I am a Centurion owner. I assume you plan to operate typical SSB and
CW. It is okay for those modes. It has good metering and the tank
circuit and plate h.v. choke seem good. I get 1 KW on 160, and 900 w.
on 17 meters. Getting full rated output on some bands may require a
bit more than 100 w. drive. There was an issue with the stock plate
supply transformer but I take it your rewound transformer addressed
that.
The only improvement I know of you might want to consider is adding
250 pF of capacitance to the loading output pi network to get a tad
more output and load the amp better on 160.
There is actually an unused lug on the band switch directly opposite
the Tune air variable that is only switched in when the band switch is
in the 160 m. position. All you have to do is solder a wire around 6
inches long (I used no. 14 stranded insulated house wire) to the lug
and drop it down between the bandswitch and Tune cap to the bottom of
the cabinet where the other loading padder fixed value caps are and
put your cap in there between the end of your wire and the ground lug.
You'll see what I mean if you get the amp and take the cover off and
look around in there. I used a CRL doorknob because I had it on
hand. You could use a high voltage disk ceramic too for less $$$ I
guess.
Without the extra cap the load cap on 160 maxes out before you get to
the sweet spot from which you back off a bit. If you only operate up
in the top 50 KHz of 160 you may not need it.
73
Rob
K5UJ
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