Is Hopper building for Tony? Looks like his basement and builds. Admit I haven't been there since 2004.
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Amp recommendations/ box builders
- Thread starter cakeman
- Start date
Apparently he is. Nate was working there at least two months ago, but at the time I spoke to him he said it was temporary.
How do I get in on that gig? Is that an amp building class or internship? I would save up my vacation and pay to go to something like that.
I do see a couple of small issues that won't impact performance much, like missing balancing resistors on the 3 port input splitter and no diode mounted on the transistor to thermally track the bias. The one problem I do see that could cause a failure is the use of the orange ceramic disk padding capacitor across the output combiner.Had to have a boo inside so here are a few pics.
Ceramic disk caps used at this power level are notorious for heating, shifting value or arcing. The trouble is finding a decent cap that can handle the RF current, without having to jump all the way up to the overkill of a doorknob here. If I were Hopper, I might check out some inexpensive ATC multi layer, leadless, surface mount caps in this place. If one fails, parallel a pair at half the original pf value.
If you could add 20 to 30 dollars to the cost of the amp, just put a doorknob in its place and you'll know it will never fail at this power level.
One thing I will say about biasing HG’s. It’s tricky. 0.5- 0.55v is max bias for HG. At 0.55v they are turned on hard. Full conduction. Actually have to just barely bias so not really turned on, just before they turn on. That should tell you all you need to know about device.
Are the big brass tuning caps not used anymore or did they stop using them so they could use a smaller case without shoehorning it in?
Hes a good guy, a PROUD American and hes not a pussy, whimpy, snowflake like some out there.
Thats funny. Ive seen Luke run like a little girl repeatedly from forums every time certain known builders showed up because he couldn't take the heat of explaining his latest bs. I watched him scream, cry, stomp his feet and delete profiles. Hes a tough guy when hes in his world by himself in his shop but turns yellow fast when hes out of his comfort zone with peers who know more than him.
Ill admit hes learned a lot from others over the years while giving little credit or just calling their ideas his. He does good work if you want to do business with someone like that, I personally dont. He thinks everyone hates him and he advertises it in his videos then wonders why he gets treated like he does.
Theres too many better amp repairmen with better attitudes out there than to deal with Luke.
All i can speak to is what ive personally winessed over the last 8+ years and mr bbi hasnt made it nice for himself.
Hes not a dishonest man for the most part other than stealing ideas. He wont butcher your amp, steal it or over charge you for work. Hes just not a nice person to talk to or do business with unless you kiss his ass and dont question his word, ever.
Everyone is free to do business with whom they choose, to each their own.
Finally received the Hopper straight 6, bummer I cant try it out as I am short a ps at the moment, anyhow looks ok from what I can see. After I test drive it I will open it up for some pics of the work inside.
Finally got around to powering up the straight 6, with around 80w pep produced just over 1300w at 13.8v, sure it could be driven harder but seems good enough for me. On the shelf it goes.
