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[AMPS] arm chair 50 cent Dayton Tour

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [AMPS] arm chair 50 cent Dayton Tour
From: nospam4me@juno.com (nospam4me@juno.com)
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 17:03:00 -0700
re: Dayton 50 cent tour...
-
Hi there, 
- 
Since many of you were not able to attend Dayton this 
year, a few roving snap shots were taken for your 
viewing pleasure.  The focus of these pictures and 
comments are about Amplifier Manufactures present 
at Dayton.   The following list is in alphabetical order. 
You can view various pages in the directory at your 
pleasure.  You might see various amps members 
in the pictures. Here we go...
- 
Double click or cut and past the following URLs into 
your web browser of choice. 

 
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Alpha6-2.jpg 

A picture of an Alpha Power Booth table and one 
of their latest amplifiers for the 6 and 2 meter 
bands. 
Yes, it's a dual band amplifier based on the ever 
present 3CX800A7 tube.  Not a working model, this 
deck will feature a switching power supply and 
micro processor control. 


http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AlphaBooth.jpg 

The well known face of Dick Erhorn, founder of Alpha 
and there to press the flesh.  Alpha did have one 
or two of their current models honking full tilt code 
practice (cw) into a termination (load).  Dick was 
always busy with friends and new faces dropping 
by to say hello.   


http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Ameritron1.jpg  

The Ameritron Booth side view... they seem to be 
offering amplifiers made with every well known tube 
or solid state device in common power levels. The 
lids were off and one could have a look under the 
hood. 


http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AmeritronTom.jpg  

The most famous amps member "Ameritron Tom" 
who was there to answer questions from the floor. 
Tom was nice enough to say hello to everyone 
dropping by...  Ameritron does a good job of offering 
the small and mid power level amplifiers that other 
mfgrs don't attempt. This is a cost effective way for 
many to kick it up a notch without running 100 amp 
service to the shack. 

    
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/AntHead.jpg    

Potential Amps members are no longer satisfied 
to wear rubber-duck antennas on their hard hats. 
This guy has the tower, the feed line, the tri- bander, 
but no visible amplifier.  

    
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Commander1.jpg     

Right across the isle from Ameritron was Commander 
with a full table. They like Alpha seem to be going for 
the larger power ranges with mostly the Eimac 3CX800A7 
in service. 

    
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/CommanderAmp.jpg     

Take an amplifier from most any mfgr, hide the 
brand label and the internals will appear similar if not 
almost exact.  Here Commander offers up the two tube 
3CX800A7 version with a Dahl type transformer. It was 
interesting to see a few of the large amps made with 
other brand power transformers.  Ohio Magnetics was 
one such Company. 
Yes, that's a 5 in the leading price tag...     

   
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Emtron.jpg        

Emtron offers up Russian Tube amplifiers that seem 
hardy enough.  The sales person said they will be
dropping the 4CX1600 type tetrode soon as actual 
tube supplies thin out.  
I mentioned some power supply capacitor spacing 
concerns in a previous amps post, but no one has 
mentioned failures from said. Then again no one I 
know has one yet.  They have a common layout and 
nice cosmetics. 

    
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/FleaMarket.jpg        

A very small section of the world famous Dayton flea 
market... I can honestly say that I wasn't able to see 
it all in the two days I spent roaming around.   A sharp 
eye might catch an amps member in the photo. 

    
http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/IceHall.jpg           

Another picture of the famous Ice Hall where Ameritron, 
Commander and Icom were found. This is the hall 
you see all the time in QST pics. Other mfgrs and 
dealers also had large booths here, but the majority 
were in the other large halls.  Man the place was huge... 


http://pilot.ucdavis.edu/dyna/dayton/Tentec.jpg  

Ten Tec plays it safe with their dual 3-500z amplifier 
and a ceramic model.  Notice the lighted tubes and 
the top off..?  I didn't bother to check for HV...  

 *************************************************  

To sum the basics...  Most mfgrs seem to be playing 
safe harbor with the dual or triple Eimac 3CX800A7 
tube layout. Some have and feature the Russian 
4CX---- tetrodes and the single or dual 8877 
is still the popular "trusted" higher level triode. Only 
one mfgr (Ameritron) offered the lower power levels, 
doing the job of keeping the cost effective or entry 
level boxs in production.   Not many are offering 
a large selection if any solid state designs.  

The amateur amplifier market seems to be extremely 
competitive, more so than I and other amps conversing 
members had thought.  How some of the more specific 
amps only mfgrs stay in business will be interesting 
to see. 

Many of the mfgrs have long ignored building large 
amplifiers for the "VHF and Above" crowd. From Dayton 
it appears many mfgrs have now started to focus 
their long overdue attention toward producing 
amplifier products for serious VHF/UHF operators. 


Hope you liked the pics.
cheers
skipp
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