[BC] The last of the tube 1000 watt transmitters

[dynotherm at earthlink.net]

The Collins 20V3 was basically the 20V2 in a cheaper cabinet. It
used the same 4-400's as the 20V2 etc. Pretty box but IMHO never
lived up to its name tag. I suspect it forced RCA to bring out 
the BTA-1R's when they had a very good BTA-1M triode (833) design.

The Collins/Rockwell/Continental was the 820D1 and 820D2. It
used two pair of 5-500A's although some were converted to 4-400's
in the field. The AF and RF drivers were SS and there was no
variable loading coil. It was a beautiful 1 kW box, and the 820D2
was probably the last tube PA design ever built except for the
Harris BC-1H which some would argue because of the SS drivers
did not belong in the same class at all.

Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD

-----Original Message-----
>From: Powell Way <powell at backroads.net>
>
>I am not sure what Collins then Continental made?  I know there was a 
>20V3 that wasn't as pretty as the earlier models. I don't know if it 
>had solid state parts or not. That 1 KW Continental had
>5-500 tubes, and you could go to 4-400's with a modification. I heard 
>from those that did the mod that tube life was very short and it 
>didn't sound as good. Someone had one, converted back to 5-500's put 
>in the new tube spares and got a solid state TX and relegated it to standby.