Unless you're going to double your power, it's hardly worth the effort from a technical point of view. Doubling the power raises you signal by what is considered by communications specialists to be a "just barely discernable change" in an on-air signal. (Yes, I know that is the definition of one decibel under audio laboratory conditions, but communications engineers have long used 3 dB or a 2:1 power change as the standard for a barely discernable change in "on air" conditions where there is some QSB, always some background QRN, etc. )
A 3 dB power change (2:1 change in power) is also about 1/2 of one S-unit on most meters. Sure, it's good practice to pursue good efficiency and take steps not to waste power, but the effect of a change like this are, at best, miniscule. Now if it stirs up the Mojo in the KX1 because it *feels* like it's getting out better with another half watt or so, that's another story. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- Elecrafters, While reading the thread re: charging batteries I saw the note re: adjusting the Astron. It occured to me that I could bump the ouput up from 13.8 to the "legal limit" for my KX1. The goal of course is "more power" out! Is this a bad idea? I say "bad" because I know that many will say that small increases in power are not of much value given the nature of decibels and the human hear, but unless this is a "bad" idea, I prefer to experiment and see what results I get! The ads for my RS-70M say it is adjustabe and my schematic shows a 20K ohm pot on the input to the V meter and a 500 ohm pot on the input to the I meter. I have not popped the top of the ps yet so I don't know what visual inspection will reveal. After I get some feedback on my idea I'll take a look and see what I can do! BTW, my Kenwood TS-570D specifies 13.8 VDC plus or minus 15%. This gives me a ceiling on 15.87. I am only going to 14.2 for KX1! I run them both of the RS-70M when I am operating from home. Thanks, Jack, AE6GC _ _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
