Gary, SPE has some misconception that their ALC is fast enough that the amplifier will not be overdriven - they do instruct the user to set the drive power to maximum and let the amplifier control the drive.
That just does not make sense to me - by the time the amplifier detects that it is being overdriven, the distortion has already occurred, and then it takes a finite length of time for the amp to increase the ALC and throttle back the driving power. I just don't understand how that can work in either zero or negative time to prevent distortion. I would suggest you drive the SPE amps just like any other - adjust the drive power to produce the desired power output on each band (yes, the K3 will remember the drive power on a per band basis). That way, the amplifier is never driven into the ALC region, and no distortion occurs. The ALC line can be connected just in case there is some fault - the amplifier can reduce the drive level to protect itself. 73, Don W3FPR On 9/21/2012 12:37 PM, Gary Slagel wrote: > I'm looking at the SPE Expert Amp 1K-FA. The SPE amps both recommend using > an ALC connection to automatically control the radio's output power thus > preventing amplifier overdrive. > > I talked to an SPE rep and I understood him to say that I couldn't use the > ALC connection with a K3 and there was an alternative way to allow the SPE to > control the K3 output power by manually configuring the SPE to set the K3 > output power on a band by band basis. I looked at the SPE manual and it > outlines a method to set up a flex-radio that does not have the ALC > connection but doesn't talk about the K3. I assume the k3 setup would be the > same as for the flex-radio. > > Does anyone have experience with setting this up with the K3 and SPE 1K-FA. > Or, experience using the K3 ext ALC with and SPE? > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
