[BC] Re:1 5/8 foam coax

[Robert Meuser]

First it has been proved in the very smallest markets newer TXs save 
money and pay for them selves. There is no good excuse for running 
something that old. At the minimum your tubes will continue to be harder 
to get,  will be of less quality, cost more and have a shorter life. All 
that and you pay more for power and are not as loud as you could be.

That being said, in the specific case given in the thread a  317B was 
installed in 1992.   That design was replaced in 1966 but a much more 
efficient design. Since that time newer technologies have replaced that. 
So more than even age, we are talking about something that is three 
design cycles old at the time of install. We are talking about something 
that takes up much more space, uses much more power and requires much 
more cooling than newer designs. Then after all that it does not 
modulate nearly as well as newer designs.  Power consumption is a 
significant cost factor at 50 kw.


Age of a TX is not always important as an absolute number. For example a 
27 year old Amphet TX would be reasonable to keep on air if you can 
still find the transistors. It is not the newest design but it is 
reasonably close if you really need to save the money, that is if it has 
been reasonably maintained over the years.

R


Radiofldude at aol.com wrote:

>What's wrong with a 30 year old transmitter?
>
>I've got a 50 year old  one and minus a few easily repairable problems and 
>the fact it's a powerhog, it  works fine.  If a 30 year old transmitter works 
>fine.........and that's  what the station can afford, what's wrong?
>
>It certainly isn't your place  to knock their choice.
> 
>Paul Walker
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