[Amps] Best source for Gigavac GH-1 ?

[Jim Brown]

On 11/9/2013 10:38 PM, Larry Benko wrote:
>
> What is failing on the relays?  Is it the coil opening up, the 
> contacts sticking, the receive side contact appearing open, or the 
> pivot getting sloppy and the contacts bouncing too much? 

My symptoms have been sticky contacts, mostly RX, but also TX. Since I 
stopped doing QSK with my Titans (about 2007) I've yet to replace a relay.

As to operations -- an active, aggressive contester will either CQ 
constantly and hopefully send an exchange every 20-40 seconds, or will 
search and pounce and do the same. I typically operate 24 hours for 
Sweepstakes, 24-30 hours for DX contests, 14-16 hours in RAC, IOTA, and 
WRTC contests and I work at least 12 such contests in a year. As Bill 
has shown, that's a LOT of relay operations if you're full QSK.

As a competitive contester, it's not the cost of the relay or even the 
time to replace it, but simply that I don't want to have to lose 90-120 
minutes of contest operating time while I do it.  Being analytical about 
it, the relays I've replaced have mostly been those that came with the 
three 20-30 year old Titan 425s I bought used, so perhaps it's only my 
contesting that pushed them over the edge. :)

73, Jim K9YC