[TenTec] Re: Paragon II

[Ken Brown]

Hi all,

Sorry about the previous postings wherin the power output data was 
illegible, here is another try.

I have recently purchased a Paragon II and have been doing some basic checks
to see whether is fully functional. It is not putting out a full 100
watts in CW mode
on the higher bands. I wonder if this is typical. Would an adjustment to
the ALC
on the second mixer board give me full power on 15 meters and up without
causing trouble on the other bands where it already puts out 100 watts CW?

The measurements below were made using a Bird 43 wattmeter with a 100H
(100 watt 2-30 MHz) element, into a 50 ohm termination that is good well
into
the UHF range.

Of course the AM carrier output should be controlled to less than 50% so
that
DSB voice peaks do not go nonlinear. It almost seems like the CW power is
also being held down to around (but not exactly) the AM carrier level on
15, 12, and 10 meters.


Band/FM pwr max/CWpwrFMadj to 100w/CWpwr max/AMpwrFMadj to 100w
160  >100      /   70             /   78    /       42
80   >100      /   78             / >100    /       42
40   >100      /   78             /  100    /       46
30   >100      /   75             /   96    /       43
20   >100      /   80             /  100    /       44
17   >100      /   80             /   95    /       44
15     98      /can't get 100 W FM/   58    /52 Max(FM at 98 W)
12   >100      /   44             /   44    /       44
10   >100      /   50             /   50    /       44

As you can see from the data, the radio CAN produce close enough to 100
watts on
every band. However something is limiting the CW power output to
significantly less
than 100 watts on 15 meters and up. I wonder if this is "normal".

I would appreciate hearing from owners of Paragon II. Have you observed
similar
behavior? Is this a common problem? Is there an easy fix? By easy I mean
other
than sending it to Ten-Tec.

Ken N6KB


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