I recently purchased an SPE Expert 1K-FA solid-state amp to augment my two
Alphas. However, despite the manufacturer's claim that the amp is "Full
QSK," in fact the amp's T/R structure is one of the slowest I've ever used
and that includes a Heath SB-230 I used back in high school.
The SPE manual also states that the internal CPUs and software will prevent
hot-switching. Guess what? The amp hot switches when RF appears out of the
exciter at less than 16 ms after key closure. Since I have an Elecraft K3,
I can set the RF delay via the K3's menu. However, this results in 10 ms of
"dit shortening," and is totally unacceptable to me -- even with keyer
software compensation. The K3 and SPE amps also make provision for a
TX-Inhibit/Enable key line. I plan on activating that later today. But in
past experiences, this also leads to "dit shortening" and other timing
artifacts. That's not my idea of "Full QSK" from an amp manufacturer and
leads me to this...
If I use an Ameritron QSK-5, no doubt I can circumvent the hot switching
issue after the initial switch from R to T. However, what happens to the
leading edge of the initial keyed transmission, especially in CW and digital
modes? If the amp is so slow to switch from R to T, then won't the first
keyed element in a CW transmission still be hot-switched? If not, how does
the QSK-5 deal with the first keyed element?
Paul, W9AC
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