[TenTec] Better Bulb Life in TenTec 229, 238 Tuners

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 14:34 -0500, Ralph Matheny wrote:
> I'd never want a diode of any flavor inside an antenna tuner if I
> could avoid it.  Everytime I flow current thru a diode I get NOISE
> someplace.  Thus--and it does work--in rotor control boxes, tuners,
> radios, I almost always wire in about a 10-15% voltage drop in the form
> of a resistor the first time I have to replace the bulb.  I've not tried 
> the new LEDS, they are a bit expensive I think but should be a good 
> solution.
> 
> Ralph Matheny
> K8RYU
> 207 Gibbons Place
> Marietta Ohio  45750
> mathenyr at marietta.edu
> 
The big problem today with LEDs is that the light is very focused while
the light from an incandescent lamp would be nearly uniform over the
whole sphere if it wasn't for the lamp base. Devices designed to be
illuminated by that omnidirectional pattern, often aren't lighted well
by the LED. To use the light from a narrow beamed LED may require adding
a significant light distribution bar or diffuser. There are new LEDs
promised with a 60 degree pattern, but so far only in chip scale, not
quite ready to drop into a lamp socket.

When LEDs develop the wide spread typical of an incandescent or
fluorescent lamp, they will find much greater use, but I think won't
show the great efficiency improvement they now get. That's because the
comparisons don't include lighting all directions, just the light IN the
beam.

73, Jerry, K0CQ