[Amps] A general question about why anodes get hot

[2]

>Amidst all the nostalgia over AM (my Dad, W5JHJ, still has a working Globe 
>Champion with 275 W of plate-modulated AM; I vividly remember watching the 
>866A mercury-vapor rectifiers glow blue and pulsate as he spoke), I've been 
>wondering what the *physical* mechanism is that heats a vacuum tube anode 
>as it operates. 

Tube-type amplifiers dissipate roughly half as much heat as the amount of 
RF they produce.

> I'd appreciate enlightenment.  We all take for granted the 
>fact that these things get hot as they operate, and I nod my head properly 
>when discussing efficiency and plate dissipation, but what, physically, is 
>heating the anode?
>
Electrons impacting the anode. 

cheers, Kim
>
>                           Kim Elmore, Ph.D.
>                        University of Oklahoma
>         Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies
>"All of weather is divided into three parts: Yes, No, and Maybe. The
>greatest of these is Maybe" The original Latin appears to be garbled.
>
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>


-  R. L. Measures, a.k.a. Rich..., 805.386.3734,AG6K, 
www.vcnet.com/measures.  
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