[TenTec] Summary: Hercules II amp experience

[Allan G. Taylor]

What a great gang!

It is Monday morning and I am trying to get through my e-mail. 296 so far
(I get qrp-l and tower talk postings, both prolific lists!)

Anyway, a summary of the Hercules II notes in response to my recent request
to the group.

Hercules II amp is a superb unit. Great QSK, of course, and works well with
TT xcvrs to do automatic bandswitching. At least two said the combination of
an Omni/Herc II/ automatic tuner was the cats meow!

Fan noise is very low to nonexistent. (My Titan is NOT very low to nonexistent!)

Power supplies for it are an issue. A stiff supply is essential. Most use some
sort of battery arrangement with a charger. Golf cart batteries, 100 A marine
battery, etc. Some use a 1.5 A charger for casual use with a 10 A charger for
contests and such. At least one gave the stock power supply a good nod, altho
not cheap. Lack of a stiff supply can lead to problems (altho not stated in
the notes received).

One thing to be wary of:  a spike from the driver (xcvr) can zap the RF 
transistors. Apparently, some rice-boxes do this! If the breaker trips, first
check the waveform on your exciter! It may not be as clean as you think.
TT rigs are not afflicted with this problem, tho.

The JOKE was, of course, oxymoronic! A Herc II is only a QRP amp when compared
to a TT Titan. The Titan has a nice green bar indicating output power. When it 
is loafing at 500 W, it hardly moves => it must be QRP!!


I will likely get one, based on the responses received, when a financial
opportunity comes along. 


"You can tell its a real amp if the place current is in Amperes, and the plate
voltage in Kilovolts!!"

Thanks, gang...


Grant   K7GT    k7gt@qsl.net

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