[Amps] Sunset of old technologies

[Carl]

Maybe it is about time for the Chinese to get serious about entering the HF 
side of ham radio from rigs to amps. They are already manufacturing some 
Eimac type tubes with Eimac supplied tooling.

Carl



Subject: Re: [Amps] Sunset of old technologies


> Mark,
>
> I think you are right about this, but the sunset of analog front-ends is 
> happening
> faster than the HF tube PA one.
>
> Price of late-generation analog transceivers:
>
> Kenwood TS-590SG, about $1700
> Yaesu FT-991A, about $1500
> K3S, about $2900 (assembled, 100 watts)
>
> Price of next-generation SDR radios:
>
> Icom IC-7300, about $1400
> KX3, about $1900 (assembled, with 100 watt outboard amplifier)
>
> So we are already at a point where you can move to the next generation of 
> transceiver design
> without paying a huge premium for comparable performance. For about $1500, 
> you can get
> a seat in the game, and you won't find a new analog rig of similar 
> performance for less.
>
>
> But what does the situation in HF amps look like?
>
> Price of tube-based amps:
>
> Ameritron AL-811H, ~600 watts, about $900
> Ameritron AL-80B, ~800 watts, about $1500
> Ameritron AL-82, 1500 watts, about $2800
> ACOM 1000, 1000 watts, about $2800
> ACOM 1500, 1500 watts, about $4000
>
> Cost per watt:  $1.50 - $2.80
>
>
> Price of solid-state amps:
>
> Ameritron ALS-600, 500 watts, about $1400
> ACOM 600, 600 watts, about $2800
> Elecraft KPA-500, 500 watts, about $3000
> Elecraft KPA-1500, 1500 watts, about $6000
> ICOM PW-1, 1500 watts, about $4900
>
> Cost per watt:  $2.80 - $6.00
>
>
> So it's still not practical to get the same performance *at the same 
> price* from
> solid state power amplifiers.  It will come, but it's not there yet.
>
> You can quibble with the choices of amps that I picked to make the point, 
> but
> I don't think you can refute the core argument.
>
> 73,
> Cathy
> N5WVR
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Mark Hill <g4fph at mjha.co.uk> wrote:
>> I think we are truly seeing the sun setting on valve HF PA and analogue
>> front-end transceivers.
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