Bill, W6WRT wrote:
> ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
>
> On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:08:29 -0500, "Carl" <km1h@jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
>
>
>> For the amp builder with little or no experience start off simple. Dont
>> waste money on expensive and fragile tubes such as the 8877 at this stage.
>>
>
> REPLY:
>
> I agree and would like to point out that your first homebrew amp will
> almost certainly not be your last. Even if it works as it should, you
> will want to "improve" it somehow. My final homebrew amp is the fifth
> in a line that goes back to the 1990's. I would build one, get it
> working, tear it apart and try to do "better". Fifth try was the
> charm. Your number may vary but I bet it will be similar. :-)
>
> Purely in terms of time and money I would have been WAY ahead to just
> have bought an Alpha to begin with and I would have had lots more time
> on the air besides. But the experience was worth it all.
>
> Incidentally I did the exact same thing building a 20 foot sailboat
> from scratch in the 1980's. A great experience and education, but if I
> simply wanted a sailboat, I would buy one commercially built for all
> the same reasons.
>
You can't say that about airplanes though. Due to the certification
process of commercially produced aircraft you can build one far cheaper
than you can buy plus if you do a good job on one that is a desirable
model you might likely sell it for twice what you have in it. The top
end Glasair and Lancair models easily do this with the pressurized
models being somewhat expensive to build, but with less than 100 hours
on one, it's likely to sell for as much as 3 times what you have in it.
OTOH there isn't a large market for toys that cost that much and use
several hundred dollars worth of fuel per hour.
Also the plane will be licensed to the maneuvers you test it for and you
can do aerobatics in them while that would be illegal with a standard or
utility category plane. The only real limitation is similar to amps.
While the amps are limited to the legal power limit, GA aircraft are not
allowed to fly faster than the speed of sound...over the US, or in US
airspace. Both can be built with the capability to greatly exceed these
limits.
Like building amps: as has already been said, if you are building to
have an amp, you might as well go out and purchase one. The same is true
for aircraft, except both the cost and hours invested will exceed the
most elaborate "Kalifornia Kilowatt"<:-))
I'm sure most noticed that those who thought the metal working was not
that difficult were also very knowledgeable, experienced, and capable
builders.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> 73, Bill W6WRT
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