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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