Hi Frank,
No, it won't weigh that much, but I can fill it with some
very dense ballast, if you like! Seriously, you will be able to expect the
kind of RF handling performance that you get out of an R390. One of the
things that some of the people at Rockwell-Collins commented on was the AGC
performance. Some of those folks have actually built one of the earlier
designs.
I took a couple of my units to work yesterday, in an all metal building. The
AM-FM radios that they have been using will not pull in even the local
Chicago stations without quite a bit of noise. When I was able to show them
WTMJ, in Milwaukee, coming in pretty clearly, they were convinced. When they
asked me to tune in a distant station, I tuned in WLW, on 700kHz. This was
at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Granted, the signal was at a low level, but
were were able to discern the audio, even in that metal building. Thanks
for your comments!

Pete

Frank Dresser wrote in message
...

"Pete KE9OA" wrote in message
...
That's the amazing thing about this design; it does have that tube like
sound. As far as performance, we are talking about 18 tube performance,
not
6 or 7 tube performance. I do understand your doubts, but I think that
you
will be pleasantly surprised.

Pete


18 tube performance? Now you've got my attention. Will it weigh at least
60 lbs? Will it have more knobs and controls than a Wurlitzer theater
organ? Will the wrinkle paint be tight and even? When I ask what it
costs,
will you say "Dollar a pound, maybe less, just don't start whining about a
strained back."?

Frank Dresser