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Power Levels

wa373

Active Member
Nov 16, 2019
42
25
28
Pacific Northwest, USA
Is the power level for a Ham radio that states the power output as being 100 watts a dead key power output? I have never seen anything about a "swing" power output for them like you do for CB or modified export radios. For instance, the Anytone AT-5555n 2 power level output at 60 watts is only when you talk into the radio (swing). Dead key is much less than 60 watts with that radio. I don't understand!
 

Im going to take a guess and say that radio manufacturers stick with 100% modulation (or slightly less). When you have plain old 100% modulation, nothing asymetric, you end up with a dead key of 1/4 the peak wattage. I believe it is assumed that a properly functioning AM radio with a 100w output will dead key 25w.
 
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The power listed on ham radios is PEP, for example the IC7300 will do 100+ watts SSB, 100 digital & FM, and finally 25 watts carrier (deadkey) AM then modulate to 100 PEP.
My IC-7300 will only do 100 watts on ssb if you don't get crazy and crank everything to the max. Turn up every setting to max and the ALC will actually reduce the PEP output. On AM it's 25 watts max. If it's capable of a 100 watt swing I've never seen it. And I've never seen a 25 watt carrier on that radio but I don't use it for 11m.
 
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Im going to take a guess and say that radio manufacturers stick with 100% modulation (or slightly less). When you have plain old 100% modulation, nothing asymetric, you end up with a dead key of 1/4 the peak wattage. I believe it is assumed that a properly functioning AM radio with a 100w output will dead key 25w.
Maybe. But I have an AM radio with a 1 watt carrier and 70 watt PEP.
 

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