On 8/16/2012 3:04 PM, Richards wrote:
I can buy an entire 100 watt transceiver
for less than $800. Why pay that much for
just the 100 w amp section ?
But can you buy a 100w transceiver OF THAT QUALITY for that price?
There's another technical issue that was pointed out in a discussion of
the pricing of this amp on the Elecraft forum. An important element of
keeping ANY power amp clean is negative feedback, and the more gain you
have to play with, the more you can do for the same dollars. In effect,
you're doing the same job twice -- first for the exciter (in this case,
5W) and again in the outboard linear.
And there's yet another very simple economic issue that I learned about
working in pro audio as a design consultant. You want a "black box" with
a power cable -- you're going to have to pay $200 for it. You want it to
DO something? $210. Why? Design, manufacturing, marketing,
documentation, commissions, etc.
There's also the matter of QUANTITY -- how many can you sell? A large
part of the cost of a low volume product is design, including the cost
of putting it in production. And putting it in production is not simple
-- you've got to find reliable sources of reliable parts, you've got to
buy and stock them, you've got to train people to build and test them.
Ham radio products are low volume by the nature of our hobby, and ANY
100W amp is likely to be a an even lower volume product. Design,
documentation, and manufacturing costs are a FAR higher percentage of a
product that you can't sell very many of.
Also, an amp intended for sale to a wide market must work with a wide
variety of rigs, so it must be more flexible than the output stage of a
100W transceiver. There are issues like control functions and ALC, for
example.
73, Jim K9YC
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