I'm really surprised that hams would expect ALC to be used to control
power in any manner. Yes, it can control power to some small limit.
It is intended to, in general, prevent amplifier damage in the event of
a load failure or minor exciter spike or moment of excessive drive.
But to expect one to dump the transceiver output into the input of an
amp and expect to have ALC control the power.........that's old ham
lore. Not very smart operation either.
In the past I've used the ALC output of my KPA500 back to my K3S with
ALC active. Used correctly and monitored on the K3S, you'd never know
that ALC was in the control path. On the other hand, for those that
must make that DX contact, set all knobs to the right and let the ALC
handle the rest, that really makes a mess on the band. Sounds like
crap too.
Although the KPA500 is a bit less power than the Expert 1.3, there is no
relay clicking when running full QSK and no fan noise. I'm through with
big noisy amp relays and with wind tunnel cooling systems.
73
Bob, K4TAX
On 10/5/2021 5:58 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2021 16:15:02 -0400
From: Bill Frantz<[email protected]>
To: Mike March<[email protected]>
Cc:[email protected]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 and Expert 1.3
Message-ID:
<r480Ps-10146i-02B923BAB0654A1BB83F7E374FAF0B06@Williams-MacBook-Pro.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
I have used an Expert 1.3K amp for several years with my
upgraded K3. The short form is it works well. I got it when my
wife won a $1000 off certificate. I knew this amp was a popular
choice of many DXpeditions, and so worked well with the K3s they
used and was reasonably reliable. When I got my amp, I also
ordered a custom cable for the K3 which was delivered in the
same shipment as the amp.
I am careful to not depend on the ALC to control exciter power,
but instead set the output power on the K3 to the right level to
get the output power I want from the amp. I believe this
procedure will result in a cleaner signal.
I am thinking about replacing it with an Elecraft amp for two reasons:
Full break in CW produces a lot of relay clicking. The
Elecraft amps use
PIN diodes.
The level of integration between the exciter (K3) and the amp
is much
better. I can have my K3 operate at 100W when the amp is
offline and at
whatever drives the amp to the right power level when the amp
is online
with automatic switching.
Cheers - Bill, AE6jV
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