Most CB radio's especialy modern ones you want a 4:1 ratio between the carrier and the swing so if you wanted to key 1 watt you would want it to swing to 4 watts. If you had a 4w carrier you would want it to swing to 16w under full modulation.
The radio's carrier sets the carrier the amp produces. So if the amp is able to produce 100w you would set the carrier on the radio to produce a carrier of 25w swinging to 100w with modulation.
Once you match a radio and an amp you will generally keep them together. This is especially true on a true CB radio that does not have external adjustable rf out power.
This is not a problem if the amp has enough transistors to actual need the stock output of the radio. You freq. though run into the opposite problem where a radio has too much output power once they started shipping them with 4w out put and more than 60% modulation from the factory. It especially became a problem when dual final exports turned up on the scene and people where peaking every radio they had to come out with "High Drive" amps to keep people from blowing them up. They basically removed drivers from a lot of designs and added more pad tot he input.
I looked at the instructions for the KL203 and it just says input(2-20). I can see why that would be confusing. So look at it like this AM (,5-10w) in Europe the (,) is used the way we would use a decimal so they are saying 1/2 a watt to 10w. No way that amp would live long with a 10 watt carrier on AM so they must mean that the signal can SWING up to 10 watts so definitely some place between 1-2 watts on AM max. The SSB rating is (2-20w) I would doubt this thing would want more than (12-16w) on SSB.
I have never ran a KL203 ever but a 2 transistor device of this size should really be swinging no higher than 100w with 65w to 80w being much more realistic. The transistors these use are not that great and the heat sink is not that large and lacks mass.
I am super conservative though with how I operate my gear 95% of the time. I have never blown a final in a radio or a transistor in an amp.
So you have 2 schools of thought. The first school of thought is to run the snot out of it until it breaks then throw it away and get another one. The other school of thought is to use it wisely and try to make it last as long as possible and save up so that when it does break you can upgrade or have already upgraded. I like the latter. This way I can have my fun now and save up for better and when I do I still have the first amp in my junk drawer should I need it. If I want I can put it in the wife's car with a radio in case I am driving her car. I can barter with it or give it away! I do not like being a mindless super consumer always in debt because I am making poor purchase decisions, lack impulse control or am abusing my gear.
The radio's carrier sets the carrier the amp produces. So if the amp is able to produce 100w you would set the carrier on the radio to produce a carrier of 25w swinging to 100w with modulation.
Once you match a radio and an amp you will generally keep them together. This is especially true on a true CB radio that does not have external adjustable rf out power.
This is not a problem if the amp has enough transistors to actual need the stock output of the radio. You freq. though run into the opposite problem where a radio has too much output power once they started shipping them with 4w out put and more than 60% modulation from the factory. It especially became a problem when dual final exports turned up on the scene and people where peaking every radio they had to come out with "High Drive" amps to keep people from blowing them up. They basically removed drivers from a lot of designs and added more pad tot he input.
I looked at the instructions for the KL203 and it just says input(2-20). I can see why that would be confusing. So look at it like this AM (,5-10w) in Europe the (,) is used the way we would use a decimal so they are saying 1/2 a watt to 10w. No way that amp would live long with a 10 watt carrier on AM so they must mean that the signal can SWING up to 10 watts so definitely some place between 1-2 watts on AM max. The SSB rating is (2-20w) I would doubt this thing would want more than (12-16w) on SSB.
I have never ran a KL203 ever but a 2 transistor device of this size should really be swinging no higher than 100w with 65w to 80w being much more realistic. The transistors these use are not that great and the heat sink is not that large and lacks mass.
I am super conservative though with how I operate my gear 95% of the time. I have never blown a final in a radio or a transistor in an amp.
So you have 2 schools of thought. The first school of thought is to run the snot out of it until it breaks then throw it away and get another one. The other school of thought is to use it wisely and try to make it last as long as possible and save up so that when it does break you can upgrade or have already upgraded. I like the latter. This way I can have my fun now and save up for better and when I do I still have the first amp in my junk drawer should I need it. If I want I can put it in the wife's car with a radio in case I am driving her car. I can barter with it or give it away! I do not like being a mindless super consumer always in debt because I am making poor purchase decisions, lack impulse control or am abusing my gear.