This is about the NRR in a roundabout way…..

I tried hard not to buy anything at the hamfest.  I resisted the Kenwood TL-922 amp by telling the seller his price was too low :).   Seriously, they were selling for someone else and I could have had it for $500 with a two-week return if it wasn’t perfect.  That’s less than 50 cents per watt.   They raised to $750, which was still a deal.   I was also tempted by a Ten-Tec solid state amp with a good price until I saw the voltage (13.8) and the 100 amp current requirement.  Not very modern.  The Alpha and the big Ten-tec were nice, but heavy.   Oh, I almost forgot about the Acom solid state amp.  Nice, but about 5 bucks per watt.   Before my good friends start telling me about good amp deals out there, I’ll explain that I am perfectly happy with my two AL-811 amplifiers.   When I look at amplifiers, I indulge in some “living in the past”.    Years ago, it seems that people concentrated on 20 SSB for the really rare ones.  Pileups were tremendous and breaking thru was a thrill.  You needed the power.   Now, there are no more ATNO’s for me, and I can get thru with 500 watts just fine on any mode.  It just brings back the good old days of slugging it out in DX Alley when I see a big amp.  

But back to the NRR - My one purchase was a Drake 2A.   It is very clean, seems to be fine but is weak in the RF stages.  However, it only has five tubes, and they seem to be common, so I’ll have fun checking tubes and capacitors and bringing it up to speed.   I can use one of the 2-B’s with the 2NT to make a few NRR contacts if it takes awhile to get the 2-A ready.

73,

Dennis/RZ