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AMPS RELAY KEYING WITHOUT MODULATION IN SSB MODE.

Stellasstillarat

Active Member
Aug 14, 2014
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My Palomar 300a ocastionaly would key (relay) befor adding audio on ssb. I thought it may have been the d 104's keying relay so I changed to another d104 and same thing.
I changed out the LMR 400 jumpers to new back-up one's and same thing. Now keep in mind this only happens once in maybe a dozen mic depressions.
When I changed to the maco 300 it did the same thing. I turned the mic and rigs mic gain off thinking some clicking inside the mic's or rigs audio section may have been adding audio upon key up but my modulation meter shows no movement with both gains turned off and nothing with them turned up until I speak into the mic/mic's. What would cause this?.
Now its happening with the dna.
I did use a straight 4x1446 base amp for a while but don't recall if that happend. That Palomar has now ssb setting but works on ssb using a delay transistor.
As I've mentioned many times before my a99's only about 12 ft off the groung and is located about 30 ft directly behind my radio room.
I think it's happening a bit more than it did with the lower output smps. The phantom may be close to dubble the output of the higest output amp ive used before the phsntom.
could this fact make it more likely than not it
Can be stray rf from my antennas feed line? Or may it be coming in somewhere in the room.
I will be adding an rf choke to the imax that I've decided to change out in place of the a99. It's doesn't happen offten but i know it shouldn't be happening at all.
When it happens I depress the mic, the amps relays will engage as if I were in AM and i emedietly unkey the mic which releasses the relay then it wont happrn again for another dozen or so mic depresses. I don't think it's serious but want and need to rectify the problem. I'm just not sure whats causing it.
One more thing when I purchase my lmr 400 I purchased about 30 + extra ft witch is s stretched out in non over lapping straight lines spread out around the yard. Don't know if all theextra coax could br causing this.
The rf choke should use much of that extra cable but thought to much extra cable might pertinent to the problem. I just don't know. Any suggestions?
 

Switch from LSB to USB mode to see if it still keys with no modulation.

Sounds like you have a carrier in SSB mode, rig may need an alignment.
 
I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with your radio. Where the radio is not right. I had a side band rig that emitted a small carrier even though it was on SSB.
 
I also wonder if you don't have the mic gain cranked wide open. Picking up enough background noise to keep it keyed. Not the first time I have seen this.
 
""My Palomar 300a occasionally would key (relay) befor adding audio on ssb. I thought it may have been the d 104's keying relay so I changed to another d104 and same thing.
I changed out the LMR 400 jumpers to new back-up one's and same thing. Now keep in mind this only happens once in maybe a dozen mic depressions.
When I changed to the maco 300 it did the same thing ""


2 amps, same symptoms = radio

I think it is a brief audio blip of some kind when the radio is going into TX mode when keying the mic activating the relay.
If mic gain is all the way down, it is not the mic element picking it up so it could be a old cap changing tolerance somewhere in RX/TX switchover or just a characteristic of the radio?



73
Jeff
 
Sounds like your radio transmits a carrier on SSB.
You are one unlucky fellow because you have had more radio/amp problems in the past year than most people would have in 5 lifetimes.
 
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I've never checked to see if it does that in usb.
If so I'm gonna hook up thr Washington yo see if it sld o happens on that rig. Both tigd were aligned about four months ago. I'll report the outcome. Thanks.
Switch from LSB to USB mode to see if it still keys with no modulation.

Sounds like you have a carrier in SSB mode, rig may need an alignment.
 
I had no illusions that everything would work as it should.
I was actually surprised at how Manny of the items worked without issues.
Most of this equipment has been sitting boxed up in a closet since 87.
Sounds like your radio transmits a carrier on SSB.
You are one unlucky fellow because you have had more radio/amp problems in the past year than most people would have in 5 lifetimes.
 
With that being fact. I'd have to assume the problem isn't the amp/amps.
There's something I should've mentioned but don't want to overwhelm members with to many issues that may not be related.
I assumed this wasn't related but it may leed to an answer to the amp/ssb keying without modulation.
When on AM. The red swr warning light on my madison will flicker as I modulate.
with a 1.3:1 swr with the amp operating. The amp in stby the swr is 1.1:1 and the warning light will not flicker.
Now here's the interesting thing the light flickers when using any amp that's above 100 watts but flickers rapidly and with more intensity when moving up to the higher output amps.

I ignored the flickering swr warning light because I went buy my the swr readings on the exsternal meter. Swr readings read the same on two other meters yet the warning light will still flicker when modulation is added. I've read that these swr warning lights a nothing more ths a cheap circuit and will be set off from stray rf. This is why I took the exsternal meter readings as gospel. I thought this was being caused buy the rf making it into the radio room due to how low and close the antenna is to the radio room itself. I sometimes don't tune the amps to exacting max smoke. Now I don't know if having your amp tuned for max smoke as opposed to being off by a cunt hair would ever have anything to do with this keying issue but I went ahead and tuned up my amp to as close as humanly possible for myself atlest and used the amp on lsb and usb and it hasn't keyed until I modulated.. I've always been a slow learner but i will eventually ask more educated questions anfmd hope to one day be able to help another when it comes to uhf/hf/antenna. Thanks.
Yeah i went back and read it again and saw it was more than one amp.
 

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