I sold mine, it worked well for me but on upgrading to a steel tube. In glad this post has gone on a while because there is a lot if usefull info here, thank you for that!Radio1cb wrote:Sorry ,i typed that wrong and should have worded that better. thank you for pointing that out. I will attempt to remove foot from mouth now.
now this all depends on who you ask LOL as we all know. we must consider a few things
That the average under-informed operator that is looking for that "swing" above all else is going to try to break the laws of physics,( The modern thinking of the so called "peak and tweak" is HYPE for the most part!
In reality weather it be tube or transistor finals The MAX ratings are the MAX ratings PERIOD!) there are methods of pushing the limit a little bit but it always comes at some cost. see 6LQ6 tube specs [Please login or register to view this link]
Like it or not the 4:1 ratio (carrier output to modulated peak output) stands firm as it relates to AM operation in class B or C. (there may be other methods that im ignorant of haveing to do with Class D or E operation.)
200 W carrier is way too much but im sure that there are those that will try and run it that way having used up all the head room and pushed the amp to saturation at that point and throwing out harmonics and spurious all over to get perception of modulation.
A maximum around 250W maybe 300W modulated PEAK of in AM operation is what you can expect and not have it get too sloppy . that would be 50-80 W carrier MAX.
Being that all meters, setups and applications are going to read differently for a multitude of reasons and that many less precise watt meters are of the type that show people what they want to see as power output rather than what really is some operators are going to claim they are getting out as much as 700 to 1000 watts . If you overdrive and over modulate the **Censored** out of any amp sure you might see your meter register an 800 but it still really putting out the spec ratings of the finals on the fundamental frequency and the rest of the power that your meter is showing you is combined harmonics on other frequencies,reflected power and what i call "splatter watts"! and that is really not the actual true power output.
The 6LQ6 tube has been used in many designs in the past due to its abundance and dirt cheap price of decades ago as well as it can be pushed pretty hard and still hold up for a while. However for it to be clean and sound good one must realize that it is closer to a 50 watt tube not a 200 watt tube for RF applications. It's intended purpose is not really a transmitting tube but it will work and work well even cleanly if respected for what it is.
Bottom line The D&A Maverick is a 250 watt amp even IF the power supply was enough for a huge power like 800 watts the tubes simply cant do that! on AM
Now on SSB i have seen nearly 500 on high. In SSB you can often push a device to its edge with little or no problems because not only is the duty cycle much less than with AM but the way SSB works is a different sort of animal. Again every application and setup is going to behave differently so individual results will vary somewhat
It should be noted that these amp should not be driven with any radio that is modded for crazy swing! that is what get these amps a bad rep for splatter.
A tvi filter after the amp is a good idea as well.
If anyone can tell me where im wrong please explain because i dont know everything i just know what ive seen and proven. There are those engineers that can explain it better than i can im sure. Please do
Snowman
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