[Amps] Open Reply to Steve Cook

[Jeff Weinberg W8CQ]

Hi Everyone,
I am not going to drag this out.  I will make one reply to Steve's 
comments and leave it at that.  He is telling his side and I will tell mine.

I tried to help Steve with a custom design using some of Pete's old 
designs for similar units.  In order to get the voltage and current 
ratings he wanted, an A-0550 core was called for.  This particular core 
is made by Magnetic Metals and their product code is MS-314B.  The price 
on a pair of those cores alone is over $1600 and with the freight 
charge, the cost of cores alone is almost $2000 (weight just shy of 175 
lbs shipped from California to the east coast brings the core cost to 
almost $2000).

Pete's old design used this core.  I had assumed that the current price 
of that core would be similar to the old price of almost 5 years ago.  I 
was wrong in my initial estimate of the core cost.  I tried to make a 
design that would meet Steve's requirements, but I could not do it based 
on current core pricing.

I don't know what else to do.  He told me that someone else could make 
the transformer for $2400 or $2500, so I politely told him he should buy 
it from them.

Keep in mind, I went though about at least 8 hours of design changes and 
iterations to try to make Steve happy at no cost to Steve, but I could 
not do it.  I could not match someone other manufacturer's price and 
that should have been the end of it.

I guess Steve has to vent his frustration and that is his right.  I just 
wanted to tell my side also.

By the way for Carl KM1H, who do you think helped me with the design of 
this unit?  Chris, from MagCap, my business partner.  There you go!

Jeff  W8CQ