On 07/27/2015 05:32 PM, Phil Wheeler wrote:
Clearly you are not among those who reminisce about the rotary spark
gap, Alan :-)
By crackey them vacuum tubes are just too durn delicate for serious ham
radio work. Old reliable spark is much more rugged.
Quoting from "The World of Ham Radio, 1901-1950, A Social History" by
Richard A. Bartlett talking about the first issue of QST after World War I:
In the two years that had elapsed since amateur radio was silenced,
impressive progress had been made. Most significant was the
development of the vacuum tube. At first known as audions, bulbs
or lamps, the originals lacked uniformity, ... needed careful
adjustments of the filaments and plate voltage, and were simply
too delicate for "the Service."
You could abuse a spark transmitter, but the tubes would die if you
weren't gentle with them.
Reminds me of comments I heard hams make about transistors during the
tube-to-transistor transition 50 years ago.
Alan N1AL
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