[BC] Commercial transmitter disasters....

[Bob Groome]

Vangaurd I was a linear and was picky about how you tuned it. Great bandwidth, 20 to 20k. Good distortion. Had to lay on the floor to do some of the service. Built in test load. Vangaurd II was in a traditional sized box and easier to service. Germanium transistors were all that was available back when Bob Bush designed it. Power out drifted based on air temperature and line voltage variations. Like Amplifuz, you had to learn how to take care of it. Both Vangaurds were line are, were power hungry as a trade off to audio quality. 

The Sparta and Sintronic solid state 1 kW AM rigs were not so good. Sparta/Cetec offered to take them back and replace with the Bauer 707 which was a great rig. 

Ratheon RA1000 was a great rig. The RCA with 833's was another good box. The older Gates BC-1E and F were good boxes. The BC-T and G were just so so. They were reliable and PA and Modulators got good life with right filament voltage, but were light weights in the modulation wars. 

That's my story.