> This all makes sense to me, but I was a little uncertain about Tom's
> comments about tubes being on the way out. It seems to me (as a layman),
> that high-power solid state amplifiers for amateur use haven't come very
> far since (pardon the phonetic spelling) Helge Granberg's cover article in
> QST maybe 25 years ago. There still is no legal-limit solid state amateur
> amplifier that I know of, and the existing hardware all seems to require a
> 50-ohm load, is intolerant of operator errors, fragile, etc.
It would be easy to build a solid state amp capable of 3-4Kw, and baby it at
1500 watts. The price wouldn't be any different than people pay now for
autotune amps.
You'd have to use decent FET like MRF150's, because the IM performance of
cheap FETs designed for industrial use still isn't acceptable.
People haven't done that because no one wants to break out of the current
envelope of selling tube amps. They work with what they are comfortable
with.
I just hope whenever someone does that they don't come up with a trashy
design, with poor IM performance.
73 Tom
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