[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I thought I understood these things, But I have confused me little self.
I need some clear thinking here. I have a rice box rated for 100 watts
SSB or 25 Watts AM. I believe the 100 watts is PEP while the 25 watts is
RMS (continuous carrier). I want to add a linear amplifier to bring the
25 watts AM up considerably. I see the Ameritron AL-811 is rated for 600
watts SSB and 400 watts AM. Is this 400 watts PEP or RMS. If PEP that
means the RMS rating is 100 watts, the same as my DX-100. Also it
requires 75 watts of drive. Is this PEP or RMS. If RMS my rice box at 25
watts won't drive it. I am thinking the 75 watts of drive is PEP and my
rice box with 100 watts PEP in AM will drive it. Can someone clarify this
for me? Thanks.
The general 'rule of thumb', Ed, is to load your linear up for max
smoke, in CW.
then, switch yoru ricebox over to AM, and adjust the carrier level up to
25% of the total
output power of the amp. Then, increase your mic gain up until you just
start to see a
deflection on the grid meter of the amp. This should put you pretty
darn close to the
linear portion of your AM signal.
Of course, a Scope always helps when adjusting audio levels.
As for the power out of the amps and rice boxes... 25% of the max output
should be
sufficient for 'clean' sounding AM, in -most- rigs.
73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR
