Hi Eddy
It's a nice amp though, wouldn't you say? Nice clean lines, decent looking
components. It looks like quality construction.
If someone commissioned me to build them an amp (and plenty have asked) I'd be
charging in the same region for it. I'm charged out at over GBP100 her hour
professionally as a IT/management consultant, so why not for amp building?
It's a bit different for those of us who build for ourselves to those who have
to mass produce and sell for a living. My amps have all been one-offs, built
around surplus kit and second hand tubes found at fleamarkets from Dayton
to Rochester to London to Friedrichshafen, where I can haggle for a low price
and I can design around my components. Trying to persuade Virgin Atlantic to
let me check in a 250lb plate transformer on the way home from New
York to London is an enduring memory and one that my wife still laughs about :-)
These blokes have to buy stuff new from suppliers, build and test amps to
commercial grade so they don't get sued, often offer warranties AND they still
have to make enough money to EAT. Once your Mr Obama starts making you pay as
much tax as we do you'll appreciate that, trust me....
For a new amp made from new components, tested and working I think it's a very
fair price. I don't know what Henry used to charge for an 8K, does anyone else
know?
OF COURSE us home-brewers can undercut them by 95 percent and to my thinking
no REAL Ham would buy such a thing - we'd build it ourselves. Unless of course
they've got a real physical disability like multiple sclerosis or Parkinsons
etc and can't hold a glass of water let alone a soldering iron. Spare a
thought for them.
But the ham bands are full of appliance operators these days, who buy black
boxes off the shelf, which is why exchanging information with you guys on this
mail list is so precious. We're an endangered species, there aren't many of
us left! A sad sign of the times, I'm afraid.
cheers
Dave G0OIL
--- On Sun, 30/11/08, EP Swynar <gswynar@durham.net> wrote:
From: EP Swynar <gswynar@durham.net>
Subject: [Amps] Linear Amplifiers
To: amps@contesting.com
Date: Sunday, 30 November, 2008, 5:39 PM
Good Day All,
I am continually amazed & perplexed at how some Hams will readily dole out
HUGE $$$ for amplifiers like this (see earlier eBay reference item
220304468622), when they can just as easily homebrew one that will be as
competitive as most ANY available "appliance", AND for one heckuva
savings,
too...
Homebuilt power amplifiers and QRO transmatches are, IMHO, the last bastion
left for those of us who enjoy "...rolling our own." HALF of the fun
of
using an amplifier is the journey getting there --- and by "journey"
I mean
the journey of coming up with a suitable schematic, collecting the parts,
laying them out, drilling / bending metal, soldering etc. etc., and NOT the
journey to the local Ham Radio Emporium...!
Best of all, the doggone things continually teach one something new, AND on
a regular basis --- or so it seems with my stuff here, anyway!
You certainly don't get that benefit by packaging-up a broken rig, &
delivering it to the local UPS depot for returning to the manufacturer...
My $0.02, anyway!
~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
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