I have been in ham radio for 29 years and have avoided the "Need"
for an amp though I must admit I have been severely tempted
(or maybe Seviervillely tempted??)to get one at times. It has
always come down to a $$$/db issue for me.
I know from other ham's experiences that if you can't get a 220Vac
feed you should rethink the whole idea. Otherwise, It will go something
like this: You buy a small amp so you can run on 120V.
You then find out that its a marginal situation. Once the novelty
of being able to dim the light wears off you decide to bite the
bullet and pull in a 220V line. Now, you wish you had the big
amp that you would have bought if you had the 220V available in
the first place. Of course, now you buy the bigger amp and fry
the heck out your marginal transmatch. You need to buy a heftier transmatch
in oder to find out that you need a better grade of
coax going to your antennas and maybe replace an antenna or two if
you have 300 watt traps in the system. It's at this point you
realize you should have put up better antennas in the first place. (multiply
all of these hassles by some exponentially increasing
variable if you are married :-)
To go from 100 to 400 watts will strengthen your sig by 1 whole
S unit at the receiving end. You'd have to go to to 1600 watts
to go up aother S unit. The amp + 220V line + transmatch + coax + antennas
could end up running a couple kilobucks/S unit. Personally,
I've had a tough time justifying that in the face of a family budget.
For my part, rediscovering CW about 10 years ago and buying a
TT Omni 6 has made it easy to work the DX. With the exception of
160 meters I can almost always work anything I find. On 160, I
have a marginal antenna...so far.
Good Luck on your decision.
>From: "Paul" <pfb@eriecoast.com>
>To: <tentec@contesting.com>
>Subject: [TenTec] Centaur AMP
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
>Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 11:59:24 -0400
>
>
>I have looked and looked for an inexpensive amp and reviews of the products
>on the web. Not much to be found. On the Tentec baord the only comments
>are from years ago about the fan noise. Several musings posted on
(Stuff deleted)
>says the 572 b can be used as a drop in replacemnt for the 511's and it
>would provide more output. Anyone ever do this?
>
>Paul Bransztet
>KI8HO
>
>PS--I probably ought to keep saving and wait to get a Centurian.
>
>
>
>
>--
>FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/tentecfaq.htm
>Submissions: tentec@contesting.com
>Administrative requests: tentec-REQUEST@contesting.com
>Problems: owner-tentec@contesting.com
>Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm
>
Carl R. Gansen WB0CFF
9300 W 225 St
Belle Plaine, Mn. 56011-4206
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