[BC] How would you build it?

[James Potter]

Rob: 

There are a lot of ways to skin that cat.  First, the RCA BTA-1x series and Collins and Gates and others of the era represent the optimally efficient power consumption, output, and parts bang-for-your-buck and high reliability for full-time on-air use.  The Class C RF PA modulated by a push-pull Class B modulator put out pounds of sound on the radio.

The linear amplifier is well-known in the ham community for a variety of reasons, principal among which is low parts count -- they're cheap to build.  You can use gassy old tubes with glowing red plates and still coax some RF out of them.  Principal drawback:  the Class A or AB1, etc., linears I've used are horribly inefficient -- around 25-30 percent.  That means over 3KW input power to make 1KW output power.  That gives a sharp pain in the electric bill.

I don't dig solid state transmitters, especially ones that use FETs and sport nameplates like Energy Onyx (RIP Bernie). But you could replace electro-mechanical meter movements with LCD displays and use SCRs to control things inside a modern tube-type transmitter to make it smaller, lighter, cheaper, etc.  And that's just what the major manufacturers do.

I'll betcha a jelly doughnut that Robertm will have a cogent thought or two once he reads your query.

Regards/J