[Elecraft] KPA100 power output question
Floyd Sense
Floyd Sense" <[email protected]
Mon Nov 10 20:46:01 2003
I've had the KPA100 in operation for a few weeks now, and am going back over
everything to make sure all adjustments are correct. One of the things I'm
looking at closely is the maximum power output on each band. The output on
some of the bands is a tad low, but I'd like to know if what I'm seeing is
typical of all KPA100s. Here's the output I see on each band. The first
number is the output with the power control set at 100w, and the second
number is the output with the power control at maximum (111 w.).
160 - (105, 115)
80 - (103, 113)
40 - (104, 110)
30 - (87, 88)
20 - (90, 92)
17 - (98, 106)
15 - (93, 100)
12 - (84, 85)
10 - (86, 95)
Measurements were made with a Bird 43 and Bird 50 ohm dummy load.
I checked all the toroids in the low-pass filters for proper core and proper
number of turns. I also checked the low-pass sections using the procedure
described in the KPA-100 manual, putting a 51 ohm resistor across the
amplifier RF input connector and then attaching an MFJ analyzer to the
SO-239 output connector. Here's the SWR that I saw on each band:
160 - 1.0
80 - 1.2
40 - 1.1
30 - 1.4
20 - 1.2
17 - 1.4
15 - 1.4
12 - 1.7
10 - 2.0
The manual doesn't say what value constitutes "poor", but it seems to me
that the 1.7 and 2.0 values are high enough to cause some power cutback.
I'm using the PA 1.08 level firmware, which is more tolerant of higher SWR
values before cut-back.
Am I chasing my tail here or is something amiss? What outputs are other
KPA-100 users seeing?
Any and all comments welcome.
73, Floyd - K8AC