Agreed,
back on topic.
First, on the "American Built" thing. The list of things that are built entirely in America, using only American parts, is a very very short list. I can't think of anything that qualifies right now, but im sure others can.
For a car to be called American, it has to have a certain amount of the work done here in the USA. However, that work might consist of assembling a bunch of electronic components that were made somewhere else.
Supply chains are very complicated these days, and trying to start a business building an electronic item that is assembled from scratch in the USA is a fools errand unless you are doing it all yourself (or making your kids do it for free LOL).
The way this gets done these days is that the board design is sent to an assembly house, most likely in China, or at least Asia, and the boards are made and populated there by big machines.
then the parts of the device that can't be placed by machinery get completed here in the USA. That's just the way the world works these days.
so, i think Rocketbox is completely within the realm of honest when he says that the amps are made in the USA. they are made here just as much as any other product that claims the same thing.
Now, as for how well these amps will work, we already know all about that.
Palomar styled amps with ERF7530 style mosfets have been around for years.
these amps will be no different.
yes, they're going to put out somewhere close to the power you expect, and yes, their life length is going to be determined by how much they get abused.
I can tell you that they are not going to tolerate being over driven like bipolar amps did.
the mosfets will literally explode if they are overdriven and allowed to get hot.
no, there is no harmonic filtering, and they are not going to hold their stated bias class very well.
but that is also no surprise.
this is how CB style amps have always been.
so, what we are left with is price point.
What amp can i get that put out X amount of watts for Y dollars.
These amps will fill this niche for those not looking to spend more on higher quality amplifiers.
obviously there are plenty of people in the hobby who will fit that bill, so these amps will sell.
now here's the part where things get a bit dicey.
We are here in this thread debating the quality of these particular RF amplifiers, and we are comparing them to what?
solid RF amplifier theory?
well yes, but because these amps are the same as the CB Mosfet amps of the past,
this argument has already run its course 10+ years ago, and there is nothing new to be gained from it.
i hope we can keep some perspective here.
Rocketbox doesn't have some outrageous claim of "clean power" or "less harmonics and IMD", and he isn't claiming wattage numbers that are out of the range of possibility for the devices used, regardless of how cleanly and linearly they can create that power.
What's our goal here?
LC
