Very well said Don and if I might add, for the newcomers to generating
audio. That in any XFMR coupled stage (ie push pull plate modulator), the
max audio voltage that can be produce is when the audio tube draws so much
current during its half audio cycle that it reduces it's on plate voltage
to
zero for a moment and on the next half cycle its plate voltage doubles the
supply voltage. This is saturation for the circuit. Adding more tubes or
bigger tubes to the modulator will not get more audio voltage from the
modulation XFMR. ...
John Coleman, WA5BXO
The problem is, that even when a tube is fully saturated, it cannot pull the
plate voltage all the way down to zero. Usually, the minimum plate voltage
will be someting like 20% of the power supply voltage. That is why one
cannot modulate 100% using a class-A Heising modulator, unless the rf final
plate voltage is reduced, using a series dropping resistor with an audio
by-pass capacitor across it. In any case, it is impossible to pull the
plate voltage below the potential of the grid. In class-B service, this
imposes a limitation because the grid is driven positive on audio peaks.
With a screen-grid tube the plate voltage can never be pulled below the
screen voltage. .
Sometimes the modulator tubes don't like working into a low plate-to-plate
load impedance, and become non-linear. That is when adding tubes in
parallel will help. The parallel tubes will also pull the plate voltage
lower, since they will pull twice the current at the saturation point.
You can achieve high positive peaks two ways. Increase the voltage on the
modulator, or reduce the step-down ratio of the modulation transformer. The
latter may require parallel tubes to develop the needed "torque" to work
into the low impedence load.
Don, k4kyv
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