[3830] Re Italian/English Amps

[Andrew Faber]

   In my score submittal, I asked the following tongue in cheek question:
"Out of curiousity: where do the very loud Italians get all those "300 watt"
amps, and the English the "400 watt" amps? (hi)"

    Here are the replies I received.  Lots of interesting theories:

1)  "When I asked G4IUF about the 400 watt limit, all I got from him was
wink
and a smile!"

2)"The answer to your question is "The same places you and I get our amps".
Remember the 400 watts is measured at the feed point of the antenna in
England, and the damp weather sometimes results in Very High estimated
feedline losses.  I ran an AL-1200 there."

3) "I think they leave out the last zero in their power figure."

4)"IK0___ operated from N6RO two years ago in WPX SSB.  I asked him what was
the largest 300w amplifier he had seen and he replied, "...a 4CX10000."

5)"In Italy, only the amp in the shack counts. The one out by the antenna
is considered part of the antenna system. So the 300 watts is the drive.
You should hear IR4T here at one skip away. 24/24 on all bands.

I was at a DX Convention in England and Kenwood had a demo station set
up. I asked the sales guy why the TL-922 was so inefficient. He looked
at me puzzled. I said, "well look at the Ip and HV, you are running 2KW
in for only 400w out!" He didn't seem all that amused.

When I bought a used TL-922 in England, the ham who sold it to me swore
that it had never been used above 400w out, so was therefore in
excellent shape."

6)"A few years ago, my next door neighbor invited
a collegue of his from France over for dinner.  The
collegue was a ham, saw my antennas, and walked over for
a visit.

He was telling me about his hobby of building high-power
amplifiers - in the 15 kwatt range - and testing them during
contests.  I asked him how he placed, but he said he never
sent his logs in.

This visit worked well for another reason:  The same
neighbor is the one who called the police on me while
I was operating SS Phone!  (QRMing his TV with k2mm's amp.)
After his French friends visit, he never hassled me again!"

7)"They use the metric system, so you have to multiply by 3.1"

73, Andy, AE6Y




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