Advanced Class (grandfathered class) Ham here. In 2004, I bought a old 1960’s Heathkit linear amplifier SB 200. I bought update modification kits for the power supply, soft start and soft key to make a 50-year-old vacuum tube amplifier work safely with modern, solid state Ham transceivers.
Lots of fun soldering and updating. New capacitors and protective diodes for the old analog meter. Works great!
Modern amplifiers are VERY expensive so a modified “old timer” has been a nice alternative.
The amplifier takes about 100 watts normal transmitter output and bumps it to about 600 watts out for better transmitting performance and stronger, long-distance communication.
Isn’t 100 watts the standard output of most ham radios?