[Amps] Big Solid State Power Amplifiers

[Steve Thompson]

On Sunday 14 December 2003 19:38, gw4dgu at blaenffos.org wrote:
> > It is a mistake to apply a commercial broadcast economic model to a ham
> > radio station.
>
> I don't disagree at all with this. The point I was trying - however
> ineptly - to make is that solid state technology requires a different
> approach to traditional tube design.
Is it all that different? Whatever the technology, different devices offer 
benefits/disadvantages. The feedback systems are most easily applied round a 
transmitter rather than an amplifier, and I'm not sure that it makes much 
difference what the output stage is.

12V bipolars are undoubtedly poor in linearlty terms, but $/W for brute power 
(at hf) is not so bad. In general the typical cw to pep derating for linear 
operation with semiconductors is in the regions of 50%, the same as we apply 
to a 4CX250, for example.

Steve