>
>Well Dan, cheap is good when you don't have much money. I wish I could
>afford an Alpha or one of those killer Henry amps. No can do.
I think Dan's point was that if you buy a cheap amp, realize what you are
getting and don't try to push or massage it to perform like a big amp.
If you want big amp performance, you gotta spend the cash. If you can't
afford it, then you do the best you can with what you are able to afford.
But realize what you are getting.
> I've
>actually had several Ameritron amps - all bought used and all gone. They
>were OK, that's all. Warped cabinets, bad tubes, randon arcing, etc. Even
>had their solid state amp (ALS-600) - very, very sensitive to SWR. Couldn't
>get more than about 450 watts out of it. But mostly they worked OK.
I take it that "OK" is a term meaning "not good but not bad, either" as
opposed to "OK" meaning "good." I don't call what you mention above as
good performance.
>
> For one thing, I just
>don't have the space. And I just can't afford to spend the money for what
>I'd really like: an Alpha 87a.
Lotsa times you can get good deals on used stuff like you did with your
Ameritrons. Why not, instead of buy many used amps at say, $300 a piece
or whatever, you save up that money over a period of time and buy one
good amp that will last the rest of your life?
> I thought I could design and
>build one once, but hey, I'm a pretty good computer programmer, but
>electronic design just isn't my best skill-set.
I hate hearing this from hams. These days it's all too common. Please
don't think I am trying to insult you, because I am not. But, in the old
days, people from all walks of life designed and built amps. They were
not only built by the guys that have the RF design experience.
One of the aspects of ham radio is learning that new skill. Maybe you
aren't a good hardware designer now, but you could become one. That's
what ham radio used to be. Guys played and tinkered and as a result they
learned how to engineer and build stuff. Todays hams just want to plug
it in an operate like you'd operate any other household appliance. I am
sure many couldn't even tell you what an image reject mixer or a 2nd LO
is! I challenge you to read some books, get some elmering and just dare
to venture out and built that amp. Yeah, it might blow up the first
couple of times and it may take a long time to do, but just think of all
the stuff you'll learn and the satisfaction you'll have knowing that you
built it!
OK, off my soapbox. :-)
73,
Jon
KE9NA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
jono@enteract.com
www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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