[Elecraft] RTTY and best IMD, cooling, etc

[Brian Alsop]

How many bad LP PSK signals have you heard?  Quite a few I bet. 
Admittedly, I really could care less about a terrible nanowatt PSK station.

The reality is the power war has hit PSK, like all other modes.

Sometimes high power is actually necessary, e.g. trying to work the 
other side of the world at odd path times.  5 watts and a wet noodle 
antenna isn't the do all station.

It is not the power level, but the equipment and the skill the the op to 
use it that produces clean signals.  The problem is getting people to:
1) care about it,
2) obtain the necessary skills and knowledge, and
3) exercise it

73 de Brian/K3KO

Gary Gregory wrote:
> Listening from afar, most 1Kw signals are rarely "clean" with no audible
> distortion. This said, it is often caused by bad adjustment by the
> operators, poor quality equipment, badly set vox and the list goes on.
> 
> Recently I worked a G3 station who claimed he was running a PW-1 set at
> around 700W output and this was one of the best sounding audio stations I
> have heard recently.
> 
> That said, my preference would be to use the amp that will produce the
> cleanest signal over distance so I would be inclined to go along with Dave's
> (G4AON) suggestion.
> 
> 73's
> Gary
> 
> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 4:53 AM, Dave, G4AON <elecraft at astromag.co.uk>wrote:
> 
>> Don the K3 PA and driver give some 10 dB better 3rd order IMD at around
>> 1/4 power. While that shouldn't matter on RTTY it might on other data
>> modes and does on SSB,. so for my money I would opt for a linear that
>> needs 15 ~ 30 Watts of drive.
>>
>> 73 Dave G4AON
>> K3/100 #80
>> ----------------
>> <SNIP>
>> Intuitively it seems to me that the K3 might like the 15w or so, since
>> the KPA3 is at the
>> bottom of its range and the fans can help with the cooling, even though it
>> is nearly 3 times the power needed to drive the 8410.
>> <SNIP>
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> 
> 
>