"Telstar Electronics" wrote in message
oups.com...
Frank Gilliland wrote:
Ok. So what does that have to do with the difference between a PCB
mounted amp and a chassis-wired amp?

I think the problem here is always one of repeatability. Anyone can
fiddle around for a time impedance matching and make one amp work...
but when you plan to make a number of units... having wires running all
around, and putting components in different physical locations
unit-to-unit makes performance unpredictable. There is another problem
that shouldn't be overlooked about the wiring method... that is the
problem of manufacturability. The PCB version is usually much easier
and faster to build... not a insignificant advantage when building
numerous units.

www.telstar-electronics.com

Point to point wiring does not have to mean the birds nest constuction you
describe. RF wiring could well be stamped out metal pieces mounted on Teflon
or ceramic. very repeatable, very stable. It could also mean the isolted pad
constuction where smalll sqares of PC board are glued to a substrate. This
has proven reliable, obviously an improvement over PC board material could
be found.and better mounting methods than glue.

There are two big problems I see with most amp designs. One is biasing, even
the cheapest Boomer would be much improved if it had an adequae bias
circuit. The other is proper setup. I doubt if someone mostly interested in
how well they can make the power meter swing will pay much attention to
setup instuctions. Attenuators on the front end would be a joke. How would
establish proper drive for a given setup with only a cheap power/VSWR meter.
FET amps really dont have a stability problem if properly designed. The idea
of using a switching power supply to take the voltage up to 50 volts or more
is a good one that has already been proven in audio amps. It is impossible
to make an amp idiotproof, just when you thingk you have along comes a
better idiot.