[Amps] 1 tube or two ??

[John Becker]

Tom W8JI wrote:
> 
> The 4-1000A is old technology that gives us a warm fuzzy 
> feeling and makes our aged brain cells call for saliva. It 
> creates memories of big conservative power where there 
> really was none compared to today when a bottle 1/3 the 
> physical size does almost everything better except perhaps 
> warm our hearts with that white-glowing filament and red 
> glowing anode.
>
I built a 4-1000A amp in 1969 and I'm still using it with the original 
tube. The thing I like best about it is that I don't have to wait 3 
minutes for it to warm up as with external-anode tubes. Also, the tube 
must be quite rugged or it wouldn't have lasted this long.

I bought an FT-1000 about 4 years ago, and I enjoy the QSK feature on CW 
so much that I'm planning to modify the amp to add QSK capability. WARC 
band coverage would be nice to have too. If anyone here has advice on 
these mods, please chime in. I'm new to this list, so forgive me if 
these topics have already been discussed to the n-th degree!

I *have* considered buying or building a new amp. My shack is small and 
my present amp is huge compared with what is being sold today. But I 
keep coming back to the instant-on advantage of the 4-1000A.

Realistically, I don't see myself building another amp from scratch. 
What, if anything, is available commercially in a rugged, reliable 
legal-limit amp that doesn't require the 3 minute warm-up and has QSK?

73,

John, K9MM