--- In [email protected], "Danny Douglas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The problem with running power in PSK mode, would mostly go away, if one is careful about how much audio drive he is applying to the signal. To ensure there are no side lobes on the waterfalls of other ops, you much insure you have the input to the rig set as low as possible, and to not exceed the alc limits. If the alc pops on, you are running too much audio from the computer. If you are feeding into the mike port, simply back off the MIC control so that the ALC is minimum. You should safely be able to run more power then, without intefering with every other op on the band. Often we see people, especially new PSK ops, with siganls every few cycles all up and down the waterfall - and that is not too much RF power - it is too much audio drive.
There are a lot of PSK references out there that imply, or outright say, that you should set the RF output level to 30 watts or so on the rig, tweak the audio drive up to the point where ALC kicks in, and then back off a bit. IMHO, that's entirely the wrong way to do it - you're reducing the amount of leeway that you have in setting the audio drive level. On all of the SSB rigs I've owned - a K2, TS-570, and now the TS-480, I've had far better luck just leaving the rig's power setting at 100 watts, and then using only the audio drive to set the final output power. The audio control is much less sensitive ( which is, ultimately, what you want ) to position, and you won't risk hitting the ALC point unless you accidentally max out the volume slider. ;-) - Rich
