[Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!

[Wes Stewart]

I don't know how we got trom Ten Tec to here but...

If you follow this forum you might remember that I have complained bitterly about the lousy IMD performance of modern transceivers.  I have, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, suggested that there should be a "transceiver figure of merit" that balanced receiver performance against transmitter performance by measuring the former while using a pair of the latter as the signal generators.

That said, I do not blame the operator who after buying a "100-watt" radio, sees nothing wrong with actually running it at 100 watts, if he's running it at rated supply voltage.  This does not excuse the ops, some who have said this here, "The K3 works fine a 11V input."

But when run at rated supply voltage if the transmitter can't deliver decent IMD performance at 100 watts then I fault the manufacturer for calling it a 100-watt radio.  I guess 100 is such a nice round number that it is the target, but I remember lots of older radios that were 75-watt and no one seem to have heartache over that.

For the life of me I can't understand why radios continue to be designed around an automobile storage battery when fewer than 1% will ever operate in a mobile environment.

IMHO, there are simple too many design compromises necessary when designing for "12" volts and/or low receiver current consumption.

Wes  N7WS

--- On Thu, 4/15/10, Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com> wrote:

> From: Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 7:48 AM
> 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.
> >
> >   
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