[Amps] Sad State of the Hobby

[John Simmons]

Lee and others:

Some websites: https://www.qrz.com/db/kf8od, 
https://www.youtube.com/user/KF8OD1,http://www.w6pql.com/, 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFbvWjEMQByLnvxUly5XvQ, https://eb104.ru/

KG0CE and I are building the W6PQL design. Packaging the amp is about 
half the work of building it, especially if you want features such as 
complete metering, auto-bandswitching, etc.

-John NI0K

> Lee Bahr <mailto:L at w0vt.us>
> Friday, January 19, 2018 9:18 PM
> I'm not a beginner.  Been a ham for 64 years.  However I have never 
> built a legal limit Solid State Amp.  I have thrown my name in the hat 
> with my friend Mike and both w5mp and w0vt are going to build two of 
> them.  We appreciate the info some have provided.  We are now 
> educating ourselves and will build when no longer babes in the woods.  
> If anything,  solid state amps appear to becoming easier to build. 
> Seems like many commercial ham solid state amps are using really old 
> technology.  Mike and I don't want blinking LED lamps and LED bar 
> graph meters and automatic band switching. Analog meters with a band 
> switch for us!  Leaving this stuff off will make things much simpler 
> and less complicated.   Less things to go wrong.  Here in Houston Mike 
> and I have been using a local aluminum machine shop to fabricate our 
> chassis and cabinets for prior projects.  They have done beautiful 
> custom work at reasonable costs with fast turn around.   So our 
> projects will be nicely housed.  We are both looking forward to the 
> effort.  Right now we are anticipating the cost to be around $1500.
>
> Lee, w0vt
>
>
>
>
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> Bill Turner <mailto:dezrat at outlook.com>
> Friday, January 19, 2018 2:55 PM
> ------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
>
>
> REPLY:
>
> That's true and there is a reason for that. Building a legal limit
> solid state amp is not for beginners. A tube amp is much easier and
> more forgiving of rookie mistakes.
>
> Not to mention he would also have to build a set of harmonic filters
> and get an antenna tuner, neither of which is needed with a tube amp.
>
> FWIW.
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
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> Lee Bahr <mailto:L at w0vt.us>
> Thursday, January 18, 2018 9:08 PM
> A friend of mine has been getting himself interested in building a 
> super Full legal limit solid state amplifier.  What is catching his 
> attention are the relatively low cost high power FETs available out 
> there.  I know he is looking at the modules available from some 
> Russian on eBay.  He has started to get me interested but I am no 
> design engineer.  This evening I started researching this topic on the 
> internet and was amazed at the lack of good info on the subject.  
> Stuff there is 10 to 15 years old.  I did a search at the ARRL web 
> site and they have a 1000 watt amp article in their QEX magazine but 
> that was way back around 2002 or so.  OLD TECHNOLOGY! What is this?  
> Nothing for 15 years?  I knew the ARRL was falling behind in their 
> technical articles but 15 years with no amp construction article?  
> Man, this is truly sad!  I suspect there are no decent articles on 
> building one anywhere.  This hobby has truly sunk to a new low.  Guys 
> can't even build their own dipoles anymore.  I admit I am no design 
> engineer but I can still build stuff.  Even on this reflector I can't 
> remember any talk about modern day amps and how to build one using the 
> newly offered high powered FETs.
> Lee, w0vt
>
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> John Lyles <mailto:jtml at losalamos.com>
> Thursday, January 18, 2018 1:38 AM
> Polyfet has a 2014 technical bulletin on their website, TB239. It uses 
> their LY942 LDMOS transistor to make a flat 2-30 MHz 400 watt linear 
> amplifier with 20 dB gain, using 50 volt parts. Its a compact layout 
> and there is a full parts list along with plots. Has anyone built one 
> of these?  Its not 1200 or 1800 watts, but has decent 3rd order IMD 
> results listed.
> 73
> John
> K5PRO
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