You've ALMOST Talked Me Into Taking the Export Plunge!

Ditto -- what he said. Even with a small PA speaker plugged into the rear apron, they're about useless unless you're indoors and there are no other sounds -- like running engines -- before they're heard. Probably useful to clearly label the new functions on the switch's escutcheon. Also, if you're able (or your tech is) to change the color of the backlighting or *something* to warn you that the radio is running at its massive 4 watts or so, just to help prevent overdriving your amp.

Ridgeline is one of those folks whom I'd trust to perform the mod correctly and without butchering the other (and unrelated) adjustments. There are several folks here. Just look for someone local who has a bench that looks like some from Mission Control at NASA and can explain their use.

If you stumble across a "tech" whose bench is populated only by a Rat Shack SWR/power meter (or even a Dosy with a huge dial), an assortment of metal screwdrivers, and a pair of diagonal cutters, nobody would fault you if you left skidmarks on the floor enroute to the exit

Good luck & 73

 

That's great that Andy was able to fix the RF connectors easily and for free. I am concerned, however, that for a 4 watt deadkey he has you pushing your radio's output considerable beyond the point of being linear and that you're now occupying 3 or 4 channels up and down from whatever you've got dialed up. At full modulation, you're only putting about 6 watts into your chosen channel; the rest of it is going God knows where, assuming it's even staying in-band -- and that's not even guaranteed.

"No distortion, crystal clear modulation" maybe if you're only listening on your chosen channel, but I'll wager a lot of "WTF is that noise coming from?" from several channels nearby -- or up in the NAVAIDS section of the aircraft band.

At this point, though, since your radio has already been raped by two places, I'd just turn down the power mic or the Dyna-mic pot on the radio so that you're keeping all your power on the channel you mean to be on. It's an unfortunate truism that wattmeters are dumb devices; they have no idea what frequency the power they're measuring is on. They just add it all up and report the total.

And as to your question: external amps *should* be for extra range, but if they're being fed with a wildly over-modulated signal, then they'll amplify *that*, too. Then people even farther away can have their nearby channels destroyed, with the occasional aircraft looking for a VOR station or NDB wondering that that clattering sound is in spectrum where they should only hear Morse modulated a.m. signals.
<sigh>
73

 

with a 4w dk swinging to 30, your probably be OK, I highly doubt anyone will notice any over modulation if there is any...But if you later decide to add a external amp, you'll need to lower your dk back down around 1 1/2- 2 watts...

Amp's do a couple of things...They make you louder, and make your signal stronger so it go's farther...But like what handlbar was saying, "What go's in, comes back out...only louder" so "Trash in-Trash out times-a hundred or more"

 

How does one match the radio to an amp?

I keep hearing this but through the something 40 years of messing with this stuff, I am still puzzled by this idea that the radio needs to be "matched" to the amp?

Could it be that the amp's input circuitry isn't exactly what its supposed to be?

 

Tip: unless the amp you're using is meant to be used with a high powered radio, I'd have Andy lower your radio DK to no higher than 2 watts. That will allow your amp to last longer