[CQ-Contest] Re: Tuning Sensitivity Of Modern Amps

[VR2BrettGraham]

K8CC added:

>I've gotten around this by using only old-style glass bottle tubes in my 
>HF contesting station.  In the exact same examples given above, a pair of 
>3-500Zs, a 4-1000A or a 3-1000Z shows essentially no change in operating 
>conditions when the loads are switched.

I'm kicking myself for getting rid of my TL-922.  I think I may still have an
L-4B around here somewhere - where did it go?

>With the modern amps, Tim/K3LR offered the tip of loading the amp slightly 
>heavier than normal to accomodate load impedance changes.  With most of 
>the modern tubes, grid current is the killer so loading the amp slightly 
>on the heavy side (say giving up 50W of power output on top of 1500W) 
>drops the grid current significantly, and gives you some "wiggle room".

Yes, this helps a bit, though my antennas (a tribander & a SteppIR
dipole) are just too far apart most of the time.  Even more fun trying
to keep the amp happy as the tribander can change its appearance
quite a bit should the second radio be using it on one band instead
of another.

I guess it's some consolation that even if I did have the room to do
proper antennas here, that this problem wouldn't entirely go away.
I think I should start collecting bits & put tuners on everything like
I think N5OT does.

73 & HLNY, VR2BrettGraham