Chuck:

You ask me if I ever put ham gear together from old radios, tv's and army
surplus equip., Yes, gobs... my uncle had a chain of army surplus stores.
Most of that equip you just took to the air...

But, born right around 1950, I got in on the tail end of tubes. In the
late 60's we were already attempting to run transistors with
multi-parallel-push-pull circuits to get higher outputs on low HF. The
70's provided some decent high power transistors, in the 70's seen a
lot of hybrid equip (tube/transistor), in the 80's-90's mainly
transistors, even multi-KW linears designed around transistors.

Now I awaiting the next generation equip., you see it in commercial and
industrial use, but very rarely in amateur shacks.

Now I play with single chip wide band oscillators... buffers, amps and
finals in personal experiments, all transistor. The tube, except for
greater than 2KW linears/transmitters is pretty much dead... most new
homebrew amps I see are using the russian tubes, cheap if you get the
right source... but the filament draw on those big amps can heat a shack!

Just look at the number of hams still running the old tube equip. henry
2KW linears, drakes, heathkits, hallicrafters, gonset, johnson, etc....
although a lot of it is still in use, it isn't built anymore... some hams
just haven't adapted to building with transistors... don't ask me why...

What does spark-gap transmitters, crystal radios, regenerative, TRF, etc
have to do with today? Collectors items? Junk sold at hamfests?

Most high power stuff is custom made mosfet, or commercial adapted to
amateur use--if you are into homebrew...

John

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:22:02 -0700, Chuck Olson wrote:


"John Smith" wrote in message
news
PM:

Most of that is fictional... lots of "could have", "should have", "would
have" which it suggests though...

Computer related hardware/software is where all of the engineers are
coming from today.

John

I guess you never put together a crystal set or a 1-tube radio, or designed
your own VFO-controlled transmitter. I did, and from those days in 7th
grade, I knew what I was going to do the rest of my life. By sophomore year
in high school I learned to send and receive Morse Code at 15 WPM so I could
be sure to meet the 13WPM requirement for my Ham license. At 21, my
Engineering education was interrupted by the draft, and I joined the Navy to
become an Electronics Technician and service radar and communications
equipment for 4 years. Resuming my education, I became an Electrical
Engineer and worked in industry for the next 38 years, continuously learning
new things as they became current technology. I was never laid off or a
victim of "reduction in force" through that entire career - - because I was
a "natural" and kept my skills up to meet the needs of my employer. Ham
radio is an excellent start for anyone who has a curiosity and fascination
about electronics, be it represented by radio communications or computers or
industrial control technology.

I was inspired by Polymath's description of the good effects of ham radio on
its devotees. He should be congratulated on his explanation - - a very
readable and true to life presentation.

73, Chuck W6PKP