[Amps] Ham Tests, was Price per Watt Conversation

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

Jim,

> ##  tell that to my buddy, who lives 5 blocks away from me. He has
> a ten-tec hercules  SS  500 watt amp. Transistors are un obtainium.
> There is no drop in replacement either. There is no way to even re-design
> and rebuild the damned thing.   Its a door stop, worth nothing. Nobody
> has been successful in getting a TEN TEC Hercules to work.  They
> are all door stops. 

Maybe I'm missing something, but I just downloaded a manual for the Ten 
Tec Hercules model 444 amplifier. The schematic specifies MRF428 
transistors, and these are still available. At rfparts.com you can even 
choose between Motorola and MaCom brands.

On some web sites I saw CD4792-4 transistors mentioned for this amp. So 
I assume that some production runs used this device. I understand that 
they were made by CTC, and that company bit the dust a long time ago. 
But as far as I can find out that transistor is a drop-in replacement of 
the MRF428, so I don't see where the problem is. Maybe the price? At 
roughly $70 each, these transistors aren't cheap.

Manfred

========================
Visit my hobby homepage!
http://ludens.cl
========================