I've been playing with a new (to me) toy in the shack, recently. It's the Yaesu FL-2100Z HF amplifier. It's fairly rare, not nearly as easy to find as the FL-2100B. This version was more common in other countries, and has all of the WARC bands on the band switch and tuned inputs for them as well. It uses a pair of Cetron 572B tubes at about 2600VDC. Cetrons are the only 572B tubes that can be operated in a horizontal position, none of the other brands have supports on the grids to keep them from sagging into the plates when operated in this position. This is a sweet little amp, and runs around 500-600 watts output, depending on the band. This one was actually bought to serve as a "guinea pig" for a conversion project to the Russian GI7B tubes, but that's a story for another blog. Here's another pic of it, in operation with my old Yaesu FT-901. I love the looks of this lash-up!
Dave WB4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net
