[Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!

[Bob McGraw - K4TAX]

I've found many a discussion where one has a "100 watt" radio that only puts 
out 90 watts according to their meter an they are mighty unhappy about it. 
Hence, they push the critter trying to get 100 watts out of the box or 
worse, tweak the radio until the meter reads 100 watts, never giving a 
though to what they've done or the side effects.  Never a minute did they 
think the meter might be off by 10 watts.

Perhaps there is still a reason to validate DC input power as the means of 
power measurement.

73
Bob, K4TAX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Wilhelm" <w3fpr at embarqmail.com>
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Ten Tec never sounded so good!


> 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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