the floor.
Tom was nice enough to say hello to everyone
dropping by... Ameritron does a good job of offering
the small and mid power level amplifiers that other
mfgrs don't attempt. This is a cost effective way for
many to kick it up a notch without running 100 amp
service to the shack.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AntHead.jpg
Potential Amps members are no longer satisfied
to wear rubber-duck antennas on their hard hats.
This guy has the tower, the feed line, the tri- bander,
but no visible amplifier.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Commander1.jpg
Right across the isle from Ameritron was Commander
with a full table. They like Alpha seem to be going for
the larger power ranges with mostly the Eimac 3CX800A7
in service.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/CommanderAmp.jpg
Take an amplifier from most any mfgr, hide the
brand label and the internals will appear similar if not
almost exact. Here Commander offers up the two tube
3CX800A7 version with a Dahl type transformer. It was
interesting to see a few of the large amps made with
other brand power transformers. Ohio Magnetics was
one such Company.
Yes, that's a 5 in the leading price tag...
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Emtron.jpg
Emtron offers up Russian Tube amplifiers that seem
hardy enough. The sales person said they will be
dropping the 4CX1600 type tetrode soon as actual
tube supplies thin out.
I mentioned some power supply capacitor spacing
concerns in a previous amps post, but no one has
mentioned failures from said. Then again no one I
know has one yet. They have a common layout and
nice cosmetics.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/FleaMarket.jpg
A very small section of the world famous Dayton flea
market... I can honestly say that I wasn't able to see
it all in the two days I spent roaming around. A sharp
eye might catch an amps member in the photo.
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/IceHall.jpg
Another picture of the famous Ice Hall where Ameritron,
Commander and Icom were found. This is the hall
you see all the time in QST pics. Other mfgrs and
dealers also had large booths here, but the majority
were in the other large halls. Man the place was huge...
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Tentec.jpg
Ten Tec plays it safe with their dual 3-500z amplifier
and a ceramic model. Notice the lighted tubes and
the top off..? I didn't bother to check for HV...
*************************************************
To sum the basics... Most mfgrs seem to be playing
safe harbor with the dual or triple Eimac 3CX800A7
tube layout. Some have and feature the Russian
4CX---- tetrodes and the single or dual 8877
is still the popular "trusted" higher level triode. Only
one mfgr (Ameritron) offered the lower power levels,
doing the job of keeping the cost effective or entry
level boxs in production. Not many are offering
a large selection if any solid state designs.
The amateur amplifier market seems to be extremely
competitive, more so than I and other amps conversing
members had thought. How some of the more specific
amps only mfgrs stay in business will be interesting
to see.
Many of the mfgrs have long ignored building large
amplifiers for the "VHF and Above" crowd. From Dayton
it appears many mfgrs have now started to focus
their long overdue attention toward producing
amplifier products for serious VHF/UHF operators.
Hope you liked the pics.
cheers
skipp
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