I'd love to have something like this, Pete! It's not only frequency excursions that cause output fluctuations but also warm-up. The gain of the power transistors is temperature-sensitive. I'd like to be able to set a target output power (typically 1500w but maybe less on bands with mismatched antennas or in countries with lower power limits), have *something* monitor it, and send drive adjustment commands to the K3 via sharing the serial port. (The commands exist - PC and PO.) It's not the same as AGC which is analog and real-time and can cause distortion. I've called it "Slow AGC" because it would only operate every second or so, perhaps taking multiple cycles to recover a desired output power and causing no measurable distortion. It would essentially duplicate what we do manually - keep a sharp eye on the power and tweak the K3 PWR control appropriately. That's not only a significant drain on brain and muscle cycles over the course of a long operating session as in contesting but also useful in less extended situations like the excitement of a DX pileup. It would require software in the KPA1500 and maybe also an external box or computer where port sharing would take place. (It could also be done entirely external to the KPA1500 by replicating its power sensing circuitry, a bit of a waste.) It's not trivial but I'm convinced it's possible.
73, /Rick N6XI On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 8:31 AM N4ZR <[email protected]> wrote: > Here's one that I kept running into. My K3/KPA-1500 when operating at > one end of the band on 40 and 80, would work fine, but when I went to > the other end I found that often I would be running over 1500 watts, > and sometimes, the result would be reflected power exceeding 200 watts, > causing a fault. For those of us who have the Aux port cable connected, > wouldn't it be pretty simple for the KPA-1500 to turn down the K3's > power to limit output to 1500 watts? > > -- > > 73, Pete N4ZR > Check out the Reverse Beacon Network > at <http://reversebeacon.net>, now > spotting RTTY activity worldwide. > For spots, please use your favorite > "retail" DX cluster. > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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] -- -- Rick Tavan Truckee and Saratoga, CA ______________________________________________________________ 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]
