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Re: [TenTec] another amp question

To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] another amp question
From: Ed <w3nr@comcast.net>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:27:15 -0400
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
jerome schatten wrote:
Learned gentlemen...

Excuse me if this is somewhat off-topic, but I've been following the 811 amp discussion with much interest and have a related question:

I'm currently doing some work my pair of 813's and was thinking about the 'parasitic' problem as discussed on this list.

My fear is not blowing the tubes or the band switch, but rather in blowing the front end of a modern transceiver driving it. The configuration is a pair of 813's truly running zero bias GG (grids all tied together and connected directly to ground ~ 50 ma. idle current at 2200v). No band switch (rotary inductor pi-network). Manual switching tx/rx avoids hot switching. Input to the amp is grounded in Rx. Works 80 thru 20 only.

Should I be worried about the parasitic problem taking out what's driving it? If so, how to prevent (minimize) that? In the 40 years I've been running this beast (still the same set of tubes) I've driven it with everything from a Viking Ranger, to a Jupiter and never had so much as burp. But one never knows.

Getting nervous in Vancouver,
va7vv


What a great amp.....I could kick myself for ever selling the pair of 813's I built. For you "new" hams, 2 813's in GG with 2200 to 2700 on the plates was hard to beat. They didn't like 15 and they definitely didn't like 10. But from 20 on.....what an amp. If I had some tube sockets and a filament transformer, I would build a 813 amp in a heartbeat.

I liked the idea that Ameritron uses, instead of floating the B- with a 5 to 10 ohm resistor, they used a diode. So you have B- above ground enough to run the meter circuit, but the diode doubles as a fuse.

I've been building, repairing, and using amps for 30 years. 99.9% of the time, any catastrophic event has been operator error or component failure.

I would suggest thinking about using a diode in the B- return and let it act as a fuse.

Ed W3NR

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