[Boatanchors] AM Amplifier

[Grant Youngman]

Depends on the amp, the power transformer, the tube .. a lot of things.  I used to run an Al-1200 loaded for 1500 watts peak power (with a little extra loading for headroom), and drove it to produce somewhere around 350 watts carrier.  It loafed along, with dense and peak limited audio.  An amp of the AL-1200 or AL-1500 class should reasonably run legal limit AM all day in ICAS.  Since no one could reasonably tell the difference, I usually kept it between 200-300 watts carrier since there’s no reason to generate heat for no benefit :-) Even an SB-220 can handle it if you keep the power level down .. I’d probably keep it around 200+ watts carrier power max, just to save the power transformer, which is under-rated in a lot of amps of the ilk.  You can still make decent AM with one, though.

A couple hundred watts of carrier beats 40-45, and you certainly don’t have to home-brew a monster to get there.

Grant NQ5T
K3 #2091, KX3 #8342

> 
> Your best bet is to homebrew something.  Commercial ham leenyars are
> usually for slopbucket and CW.
>