> I can not understand why one would want to run the K3 at 100 W rather > than 20/30/50 Watts. Why drive the K3 harder when driving it more > lightly > should improve reliability and possibly improve linearity. The waste of > energy is also undesirable; the fifty watts out that is discarded probably > costs 100 Watts of energy.
For the same concerns, I think an auto-switched pad engaged during an input fault is a good idea. In the case of the SPE amp, I would not like to have 30-watts dissipating as heat in the front end of the amp. The 3dB pad does improve return loss into the amp input by the same amount. But, the effective gain factor of the amp is then reduced by 3dB. The pad may assist with improving linearity from the driving transceiver, but improving linearity can be accomplished with better efficiency if the transceiver has an internal ATU with an auto-tune function that can be programmed to limit the transceiver's power during the tune function. Paul, W9AC ______________________________________________________________ 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
