[TenTec] AM Ouput Level 2.037j

[Grant Youngman]

> 15-17 W.  12.5 Watts AM carrier is all I need to drive my 
> linear to 1500 W PEP with 100% modulation.

Not all amps have 4CX800A's or other low drive tubes in them.  And I don't
particularly want to go buy a new amplifier :-)

Even a 1980's 100 watt analog rig can manage 1/4 peak output power for
carrier, and still sound very good, although one must reach up and adjust
the output power manually and actually use a scope to check for
overmodulation.

And the Orion/II specification is not 15 watts carrier ...
 
> The good news is that if you take a long 
> pause during a transmission, or reduce modulation for a long 
> time, the transmitter drops power, saving on heat generation 
> from your linear.

Since I can no longer get anywhere near legal limit out of my amplifier on
AM, I have an automatic savings on heat generation :-)

> Also the speech processor is no longer available for AM, 
> which is probably a good thing.

You're probably right about that.

In any case, I've sent a whine to t-t on the subject.  AM, while it worked
well at one time, has always been something of a stepchild on the v2/II.
Some other well known SDR's manage a very high quality AM capability, run at
1/4 peak rated output carrier, and don't limit the user to PW power levels
:-)

Grant/NQ5T