Linear Amplifiers

Dear Don,

Now, there’s a thing that can get a DXer’s pulse racing into overdrive, linear amplifiers.

Never being a proud owner of a linear amplifier (although I have operated them in other people’s shacks) myself, for some strange perverse way after reading HB9ANY’s and G4USI’s compelling articles, I came over all wistful. For one fleeting moment, I felt I had to whip out the plastic and purchase one, immediately. Really. Luckily, that momentary frisson soon faded.

However, over the years, I must confess that sometimes, especially when conditions on HF have not been conducive operating wise, I began to think that maybe a linear amplifier perched on the shack bench would somehow bring more joy back into what is occasionally, an exercise in sheer futility. At least I might be heard!

Back in the late 80s and 90s, I got all excited with 2m SSB. The addiction got so bad, I nearly rushed out and bought a B.N.O.S amplifier (the one given prime position in G4USI’s article). But, as Daimon rightly points out, why bother splashing out a bundle of cash on an amplifier when you could spend a lot less on a cheaper remedy. A Yagi antenna with heaps of gain. ‘An ERP of about 2,820W’, for example. Being a cheapskate, I bought the best VHF antenna instead. Wow, what a difference that made. And without a linear amplifier.

My mate Wayne (now an SK) had one of those Kenwood TL-922’s. And what a bang you got for your buck! My commiserations to Don

(PW editor) who ‘loaned’ his TL-922 ‘to a local club’ where it was subsequently ‘blown up by a club member’. A bitter blow. Ray Howes G4OWY/G6AUW Weymouth