“any non-USA ham can bypass the input to enable lower drive requirements.”
Legal for US hams also. Restriction is just on the manufacturer. You are responsible for your equipment. My KPA500s are modified for lower drive (thanks to NX1P who did the hard work) so that I can drive two in parallel. Ken K6MR From: Edward R Cole<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 5:03 PM To: Elecraft Reflector<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA-1500: Gain Mod when FCC Lifts 15db Rule A little more background for the FCC (USA) gain restriction for HF amplifiers: I believe that was a result of wanting to stymie CB use of ham amplifiers using 5-15w drive. 15-dB for 1500w implies 47w min drive. The LDMOS being used for 1200w on 2m only require 3-4w drive; that is 26-dB gain! Likely the devices chosen by Elecraft for their KPA1500 have similar gain so they install attenuation into the drive path or change bias to lower gain (or both). My guess once the schematic is available any non-USA ham can bypass the input to enable lower drive requirements. A KX2 or KX3 ought to suffice. Of course this would violate warrantee. On a similar thought process, now that the KX3 is capable of 15w, I'm wondering if driving the KXPA100 harder than 8w will result in higher output? Would it be safe to do? I'm thinking 10w/100w. The KXPA100 I have drives easily to 110w saturated with about 4-5w on 80-15m, but requires 8w to achieve 70-80w at 6m. 73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com Dubus-NA Business mail: [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
