At 15:26 18-03-99 -0600, Jon Ogden wrote:
>I have a question about all this instant on stuff:
>
>So your amp is sitting there off with the bandswitch on 20 meters. Say
>you hear your DX, turn the amp on but what happens then to the tuning?
>You still very likely need to tune your amp to operate properly on your
>desired frequency. Yes, yes, I agree that there is typically enough
>bandwidth that you can move around the band a bit w/o tuning, but what if
>you have moved far enough to change? What if the amp was tuned for the
>CW portion of the band and now you are on phone. What if the amp is
>tuned for 20M and you are now on 40?
>
>I know that those fancy commericial Alpha amps have auto tuning which is
>slick. I doubt many homebrewers get that complex though. And even with
>the auto tuning, the Alpha isn't instant on.
>
>So what good does having the tube instantly ready to for you if you still
>need to tune the amp? Or do you hear the DX and just tune up on
>frequency like a lot of morons do?
>
>73,
>
>Jon
>KE9NA
Well John,
The nice thing about hombrewing amps is that there is no reason to stop at
only one. In my case, I found the "tuning problem" to be undesirable, so I
keep an amp tuned for each of the most used bands. One switch selects the
amp to be used. Having the filaments take forever to warm up would pretty
much defeat this system.
Tuning of the amps is done about once a year or when an antenna change is
made. All the dial settings for every band the amp is capable of operating
on are logged to a sheet taped to the front panel. If it's necessary to
swap bands on a given amp, I just dial up the settings and go. NO on the
air tune up is required at the time of actual operation.
Just for the record, I am not saying that "instant on" is the only way to
go. Each of us needs to evaluate what is most important and decide
accordingly. I have both types of amps and plan to keep both types around
for the long haul. If I could only have one amp, my preference would be for
"instant on", I am impatient and am sorry for it! I do take issue with
those very small minded people who believe everybody else should do it
their way.
73 & have fun,
Larry - W7IUV
w7iuv@arrl.net
http://www.axtek.com/w7iuv
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