[Kenwood] TS-850 ALC action above 21 MHz

Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:35:29 -0800 (PST)

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Clif wrote:

> ALC is an indication of how much the radio has to turn down the gain in the
> IF to maintain a predetermined level (100 watts in this case). The higher

Thanks for the explanation, Clif.  It is simple and easy to understand.

> In your case something is wrong. The 850 will maintain full scale ALC
> reading (100W) on all bands with the carrier control from 9-12 o'clock.
> Lower bands 9 and upper ~12.

Well, I put my 850 on a dummy load and things are different. (RF in the
shack changes things?)  I find that on 15 meters CW I need to advance the
carrier control to about a little beyond "7" (about 2 o'clock) to get full
ALC action (the ALC graph is at the end of the recommended range), while I
can take it back to about a "6" (about 1 o'clock) and get some ALC action,
but not much.  On 10 meters it is a little better, I get more ALC action
for a given carrier level.

I know I have some RF in the shack with my dipole.

Do you still think this is a problem?  Would I check a few simple
adjustments first?

Clark
WA3JPG

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Clark Savage Turner" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 9:37 AM
> Subject: [Kenwood] TS-850 ALC action above 21 MHz
>
> > The higher bands have been hot lately, so I've been going up there doing
> > some CW.  I notice that I need to bring my carrier control way up at full
> > power to get much ALC action.  In fact, on 15 meters, I need to scale back
> > my power control (to just under 100 watts on my wattmeter, fwiw) in order
> > to use the carrier control to bring the ALC into reasonable range on CW.
> > I don't really mind, it all seems to work OK on that basis.  I recall
> > this was "normal" on my several TS 440's, on the high bands the
> > carrier had to be brought way up and even then ALC action was minimal.  I
> > am curious, does anyone know why this happens and is it really normal?
> > Clark
> > WA3JPG