Yes I agree Tom. But in spite of the known exciter problems
it is possible to run the radios so they sound pritty good
and have quite decent bandwith.
When I first got the FT1000D I started to run it like this,
ALC wiggling around the top of the blue scale and compression
15 - 20 dB. Everybode I asked told me it sounded good or
OK and nobody complained about the bandwith. Few years
later after som testing with a friend (SM2CEW wrote about
this in a previous post) we realized it was totaly wrong to
run it like that. If you run the ALC level that high the signal
level will increase almost 10 dB 3.5 kHz away, don´t know
how much larger the total bandwith will get but we can all
agree on that it will get considerably larger. Now I run the
radio so that the ALC meter just comes up a slight bit on the
blue scale and I try to get the peeks on the compression meter
not to exceed 10 dB.
This is an example from findings in reel life, no tecnocrate
measurements but pure simple dirty real life findings. In this
case I have proved that it´s possible to run the FT1000D so
it an excessive bandwith without really sounding bad. To get to
the playground with those wide prominent contest hall of fame
contesters it seems to me I would have had to increase ALC level
even further and compression to 50 dB or so to be even close.
What I ask myself is what is the explanation? Is it on dead
serious
purpose these guys are doing this or are the simply ignorant or
do they simply not understand.
I must give you a few examples. K1AR sounded so bad on all bands'
I simply had to tell him about it on one band, ofcourse he showed
total ignorance.
K3LR sounded so bad on 15m that I had to ask him if he bought
the
radio at K-MART, he claimed he didn´t so I asked him what he was
running, it was a IC-781 and it sure beats me how a 781 can sound
that band and also have that tremendous bandwith.
W3BGN I tried to tell on 20m, he had a lot of distortion an very
wide
signal, all he did was BSing me with that he turned on his scope
and
sure enough his signal looked OK.
KB1H sounded so bad on 10m when he called me so I got so pissed
off that I refused to work him.
Oh yes, KC1XX sounded reel bad on many bands as W3LPL did but
I never botherd to tell them anything. There are also other
examples
but I didn´t keep notes so this is all I remember.
I tell you guys, there used to be a time when USA stations
sounded
nice and they had nice behaviour but these days I simply don´t
know
what´s going on.
So you tell me am I totaly wrong, am I stupid or what? Sometimes
I
think I´m dreaming so I have to pinch my ear to check!!
73 from a frustrated SM2EKM
------------------------------------------------------------
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Från: w8ji@contesting.com [SMTP:w8ji@contesting.com]
Skickat: den 6 mars 2000 13:22
Till: w8ji@contesting.com; amps@contesting.com; Jan.E.Holm@telia.se
Ämne: Re: [AMPS] Re: Mission Impossible
> Good somebofy did bring this up. At first I couldn´t beleive
> what was going on and had to call a coupple of friends to
> check if they did see the same, it was abslutley dreadful.
> I tried to tell a few but ofcourse nobody wanted to take
> notice. Many many big prominent stations did sound just
> awful with big distortion and ecessive bandwith, if you
> like I could name a bunch of callsigns but I don´t think
> those guys read this reflector, maybe the contest one.
> de Jim SM2EKM
If you think 40 and 20 meters are problems, try operating 160
meters from a quiet location one hop away from some newer rigs.
On SSB most exciters are far worse than the PA's assuming the
PA is properly tuned.
For all the complaints about PA's, look at IMD specs for many
transceivers. Many of them not only have poor IMD that extends
out very far, but they also have a large leading edge overshoot
because of slow ALC response.
Until the exciters are corrected, the problem will remain.
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com
<<Fil: Re_ [AMPS] Re_ Mission Impossible.TXT>>
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