[Amps] 4CX1600U - too good to be true?

[Roman Hanovych]

Hi Bill,

this nice small tube was built in few places in USSR (also in my town Lviv, 
by Polyaron),
 but not in big quantities, so they were not so well known and popular among 
HAMs.
Sockets unavailability (a bit problematic at least) was another reason for 
that.
But few dozen people used them, mostly on VHF/UHF by retuning surpluss 
commercial cavities
built on it (just like we do it here with GI-7B, GS-35b) quite succesfully,
with care taken (proper cooling, protection etc - too delicate grids) it can 
produce plenty of power.
It was hard to get one due to its constant demand by commercial sector (like 
TV broadcasters),
last 2 years much more of those rigs going surpluss so suddenly a few 
hundred
of these tubes became easily available and prices fallen rapidly,
the Ebay price from the link mentioned is way too high compared to many
offerings spread locally here. How long this will remain is hard to say,
could be a matter of a few monthes after someone starting another
commercial project and buys most of available lots, just like it was with 
GU-74, 84 and 78,
when they quickly transformed from a very popular among hundreds of local 
HAMs
into almost a thing of a luxury in Ukraine (btw, there are still many of 
them offered despite of all the
worries, this is because locals ignoring them now after compaired to the 
salary of a middle Ivan :(  ).

Due to their age and price people try to avoid forcing them with too much HV 
now
and stay below 3kV, when they were cheap 4kV was common :).
I am sure Google in english and cirillic can provide with many more info.

73, RG



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill, W6WRT" <dezrat1242 at yahoo.com>
To: "Amps reflector" <amps at contesting.com>; "RF Amps reflector" 
<rfamplifiers at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 8:53 PM
Subject: [Amps] 4CX1600U - too good to be true?


> Came across a 4CX1600U for sale on eBay, item number 260460157717 at a 
> very low
> price. Is this too good to be true?