Yes thats the manufacturers "get out of Jail" excuse for not inc SSB power control. Turning the Mic gain doesnt achieve much unfortunately . It obviously will reduce the average output but you loose any punchy audio because the ALC isnt given the chance to Kick in. Might try increasing the upper ALC Voltage ..Anyone tried this ?
Oh jesus....
You do not lose punchy audio. Because of how SSB works your audio sounds no quieter. If the ALC is kicking in its BECAUSE YOU ARE OVERDRIVING THE RADIO. It does not make you sound louder, the L stands for LIMITER and if its kicking in its limiting. You just have a wider more splattering dirty signal if it does.
In short, you do NOT want the ALC kicking in.
I have mine on my amateur radio gear to barely show anything at all. I'm still putting out 100W on peaks, I don't have anyone telling me my audio is quiet, I get lots of compliments about my audio and I make it through pileups because people can understand what I'm saying amongst the cacophony of noise.
I used to run one of those Magnum S9 radios, the one I had, had those 1969 finals in it and was the best radio think I'd owned, used it mostly on AM, some on SSB too....but used that radio on the base and mobile for close to 5 years, and it ran really well with all the amps I ran it with...ran with a amp had the TG mod off, and without a amp rad the TG on...only down side I saw was it would drift a little on SSB...not sure why...all and all it was a good radio...