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weirdjim

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weirdjim
I'm seriously thinking about retiring (after 50 years) from college teaching and I'd like to expand the RST Engineering product line. However, I'm so far removed from current thinking that I'd probably design a vacuum tube MK-12 thinking it was state of the art. I actually fly with a KX-170 (not even the B mod) and think it is a pretty good radio, so you know where I'm coming from.

I need a focus group to bounce ideas off. I've got my share of engineers to help me, but I need some "normal" people (my wife says that her mother told her never to talk to strangers, and that all engineers are strange as hell).

If you are of a mind to share opinions with me, drop me a line jim@rstengineering.com. I especially want the opinion of experimental aircraft builders.

THanks,

Jim
 
Well, everyone is going to need ADS-B. I saw where someone developed one that has the GPS and UAT antenna (definitely make it UAT, no broadcasting N number to pesky noise complainers etc). Anyway this unit replaces one of the wing position lights. Antennas are on the unit. Has everything it needs to comply with the mandate. Just take the existing light off and screw this thing on (includes a new light). ADS-B is what we are all going to spend several K on. Like it or not. So there is demand.

Speaking of vacuum tubes. Have you ever designed or repaired guitar amps? The best guitar amps are still tube amps.
 
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Speaking of vacuum tubes. Have you ever designed or repaired guitar amps? The best guitar amps are still tube amps.

Yes I have.

I don't believe the "best" guitar amps are vacuum tube based. "Best" requires absolute criteria that neither the musical world or the electronic world can define. There have been some respected double-blind tests where the best musicians in the world were split between solidstate and vacuum tube amplifiers.

Jim
 
Well, everyone is going to need ADS-B. I saw where someone developed one that has the GPS and UAT antenna (definitely make it UAT, no broadcasting N number to pesky noise complainers etc). Anyway this unit replaces one of the wing position lights. Antennas are on the unit. Has everything it needs to comply with the mandate. Just take the existing light off and screw this thing on (includes a new light). ADS-B is what we are all going to spend several K on. Like it or not. So there is demand.

Speaking of vacuum tubes. Have you ever designed or repaired guitar amps? The best guitar amps are still tube amps.
I learned electronic repair back in the '60s with vacuum tubes. At that time, transisters were state of the art and at that time, it was pretty much acknowledged that the "best" amps were VT. But I suspect SS has progressed since then, although my electronic knowledge hasn't.
 
Yes I have.

I don't believe the "best" guitar amps are vacuum tube based. "Best" requires absolute criteria that neither the musical world or the electronic world can define. There have been some respected double-blind tests where the best musicians in the world were split between solidstate and vacuum tube amplifiers.

Jim

This one tickles me as a musician and as an engineer (albeit not an EE). When electric guitars became popular and well known in popular music, the best amplifiers EEs could design were tube amplifiers. They had particular characteristics of sound (and specifically when over driven) so that's "THE SOUND" that became attached to electric guitars. And it was recorded and promulgated over radio, etc. So now, the "best" guitar amplifiers (based on subjective sound) sound like that. Even the "best" solid state amplifiers are designed to get that sound. There's no question that a properly designed solid state amplifier is more power efficient, and more faithfully reproduces the input signal (just with more amplitude), but it doesn't have "THE SOUND" of an electric guitar which includes subtle and not subtle distortions that tube amps of the 1950's and 1960's had.

Psycho-acoustics at it's best!

John
 
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