[Milsurplus] Solid state BC-611, GRC-9, BC-348 ?!

[Hue Miller]

>Gents:
>
>      To me, this approach kinda defeats the purpose of owning and 
>restoring BA radios.  Having the battery-life problem is no different today 
>than when the fully-tubed radios were first fielded and the GI's had to 
>replace their batts every day or two.
>
>      However, I still want to give Craig (the developer of the schematics) 
>credit for his innovation.  He certainly has reduced the current drain on 
>the BAs' batts and improved the sets' performance with his SS approach.  
>Congrats to him for this.
>
>73 de
>Gene Smar  AD3F

I understand what you mean, and as i read his pages last nite, i was trying 
to imagine
what it would be like using such a solidstated set. It felt like maybe a 
little less of the
magic was there, a bit maybe.
On the other hand, i have a number of sets and i find it a big hassle to 
keep tubes
stocked for all of them. When you get into exotic sets (such as foreign) the 
hassle
multiplies, plus the seller has you over a barrel and they know it. I really 
resist
paying $20 or so for a tube!
Another thing i think about is, these tubes ain't being made any more, and 
your
precious tubes will eventually crap out, even the new ones, because the 
glass is
not 100% impermeable. Possibly we will pass from the scene before all the 
tubes
will, but be assured, tubes will one day be only "look at" items for 
collectors. The
only exceptions i can see is some tubes still kept in manufacture for the 
tube
audio cultists, tubes such as 6L6 and a few others.
So maybe solid stating these sets is a way of long range thinking too.
I was also thinking i'd let the fellow know that he might have experienced 
better
selectivity from the receivers if he had used MOSFETs instead. I think the 
output
impedance of the triode FET is just too low to do well with the IF tuned 
circuits,
which were probably dealing with about 1 M ohms plate impedance of the 
tubes.
/ Hue Miller