[Elecraft] K3 power output on SSB

[Fred Jensen]

Brendan Minish wrote:
> An undershoot of ~ 20% for the first few seconds of transmission on a
> new frequency might be an irritant but an overshoot or aggressive fast
> acting ALC leads to spatter on peaks, this is very common issue on the
> bands today 
> An undershoot of  ~20% on peaks (it's less on my K3) is negligible in
> terms of the receiving end signal strength and a small price to pay for
> a cleaner transmitted signal.

Folks, maybe I am missing so much here, but 20% undershoot at 100W 
"requested" is 20W.  The difference between 80W and 100W is 0.96910 dB, 
assuming my HP48GX can still do logs after all these years.

I think Brendan has it right, a second or two of some power between 80 
and 100W really is negligible.  On SSB [not often my mode], I step on 
the switch under the desk and talk ... works every time ... as long as I 
remember -- "Step, then talk."

Now, pretending that I actually know what I'm about to say ... I think 
the power control in the K3 [and K2] is a big negative feedback loop 
called ALC by some.  How would it know where to stabilize to a requested 
power before power, any power, actually happened?

On a different subject, I'd pay money for a published decision tree for 
firmware updates and whether or not I need to install them.  Often -- 
OK, always -- this occurs just before the contest.  Many affect things 
that don't affect me, others can be another story.

73,

Fred K6DGW