Who makes the best LED's???

[Farmall]

Heathkit ? Wow, those were great days... I had built their 2000w linear amplifier 39 years ago with those Eimac 3-500Z transmitting tubes... AND IT STILL WORKS FINE!

[starramus]

You're not going to convert it to solid state?

[Farmall]

I have a 14 dB gain antenna a 100 w driver into a 2000w linear amp that is an effective radiated power of 28000watts .... I have had conversations with Antarctica, Diego Garcia and the Ivory Coast. A friend was a radio op on container ships and at night a group would get together at 10:00pm and chat for a while ...many times just Morse code

Solid state won’t hold a candle to this monster. Those transformers weigh 35lbs each. With variable plate voltages it can handle some input . Had a friend who was stationed in Alaska back in the late 40’s and would light the filaments of transmitter tubes to heat up the room he had under his cot. Can’t do that with solid state 😂

[starramus]

Hold a commercial first class radiotelephone operator license. Worked at a television station for many years. The transmitter i worked on had well you know how many 100s of thousands of watts we are dealing with. We had a newer RCA transmitter, but the old GE back up transmitter had an interesting story behind it. It was originally installed at the top of the Empire Sate building in NYC. It was a box car all in all with old PCB capacitors. A real health hazard especially when they would rupture. I had a job offer for chief engineer at a station in Burlington Vermont. I coulda been rubbing shoulders with the Bern many years ago.

I have never bothered with an amateur license, but considered it as a kid. Have done some SWL listening owning a couple of fairly good receivers a Kenwood R-5000 and the venerable Sony ICF2010. I cut my teeth in SWL as a 10 year old listening to Radio Havana on an old rummage sale SW receiver. .

[Farmall]

Those are great stories. When I was 7 (around 1959) my uncle gave me a Raytheon CB and I was hooked. Then “convoy” came out.... breaker 19 this is the rubber duck.....Took it from there and went straight to the FCC exams. You Should Have come to Burlington. Back then it was a mini town compared to today. When I first heard Bernies’s Brooklyn accent I thought....none of these farmers are gonna take to that...they did not care for NYC... but most Didn’t mind as long as the Democratic Party won. Radio was always fun for me, turned me into a gadget guy. I remember hearing so many times that the transformers are leaking PCB’s.