wrote in message
oups.com...
A radio that needs 16A in operation, but 25 during tune is a
pain in the butt on a nominal 20A power supply with over current
protection that kicks in above 22A!

Myself, I never tune using full power. With my 706g, I either
put it on "AM", or reduce the drive to a pretty low level. I did the
same on my 730. Only with a good match would I ever test full
power output. I do the same with my tube TS-830.. heck, actually
any transmitter... :/
MK

I switch to CW, set the keyer for maximum speed, and send a string of dits,
On the Icom 756 you can do that with the microphone buttons.

Tam/WB2TT

"Owen Duffy" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:32:59 -0500, "Steve Nosko"
wrote:

[ clippers active...]

Owen,
Though this is not antenna talk...

Thanks for the confirmation of my half experience, half
judgment-based-on-knowledge based understanding.


Unfortunately, there is a growing common belief that unless the ALC
meter is high upscale, then the rig isn't being talked up enough (the
dumbing down of ham radio). snip... My thought is that if you want
audio compression, use a speech processor, not the ALC.

Interesting misconception. I'll remember this when I find that some
clarification is needed on ALC.
A good explanation "tool" is to say that the ALC "meter" deflection is an
indication of how much over drive you are trying to give due to too much
audio. I understand that it is an indication of the gain reduction being
applied to keep the PEP at the design max. If it is done correctly, it
should provide no compression effect at all.



Mentioning speech processors. A correctly adjusted speech processor is
proably better protection against overdrive than depending on ALC
alone. The peaks are contained (clipped) and the distortion products
filtered off, before getting near the PA which does not have effective
post filtering for clipping distorion.
Owen
--

I'd be careful in saying it this way because it appears to connect the
compression concept with the over drive concept and they are independent
concepts. The purpose of ALC is to set the proper PEP level (highest, but
not "too much") and the purpose of compression is to improve "talk power /
intelligibility" by increasing the average envelope power ( AEP ?) while NOT
changing the peak (improve peak-to-average-ratio of speech).

73, Steve, K,9.D;C'I

My thought is that if you want
audio compression, use a speech processor, not the ALC....

For sure...Another problem these days is some radios
deal with ALC indication in reverse from each other.
IE: I *think* most kenwoods will show more indication
the closer to the edge you get, and if you were to disable
the ALC. the meter would show very high peaks, or maybe
even peg. But many Icoms are reverse. The closer to the "edge"
you set them, the lower the indication. Or at least on my older
730. If you see no indication, Houston, we have a nasty problem.
When you reduce power on an icom, the ALC indication increases,
and I think pegs, if you dial down to QRP range.
One thing that strikes me as real silly, are the ones that try to get
more power by disabling the ALC function. All you gotta do is
turn a trimmer...But it makes the radio nasty as all get out, and
is silly. Not to mention the extra power amounts to little in the
real world, and then you add on the extra wear and tear on the
poor radio...Silly... I hear stories of people getting 140-150-160
watts outa lil IC -706's and I just roll my eyeballs... Boy, I bet
it sounds great...Not...MK