The 500 watt amplifier under cover

This is the same amplifier that I posted here on 25th January, and used to such good effect during my radio contacts with the Balkans mentioned yesterday. It occurred to me that if I am going to use it frequently, perhaps even every day, over the next few weeks, then I had better carry out some maintenance on it.
So today I disconnected it, removed its covers, cleaned the airways and checked that all the mechanical connections were secure. These can work loose in time owing to thermal cycling, and several needed further tightening.
With the bottom cover temporarily removed there was a rare opportunity, not to be missed, to take a picture. Pictures of the equipment I build are actually very useful to refer to if I want to make any changes, and are not just for blogging purposes of course.
To give an idea of the amplifier's size, it measures 50cm x 25cm x 25cm ( w x d x h ). Regarding it's weight; suffice to say that it's almost too heavy for me to carry !

The metre wavebands - playtime on VHF

My VHF antennas have passed a visual inspection. They survived the ice and snow of winter remarkably well and are still intact. This is very fortunate because in spring and summer I devote more time to listening on the VHF bands in order not to miss the favourable atmospheric conditions, more frequent at this time of year, which allow greatly extended communication ranges on these wavelengths.
Such conditions occurred earlier today in a SSE direction, when I contacted numerous amateur radio stations on the 6 metre band, ( 50MHz ), upto 1840 kms away in southern Bulgaria and Greece.

50MHz transmitter power amplifier

This home-made amplifier for 50MHz uses the Russian ex-military GS31B triode tube, producing about 500 watts output. It really is a fantastic performer. I remember some noteable reception reports of my signal, namely, "599+++ on my ground plane", "599+30dB" and "remarkable signal", from Belgium, England and Norway respectively !