[Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!

[Don Wilhelm]

Tom,

This is the "all knobs to the right" syndrome.  It just does not sink 
into some minds that 100 watts is about the maximum that can be realized 
from a typical "automotive battery voltage" of 13.8 volts without 
running into unacceptable IMD regions.

I certainly don't know how to counter it.  There are so many hams who 
try to squeeze every last ounce of power from whatever transceiver thay 
may be using that it amazes me.  Some will even complain endlessly about 
all the bad signals on the air while cranking their power control to the 
maximum and putting out a signal that is as bad or worse than those they 
are complaining about.  I just don't understand the "logic" because it 
certainly is not logical.

73,
Don W3FPR


Tom W8JI wrote:
> << On SSB it isn't so much the folks on ESSB, although we 
> have a few of those
> here also unfortunately, but rather the poorly adjusted 1KW 
> plus amplifierrs
> and badly adjusted audio that causes me to screw up my nose 
> and do a quick
> QSY..(:-))>>
>
> If we are every going to fix things we need to honestly 
> discuss the real problems.
>
> I have been doing a survey of ops on 20 and 40 meters with 
> very bad signals, and nearly all the nasty signals were not 
> high power. Most, after I broke in for a friendly chat, we 
> running small amps and just mistuning or overdriving them. 
> A significant number had "peaked" their radios up and were 
> running a bit more output from a 100 watt radio. As a matter 
> of fact a contestor who brought his FT1000MP's to me had his 
> 100 watt radios screwed up to 130-140 watts, so this may be 
> a more common practice then we think. I lowered his radios 
> to 100 watts, and after a while when the radios came back 
> for another update they were back up to 130-140 watts again. 
> At that power level the radios had IM3 in the -20 dB PEP 
> range, and products out to the 17th order were still strong.
>
> For all those intent on boosting low power radios with a 
> cheap external PA, you can see measurements here:
> http://www.w8ji.com/rm_hla-150_test.htm
>
> The very best the RM Italy amp gets on *any band at any 
> power* is about like a FT1000MP on the very WORSE band for 
> the MP.
>
> There is no convincing people that our 100 watt radios at 
> 100 watts are barely acceptable as is, and that all these 
> little tricks that give another 1-2 dB more power can 
> increase splatter 15 dB or more. Worse yet, those cheap 
> illegal amplifiers that make 10-watt radios into 100 watters 
> are going to be our undoing.
>
>