[AMRadio] AM Power

[D. Chester]

>>  B.S. is exactly what it is and I'll be
>> damned
>> if I'll go one step out of my way to "give aid and comfort to the > > >
> enemy" regarding this matter.
>
> Sounds like a revolution.
> Don't forget it is "they" that grant us the privilege of operating on the
> bands at all.
>
> It is over. It is done. Why not live with it and help others learn what 
> they
> can about "how it really is"? By continuing to deny the new rules it is 
> like
> still fighting the civil war. All it does is confuse a lot of people. Tell
> the history and move on.
>
> 73
> Gary  K4FMX

"They" would have said exactly the same thing about Geo Washington and Ben 
Franklin and the rest of those guys. Remember them?

The FCC has pretty much shown they don't give a rat's arse about what goes 
on inside the ham bands as long as it is confined to the amateur frequencies 
and doesn't cause interfere to other radio services.  Just look at the 
situation with our friend up in Belgrade Lakes, ME and how long it has taken 
to set any action in motion dealing with him, and he is still on the air. 
And look at the unwillingness to enforce Part 15 rules against the garbage 
spewed out by cheap  consumer electronics junk, and the wilful deception 
(recently proved in federal court) regarding BPL.

The power limit operates strictly on the "honor system", unless one 
transmits with tens of kilowatts causing widespread complaints of 
interference throughout the neighbourhood.  When was the last time you heard 
of any ham being  cited for running too much P.E.P. since that jackass rule 
was enacted over 20 years ago? Whereas there was no "honour" involved in the 
PRB's handling of that proceeding, I wouldn't consider a  ham  who merely 
chose to continue running his old legal KW plate modulated rig just as he 
always had, lacking in integrity in any way. Fortunately, the butt-hole who 
railroaded through the P.E.P.-BS  has since retired and is no longer with 
the FCC.  I  doubt the issue would be very high on the priorities list of 
present-day personnel.

As far as "confusing a lot of people", the more confusion, the better. Let 
them be confused if they aren't capable of taking a copy of the Handbook, 
studying the contents, and coming to their own conclusions.  I will not be a 
party to "educating" members of the amateur community to the politically 
correct line. Maybe Johnny Johnston would be willing to come out of 
retirement and personally give a seminar on the topic.

Granted, if the SSB crowd observed good engineering practice with their 
transmitters, the PEP-B.S. would hurt them just as much as it does AM, if 
not more.  Under the old rules, one could talk up SSB power to the maximum 
legal input, and let the undistorted peaks go where they may. By maintaining 
plenty of headroom in the amplifier, a fair amount of average power could be 
generated with natural  peak levels, without flat-topping and splattering. 
But many, if not most, SSB ops fail observe good engineering practice, 
primarily out of ignorance, since most don't even know what P.E.P. is, other 
than that's what the meter reads in "peak" position. Many or most just drive 
their amplifiers until the meters kick up to "what the book says" and their 
Hammy Hambone wattmeter indicates maximum "legal" power, oblivious to 
flat-topping of the peaks or spurious distortion products generated. Driving 
a "leen-yar" to the flat-topping region and generating an unnecessarily 
broad signal (or flat-topping the prohibitive peaks of an AM signal for that 
matter) is a far more serious offence, than allowing a few occasional voice 
peaks to exceed the magical limit, something unlikely to audibly affect the 
loudness or the interference-generating capability of the signal.

None of this would affect low level modulation (grid or AM linear) whatever, 
since a KW DC input to a properly adjusted AM linear or grid modulated 
amplifier would never generate more than about 300 watts of 100% modulated 
carrier in any case.


Don k4kyv

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