[Amps] New Vacuum Relay Supplier

[w6ah@comcast.net]

  Well people this is ex-K1TA and I'm back after bugging out for a few years with a new call W6AH. Yep that's right W6 Adam Henry. It's the type of call you have one of two opinions about. Either you never want to deal with it or you have a sense of humor twisted enough to actually seek it out. One advantage to having such a call is you never have to worry about being duped in a contest. :-)

Now to the topic at hand. Perusing through the archive I found a thread worthy of a reprise on a couple of points so here goes:

>I was looking for a vacuum relay to modify an existing amplifier, when I 
>ran across this relatively new arrival on the scene: Gigavac.
>
>They sell new vacuum relays at very competitive prices, and will sell 
>directly to amateurs.  

***  What is the price for (100) GH1 Gigavac? relays?  Where does one find the 
price list on their Web site?

>I was particularly interested in their equivalent to 
>the Jennings RJ1A, the GH1-12Vdc, which comes with a 12 volt coil.  This 
>meant I didn't have to build an additional power supply for 26 
>volts.  

***  In order to speed up a GH1-12vdc sufficiently to use with a modern 
transceiver, one would need a 50 - 70 volt PS and an appropriate series-R.  

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A HUNDRED RELAYS !  Rich did that salesman know you were a ham when you spoke to him ? If he did I would have loved to see the look on his face when you asked for a bulk discount number on such a quantity ! Are you the guy responsible for Gigavac imposing a per anum quantity limit for sales to hams ? ;-)

In all seriousness this really is a very big development for Amp Builders. The other two players in the vacuum relay business could not give 2 cents to blow off the ham radio market. Now we have a Start-up that has gone out of its way to set up policies for the express purpose of selling to the amateur radio market. I would think that it behooves us to go out of our way to patronize Gigavac out of a sense of gratitude for their willingness to deal with hams. I'm not say we should accept inferior products from them. In that vain I would like to know what type of Out-of-Box Failure Rate we are seeing on Gigavac Products. But all Gigavac Relays come with a 1 year warranty which really makes you stop and question the frugality of purchasing a relay off of EBay or out of an equipment salvage dealer. Those relays are sold "as-is where-is". And if you get them home and throw them on a HiPot tester only to find out they are no good then it's two Andrew Jacksons that you have thrown i
 n the trash can. Suddenly 70 Bucks for a relay with a guarrantee doesn't seem so expensive anymore. As Gigavac now has a policy of 3/5 relays per year per ham it makes sense to purchase your first 3 from them then you can chase after the bargain.

It sounds like Gigavac has a pretty tough road to travel over the next few years as Kilovac, now owned by Super Conglomerate Tyco, controls 80 percent of the market. The least Amp Builders can do is make sure that a few bucks that are spent on vacuum relays regardless of manufacturer make their way to a vendor that is willing to sell to us.

BTW I have no pecuniary interest in seeing Gigavac succeed. 
Check out their webpage

homepage: http://www.gigavac.com
hampage: http://www.gigavac.com/products/relays/ham/index.htm


73s

Bob W6AH