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Re: [TowerTalk] RG-149: 50 ohm/70 ohm - does it matter?

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] RG-149: 50 ohm/70 ohm - does it matter?
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 06:09:45 -0800
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 12/13/13 10:55 PM, Jim Brown wrote:

 4) The major issue with SWR at the
transmitter is giving the transmitter a load that it is "happy" with.
"Happy" means that it supplies full rated power, AND is CLEAN.
Distortion rises when an amp is mismatched to its load and if it's not
carefully tuned. Distortion = SPLATTER. That's why God made antenna tuners.


I'm not sure this is true in general. What is the mechanism for the increase in distortion?

Yes, if you adjust knobs to get 1 kW into 100 ohms from an amplifier designed to get 1kW into 50 ohms, you're probably going to be clipping, because you need more voltage for the same power. But is that a realistic scenario? Do people adjust their amplifiers this way (or are they even adjustable.. most SS amps basically a "power brick")

Is that what you mean by "not carefully tuned"? But is that not also the case for 50 ohm resistive loads? If I mistune the amplifier it's going to perform non-optimally, regardless of the load Z

Devices operated in Class C will have different harmonic content depending on the load impedance. For instance, some L-band bipolar transistors have significantly different 2nd and 3rd harmonic output depending on the load Z, but that's more of a interaction between the parasitics of the device and the external tuning components, so you basically are "retuning a filter".


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