Great insight and advise Manfred. We saw this writing on the wall when
Eimac dropped the 3-500Z production as well. I understand even the
YC-156 is not being purchased by the manufactures for new equipment, and
that tube is becoming scarce. The new MRI equipment is also going solid
state. This is hearsay...I'm not associated in those circles directly.
Dino - KX6D
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Amps] Sad News for Eimac Users
From: Manfred Mornhinweg <manfred@ludens.cl>
Date: Mon, September 24, 2012 2:33 pm
To: amps@contesting.com
John,
> Then I asked the Eimac distributor, Richardson Electronics, for a price
> and availability quote.
>
>> Item Qty Part Number Br Unit Price Extension Delivery
>> 1 1 3CX1200A7 EI 1,625.00 1,625.00 18 Weeks
>> 2 1 3CX1200D7/YU121 EI 1,200.00 1,200.00 Stock
>> 3 1 3CX1200Z7/YU181 EI 1,200.00 1,200.00 Stock
>> 4 1 3CX1500D7 EI 1,395.00 1,395.00 18 Weeks
>
> I have no idea what "Br" and "EI" mean in the quote.
It means "Brand" and "EIMAC".
> I'm not buying any of these. I was just curious.
Neither would I. Unless I needed one as a replacement for an existing
transmitter or other device, that is otherwise still good, and too
expensive to replace completely.
But for new design, I think one would need to be blind not to see the
writing on the wall. Take the hint!
When in the 1970s receiving tubes started to get more expensive and
harder to find, while transistors were already dirt cheap and very good,
there were still many designers who were reluctant to learn their trade
anew. They kept designing with tubes, until they simply lost touch with
the real world. Those in teh industry lost their jobs, while hobbyists
continued to design with tubes until they died, as part of they hobby,
in which there was no pressure to be competitive. Then in around 1980
the same happened with transmitting at the 100 watt level. And then, in
the 90s, it reached the kW level. The lower power tubes are mostly gone
from production, except for some used by the esoteric audio gang, which
is large enough to sustain some small factories in China. The industry
has since mostly dropped tubes in the 1kW class sector, be it
transmission, medical, or industrial uses. They are using them for
replacement purposes, in some cases, and this is dying out. Many hams
are moving to 100% solid state up to legal limit power right now. There
still IS room for home builders to build tube amps just for fun, but
this group will hardly remain large enough to sustain factories like the
audio gang is doing. That means that 1kW class transmitting tubes WILL
be discontinued, and most of them rather soon. Probably existing stock
will last nostalgics for several decades, so don't cry, but the
technically sensible thing to do is to leave this old technology behind
and take advantage of the modern developments.
Manfred
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