Well, if you've never tried to work truly "weak" signals, I can assure you that +5 dB WILL make a world of difference. Otherwise, why would you go to the trouble of installing a ½dB noise figure pre-amp at the antenna, just to eliminate 2dB of feed-line loss on receive? Or, stacking a second Yagi to gain at most, +3dB? Yes, +5dB can be very hard to come by when you're operating at the fringes of performance. My thoughts are, if you're gonna run an amp at all, go for legal limit.
Not knocking anyone running 200 or 500 or 700 watts, just my own opinion. 73, Charlie k3ICH -----Original Message----- From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Fred Jensen Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2017 4:35 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Linear thoughts Advising Elecraft about producing a larger amplifier is quite a bit above my pay grade so I won't go there. However, going to 1,500 watts from 500 watts is a bit less than 5 dB -- a little less than one International Standard S-unit. 5 dB might come a lot cheaper from an antenna change. Before purchasing the KPA500, I ran my "1,500 watt Behemoth" at 500 W for close to a year to see if I could tell the difference. Admittedly, I'm a casual contester and DX'er, and I operate my ham radio for other reasons too, but I really couldn't see much if any difference in terms of who I could work or how long it took to snag the latest expedition. Operating skill [or lack thereof in my case] was a much bigger factor. The KPA500 was full QSK which its predecessor was not, which became a big advantage. I have since sold the KPA500 [and KAT500] and run 100W from home. My HOA-Stealth "wire on the fence" is close enough to the house that I occasionally make something happen [like flash touch-lamps or reset the u-wave clock], and I figured 500 W might nuke the neighbor's dog who patrols the other side of the fence. I'm very surprised that the wire, 6 feet high, works as well as it does. If I quest for QRO and "real antennae," I can always run W7RN remotely. 73, Fred ("Skip") K6DGW Sparks NV USA Washoe County DM09dn On 3/16/2017 12:26 PM, Erik Basilier wrote: > I recently sold my legal limit tube amp after a bit of a mental struggle. > The seller in me finally won after I realized that "if I can't lift > it, I shouldn't own it". I was tempted to replace it with an ALS-1306, > but I operate RTTY and in that mode the 1306 wouldn't be good for more > output than a KPA500. Today I received my (new to me) KPA500. However, > in a contest someone with 1500 Watts will have a big advantage over my > 500 W, so the subject of higher power may soon come back to me. ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to pin...@erols.com ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
