Richards wrote:
> Yes - I would buy one immediately and install it on my vertical.
>
> (Marketing gurus pay attention!)
>
How much would you be willing to pay for this?
The SGC 500W tuner is, as I recall, about $1500.. the Palstar 1500W
autotuner is $1200, but not exactly designed for driving a vertical, nor
is it in a weatherproof box.. The LDG is similar.
If you're willing to do some fabrication one could probably cobble a
solution up for around $2K (box, remote controls, etc.)
A turnkey solution (like a kilowatt SGC equivalent) would probably be
around $2500, if it were a product. If you pay someone to design and
integrate it from what's available today, figure more like $3-3.5.
I fully understand and support the desire for turnkey solutions (I've
got better things to do with my *free* time than fiddle with modifying
things and doing one-off packaging.. I've got a whole garage full of
partially completed projects just like that.)
The market's just not that huge.. SGC sells theirs because it's a mate
to their 500W amplifier. Racal and Harris sell theirs as part of their
overall system (and, without checking, I'd be willing to bet a cold
frosty one that their kilowatt autotuners are more than $3K, and are
probably not generic to boot.. that is, they have a custom proprietary
interface to the rest of the radio.)
As another interesting point.. when you're getting into this kind of
system design, then you should start thinking about remoting the PA,
too. Put the power amp AND matching network at the base of the
radiator, and just run low-ish power to it. With the new more liberal
PA rules, maybe we'll start to see 30dB gain kilowatt amps that can be
driven by a watt, with decent remote control.
Jim, W6RMK
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