[Amps] Price per Watt Conversation / novel concept

[Catherine James]

Leigh Turner <invertech at frontierisp.net.au> wrote:
> Unlike radio broadcasters, for the modest amount of time an amateur station
> is on-air, efficiency and the electricity consumption/conservation is not such a
> serious driver...

I agree, Leigh.  For hams, it's overwhelmingly up-front cost that matters, not
life-cycle costs or operating costs.

It would be interesting to try to compute roughly how many $$$ I have spent on
my radios and amps vs. electricity to run them or replacement parts for failures.
My intuition says that the initial purchase price utterly dominates my life-cycle costs.

That's a big reason why design tradeoffs made for commercial products are often
not appropriate for amateurs.

73,
Cathy
N5WVR