Ahoy Terrier, are you the owner-finished BCC, I saw in Port Townsend, WA in September 1996 ? A mighty fine boat if you are !
I too agree with Itchen and Zygote and wouldn’t swap my 5 Alpenglow units, for anything.
One problem I encountered was that the flourescent lights made electric static on my SSB in receive mode. I use incandecent lights when the SSB is in use now.
I have one that the rocker switch needed replacing, and one that the balast went bad, in the last 10 years of use.
The light tubes seem easy to find in speciality lamp shops, even here in Asia, but a couple of my replacements were not exactly the same, would only work on high power.
Say Hi to Pete Langly for me , Douglas , S/V Calliste