If all these fancy, overpriced, uP based amps would fade away it would
certainly level the playing field for contesting. I got out of it when it
became a bigger money pit than owning a boat.
It reminds me of the days that drag racing was fun before the big money
ruined it. These days I play around in the Nostalgia Class with 1950's
techonlogy and would like to see something similar return to contesting.
Maybe a boatanchor class and another for SS xcvrs prior to the dual receive
versions.
The 3CX1000A7 certainly is rather robust. I use them in HB 144 and 222 MHz
amps and have full output spares. My interest in that tube goes back to the
late 60's when I was on the design team for a Jeep mounted KW transceiver
for the Army at National which started off with the 3CV and was changed to
the 3CX for reliability.
As long as the 3CX800 family remains available from ISM products it will be
the tube of choice for many existing amps as well as retrofitting all those
8874 Alphas which have become very cheap on the market.
Carl
KM1H
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Christensen" <w9ac@arrl.net>
To: "Amps Amps" <amps@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Amps] ALPHA DOA...
>> as long as they work....but if something happens you are trapped,- just
>> as
>> you tell.
>
> I never thought I would live to see the day when the life expectancy of my
> old Alpha 70V with its extremely scarce 3CV1500A7 tube may actually exceed
> that of the microprocessor-based 4CX800 amplifiers.
>
> The 3CV1500A7 uses a directly-heated cathode, and is extremely robust. I
> am
> on the original tube from 1970 and emission is still excellent.
> Notwithstanding the boiler, the tube is electrically and physically
> identical to the 3CX1000A7. Thankfully, I have two new spares that I've
> been rotating into service for short periods of time as a de-gassing
> maintenance measure.
>
> Every other mission-critical component in the 70V can still be purchased
> new
> today, including the OEM vapor components.
>
> Paul, W9AC
>
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> Amps@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
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