Hi Leo
Sorry to hear that your having problems early on with the HL-45B. I
posed the
same question to Tokyo High Power Labs about the HL-45B and received the
same answer as you did. Some times we are guilty of not sharing our
experiences
with our fellow hams. I apologize !.Since the amp was designed for the
Yaesu rig, they rely
very heavily on ALC from the amp to throttle back the radio. 5 watts
will drive
the amp to over 75-80 watts easily. Here's what steps I use daily .
It will be necessary to establish and use virtual com ports to make
DDutil function
properly. I'll leave that to you to get going before you go thru the
steps I'm about
to outline.
1. If your not using DDutil, then download and install it. This utility
program will
provide an automatic means to control the power input to your
amplifier. More
on this in just a bit.
2. Go to the "Antenna Tab" in PowerSDR and set the Delay (ms) to
something greater
that 10 ms... I use 13 ms. This allows the amplifier time to get
into the transmit mode
before it gets hit with RF from the Flex.
3. Go to the "Other" tab and check the "Auto Drive" check box.
4. Now lets talk about using DDutils.... Under the "Options" tab select
"Auto Drive Settings"
We will be dealing with settings for "Amp 1".... Go thru all the
bands and initially set all
the values to a initial low of 15. This will limit how much power is
fed to the amplifier.
5. With an accurate Watt meter connected, key up the flex and amplifier
and check the
RF out. Adjust the numbers in the "Amp 1" box until you get an
output of 40 watts for
each band. Due diligence is required, but the net effect is that
you will have the drive
level set automatically for each band when DDutil is in control..
6. One other thing, of course the Flex does not provide any band
switching signals
to the Amplifier, so you MUST be sure that you are on the right
band or it will fault
out on you, requiring you to cycle power to the amp to recover. I
built a small
circuit using a "Basic Stamp BSII" that takes BCD output on a
parallel port and convert
it to a voltage that the amp recognizes as a band signal to
automatically change bands.
The BCD output is also one of the functions that DDutil can provide. Now
when I switch bands the power input to the amp is correct and I
automatically switch band
with just a single click.
That said, the is also a mechanism with in PowerSDR that can be used
also. In the
"Memory" tab you can also set the power output for each band, This also sets
the output of the basic Flex 1500 , BUT you must remember to go to the
Memory tab
each time and select the band that you want to use.
I hope this helps you and others that are contemplating using a HL-45B.
Its a great
little amp and works well.
73 de Tom K5VJZ
P.S.
I sent Tokyo High Power these recommendations in hopes that they would
mention
it in their manuals, but I doubt that will happen.
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