I don't own a Centaur, but the ARRL product review states the following:
"It takes the better part of the output of a typical transceiver to
drive the Centaur to full output - 90 W or so would do it in most cases,
we found. We got the rated power on all bands except 17 meters, where
it was much closer to - but not quite - 500 W. While the Centaur manual
advises keeping the plate current at or below 550 mA during tuneup, we
found that the tubes drew up to 750 mA on some bands when the linear was
tuned for rated output. Ten-Tec said this is normal. (My personal
philosophy with an amplifier like this would be to run it at 450 to 500
W. There's precious little to be gained by pushing it to its absolute
limits.) "
73
chris, n4vi
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