OK gang, here is a passing thought for you all to ponder.
Amazing what my mind can come up with when I am tired.
I read recently where Ameritron is now using stainless steel for the
chassis of some of their amplifiers. This seemed like an expensive
proposition compared to aluminum but at first I figured that the folks
who live near the salt water environments would be pleased and perhaps I
wasn't as firmiliar with what sheet metal costs are these days anyway,
so I didn't think much about it again until just the other day. What
gave me a new way to look at things was the diagram of various
reasonances and areas of capacitive and inductive reactance within an
amplifier shown in the ARRL handbook. Most everything has a return to
chassis ground. Stainless steel is very much like nichrome. If it
doesn't make a difference where you place a suppresser within a resonate
circuit (on the hot end or the cold end) and the chassis is common to
all circuits within the RF path both input and output, why wouldn't a
stainless steel chassis act much like the nichrome suppresser. The
conductivity of stainless is not as good as aluminum and I would think
the effects on VHF circuits would be detrimental due to its lossier
conductivity.
Ok, that should get a few of you thinking in a different direction for a
hour or so.
What say you all.? Am I all wet or did I just have an interesting
thought?
Kevlar boxers and flame suit in place.;>}
Mike Baker K7DD
Peoria, AZ. DM33
bakerhouse@uswest.net
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