[Amps] Why hasn't solid state replaced tubes?

[Ian White, G3SEK]

Tom Rauch wrote:
>A new habit, imported from CB, is people now turn the little power 
>limit pots inside radios up. A local contestor brings his 1000MP's over 
>for work, and I find the pots set for 50% more power than factory. He 
>drives SB220's, which are not even designed to run 1500 watts output, 
>to more than 1500 watts.
>
>If I set a radio back to 100 watts, the next time I see it it is back 
>at 150w. He can't figure out how the pots get turned up, so he says.
>

Funny how these people want you to fix their rig, but always think they 
know best about the power pot...

We had one of those locally, a few years ago. Whatever we told him, and 
however we returned the rig after working on it, the front-panel DRIVE 
control would soon be back to full clockwise again. Eventually one of 
his tech helpers decided to fix the problem. I don't think Mr Clockwise 
ever did figure out that the front-panel control had been almost 
completely disabled... with just enough variation left to make him 
believe it still worked.

In the 'MP, epoxy over the pot would be pretty eloquent too.

-- 
73 from Ian G3SEK         'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
                            Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek