>
>
>
>Hello Ken and all,
>
>Ken you were a big gun ATV DXer.... I was just a little pistol
>there too... hi hi
>
>I am sure that there are many amateurs around the world that
>exceed the legal limit in the country in which they live, if there
>is one. It does them no good and it does the rest of us no good.
>
>Don't get me wrong, I love my amplifiers, heck I even have one
>in line with the QRP rig just in case a new one comes along
>that I can't get with 5 watts.
>
>During contests, huge pileups and on 160m and to a lesser
>extent 75/80m more than 100w is needed on a regular basis
>too in my opinion. I would say 600w is the minimum for
>success on 160m.
>
>However, all the stations that run the legal or more all the time
>just rag chewing are over time going to have the effect of the
>FCC in the U.S. changing our RF power levels. Hopefully, if
>this happens it will be a scaled RF level vs. frequency where
>the higher in F the lower RF with up to 14Mhz making it to
>the current 1.5Kw and not an across the board 400w as many
>countries live with now, it that. At 24Mhz and above 400w and
>less is fine when propagation is in place, even for VHF contesting
>and moon bounce 400w would be fine.
>
>To me the thrill to me is making the contact with as little
>everything as possible and knowing it was my skill in addition
>to propagation and being in the right place at the right time. I
>do detract from that thrill as the clock starts ticking away and
>the propagation starts to fail and my chances to nab that one
>looks dim in that I start to increase the RF output up to the
>legal limit and if I succeed, the pleasure and satisfaction are
>still derived but less than at less.
>
>Perhaps my outlook may be a bit different if I were rich and
>could afford to keep replacing the 4CX1000A tubes and pay
>the electric bill, but not much.
>
>As to 5 and 6 land stations, the most amazing thing in my
>21 years on 6 meters was last summer when North Africa
>was coming in, my antenna was pointed that way from here
>in central New Jersey and I heard stations from around the
>country as strong or stronger than the locals, especially
>from 5 and 6 land stations. I started thinking about that
>6m project 5CX3000 tube and socket sitting here again,
>that is until I remembered the heater current draw, heck
>I also have to put up the big DX-Engineering 25 foot
>boom'er too !
// The 5CX5000A is a good choice. Pentodes have low feedback C - so
they are inhierently stable. Pentodes are a bit more efficient than
tetrodes, and they are way easier to drive than triodes. Running this
tube at the speed limit on SSB involves backing down the microphone gain.
Filament power draw isn't much of a factor with this tube because the
filament is instant-on. so it can be switched off and on as needed.
>
>Big amp's plus big ego's equals a big problem.
>
// It seems to me that lust of dominion is a key factor. Large
amplifiers - and mailing-list moderatorships - only seem to create a
social problem when in the hands of a few people.
cheers, Steve
- R. L. Measures, 805.386.3734,AG6K, www.vcnet.com/measures.
end
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