On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 19:01:37 -0500, John Fields wrote:

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:42:53 -0700, Tim Wescott
wrote:

Well, AM tube finals were often operated class C with the modulation
applied to the plate supply.

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Funny, I never considered plate modulation to be class C; that is if
we're talking about the same thing. What I'm thinking about is when
you key the transmitter on and it starts putting out a carrier at some
level, then you modulate the plate supply with audio so that at the
low peaks of the audio waveform the output of the TX is zero, but at
the output of the high peaks it's twice (?) what it was with no
modulation. Is that class C?

It can be. Depends on the biasing. It *is* AM, however.

Class C just means that the conduction angle is less than 180 deg. I
recall seeing it specified as a certain amount less than 180 once,
but I don't recall how much. The idea is to give the output tank
enough kick to get it to swing.

So you amplify the carrier with class C and modulate the plate. I've
seen projects which do this with bipolars. One that comes to mind is
an old Radio Electronics article for a uWave ATV commo system using
gunplexers, but that can't be right since gunnplexers are modulated
at the gunnplexer. I think it was another ATV project. If I ever
find that old article I'll letcha know.
--
Best Regards,
Mike