[Amps] new amp race

[Carl]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Catherine James" <catherine.james at att.net>
To: <amps at contesting.com>; "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom at telus.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2017 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Amps] new amp race


>>> I watched as EU ruined itself in contests with super high power big 
>>> antenna stations.
>>> Result seems to be they can not hear weaker long distant stations.... so 
>>> end up working
>>> each other in a band full of huge sigs.
>
>>> Seems now everyone everywhere is looking for at least 2.5 KW fighting 
>>> low sunspots and egos.
>
> I'd blame this more on sunspot lows than egos.  Egos have always been with 
> us, but
> we are seeing unprecedented poor solar conditions.  Every cycle since 1958 
> has been weaker
> than the one before. Even solar max isn't what it used to be.  It's no 
> surprise that people are
> doing what they can to improve their station performance.
>
> That said, given the cost of 2.5 KW+, you are talking about a handful of 
> Big Guns.  The average
> Little Pistol doesn't even have US legal limit and isn't likely to get 
> there.
>
> Jim Thomson <jim.thom at telus.net> wrote:
>> then we have the issue of the ambient noise on RX slowly increasing over 
>> the
>>  years..... similar to light pollution for amateur astronomers.
>
> I've noticed the light pollution all right, but I'm not seeing global RF 
> pollution.  It's mostly very
> localized, in the ham's neighborhood, or even in his own house.  That 
> means it can be fought,
> case by case.
>
> It's very RF quiet at my rural location. I'm not hearing a lot of 
> over-the-horizon noise. Hams in or
> very close to cities have other problems, but those Big Guns that the 
> previous poster was talking
> about are probably setting up their superstations well away from urban RF 
> noise.
>
> On 2 meters, I see a huge increase in noise when I point the beam at 
> Boston, which is about 180
> miles away.   It's quiet on pretty much every other bearing.
>
>> Some folks are maxed out for ants already, they cant get any more gain
>> on their postage sized city lot. Noise is higher, so no wonder 1 kw is 
>> now the new 100w.
>
> Yes, it irritates me to see an endless stream of comments in many forums 
> along the lines of
> "don't get an amp, invest in better antennas," usually posted by hams with 
> legal limit amps. :-/
>
> For most people, getting much past a half-wave dipole quickly gets very 
> expensive.  In some
> cases, the cost starts with the first step -- sell your house and move to 
> where you can put up good
> antennas, without space restrictions, HOAs, close neighbors, etc.   And 
> that is the point where most
> will say, "Sorry, can't do that."
>
> It's often more cost-effective to buy a 500 or 1 kw amp, rather than put 
> up a tower with full-sized
> tribanders.  And the amp will help on the low bands, where we spend more 
> and more time during
> solar lows, but the tribander won't.  (Rotatable beams for 40 meters and 
> below are the province of a
> tiny population of elite hams.)
>
> 73,
> Cathy
> N5WVR


A 2 el Shorty 40 isnt out of anyones capability as Cushcraft has proven for 
several decades and now more brands are available with decent performance as 
compared to the rotary dummy loads of the past.

There are several 2500-3000 W amps on the used market using commonly 
available tubes and homebrew is still alive and well with the bigger Russian 
tubes as well as Eimac. The Chinese 3CX3000A7, built with Eimac supplied 
tooling, is a fine tube and a bargain in the $800 range. Use one of the 400W 
rigs or an AL-600 booster amp. A SB-200 works fine if 160 isnt requires. 
Bigger Eimac and European/Chinese tubes are readily available.

Ive always been able to scan for band noise on 6M and could hear US and EU 
urban area noise even before ham signals. Granted it is much worse now.

Carl 


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