[Amps] Sad News for Eimac Users

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

John,

> Then I asked the Eimac distributor, Richardson Electronics, for a price 
> and availability quote.
> 
>>  Item   Qty Part Number                     Br Unit Price  Extension Delivery
>>    1      1 3CX1200A7                       EI   1,625.00   1,625.00 18 Weeks
>>    2      1 3CX1200D7/YU121                 EI   1,200.00   1,200.00 Stock
>>    3      1 3CX1200Z7/YU181                 EI   1,200.00   1,200.00 Stock
>>    4      1 3CX1500D7                       EI   1,395.00   1,395.00 18 Weeks
> 
> I have no idea what "Br" and "EI" mean in the quote.

It means "Brand" and "EIMAC".

> I'm not buying any of these. I was just curious.

Neither would I. Unless I needed one as a replacement for an existing 
transmitter or other device, that is otherwise still good, and too 
expensive to replace completely.

But for new design, I think one would need to be blind not to see the 
writing on the wall. Take the hint!

When in the 1970s receiving tubes started to get more expensive and 
harder to find, while transistors were already dirt cheap and very good, 
there were still many designers who were reluctant to learn their trade 
anew. They kept designing with tubes, until they simply lost touch with 
the real world. Those in teh industry lost their jobs, while hobbyists 
continued to design with tubes until they died, as part of they hobby, 
in which there was no pressure to be competitive. Then in around 1980 
the same happened with transmitting at the 100 watt level. And then, in 
the 90s, it reached the kW level. The lower power tubes are mostly gone 
from production, except for some used by the esoteric audio gang, which 
is large enough to sustain some small factories in China. The industry 
has since mostly dropped tubes in the 1kW class sector, be it 
transmission, medical, or industrial uses. They are using them for 
replacement purposes, in some cases, and this is dying out. Many hams 
are moving to 100% solid state up to legal limit power right now. There 
still IS room for home builders to build tube amps just for fun, but 
this group will hardly remain large enough to sustain factories like the 
audio gang is doing. That means that 1kW class transmitting tubes WILL 
be discontinued, and most of them rather soon. Probably existing stock 
will last nostalgics for several decades, so don't cry, but the 
technically sensible thing to do is to leave this old technology behind 
and take advantage of the modern developments.

Manfred

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