[TenTec] Problem with Orion 2 driving an Ameritron 811H Linear

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Mon, 2010-02-08 at 22:47 -0500, Tom wrote:
> Hi Jerry,
> 
> I am using the power reading on my Palstar AT1500 tuner. It's manual doesn't 
> say if it is reading peak or average, but the troubling thing is, the IC765 
> is able to make that watt meter read 500 watts while the Orion II can only 
> push it to 300 and that is sad.
> 
> Thanks for the input.,  Tom
> 

Peak to average ratio as I said, depends on the relative frequency and
phase responses of the voice, the microphone, the transmit ssb filter
and the ALC characteristic. And the meter doing the observation. A PA
will only do peak what it will do CW and the average voice power is
always less. Sometimes you can get more average power (but not
necessarily better readability in the receiver listening) by adding more
bass or a different microphone with more bass or more equalization
emphasizing bass, but copy is often better with less power wasted in
bass but emphasizing the sibilants.

The lower average power of the Orion may be an indication of better
exciter linearity, less RF compression (and subsequent splatter). Or
there may be some adjustments possible in the Orion speech processing to
improve that average power.

73, Jerry, K0CQ