[TenTec] Hercules II drive requirement

[Ken Brown]

Hi Jim,

     You said,
> For example, my K3 drives my Hercules II to full 
> power with only 10 watts, so if you have a Herc II, you could order the K3 
> without the 100W amp and tuner. 
I have a Hercules II and drive it with an Omni VI. I monitor the output 
power with a Bird 43, for which I have several 2-30 MHz range elements 
50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2500 watts. I have used that meter to check 
the drive power from the Omni VI and also the output power of the 
Hercules II. While I have not checked lately on every band, I am pretty 
sure that I cannot get full output from the Hercules II with less than 
30 watts drive on whatever band it is that requires least drive power. I 
know that a Bird 43 is not a super accurate instrument, yet I am pretty 
confidant that mine is accurate to no worse than +/- 20 % (the 
specifications of a Bird 43 are +/- 5% of  full scale reading for the 
element in use. I should be able to measure 30 to 50 watts of drive 
power to an accuracy of about +/- 2.5 watts using my 50 watt element, 
and on bands where I need slightly over 50 watts I should get an 
accuracy of +/- 5 watts using the 100 watt element.)

How is it that you can get full output from your Hercules II with only 
10 watts drive? Do you have another gain stage between your K3 and the 
standard Hercules II? Or is your Hercules II modified in some way?

Thanks,

Ken N6KB