Amen, Karl-Arne. Eimac seemingly began a long slide downhill after it
was acquired by Varian. The sweetheart monopoly contract Eimac/Varian
signed with Eddie Richardson was a good clue that something was going
amiss in San Bruno, California. [this contract almost resulted in
slammer/jail time for the conspirators at Club-Fed]
- After its Salt Lake City plant opened, Eimac began selling 3-500Zs
with defective anode-cooler spotwelds. This manufacturing defect allowed
the anode coolers to eventually break- oose, fall down and short against
the grounded-grid -- usually just beyond the 12-month warranty-period.
>I can second this.
>
>My organization (Stockholm Radio) runs several Collins 208U-10 10 kW
>amplifiers for air/ground SSB services that used Eimac 4CX350A's in the
>driver chain.
>During the final time before the driver chains were replaced with
>solid-state broad-band amplifiers (1997-98) the average filament hours
>before replacement (usually due to gassy tubes or low emission) was down
>to about 3000 h.
>
>When we obtained the amplifiers (1988), the average running time was about
>a year (8500 - 9000 h).
>I have been told by Rockwell/Collins field engineering that the US Coast
>Guard, another big 208U-10 user,
>went through a 4CX350A evaluation program in the mid-90's and after this
>selected Svetlana for all future replacements.
>
>Today's short replacement cycle of 4CX350A's (and probably also the
>replacement cost of the P-290A final tube) reportedly also resulted in the
>consignment to the scrap heap of Greenland Telecom's quite large setup of
>Granger 172-2 MF/HF transmitters. (A pity that they learned too late about
>the solid-state driver replacement that extended the life of our Grangers
>by 8 years...)
>
>73/
>
>Karl-Arne Markstrom
>SM0AOM
>
>=============================
>Senior Radio Engineer
>Maritime Networks
>Telia Mobile AB Nacka Strand Sweden
>
>Phone +46-8-6017171
>Mobile +46-706-636575
>Fax +46-8-6017959
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Alek Petkovic" <vk6apk@eon.net.au>
>To: <amps@contesting.com>
>Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 12:36 AM
>Subject: [Amps] Eimac vs Svetlana
>
>
>> G'day form sunny Perth,
>>
>> I found out something interesting a few days ago which may be of interest
>> to the assembled masses.
>>
>> A few mates and myself were lucky enough to pick up some decommissioned 1kW
>> transmitters from VIP, our local government run marine coastal radio
>> service station.
>>
>> These all mode AWA transmitters run 3 4CX350 tubes in the pa and one more
>> as a driver.
>>
>> We got a few dozen used pulls in the deal as well.
>>
>> That was the gloating bit. Now to the point.
>>
>> The guys who run the transmitters told us that the Svetlana tubes were far
>> better than the Eimac version. Typically, they get 2800 hours from the
>> Eimacs before trouble sets in. From the Svetlanas, the average is 8000
hours!
>>
>> We were quite astounded at the difference. They also said that sometimes, a
>> batch of Eimac tubes, are so bad, they send the whole lot back mostly
>> unopened. The few that they had opened and tested were so bad, that they
>> didn't even bother testing the rest.
>>
>> I don't know if all this is specific to this type of tube or if it is
>> across the board. Is anybody else in this group involved in a similar line
>> of work? Have you had similar or different experience?
>>
>> 73, Alek
>> VK6APK
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
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- Rich..., 805.386.3734, www.vcnet.com/measures.
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