[Boatanchors] 813 grid to filament short

[Rob Atkinson]

Glen you can go on to your heart's content about "present FCC
regulations" but it doesn't mean doo doo to any real AM operator who
isn't all wrapped up in slopbucketese.  I expect you to immediately
notify FCC and come clean if your carrier is 375.01 watts or more.  By
the way, I don't want you exceeding the speed limit on our public
roads either.

I'm now hearing ops say things like "I run X watts peaking at such and
such PEP."  How sad.
I wonder why I never hear of power limits for AM broadcast stations
expressed in PEP.  Oh, maybe it's because they haven't been bsed the
way hams have after most went to slopbucket, watt meters (that are
just diode driven meters) and the FCC one size fits all appliance
operator assumptions.

Let's hope at least some AM ops have not been brainwashed and think
they can precisely measure 375 watts, 100% modulation and all the rest
of the nonsense?

73

Rob
K5UJ


On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 9:23 AM, Glen Zook <gzook at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Present FCC regulations for power output are now stated in peak output
> terms.  For SSB that means the highest power peak when modulating.  For
> data, CW, and RTTY, that means the carrier power.  Unfortunately, for AM,
> the peak power output  is considerably higher than the carrier output power.
> With 100% modulation, the peak power is 4-times the carrier power.  This
> means that, when 100% AM modulation is present, the maximum carrier power
> output can only be 375-watts which produces a peak power output of
> 1500-watts.
>
> If less than 100% modulation is present, then the carrier power can be
> higher before the maximum of 1500-watts peak output power is reached.
> However, unless the operator actually has a wattmeter capable of reading the
> true peak power output (most amateur radio wattmeters CANNOT read the true
> peak power because of the latency of the meter movement), or is using
> another method of reading power output (i.e. an oscilloscope), as to not
> exceed the power limitations, no more than 375-watts carrier should be run
> when operating using AM.
>