I seem to have missed the original post. My 2-cents:
I used a Drake L-4B (2 X 3-500Z) for years. It worked fine, was robust,
instant-on and would tune the WARC bands and was a pretty good antenna tuner as
well. What it didn't do was cover 160-meters. I don't contest, but am an avid
DXer, albeit one with a fairly modest station antenna wise. Since I'm up in
years and still three away from the top of the DXCC Honor Roll, with no prospect
of ever getting there, (except for VK0 later this year and ARRL coming to their
senses and deleting Mt. Athos) I decided that I would chase (HF) 9-band DXCC.
Thus I needed something that covers 160.
I considered another tube amp but most of interest have a warm up time. After
running an 8877 on two-meter EME, years ago I remember the seeming interminable
waiting time and didn't want to go through that again. After a whole lot of
agony and consideration of the alternatives, I rationalized that I could make up
for the drop in power with antenna and transmission line improvements. In my
case this is possible, if you're already there, then the power drop might be a
deal breaker.
So, I have a new KPA500 and KAT500. Against all of my principles, I actually
bought a tri-band beam to replace the HB 20-meter monobander and wire dipoles. I
have some other antennas in work and 7/8" Heliax replaced the RG8. Hopefully,
the KAT500 is a stopgap and can be removed later. So I'm looking for fractions
of a dB here and there to add up to the power difference. In addition, the
convenience factor is wonderful. No regrets here.
Wes N7WS
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
