On Fri, 29 Dec 2000 06:05:54 -0800, Bill Turner wrote:
>Do you, Mr Marston, build your own cars from scratch? If not, why not?
>Too lazy? That would be a learning experience too, wouldn't it?
Judging from the rhetorical nature of your questions it's pretty clear that
you are not looking for an answer. So for the benefit of everyone on the
list to which you cc ed. No I don't build my own cars. Well I guess
technically one could say yes as I did build a Kit Car some 20 years ago.
And it was a learning experience. The start up cost to build a single
vehicle by hand is staggering. That is a big reason why Rolls Royce charges
an astronomical price for the Silver Cloud. So your analogy is not an
accurate one. Even the totally uninitiated buying or building unique test
equipment could build their first amp at twice the cost of purchasing a
comparable piece of equipment. The second would be breakeven, the third and
succeeding at the cost of materials.
To address the vain of thought in your question, setting aside the Kit I
have only owned 2 vehicles in my entire life both were purchased 2nd hand.
Part of the criterea in my selection are that they are durable and easy to
maintain as I do most of the maintenance on the vehicles I own.
Getting back to amplifier construction while the task at hand is not
overwhelming it is not simple and there are many different facets with
different levels of complexity. The simplest being Triode HF amps
progressing through tetrodes then VHF techniques and finally UHF Cavity Amps.
I have nothing against Dick Ehrhorn or Alpha-Power. I have seen their
Amplifiers in action at many contest stations and have been very impressed.
It just strikes me as lazy to lay down 5600 bucks for an 87A when for the
same amount of money one could build a full rack of monoband amps that is
just as capable and just as durable and come away with a complete
understanding of what is going on inside the box inclusive of all the
equipment's limitations.
K1TA
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