Big Things
A long 4 day weekend winds down for me. It didn't feel like a 4 day weekend, it felt more like my usual 3 day, but that's cause I did a lot of cleaning on one day.
My dad leaves today. He's driving across the country until he finally gets here. He will be then staying for about 12 days. I think even he is liking the fact that he will be staying in what equates to a house with all the amenities that go along instead of a dorm style room with roommates galore. Hell, he will even have his own bedroom!
This has me thinking about taking in more debt though maybe as he will be driving with his camper and thus his truck. I could use his truck to cart out a couch maybe. We will see. At this point I am against the idea of just getting out of debt to get back into debt (even if it would be a much smaller amount).
I am nervous as hell. I got a tour finally to replace the one that was finished. This tour I hear is fast paced and can be a bit tough. It sounds interesting enough but I have heard of one person who hated the hell out of it, but his personality sucks so I mostly blame his negative experience on that. The big thing about this tour is that it has a MASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE carrot for me! If I do well on this tour, they will put me on a follow up tour that will put me in Washington DC for the whole 3 months. My name will be on work that gets reported to Congressmen on a daily basis. I will be working with generals and many other people. That, I hear, is a VERY fast paced job but a huge opportunity and totally kick ass on a resume. That's enough incentive for me to get a bit nervous about doing well at this first preliminary tour. I'm confident, but it's one thing to say it, another to do it.
I have learned a LOT in the last couple of days about tube amp design. The trade off considerations relating to the tubes themselves and how they must be selected. How the gain is related to the load line which is the cathode resistance value (or both the cathode resistance and load resistance value in the case of a constant current source) which is related to the current and voltage operating points, etc.. This is all information that I had surely "read" but I now really truly understand and has sunk in with thorough understanding born of trying to create the design. This has me looking at changing my tube selection, yet again.
I simply am not happy with the load seen by the lower triode from the upper pentode given the tubes I have selected unto this point. The currents are too high, the voltages too low, making the load line too steep and thus the gain too small which has meant that the equivalent resistance of my constant current source has been far lower than what it should be. I am going to begin hunting for new tubes again. Right now I am debating giving in and going for the oft used 6SN7 triode so that my quiescent currents can be small enough, for me to pick a higher gain pentode. I am also strongly considering using a double paralleled pentode configuration as I have seen used before in the constant current source so that they can operate with even more gain and an even flatter operating point for the lower triode. This means I am back on the hunt for a new pentode. It's ok though, I wont have the money (as I have planned) to start buying anything until the middle of June anyway.
My dad leaves today. He's driving across the country until he finally gets here. He will be then staying for about 12 days. I think even he is liking the fact that he will be staying in what equates to a house with all the amenities that go along instead of a dorm style room with roommates galore. Hell, he will even have his own bedroom!
This has me thinking about taking in more debt though maybe as he will be driving with his camper and thus his truck. I could use his truck to cart out a couch maybe. We will see. At this point I am against the idea of just getting out of debt to get back into debt (even if it would be a much smaller amount).
I am nervous as hell. I got a tour finally to replace the one that was finished. This tour I hear is fast paced and can be a bit tough. It sounds interesting enough but I have heard of one person who hated the hell out of it, but his personality sucks so I mostly blame his negative experience on that. The big thing about this tour is that it has a MASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE carrot for me! If I do well on this tour, they will put me on a follow up tour that will put me in Washington DC for the whole 3 months. My name will be on work that gets reported to Congressmen on a daily basis. I will be working with generals and many other people. That, I hear, is a VERY fast paced job but a huge opportunity and totally kick ass on a resume. That's enough incentive for me to get a bit nervous about doing well at this first preliminary tour. I'm confident, but it's one thing to say it, another to do it.
I have learned a LOT in the last couple of days about tube amp design. The trade off considerations relating to the tubes themselves and how they must be selected. How the gain is related to the load line which is the cathode resistance value (or both the cathode resistance and load resistance value in the case of a constant current source) which is related to the current and voltage operating points, etc.. This is all information that I had surely "read" but I now really truly understand and has sunk in with thorough understanding born of trying to create the design. This has me looking at changing my tube selection, yet again.
I simply am not happy with the load seen by the lower triode from the upper pentode given the tubes I have selected unto this point. The currents are too high, the voltages too low, making the load line too steep and thus the gain too small which has meant that the equivalent resistance of my constant current source has been far lower than what it should be. I am going to begin hunting for new tubes again. Right now I am debating giving in and going for the oft used 6SN7 triode so that my quiescent currents can be small enough, for me to pick a higher gain pentode. I am also strongly considering using a double paralleled pentode configuration as I have seen used before in the constant current source so that they can operate with even more gain and an even flatter operating point for the lower triode. This means I am back on the hunt for a new pentode. It's ok though, I wont have the money (as I have planned) to start buying anything until the middle of June anyway.