Bacon, not trying to be contrite, but where in the old rules did the .25
second time constant appear? I have a copy of the old rules and don't see
it. It says only that "have the means".
It was not stated in the rules, but the FCC declared in a public notice that
they would use that measurement standard for enforcement purposes. I recall
seeing it somewhere in a 1950's era QST or CQ. I believe it is also stated
in the ARRL SSB handbook that was published in the late 50's to early 60's.
It wasn't an issue until SSB came along. The equipment manufacturers began
using p.e.p. to rate their linear amplifiers because p.e.p. inflated the
power ratings by a factor of two. It looked more impressive in the ads to
claim that an amplifer was rated at 2 kw (p.e.p. input) than one kw (average
dc input). Kinda like the stereo amplifiers that were (are?) rated at some
absurd power rating called "peak music power" which inflates the actual
power by a factor of several times. I recall that the FTC went after some
manufacturers sometime in the 1960's because they were overly inflating the
power ratings of their stereo amps.
Strictly speaking, the p.e.p. rule hurt SSB almost as much as AM, if the SSB
amplifier is operated below the saturation (flat-topping) point. With most
human voices, the average power is about 10 dB below the peak power, so that
with 100% modulation, the average modulation is about 30%. That's why the
average level using a V-U meter is set tor about 30%. So a clean SSB signal
at 1500 watts p.e.p. should be putting out only about 150 honest-to-God
watts to the antenna. Under the old rules it was legal to run a SSB
amplifier at 1 kw average DC input, and let the peaks go where they may, as
long as the signal was clean. That allowed maybe 600 watts r.m.s. output,
if the amplifier had enough peak power capability to reach that power level
without flat-topping. Of course, most slopbucket rigs fall far short, and
flat-top long before they reach that level, and you hear the garbage 10-15
kHz on both sides of the signal. With ALC and speech processing, SSB can
legally increase its average power to maybe 300-400 watts before splattering
if everything is adjusted properly.
k4kyv
_______________________________________________________________
This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout. Try it - you'll
like it.
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/
http://gigliwood.com/abcd/
