[Amps] SS vs. Tubes (was "I gotta tell this")

[Theo Bellamy]

Cliff N7HIY wrote:

>the broadcast, commercial and military transmitter industry has long ago
>switched from archaic tube amplifier technology to solid state devices.
>we, ham radio, are the laggards in the change of technology

I really wish I could get excited about building an amp with solid state
devices. I know we are not on the cutting edge when we build amps with 813s
from WW2 or Russian Tank Radar tubes, but the transistors just seem so ...
how can I put it? .... boring and lifeless. Maybe if I saw some really
interesting looking homebrew ham amps with transistors I could get
interested. But they all look like aluminum show  boxes. There is just
something about hurling electrons through a vacuum with great heat, guiding
their flow with a little voltage as they slam into a metal plate with a high
and lethal voltage applied, hoping you have things adjusted correctly where
it won't self destruct in a flash of sparks and smoke. This all seems
natural to me. The way God himself wants amplifiers to be. There is just
something slightly evil and deceitful about the way transistors just die a
silent death. And then there is all that solder and heat sink compound. It
just ain't right .....


;-)

Theo K4MO