[Yaesu] FT-1000D transmit control settings

[John Nelson]

My apologies in advance if this question re-visits old ground, but I've 
scoured the Web for information and not found quite what I'm looking for.

In the FT-1000D (as opposed to the later variants) you have controls for mic 
gain, RF power output, processor level and something called 'drive'. I'm 
trying to establish how these should be set up for good-quality audio and 
optimum IMD performance on SSB. I'm also interested in avoiding initial 
'spikes' of excessive RF, which don't do the linear amplifier  much good.

I use a Heil HC-5. Following the procedure in the manual, I end up with the 
mic gain at about 9 o'clock and the processor and drive controls at about 12 
o'clock. My amplifier needs about 50W to drive it to full power, so the RF 
power control is usually at about 2 o'clock.

These settings work fairly well but allow occasional excessive-power 
transients. I can get rid of these by winding the drive back to about 10 
o'clock and advancing the RF power control slightly, but then the processor 
level changes rather markedly. Which doesn't seem to make much sense. And 
despite having thought about it for some time, I'm still not really clear 
about the functional difference between the drive and RF power controls.

SM5BSZ shows some very interesting transmit IMD plots for the 1KD on his 
site but it's not very clear to me how he arrives at them. He seems to be 
saying that one should avoid operating in the ALC region at all. Is this the 
case?

I'd be very interested to hear how you run your FT-1KD and how you think 
these four controls interact. Do you go by the manual? Or have you found a 
better way?

73 John
GW4FRX