Recently bought uniden 980 ssb. Found the pots for AM and ssb power. Hooked up to power meter and AM is around 3 watts, ssb around 10 watts. With a minor adjust i can increase AM power to about 4.5 watts. I haven't tried adjusting the ssb. My question is, is it okay to do power adjustments without doing anything else? I read somewhere that when you do this you need to adjust modulation, etc., and that it's a complicated process and shouldnt be done unless the whole system is being fine tuned. Bottom line: is it okay to simply adjust to increase power on both AM and ssb without doing anything else. Thanks from a greenhorn.
the short answer is no, its not worth turning power up for numerous reasons.
the power components will last longer if they are run at design power levels.
the signal will most likely be dirtier.
you may be unable to properly modulate an increased carrier, or more likely pop components trying too.
the main reason its pointless is very simple, the gain from an extra watt or two is totally unnoticeable at the receive end so completely pointless, but may well be better at causing tvi/rfi with your neighbours making you very popular in the neighbourhood.
chances are your radio will sound like shit, letting every sensible user around you know you've fucked up your pride and joy. trust me, you don't need radio direction finding equipment to suss out who the morons that tamper with radios without knowing what they are doing are, all you need to do is listen to their shitty transmissions,
if you still struggle to realise who they are, they have one dead fire giveaway when seeking repair of what they fucked up " honest, i didn't touch it, it just blew up"
i wish i had a pound for every bellend that told me that in the past 3 decades
is it still worth it?
bottom line,
without the proper tools, service gear and knowledge, only a complete fucking moron takes the side screws out their radio, without the knowledge/equipment the odds against you fucking it up are about 50/50, never wonder why these same experts don't tweak their tv's or hifi's,